Msta River
The area was populated by the Finno-Ugric peoples, whose descendants, Vepsians, still live in the district. The first villages in the area, Vinnitsy and Yuksovichi, were mentioned in 1137. Until the 15th century, it was a part of the Novgorod Republic and was sparsely populated. After the fall of the republic, it was, together will all Novgorod Lands, annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In the beginning of the 18th century, Tsar Peter the Great, who recognized an important strategic location of the Svir River as a waterway connecting the two biggest lakes in European Russia, resettled peasants from the Msta River to the banks of the Svir.