History of Kostroma

Kostroma stretches along the left bank of the Volga, at the point where the river of the same name flows into it. The town’s chronicle spans nearly nine centuries: it has witnessed key events in Russian history, from the princely feuds of the 13th century and the Time of Troubles to Catherine the Great’s replanning, the flourishing of the merchant class, and Soviet industrialization. Here is how a small fortress on a ridge above the Volga grew into one of the most recognisable towns of the Golden Ring.

Foundation and the first princely centuries

The traditional date of Kostroma’s founding is 1152. This figure was put into circulation in the 18th century by the historian V. N. Tatishchev, who linked the town’s foundation to the activities of Yuri Dolgoruky, who was strengthening the eastern borders of the Rostov-Suzdal land. There is no direct chronicle evidence for this date, but it has become firmly rooted in the town’s historical memory and self-identification.

The first reliable mention of Kostroma in the chronicles dates to 1213: it is reported that Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich of Rostov, in the course of a feud with his brother Yuri, burned the town. This means that by the beginning of the 13th century a fortified settlement with a posad already existed here — otherwise a campaign against it would have made no sense. A quarter of a century later, in 1238, Kostroma shared the fate of most Volga towns: it was ravaged during Batu Khan’s invasion.

The town’s name

The name of the town is most often linked to the Kostroma River. There is also a more poetic, though less rigorous, version: the word “kostra” was used for the coarse fibres of flax that remain after processing. Both hypotheses are symbolic: they point to the main sources of prosperity in the Kostroma lands over the centuries — the rivers and flax growing.

The age of the appanage principality

In 1246, Kostroma became the centre of an independent appanage principality. Its most famous ruler was Vasily Yaroslavich, the younger brother of Alexander Nevsky. In 1272 he ascended the grand princely throne of Vladimir, but did not move the capital, continuing to rule from Kostroma until his death in 1276. This was the town’s “golden age”: a brief period when Kostroma was in effect the main political centre of North-Eastern Rus’.

By the end of the 14th century the era of independence was over: in 1364 Kostroma was finally incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and from then on it moved within the current of Moscow’s history. In 1419, after yet more devastating disasters, the town was moved to higher ground — it was there that the Kostroma Kremlin later took shape.

The Time of Troubles and the “cradle of the Romanovs”

Kostroma was destined to play a key role in Russian history at the beginning of the 17th century, at the height of the Time of Troubles. By that point, the Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery already stood next to the town, on the left bank of the Kostroma River. According to legend, it was founded around 1330 by a Tatar murza named Chet, who was baptised under the name Zakhary and, according to genealogies, became the ancestor of the Godunov family. Modern historians consider Chet a rather legendary figure, and date the first reliable mention of the monastery to 1432. By the 17th century, the monastery was a wealthy, fortified, and strategically important site.

In 1609 the Kostroma militia, together with the forces of other Volga towns, cleared the Ipatiev Monastery of the supporters of False Dmitry II and returned it to Moscow’s control. And on 14 March 1613 the central event in Kostroma’s history took place here: in the monastery’s Trinity Cathedral, sixteen-year-old Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov was informed of the Zemsky Sobor’s decision to summon him to the throne. From that moment on, Kostroma entered the dynastic myth as the “cradle of the Romanovs,” and the Ipatiev Monastery became a family shrine — every new tsar considered it his duty to visit it and leave a donation.

The same era is also linked to Ivan Susanin — a Kostroma peasant who, according to legend, led a Polish detachment into the forest thickets to save the future tsar. Historians still debate the details, but the image of Susanin became firmly tied to the Kostroma land, and in the 19th century was elevated to the status of a national symbol.

From a provincial town to a gubernatorial capital

Under Peter I, Kostroma became one of the anchor towns of the new administrative grid: in 1708 it was assigned to the Moscow Governorate as a provincial centre. The spiritual status of the region also grew stronger — in 1744 an independent Kostroma Eparchy was established. An important milestone was 1767, when, in memory of Catherine II’s visit, the town received its coat of arms depicting the golden galley “Tver.”

