Pustozersk or Pustozyorsk () was the first town built by

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

. It was the administrative center of

Yugra Yugra or Yugor Land (; also spelled ''Iuhra'' in contemporary sources) was a collective name for lands and peoples in the region east of the northern Ural Mountains in modern Russia given by Russian chroniclers in the 12th to 17th centuries. Du ...

and

Pechora Pechora (; ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Komi Republic, Russia, located on the Pechora (river), Pechora River, west of and near the northern Ural Mountains. The area of the town is . Population: History Pechor ...

regions of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. It was situated in what is today

Nenets Autonomous Okrug The Nenets Autonomous Okrug (; ) also known as Nenetsia ( ) is a federal subject of Russia and an autonomous okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its administrative center is the town of Naryan-Mar. It has an area of and a population of 42,090 ...

, about 20 km south-west of

Naryan-Mar Naryan-Mar (; ) is a sea and river port town and the administrative center of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The town is situated on the right bank of the Pechora River, upstream from the river's mouth, on the Barents Sea. Naryan-Mar lies n ...

. Pustozersk was founded in 1499 in the lower reaches of the

Pechora River The Pechora (; Komi: Печӧра; Nenets: Санэроˮ яха) is the sixth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Northwest Russia and into the Arctic Ocean, it lies mostly in the Komi Republic but the northernmost part crosses the Nenets A ...

by Princes Semyon Kurbsky and Pyotr Ushaty. The town was built in a deserted area on barren soil, hence the name Pustozersk, which literally means "place of empty lakes", from пустых (of empty) + озер (lakes) + -ск (word ending for a place-name). It was the most distant northern outpost of Muscovy and the first Russian settlement on the Pechora. Pustozersk was supposed to play the role of a military

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

on the northern borders of the Russian state. Beginning in 1644, the city was frequently attacked by

Samoyedic peoples The Samoyedic peoples (sometimes Samodeic peoples) are a group of closely related peoples who speak Samoyedic languages, which are part of the Uralic family. They are a linguistic, ethnic, and cultural grouping. The name derives from the obsole ...

. Pustozersk had been the administrative center of Pustozersk

volost Volost (; ; ) was a traditional administrative subdivision in Kievan Rus', the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Russian Empire. History The '' Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary'' (1890–1907) states that the origins of the concept is unc ...

for more than two and a half centuries (until 1780). The town was most active in the 17th century, when such notable people as

Artamon Matveyev Artamon Sergeyevich Matveyev (; – ) was a Russian statesman, diplomat and reformer. He served as the head ('' dyak'') of the foreign ministry (''Posolsky prikaz'') from 1671 to 1676 during the reign of Alexis of Russia, succeeding Afanasy Or ...

Vasily Galitzine Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn (, tr. ; 1643–1714) was a Russian aristocrat and statesman of the 17th century. He belonged to the Golitsyn as well as Romodanovsky Muscovite noble families. His main political opponent was his cousin Princ ...

, and

Avvakum Avvakum Petrov (; 20 November 1620/1621 – 14 April 1682; also spelled Awakum) was a Russian Old Believer and protopope of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square who led the opposition to Patriarch Nikon's reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church. H ...

were exiled there. The spot where the latter was burnt at the stake is now commemorated by an ornate wooden cross. In the 18th century, Pustozersk gradually lost its economic importance and began to deteriorate because a more convenient southern route to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

through the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

had been discovered. In 1924, Pustozersk lost city status and was described as "not a city, but an ordinary, small northern village, numbering 25-30 houses and about forty non-residential buildings." During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 41 residents fought in the war, of which 19 were killed. During the war, the population increased to 106, mostly from refugees, however after the war, the population dropped to 28 in 1951, and just 6 in 1959. The last residents left in 1962. The wooden Church of Transfiguration is the only structure that remained after the abandonment of Pustozeorsk. It was moved to the nearby village of Ustye, located on the Lake Gorodetskoye. File:Avaakum Pustozersk.JPG, The memorial crosses on the site of Pustozyersk, placed where

was burned File:CEM-15-Asia-Mercator-1595-Russia-2533.jpg, ''Pustozera'' on the ''Petzora'' River, just north of the

, on a

Mercator __NOTOC__ Mercator (Latin for "merchant") often refers to the Mercator projection, a cartographic projection named after its inventor, Gerardus Mercator. Mercator may refer to: People * Marius Mercator (c. 390–451), a Catholic ecclesiastica ...

's map published in 1595 File:Raskop Pustozersk.JPG, Vestiges of archeological excavations

References

{{Authority control Defunct towns in Russia Rural localities in Nenets Autonomous Okrug Populated places of Arctic Russia Former populated places in Russia Populated places established in the 1490s Cultural heritage monuments in Nenets Autonomous Okrug Objects of cultural heritage of Russia of federal significance Tourist attractions in Nenets Autonomous Okrug