The settlement agreement from the archive of the Paleostrovsky monastery: ethnoterritorial aspect

The article analyzes the Settlement Agreement dated 13 July 6883 (1375), which was preserved in the archive of the Paleostrovsky Monastery. The Agreement established the boundary and resolved the territorial dispute between a Chelmuzhsky boyar Gregory Semyonovich and the residents of three Zaonezhye pogosts (churchyards) and settlements located on the western shore of Povenetsky Bay. The localization of toponyms suggests that the Settlement Agreement gave the entire Chelmuzhsky Pogost, a district, which is approximately comparable in size to the territory of three Zaonezhye pogosts, to the boyar Gregory Semenovich. It is shown that the intervention of the head of the Imochenitsky Pogost, Artemy Orya, and his “tribe” in the territorial dispute suggests that both economic and ethnic interests of the Oyat region Veps were affected. The lands of the Shungsky, Tolvuysky, and Chelmuzhsky pogosts were considered by the Vepsian “tribe” as belonging to the community, despite the fact that the plots of land were owned by the boyar.