The year 1773 proved decisive for the town’s appearance: a massive fire almost completely destroyed the old wooden buildings of the centre. Yet the destruction turned into a chance for renewal. By decree of Catherine II, the town began to be rebuilt according to a regular plan. The project approved in 1781 gave Kostroma its famous “fan” layout: the streets, like the spokes of a fan, radiate out from the Volga embankment to central Susaninskaya Square. This architectural design still defines the appearance of the historic centre.

In 1778 Kostroma was made the centre of a namestnichestvo, and in 1796, under Paul I, the centre of the Kostroma Governorate. By the end of the 18th century, the stone buildings of the Trading Rows began to be erected here: the Red, the Great Flour, the Gingerbread, and others. The entire complex, stretching between the square and the Volga, still functions as a trading space and is one of the town’s main architectural ensembles.

The 19th century: the fire tower, the merchant class, and Susaninskaya Square

In the 19th century Kostroma acquired the look of an exemplary gubernatorial town. In the 1820s, to the design of the provincial architect P. I. Fursov, the Fire Tower was built on the main square — a slender white tower with a portico, which is still considered a symbol of Kostroma and is listed among the cultural heritage sites of federal significance. Nearby appeared the Guardhouse, the House of Senator Borshchov, and other Empire-style buildings that set the scale of the centre.

After the visit of Nicholas I in 1835, the square officially became Susaninskaya. In 1851 a monument to Ivan Susanin and the young tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich was erected here — an elaborate composition with a column and a kneeling hero. In the Soviet era the monument was destroyed, and only in 1967 did the present monument to the folk hero appear on Molochnaya Gora.

In the second half of the 19th century, the town acquired the usual infrastructure of a gubernatorial centre: in 1870 the first water supply system began operating, and textile and flax mills flourished. Kostroma’s drama theatre, founded back in 1808, was later named after A. N. Ostrovsky and remains one of the oldest in Russia.

In 1878 the merchant Vladimir Blandov opened a cheese-making enterprise in the Kostroma Governorate, which is linked to the beginning of the industrial history of Kostroma cheese — a semi-hard variety. In 1891 the Kostroma Museum of Antiquities opened — the predecessor of today’s museum-reserve.

The culmination of the “imperial” era came in 1913. In honour of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, Nicholas II visited Kostroma. For the jubilee, the Romanov Museum was built in the town and a majestic monument to the dynasty was laid — but it was never completed: the First World War and the revolution intervened.

The 20th century and the present day

After 1917, Kostroma, like most Russian gubernatorial towns, went through an era of radical change: the closure of monasteries, the nationalisation of industry, and the loss of architectural shrines. In 1929 the Kostroma Governorate was abolished, and the town itself lost its capital status for fifteen years — it was included in the Ivanovo Industrial Region. In 1932 a railway bridge was thrown across the Volga, linking the Kostroma bank to the country’s overall network, and in 1934 the Kostroma Kremlin, with its ancient cathedrals, was dismantled. This was one of the town’s most grievous architectural losses.

During the Great Patriotic War, the town became a reliable rear area: hospitals were deployed here, evacuated factories were received, and military units were formed. In 1944, with the establishment of the Kostroma Region, the town regained its status as an administrative centre.

In the post-war decades the town grew as an industrial and transport hub. In 1958 the Kostroma Museum-Reserve was created on the grounds of the Ipatiev Monastery; at that time wooden churches, izbas, and mills began to be brought here from across the region. This is how the “Kostroma Sloboda” museum of wooden architecture came into being. In 1970 a road and pedestrian bridge was built across the Volga, linking the historic centre with the districts on the far bank, and in 1987 City Day was officially celebrated for the first time.

Since the 1990s Kostroma has definitively established itself as a jewel of the Golden Ring. The return of the Ipatiev Monastery to the Church, the restoration of the Trading Rows and the Fire Tower, and the restoration of merchant mansions have breathed new life into the historic centre. In the 2000s the town acquired modern brands: the residence and Terem of Snegurochka and a cheese museum appeared, and Kostroma took on the status of the “cheese capital” and the “cradle of the Romanov dynasty.”

Today about 265,000 people live in Kostroma. Over nine centuries the town has been through a great deal: from raids and fires to Soviet reconstruction and a tourism boom. But one thing remains unchanged — the unique landscape of the high Volga bank, where the river, trade, and living Russian history still come together.