Boksitogorsk District

Subject / Topography/Administrative - territorial division
BOKSITOGORSK DISTRICT, a part of Leningrad Oblast. Population: 34,800. Area: 7163 sq. km. Adm. center: Boksitogorsk Town. The district comprises Yefimovsky urban settlement and 275 inhabited localities. It borders Tikhvin District of Leningrad Oblast in the north and west, Lyubytino District of Novgorod Oblast in the south-west, Khvoinaya District of Novgorod Oblast in the south, Chagodoscha District of Vologda Oblast in the south-east, and with Babaevo District of Vologda Oblast in the east and south-east. It was established on May 25, 1952 and it included the adjacent areas of Tikhvin and Yefimovsky Districts. In 1965, the abolished Yefimovsky District and Korvala Village soviet of Kapshino District were included in B. D. In 1992, Pikalyovo was separated from B. D. to become a town of Oblast subordination. Apart from the predominating Russian population, Vepses live in the north-east, and an ethnolocal group of Tikhvin Karelians, in the south-east. The St. Petersburg – Vologda railway extends across B. D. From Podborovye Junction, a railway branch leads southwards, to Kobozha station, Novgorod Oblast. The Novaya Ladoga – Yaroslavl highway extends across the district from north-west to south-east. Settlement of the region began in the Mesolite period (7th millennium BC) around the left-hand tributaries of the Volga. The ethnic groups of the Slav, Baltic, and Finnish origin left their traces in that land’s history. In the Middle Ages, boat portage ways crossed the district’s area, connecting the basins of the Baltic and Caspian Seas, which was reflected in the local toponymy . In the early 19th century, the region got the Tikhvin Canal System, a canal waterway which remained important up to the mid-1960s. The remainder of the system’s multiple canal locks, which are monuments of waterworks construction, can be seen today. The Ragusha, a karst river, is the most important natural monument in B. D. Besides, the district has many karst lakes. The north-western part of the district is included in the Veps Forest natural reserve. Several architectural monuments of the 16th - 19th centuries are located in B. D. Buildings of the Monastery of St. Antony Dymsky , wooden churches in Listvenka village (1599), Usadische village (17th c.), and Usadische Dymi village (18th c.), chapels in Krasny Bor and Vrachovo villages (18th c.) and in Mikheevo and Zagolodno villages (19th c.), buildings of nobility estates in Somino, Spirovo, and Galichno villages, monument to commemorate the visit of Peter I to that land, numerous obelisks in honor of the landsmen who perished in WW2, and the memorial complex at Astracha village are among them . Dozens of archeological relics are concentrated on the water bodies’ shores , from the Mesolite period and up to the Middle Ages: early man sites, ancient village and town sites, sopka mounds, burial mounds, and sepulcrums. The district has the Boksitogorsk Palace of Culture, district house of culture in Yefimovsky, five rural cultural centers, six rural houses of culture, coordination and methodical center, 27 libraries, Center of Native Land History and Culture, “Astracha 1941” Museum, Boksitogorsk school of arts, and music school in Yefimovsky. The “Novy Put” newspaper is published. The Oblast festival of music titled “Provincial Meetings of Russia’ Masters of Arts” launched in 1993 has become traditional. Abt. 90 amateur theatre companies are active in the district’s cultural institutions. Among them is the Veps folklore group from Bobrozero village. Since the early 1990s, folk holidays have been arranged in Veps settlements, and Sidorovo village celebrates the traditional Veps holiday “The Cheese Sunday.” Yegorov, Sergey Borisovich
Peter I, Emperor
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Astracha, village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Bobozero Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Boksitogorsk Town
Historical Toponyms/Galichno Village
Historical Toponyms/Kapshinsky District
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Krasniy Bor Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Listvenka Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Mikheyevo Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Volkhov District/Novaya Ladoga Town
Leningrad Oblast, the/Pikalevo Town
Topographical landmarks/Podborovye Railway Station
Topographical landmarks/Ragusha River, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Sidorovo Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Somino Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Spirovo Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Tikhvin District
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Usadishche Village
Historical Toponyms/Usadishche-Dymi
Topographical landmarks/Volga River, the
Historical Toponyms/Vrachyovo Village
Historical Toponyms/Yefimovsky District
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Yefimovsky Urban Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Boksitogorsk District/Zagolodno Village
Кисловский С.В. Бокситогорск: Историко-краеведческий очерк Л. 1960.
Калинин М.А., Федяев А.И. Бокситогорск – Пикалево. Л.. 1983.
Горлова И.В. Краеведение. Бокситогорск, 2005. СПб., 2003.
Культура Ленинградской области на рубеже тысячелетий. СПб., 2003, С. 40-41
"Astracha. 1941", a museum.
Boksitogorsk Centre of the History and Culture of the Native Land
Boksitogorsk children arts school
Boksitogorsk Palace of Culture
"Cheese Sunday", a folk holiday
Efimovsky House of Culture
Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Antony Dymsky, the
Karelians
"Novy put" ("The New Way"), a newspaper
Russians
"The province meetings of art masters of Russia", a musical festival
Tikhvin Canal System
Veps
"Vepssky Les" ("Veps Forest"), a park
Yefimovskaya children music school