[10] The district is elongated from west to east and lies in the basin of the Sukhona River.

The northeast of the district is in the basin of the Syamzhena River, a major tributary of the Kubena.

In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, the area was included into Archangelgorod Governorate.

In November 1923, the Vologda Executive Committee decided to create Sverdlovsko-Sukhonsky District with the administrative center in the settlement of Sokol; however, the decision was not approved by the central authorities, and the district was never created.

[2] On July 15, 1929, the uyezds were abolished, the governorates merged into Northern Krai, and Sverdlovsky District with the administrative center in the work settlement of Sokol was established among others.

[32] The railway connecting Vologda and Arkhangelsk crosses the district from south to north.

One of the principal highways in Russia, M8, which connects Moscow and Arkhangelsk, crosses the district from south to north, passing Sokol and Kadnikov.

In Chekshino, another highway branches off east and runs to Totma and Veliky Ustyug.

The district contains 3 cultural heritage monuments of federal significance (the ensemble of Ilyinsky Pogost several kilometers north of Kadnikov and the Church of Archangel Michael in the selo of Arkhangelskoye) and additionally 101 objects classified as cultural and historical heritage of local significance (35 of them located in the town of Kadnikov).

[33] In addition to the Sokol District Museum, located in Sokol,[34] the district hosts the Kadnikov Museum of History, which was opened in 1985 and is located in one of the historical buildings in the center of Kadnikov.