Both rivers are left tributaries of the Volga, and thus the divide between the basins of the White and the Caspian Seas crosses the district.

Vologda was first mentioned in reliable sources in 1264 as a remote settlement controlled by the Novgorod Republic.

Subsequently, it became an important settlement on the trade route connecting Central Russia to the White Sea via the Northern Dvina River, and therefore it was a subject of frequent disputes between Novgorod and the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

In the 15th century, it became the seat of the quasi-independent Principality of Vologda, which was most of the time controlled by Moscow and which included the current area of Vologodsky District.

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

Some of its territory was transferred to Chyobsarsky, Gryazovetsky, and Ust-Kubinsky Districts, and the rest was administratively subordinated to Vologda.

[2] On July 15, 1929, Kubeno-Ozersky District with the administrative center in the selo of Kubenskoye was also established.

[12] One of the principal highways in Russia, M8, which connects Moscow and Arkhangelsk, crosses the eastern part of the district from south to north.

The district contains six objects classified as cultural and historical heritage by the Russian Federal law and additionally sixty-eight objects classified as cultural and historical heritage of local importance.

[13] The objects protected at the federal level are the Ethnographic Museum in Semyonkovo,[clarification needed] the Mozhaysky Estate in Mozhayskoye (formerly Kotelnikovo), the Intercession Church in Pokrovskoye, and the Ulyanov House in Raskopino.

[15] Alexander Mozhaysky, Russian aviation pioneer, who in 1884 constructed a monoplane aircraft and performed an unsuccessful attempt to take off, lived in the estate, which belonged to his wife, between 1860 and 1863.