Vologda is located on the right bank of the river of the same name, which is an ancient waterway that connected this city through the basins of the Sukhona and Sheksna rivers with Arkhangelsk.
For the first time in historical sources the city is mentioned in the XII century. In the 15th century, Vologda was ruled by Veliky Novgorod. From 1462 for twenty years Vologda was the center of an appanage principality, but from 1481 it fell under the rule of the Moscow principality, the ruler of which was then Ivan III.
In 1565 Ivan the Terrible decided to set up his second oprichnina residence in Vologda. He wanted to build a stone Kremlin and a fortress here. Thousands of artisans and peasants were herded to Vologda, and the construction was headed by the English engineer H. Locke. In the plan, the Kremlin was a rectangle. On the northern side it was protected by the Vologda River, and on both sides a moat was dug with water. But the raid of the Crimean Khan in 1571 and the plague that began in Vologda forced Ivan IV to return to Moscow. With the departure of the king, construction ceased.
Due to the absence of serious fortifications, Vologda suffered greatly from the invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian army in 1612. But the city was quickly rebuilt and even exceeded its former size. By the end of the 17th century, the historical center of Vologda consisted of four parts: City, Verkhniy Posad, Nizhniy Posad and Zarechye. However, at the beginning of the 18th century, the economic position of Vologda weakened somewhat due to the founding of St. Petersburg and the development of trade in the Baltic Sea.
In 1708 Vologda was incorporated into the Arkhangelsk region. But already in 1719 the city became the center of the Vologda province, and in 1796 - the center of the Vologda province, which existed until 1929.
In the 19th century, the city became a place of political exile for many members of the intelligentsia. In 1918, Vologda played the role of the "diplomatic capital" of Russia for 5 months. After the conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty, embassies and missions of 11 major states temporarily moved here, in particular: the USA, Great Britain, France, Japan, China, Brazil, etc.
Now Vologda is a popular tourist center visited by both Russians and foreign tourists.
