Manturovo is a town in Kostroma Oblast

Kostroma Oblast

Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located on the right bank of the Unzha River

Unzha River

Unzha River , a river in the Vologda Oblast and Kostroma Oblast in Russia, a tributary of the Volga River. Its length is 426 km. The area of the basin is 28,900 km². The Unzha River begins at the confluence of the Kema River and the Lundonga River. It flows into the Unzhensky Cove of the Gorkovsky...

 (Volga

Volga River

The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...

's tributary), 260 kilometres (161.6 mi) northeast of Kostroma

Kostroma

Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...

. Population: 22,000 (1970).

Overview

Manturovo was an ancient Finno-Ugric Meri people trading settlement and a wooden hill fortress located at the confluence of the Unzha and Mezha Rivers. The name means Mantu = Podzol, Rova = higher place in sparsely coniferous forest. According to its name it have had a Saame or Nenents roots. Finno Ugrian Rova derives from Saame (Sami) word Roavve which means hill or open place as result of forest fire . Thus the place was inhabited at least c. 2000 BC. It become a Meri settlement by c. 300 AD and remained so at least to 1300 century.

According to Russian history, the village of Manturovo was first mentioned in 1617. Later on, it grew into a town and was granted town status in 1958.

Manturovo was connected by St. Petersburg–Vyatka Railway to Vyatka and Perm in 1908. Since then it has developed from quiet country village railway station to a forest industry center including a big fener factory. A Finnish forest company has plans to open a big modern forest industry center to Manturovo, nearly a billion euro investment, if Russian government guarantee its legal ownership according to the WTO standards.