Kargopol

Kargopol (Russ. Каргополь, Finn. Karkopolis) is a Uralican city, the smallest in Northwest Uralica. Sitting at the junction of Highways UH-13 and UH-18, it is an important junction city, as it sits very close to the county border with Woodlands, and not even an hour's drive from Karelia. It is also among Uralica's older settlements, with the first mention dating back as far as 1146, although such mentions of the city were sporadic until the fifteenth century.

Kargopol has had a diverse economy in spurts, with the economy taking a downturn between Cataclysm and Great War II and then again between the Uralic Purges and the Unjust War. But after being annexed by Uralica in mid-2009, the city has become a hub for many different industries in the area, such as food production, pulp-and-paper, pharmaceuticals, transportation production, and small consumer-goods manufacturing. There is also a decent hi-tech sector in the city.

Culture
Kargopol, because of its position within Uralica, is one of the more linguistically diverse cities in the country, with English, Russian, Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Veps, Ludian, Karelian, Eastern Mari, and even Northern Saami (Kargopol is that language's southernmost extent) all being spoken within the city. The first four and Karelian are the most-spoken.

Kargopol has the second-largest historical museum complex in Northwest Uralica after that of Onega, and contained within it is a testament to Kargopol's rather unique role in a volatile time in Russian history. It served as refuge to Dmitry Shemyaka, who twice claimed Grand Prince status of Moscow in a tumultuous period in the late 1440s and early 1450s that led to Shemyaka's death by poisoning and the ending of the principle of collateral succession (where a ruler's sibling took power upon the ruler's death instead of the son). It also contains a section devoted to the Bolotnikov Rebellion of 1606-1607 (Ivan Bolotnikov was executed in Kargopol), an exhibit on the Battle of Kargopol against the Polish-Lithuanian Empire in 1612 (even as the foes butchered the population of Vologda), the Cossack Siege of 1614, and the numerous fires that destroyed much of the city (the last of these was in 1765).

Old architecture can be found in abundance in Kargopol. Cathedral Square, for example, contains three churches, which were, up until mid-2009, used as historical museums, which have since been replaced by the complex on the other end of town. Now, all churches in Cathedral Square are used for services - Christ Cathedral (completed in 1562 and refurbished several times, most recently in 2009) and Vvedenskaya Church (finished in 1810, refurbished in 2009) are used for Orthodox services, while the Cathedral of St. John The Baptist is used by the Uralican Evangelical Baptist Church.) Another three cathedrals were built in Old Market Square, of which two are used for services (the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and the Church of the Annunciation). The third, St. Nicholas Church, still undergoing a refurbishment project.

There are numerous other churches, old and new, in Kargopol, but also a couple house-museums - one devoted to the "Kargopol toys," traditional clay toys that had their origin attributed to the city, and the other devoted to ethnographer Nikolay Annin. The city is renowned for its folk-art festival, which in 2010 was held four times - in February, April, July, and September.

Neighbourhoods and Suburbs

 * Sobornoy Ploshchadi (Eng. Cathedral Square)
 * Staroy Togrovoy (Eng. Oldmarket, Old Market Square is located here)
 * Novoy Togrovoy (Eng. Newmarket)
 * Zvonkovo
 * Martakino
 * Lukino
 * Eastbank (Russ. Bосточный Oтмель)