In the 15th century, it was already a fortress, playing an important role in the struggle between Novgorod and the emerging power of Moscow.

In particular, in 1447 the outlaw prince Dmitry Shemyaka, after being chased from Moscow by Vasily II, fled to Kargopol and stayed there for over a year.

For instance, Ivan Bolotnikov, the leader of the peasant insurgence, was sent to Kargopol in 1607, where he was blinded and then drowned.

After St. Petersburg was built in 1703, the trade was rerouted to the Baltic Sea and the importance of Kargopol diminished.

On July 15, 1929, the uyezds were abolished, the governorates merged into Northern Krai, and Kargopolsky District was established among others.

[2] The areas south of Lake Lacha belonged to Kirillovsky Uyezd of Novgorod Governorate.

Some minor areas in the northwest of the district belong to the basin of the Vodla River and eventually of the Baltic Sea, and very minor areas in the southwest belong to the basin of the Kema River and eventually to the Caspian Sea.

[3] The following selsoviets have been established (the administrative centers are given in parentheses): As a municipal division, the district is divided into one urban settlement and five rural settlements (the administrative centers are given in parentheses):[6] Timber industry is the basic industry of the district.

However, these activities became unprofitable due to depopulation (in a hundred years, the number of villages was reduced by a factor of five), and in the 1970s the district's production shifted to beef and milk.

This is the historic trading route which connected Kargopol with Arkhangelsk before the railroad was built, and long stretches of this road are still unpaved.

[13] Another unpaved road in the western direction crosses the border with the Republic of Karelia and heads to Pudozh.

This did not occur, since the construction has already started in August 1894, and since the detour would be too big, as Kargopol is not on a straight line connecting Vologda with Arkhangelsk.

The town of Kargopol contains a number of white-stone churches, the earliest of which, the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, dates back to 1552.

[18] This is cloak organization, which not only holds ethnographic, art and historic exhibits, but also protects some of the architectural monuments in Kargopol and surroundings.