Settling of the Izvatas along the Izhma river
Until the second half of the 18th century, Izhma remained the only Izvatas settlement on the Izhma river. Starting from the 1740s, settlers from the Izhemskaya slobodka began to actively develop empty lands down and up the Izhma river. The first newly founded villages were located near Izhma – Sizyabsk (founded in 1745-1763), Gam (founded in 1745-1763), Lasta (founded in 1745-1763), Mokhcha (founded in 1745-1763), Moshyuga (founded in 1745-1763). In the second wave, the villages, which were located upstream on the right bank of the Izhma river, were founded – Shchelyayur (founded in 1763-1766), Diyur (founded in 1763-1772), Krasnobor (founded in 1763-1765), Bolshoye Galovo (founded in 1763-1769; the original name – Dibozh), Maloye Galovo (founded after 1763), Kelchiyur (founded in 1763-1770), Ust-Izhma (founded in 1763-1766), Brykalansk (founded in 1777). At the same time, the village of Kartayol (1763-1768) was founded, located south of Izhma on the left bank of the Izhma river.
Kartayol is notable for the fact that 5 ancient settlements that existed here in the II millennium BC – I millennium AD were discovered next to the village. Metal objects, which were found in the outskirts of Krasnobor at the end of the 19th century, also belong to the same period. The settlements discovered in the outskirts of Charkabozh belong to a later period, namely, to the late copper-bronze and early iron ages and to the medieval Vanvizdin culture. Ancient settlements have also been found on the outskirts of Kelchiyur. According to archaeologists, the first settlements appeared in these places already in the Mesolithic era: the site, which was found southwest of the village, dates back to this time. Another nearby ancient settlement was founded in the Bronze Age.
In the 19th century, a new wave of territory expansion began. In the first half of the 19th century, the following settlements were founded: Pil-Yegor (according to legend, founded by the peasant Rochev from Izhma in 1804, but the first recorded mentionings are dated back to 1859), Shchel (founded in the 1840s), Nyashabozh (founded in 1846). In the second half of the 19th century Bakur (founded between 1850 and 1859), Bryka (founded in 1850-1859), Varysh (founded in 1850-1859), Vasilyevka (founded in 1850-1858), Yol (founded in 1850-1859), Kipievo (founded in 1855), Kos’el (first mentioned in documents in 1859), Vertep (founded after 1859; according to legend, founded together with Krasnobor in the 18th century), Charkabozh (founded in 1878), Chernoborskaya (the first hut here already existed in 1870), Chika (founded in 1879) were founded.
Izhma families usually had many children, which was typical of that time. Families often had even 15 children. According to the confession sheets of the Bakur parish, in 1892-1917 families had 11-13 members on average.
Izhma of the late 19th century is a village with one of the highest birth rates in the Arkhangelsk province. However, the death rate among newborns was also high – from 213 to 484 babies per 1000 newborns. The causes of high mortality were diseases and epidemics – measles (in 1896), smallpox (in 1900), and scarlet fever (in 1901).
At the end of the 19th century, the Izvatas began to settle on the eastern side of the Urals and further (up to the Ob river) and on the Kola Peninsula, where the descendants of the settlers reside even nowadays.