 The southern part of the district belongs to the basin of the Tudovka River, a right tributary of the Volga.Since the Middle Ages, the area was at the border between the Novgorod Republic and the Principality of Smolensk, later at the border between the Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow.Eventually, it was transferred under control of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and in 1547 Tsar Ivan the Terrible gave it to the Simonov Monastery which was located in Moscow.