Sokolsky District is located in the north of the Nizhny Novgorod Region on the left bank of the Volga River River. The district borders Kostroma Region, the Gorodetsky District and Koverninsky District Districts of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, and the Gorky Reservoir.
History
In very ancient times, Sokolskoye was a nomadic encampment surrounded by oak groves. From the oak, the inhabitants crafted light boats called "sokoly" (falcons), from which, it is believed, the name "Sokolskoye" derived. Other sources record that during the popular movement of 1611–1613, passing through the area, K. Minin and D. Pozharsky called the place "Sokoliki," as the impenetrable forests on the left bank of the Volga were home to great numbers of beautiful birds — falcons.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Count Musin-Pushkin established his estate on the left bank of the Volga, where a small village had stood. In the 1950s, when the Gorky Reservoir was created, the Musin-Pushkin house was demolished. During its dismantling, the owners' visiting card was discovered. A rare late-nineteenth-century publication by A. P. Barsukov, "The Sheremetev Family" (1881–1904), contains two references to the Sokolskaya volost of the seventeenth century: in 1634, boyar F. I. Sheremetev received the Sokolskaya volost of Yuryevetsky Uyezd as a gift from the tsar, from the "Black Volosts," in recognition of concluding the Treaty of Polyanovka. The first collective farm, "Red Plowman," was established in 1928, with F. Ye. Olnev as its chairman.
On January 25, 1935, Sokolsky District was formed, and the selo of Sokolskoye became the district center. The settlement of Sokolskoye was established in 1938. In 1994, the district was transferred from Ivanovo Region to Nizhny Novgorod Region.
Industry
Sokolsky District has light and food industries, shipbuilding, timber processing, agriculture, and printing.
Attractions
- Sokolsky Local History Museum
- School of Carpenters, Sokolskoye settlement
- Bird Island at the mouth of the Unzhenskoye ostrog, home to a large colony of gulls
- Pine forest with a grey heron colony near the village of Vyazoviki
- Pine forest on the shore of the Gorky Reservoir, selo Pelegovo
- Water body with a colony of common gulls near the village of Zabolotnoye