Olonets Governorate
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Olonets Guberniya was a guberniya (governorate) of north-western Imperial Russia, extending from Lake Ladoga almost to the White Sea, bounded W. by Finland, N. and E. by Archangelsk and Vologda, and S. by Novgorod and St Petersburg. The area was 57,422 m²., of which 6794 m². are lakes.
Its north-western portion belongs orographically and geologically to the Finland region; it is thickly dotted with hills reaching 1000 ft. in altitude, and diversified by numberless smaller ridges and hollows running from northwest to south-east. The rest of the government is a flat plateau sloping towards the marshy lowlands of the south. The geological structure is very varied. Granites, syenites and diorites, covered with Laurentian metamorphic slates, occur extensively in the north-west. Near Lake Onega they are overlain with Devonian sandstones and limestones, yielding marble and sandstone for building; to the south of that lake carboniferous limestones and clays make their appearance. The whole is sheeted with boulder-clay, the bottom moraine of the great ice-sheet of the Glacial period. The entire region bears traces of glaciation, either in the shape of scratchings and elongated grooves on the rocks, or of eskers (asar, selgas) running parallel to the glacial striations.
Numberless lakes occupy the depressions, while a great many more have left evidences of their existence in the extensive marshes. Lake Onega covers 3764 square metres, and reaches a depth of 400 ft (120 m). Lakes Zeg, Vyg, Lacha, Loksha, Tulos and Vodl cover from 140 to 480 square metres each, and their crustacean fauna indicates a former connection with the Arctic Ocean. The south-eastern part of Lake Ladoga falls also within the government of Olonets. The rivers drain to the Baltic Sea and White Sea basins. To the former system belong Lakes Ladoga and Onega, which are connected by the Svir River and receive numerous streams; of these the Vytegra, which communicates with the Mariinsk canal-system, and the Oyat, an affluent of Lake Ladoga, are important for navigation.
Large quantities of timber, firewood, stone, metal and flour are annually shipped on waters belonging to this government. The Onega River, which has its source in the south-east of the government and flows into the White Sea, is of minor importance.
63 % of the area of Olonets is occupied by forests; those of the Crown, maintained for shipbuilding purposes, extend to more than 800,000 acres (3,000 km²).
The climate is harsh and moist, the average yearly temperature at Petrozavodsk (61 8' N.) being 33.6 °F (1 °C). 12.0 °F (-11 °C) in January, 57.4 °F (14 °C) in July; but the thermometer rarely falls below 30 °F (-1 °C)
The population, which numbered 321,250 in 1881, reached 367,902 in 1897, and 401,100 (estimate) in 1906. They are principally Russians and Finns. The people belong mostly to the Greek Orthodox Church, or are Starovers (Nonconformists).
Rye and oats are the principal crops, and some flax, barley and turnips are grown, but the total cultivated area does not exceed 21/2% of the whole government. The chief source of wealth is timber, next to which come fishing and hunting. Mushrooms and berries are exported to St. Petersburg. There are quarries and iron-mines, saw-mills, tanneries, iron-works, distilleries and flour-mills. More than one-fifth of the entire male population leave their homes every year in search of temporary employment.
Olonets is divided into seven districts, of which the chief towns are Petrozavodsk, Kargopol, Lodeinoye Pole, Olonets, Povyenets, Pudozh and Vytegra. It includes the Olonets mining district, a territory belonging to the Crown, which covers 432 square metres and extends into the Serdobol district of Finland; the ironworks were begun by Peter the Great in 1701-1714.
Olonets was colonized by Novgorod in the 11th century, and though it suffered much from Swedish invasion its towns soon became wealthy trading centres. Ivan III of Russia annexed it to Muscovy in the second half of the 16th century.
See also
- Olonets Raion of modern Russia
Reference
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