Northern Dvina-Volga Connection

           I have wanted to draw Zinaida (Arkhangelsk) in a regional folk costume I found on wikicommons here for a long while. Honestly, the amount of details was what put me off until a week ago when my brain finally agreed to work on this idea at last. At first it was meant to be just her alone... then I added Valentin (Yaroslavl') and at one point considered adding even Svyatoslav (Kursk). In the end I went against the latter cuz I couldn't figure out his pose.

          Backstory time - Zinaida knew Valentin since probably mid-17th century after the Time of Troubles. They were both on the network of trading ports, especially the northern line which connected Yaroslavl' on Volga through Sukhona to Northern Dvina where Arkhangelsk situated. At first they correspond by sending letters through merchants who sailed between their cities. Considered Valentin was rather chill with Ivan the Terrible (he even got some benefit after Ivan the Terrible sacked Novgorod and sent some of wealthy people from Nogorod to resettle in his city) and Zinaida was founded by him, she was attached to him since many other towns shunned her by that fact.

          Later on they kinda had an opposite opinion on the Romanovs - Valentin being a friend with Kostroma pledged to blindly support the Romanovs. Meanwhile, Zinaida held a big grudge on Pyotr Velikiy for ruining this trading line by founding Saint Petersburg. in the late 19th century they were linked again through northern railway connecting Arkhangelsk-Yaroslavl'-Moscow.

          And, well, their sibling-liked relationship was pretty uneventful until during Russian Civil War - which Zinaida was meant to send reinforcement of foreign troops landing in her city to help liberate Yaroslavl' from the Reds. Except the foreign troops arrived late after the initial infiltrated group already killed the city's governor whom the Bolshevik supported and declared the city under the Whites' control. Thus Valentin was smacked half dead being repeatedly hit by artillery from the neighboring detachments of armed Bolsheviks supporters coming to drive the Whites from the city. (yup, the event in July 1918 which gave him a PTSD and now he's wary toward Ivanovo, Tver and even Kostroma because of that)