an area in the basin of the Severnaia Dvina and the Onega, below the “portages” (voloki) linking Lake Onega with Lake Beloe and the Sheksna River (part of present-day Arkhangel’sk Oblast). In ancient times, the region abounded in salt and fur-bearing animals. In the llth to 14th centuries it was brought under the economic exploitation of Novgorod the Great. Toward the end of the 14th century the struggle for the Zavoloch’e began between Novgorod and Moscow Principality. The territory, called the Dvina Lands since the 14th century, became part of the centralized Russian state in 1478 with the end of Novgorod’s independence.