Mongol invasion of Rus'
Bolkhov was first documented in a chronicle from 1196. After the Mongol invasion of Rus', it became the seat of a local princely dynasty, whose descendants may be traced until the 19th century. In the 16th century, it became one of the fortified posts for defending Moscow from the Tatars on the south. It was there that the army of Vasily IV was defeated by False Dmitry II in 1608.