- District of Sheksna
- District of Cherepovets
- District of Chagoda
- District of Kharovsk
- District of Ustyuzhna
- District of Ust'-Kubinskoye
- District of Tot'ma
- District of Tarnoga
- District of Syamzha
- District of Sokol
- District of Nyuksenitsa
- District of Nikolsk
- District of Mezhdurech'ye
- District of Kichmengsky Gorodok
- District of Kirillov
- District of Kadui
- District of Gryazovets
- Vologda
- Cherepovets
- District of Vytegra
- District of Vologda
- District of Vozhega
- District of Verkhovazh'ye
- District of Veliky Ustyug
- District of Vashki
- District of Belozersk
- District of Babushkino
- District of Babaevo
Writers

Nikolai Rubtsov
poet
The Russian poet Nikolai Rubtsov is one of the most tragic figures in Soviet literature. His place in Russian poetry was compared with those of Alexander Blok and Sergei Yesenin.
Nikolai was born on January 3, 1936 in Vologda. N.Rubtsov's mother gave birth to six children. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) mother of the future poet and his two sisters passed away. His father got mislaid. Nikolai spent his childhood in a children's home in the settlement of Nikolskoye, Tot'ma District, Vologda Oblast.
Rubtsov rose from humble beginnings and spent his younger days in hard work which, although hardening him both morally and physically, still left Nikolai without proper education. After leaving secondary school in 1950, he studied in a technical school, then another one. But he did not finish any of them. In the ten years he spent out of children's home, Nikolai Rubtsov changed many jobs, worked at factories and served in the navy. As a 23 year-old young man, Rubtsov abandoned his northern hometown of Vologda heading for the great Russian city Leningrad in 1959. There, he immediately became involved in literary life of the city. There Rubtsov's first collection of poems, titled Waves and Rocks, was published.
In 1962 Nikolai entered the Institute of Literature in Moscow. Later he returned to Vologda. His fame rose after a second collection of his work The Star of Fields was published in 1967 in Moscow. All in all three more collections of Rubtsov's poems were released: Lyrics (1965), Saved by Soul (1969), Rustle of Pines (1970).
His poetry was inspired by Russian folklore. Through his collections of poignant poetry about simple life and the meaning of life, he became one of the most popular poets of the day.
Nikolai Rubtsov was a leading representative of "village" poetry. His gloomy, unsociable temper doomed him to live in obscurity, but after his tragic death, neo-Slavophile critics like Vadim Kozhinov proclaimed his poetry to be the embodiment of the Russian national character.
I will die in Epiphany cold
I will die in Epiphany cold
I will die when birch trees creak and moan.
But in spring it will make blood run cold
River waves will make the graveyard flow!
From my flooded grave so rudely opened
Dull forgotten coffin will be floating,
It will crack and crash and in the twilight
Awful remnants will be coming off sight.
What is it - I hardly ever know
Do not trust eternal peaceful flow!
Translated by Irina Kulikova
Night in the Motherland
The oak tree's tall. The water's running deep.
The restful shadows round begin to steal.
And there's such silence up on you to creep
As though the nature here knew no ordeal!
And there's such silence up on you to creep
As though no roof heard any tell of thunder!
No wind along the pond will break its sleep,
No farmyard straw will rustle somewhere under,
Nor often is a drowsy crake's cry sung...
I'm back — the past will not return again!
It's just as well; let this at least remain,
Let this short moment last, at least stay young,
When there's no woe your soul has got to weep,
And it's so restful as the shadows reel,
And there's such silence up on you to creep
As though in life there should be no ordeal,
And your own heart which you will not repent
Of having all drowned in a mystic probe,
Is taken hold of with the bright lament
Like moonlight takes hold of the earthly globe...
Translated by Irina Kulikova
The poet died on January 19, 1971 in Vologda. The Russian nation cherishes Nikolai Rubtsov. There are monuments to Rubtsov in Vologda, Tot'ma, Cherepovets and Emetsk. The house in Yashin Street, Vologda City where Nikolai lived and spent the last years of his life, now boasts a memorial plaque.
The Rubsov Museum was set up in the settlement of Nikolskoye, Tot'ma District. The first exposition about the life and works of the renowned Russian poet Nikolai Rubtsov was opened in 1990 in the village of Nikolskoye located 90 km off Tot'ma. Every hall of the exposition tells the poet's life - story. The village of Nikolskoye became second home for Nikolai who was brought up in an orphanage. It is not by chance that a local orphanage housed the museum.
One of the expositions of the museum contains photographs of the local dynasties who remember the poet pretty well. Another hall shows documents and photographs of Nikolai Rubtsov, the lines from Rubtsov's poems glisten like silver all over walls.
Today, Nikolai's poems are still being memorized by school children and many have been set to music, recorded as popular songs. One of the planetoids bears the name of Nikolai Rubtsov. The renowned poet made a great contribution to the Russian cultural betterment.