Effective January 1, 2027, the villages of Prudovka and Antonikha in Varnavinsky Okrug are changing their administrative status: they are being reclassified from inhabited localities to khutor (isolated farmsteads).[1]

Varnavinsky District is located in the north of Nizhny Novgorod Region, in the middle course of the Vetluga River.

The district borders Kostroma Region to the north; the Koverninsky and Semyonovsky Districts to the west; the Urensky and Vetluzhsky Districts to the east; and the Krasnobakovsky District to the south. The distance to the regional center is 190 kilometers, and to the nearest railway station, Vetluzhskaya, 36 kilometers.

The center of Varnavinsky District is the settlement of Varnavino, which was founded by the venerable Varnava of Vetluga, who had foretold its founding. The settlement is famous for its rich historical culture. Before the Revolution, there were two gymnasiums here, one for girls and one for boys. Today one of them houses a school and the other an orphanage. In Varnavino there is a church, which burned down several times and was rebuilt again in 2001. The settlement also has a library, a music school, a house of culture, a bakery, a forestry enterprise, a garment factory, and much more.

Varnavinsky District also includes Bogorodskoye, a selo (a larger village) with a population of 600, as well as Zarechnoye, Makariy, and others.

History of the founding

In the mid-15th century, a Russian Christian priest named Varnava from the town of Veliky Ustyug settled on Krasnaya Gora (Red Hill) on the Vetluga River, within the middle Vetluga Region. At that time the Vetluga basin was a remote backwoods inhabited by the Mari. In 1464 began the 300-year period of Varnavin's history, embodied in the Trinity–Varnavin Hermitage. However, during Varnava's lifetime, in the second half of the 15th century, there was no influx of Russian settlers to the Vetluga. The first Russian settlers in the upper reaches of the Vetluga could not live without church burial grounds, Christian books, and church services. Russian peasants were afraid to settle in this restless land at the time, and the Moscow authorities, busy fighting the Mari, Novgorod, and Vyatka, could not undertake the construction of a monastery here.

But in the early 16th century, a group of monks and carpenters was sent from Unzha, which belonged to Galich Uyezd, to build a men's monastery on Krasnaya Gora. In 1764 the monastic period in the history of the Varnavin land came to an end. Having ended up among the country's poorly endowed monasteries, it was closed by decree of Catherine the Second.

In 1778 the monastery settlement was transformed into the town of Varnavin, an uyezd town of Kostroma Governorate. After the abolition of serfdom, under the zemstvo reform of 1864, zemstvos were established in the uyezds. In the early 20th century, the uyezd town of Varnavin, with a population of 1,500, had, by its staffing table, all the uyezd and municipal authorities.

The town was the center of commercial activity in the uyezd. Every year three large yarmarkas (trade fairs) were held in Varnavin — the Christmas, the Trinity, and the Mikhailovsky. Comparatively large factories and plants in the uyezd included the Berdnikov wood-pulp cardboard factory, the Bazilevsky glassworks, and the Smetsky sawmill. Well-off peasants owned mills, oil presses, and other trades. In 1902–1904 the uyezd zemstvo opened gymnasiums, a boys' school, schools, and hospitals.

On January 20, 1918, Soviet Power was established in Varnavin Uyezd, and from 1922 Varnavin Uyezd became part of Nizhny Novgorod Region. Since then it has been abolished three times and incorporated into Krasnobakovsky District. In 1964 Varnavinsky District became independent.

Sights

In 2005 Varnavinsky District was named a winner of the All-Russian competition "Ecologically Clean District (Territory)."

The district has a large number of natural monuments, the Varnavin Integrated Nature Reserve, old parks, and numerous lakes of an ancient type.

There are many historical, cultural, and architectural monuments: the Varnavin Museum of History and Art, the stone Kazan Church in the selo of Bogorodskoye, the wooden church of St. Varnava of Vetluga in Varnavin, the estate of the landowner Bazilevsky in the selo of Gorki, and the Bogorodskoye gorodishche (ancient fortified settlement), a site where ancient people once camped.

The district center has preserved the architectural appearance of a former uyezd merchant town; the settlement's adornments are the women's gymnasium (now Varnavin Secondary School), the men's gymnasium (now the Varnavin children's home), the residence of the merchant Mutovkin, and the trading house of the merchant P. Ya. Ostrovsky. Varnavinsky District is famous for its masters of woodcarving and bone carving (bone).

Industry

Main sectors:

  • art factory for bone carving;
  • auxiliary enterprises of Ministry of Justice institutions;
  • furniture, forest products, baking, metalworking;
  • garments;
  • timber harvesting and processing.

Transportation

Varnavinsky District is located in the northwestern part of Nizhny Novgorod Region, 190 km from the regional center. The drive by car from Nizhny Novgorod to Varnavino takes 2.5–3 hours on average. Along the Nizhny Novgorod – Kirov highway you reach the urban-type settlement of Krasnye Baki, then take the bypass road to Vetluzhskaya station, from which a highway runs along the Vetluga River to the destination.

Vetluzhskaya station is also served by a commuter train from Nizhny Novgorod running in the Kirov direction; from there a bus runs to the urban-type settlement of Varnavino, with a schedule coordinated with the arrival time of the train.

Coat of Arms

Approved on March 29, 1779. Description of the coat of arms: "In the first part of the shield, the coat of arms of Kostroma: in a blue field, a galley stern with three lanterns and lowered ladders. In the second part of the shield, in a red field, a hand emerging from the clouds, holding a stone, symbolizing that the Apostle Barnabas, after whom the town is named, was stoned to death."

See also

As of January 1, 2027, the settlement of Yelevaya Zavod will disappear from the map of Varnavinsky Okrug; by that time no one has lived there for a long while.[2]

Sources

  1. Zhivyom v Nizhnem — As of January 1, 2027, the settlement of Yelevaya Zavod will disappear from the map of Varnavinsky Okrug; by that time no one has lived there for a long while. (archive)
  1. Newsroom24 — As of January 1, 2027, the villages of Prudovka and Antonikha in Varnavinsky Okrug are changing their administrative status: they are being reclassified from populated localities to khutors (isolated farmsteads). (archive)