Tot’ma is one of the oldest Russian towns. It is not known when the town was founded. Some historians connect the appearance of the Slavonic settlement with the citizens of Novgorod and mean that the town was founded in the 11th –12th centuries.
In the 16th –17th centuries Tot’ma became the biggest center of salt production and an important place on the way to the White Sea. Peter I visited the town repeatedly and there are many legends in Tot’ma land connected with his name.
In the second half of the 18th century on means of Tot’ma merchants 20 expeditions were equipped for Alaska Fox Islands, where the merchants exchanged fur-skins, which they profitably sold in European Russia.
One of the land-discoverers of Russian America Ivan Kuskov, a native of Tot’ma, founded in 1812 not far from San Francisco the first Russian fortress – Fort Ross and for 10 years he was a commandant of it. That’s why many stone temples, which resemble silhouettes of ships, beautify the town. And on the blazon of Tot’ma one can see a black Alaska fox.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries there was in Tot’ma Petrovskaya handicraft school of toy and household utensils production. The articles of the school made a success in Russia and abroad. In particular at the World Exhibition in Liege in 1905 the school got the top premium – Grand-Prix. Owing to fame of the production of the school Tot’ma was called in press “Russian Nurnberg” – the town of toymen.
At present day Tot’ma is one of the most important industrial-architectural centers of the Vologda Region. Original architecture of this provincial town attracts many tourists. It combines traits of Baroque, Classicism, so called “Russian style” and eclecticism. Not only temples, built in the 18th century, but also peasant houses, merchant seats and household buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries are preserved in Tot’ma. There is also the museum of a founder of Fort Ross Ivan Kuskov in the town. Not far from Tot’ma the museum of a famous Vologda poet Nikolay Rubtsov is situated.
An interesting legend is connected with the stone “Elk”, parts of which one can see in the outskirts of Tot’ma. Sometime it was one of the biggest boulders, named “a tsar table”. According to a legend, Tsar Peter I and his suite on their way to Arkhangelsk had a rest on this stone and drank tea from a silver scoop.
Welcome to Tot’ma!