This backpack-esque shoulder bag, made of wood, was used by movers in Kótlas as a way to transport loads. It came to the collection of the Kótlas Museum of Local Lore from the National Museum.


A mover is one of the most ancient professions in which a person most often uses physical strength. For-hire movers may have existed in primitive cultures, when a stronger tribesman would help a weaker one carry a harvested crop for a certain fee or share. Later, movers became indispensable during the construction of, for example, the pyramids in Ancient Egypt - stones and blocks had to be loaded onto boats or dragged in order to deliver them from the quarry to their destination.

In the Middle Ages, the profession becomes more in demand due to the development of commodity-money relations. Over time, workers of this profession became engaged in the movement of goods at ports and marinas. They were called dockers.

The second half of the 19th century saw the beginning of steam navigation development on the Northern Dvína River. The founders of the steamship business were the Arkhangelsk merchant Philip Bulychev, the merchant Afanasy Bulychev and the commerce advisor Ilya Gribánov, who in 1858 created the “Joint-Stock Northern Dvínsk Steamship Company” with a board in Velíky Ústyug. In 1898, a large association of shipowners, the Northern Shipping Company Kótlas-Arkhángelsk-Márman, was established with a board in Arkhangelsk. It engaged in, among other things, the delivery of Siberian bread along the Northern Dvína to Arkhángelsk, which then came by rail to Kótlas. In 1917, this association came to include 15 shipping companies, which demanded more and more movers.

In Kótlas, movers carried sacks on their shoulders from warehouses and unloaded them from railroad cars to barges on the Northern Dvína. The primary cargo was rye and flour. No less important were firewood, “tyos” — that is, thin boards made of different types of wood — and building materials. Willow bark and salted fish were sent to Perm and Vyátka, and household tools were sent to the north.

During the First World War, it was decided that coal be delivered from Europe to Russia by water, via Arkhangelsk, - and then on barges up the Northern Dvina with reloading at the railroad in Kotlas. On the Mikheikov Island in the mouth of the Vychegda, a coal pier was built, which gave rise to the modern district of Kotlas, Limende. In 1915, coal began to supply navigation. Four barracks were built on the island, surrounded by barbed wire.Prisoners and prisoners of war were used as transport labor. Besides coal, they also transported ammunition, barbed wire, cotton and other strategic cargo.