Often, to a naughty child who refuses to go somewhere with his parents, for example, to a clinic, his mother says: “Well, don’t drag you! Go alone!" And what is "volok"? Is it a way of carrying heavy things while being dragged, or something else?
What the dictionaries say
Ushakov's dictionary explains what "drag" means. This is a place where boats or goods are dragged from one river to another. Usually, the shortest overland route was chosen for the portage.
Ozhegov's Dictionary adds that this is the section of the ship's path that it overcomes by land to continue along another river. This word has several more meanings:
- In the Volga region, the borders were marked by a trace left by a drag - a special harrow. This trail was called dragging.
- The earth was measured with a drag. One portage was about 20 acres (slightly less than 22 hectares).
- That was the name of the forest tracts, for example, the Iletsk portage.
- The deaf, impenetrable forest was called a drag because it was impossible to drive up in a cart. Felled trees were hauled out by hand. At the same time, hand winches were used, which were also called portage.
- In Siberia and in the Russian North, dragging istobogganing on the ice of a frozen pond.
The very concept of "drag" means the process of dragging gravity by dragging. For this, logs were used, on which the boats were rolled. Later, this is how wooden log cabins were transported through the winter snow - they put them on logs and dragged them on horseback.
From the Varangians to the Greeks
Norwegians have long mastered movement on light boats. The famous route from the Varangians to the Greeks involved several portages along its length. For this, a road was laid out from logs cut down right there. There is even a technology for arranging portages. The most problematic area is the land where the Krivichi tribe lived. On the small rivers flowing into the Western Dvina and the tributaries of the Dnieper, the indigenous people living along the waterways helped merchants to travel, receiving payment for protection from robbers. Archaeologists find many traces of Scandinavians in the 10th century on the portages.
Over time, this way of moving along the rivers is adopted in Russia, and the expansion of the state borders, trade with distant regions and organized tax collection begin. We can say that the importance of portages was very great. Trade contacts arose at the places of transfer of ships, business people of antiquity usually made an appointment here.
Vologda
The entire Vologda Oblast is located at the crossroads of the B altic, Caspian and White Sea routes. Volokov was apparently invisible here. When the Novgorodians were developing new lands, for lack of roads, movement was carried out only along the rivers. Rooks in summer andtobogganing in winter was the only way to cover long distances. In the area of the rivers Sukhona and the Northern Dvina, the boats moved by dragging. The very name of the city of Vologda is explained by V. Gilyarovsky in the book “My wanderings”: “How to explain this place to Novgorodians? Drag and drag, and housing.”
Volokolamsk, Vyshny Volochok and Perevoloki have the same story. These cities originated from the word "drag". The word "drag" has a synonym - "transportation". This is also the name of Russian cities and towns. There were always boatmen at the crossing places, they lived by this craft. Horses served as draft power. Overland transportation from one river to another often had passes. It is interesting that now there is no Nizhny Volochek, it remained on the map near Borovichi.
Samara onion and portage
What are robbers, no need to explain. The most dangerous place was near the village of Perevoloki on the Volga. And although state sentinels were vigilantly serving on the top of the Karaulny hillock, dashing people attacked the barges loaded with goods from an ambush on the Usa River. When shouting: "Saryn, on the kitchka!" - barge haulers lay down on the ground, and the saryn, or commoners, fled to the kichka (bow of the ship) and also lay down. The robbery was carried out silently by pirates arriving in light boats.
The length of the waterway along the Samara bow is one and a half hundred kilometers. While the heavy barge, paying tribute to the robbers, continued on their way, they dragged across the pass separating the Usa and the Volga, descended the Usa (about thirty kilometers) and attacked the poor merchant a second time. No wonder so many thought they were werewolves.
Water tourism
In some dictionaries, by the beginning of the 20th century, the word "drag" was considered obsolete. But it has regained relevance with the advent of water tourism. Rafting down the river in kayaks or catamarans involves, in some cases, the portage of a light vessel. There are even rules for dragging, there are sports competitions where tourists show their skill and coherence by carrying around a rocky section of the river.
There are many unplanned things in the life of a water tourist. For example, the detachment went to the river according to plan, started on time, and already in the middle of the campaign it turned out that there had been little rain that summer, and the river had not completely dried up, but had definitely ceased to be navigable. Even for a kayak. There is no greater torment than dragging a loaded canoe through the rifts.
And what is portage, these tourists will remember for a lifetime.
