The
Komi people first feature in the records of the
Novgorod Republic in the 11th century, when traders from
Novgorod traveled to the
Perm region in search of furs and animal hides. The Novgorodians called these lands
Zavolochye ("beyond the portage"), from the Russian word
volok ("
portage"), and the Komi were referred to as "the
Chud beyond the portage". The Novgorodians penetrated deep into these lands, and the methods used were typical of those used by later Russians in subsequent campaigns. and on December 5, 1936, it was reorganized into the
Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with its administrative center located at the town of
Syktyvkar. Many of the "settlers" who arrived in the early 20th century were prisoners of the
Gulag – sent by the hundreds of thousands to perform forced labor in the Arctic regions of the USSR. Towns sprang up around labor-camp sites, which gangs of prisoners initially carved out of the untouched
tundra and
taiga. The first mine, "Rudnik No. 1", became the city of
Vorkuta, and other towns of the region have similar origins: "Prisoners planned and built all of the republic's major cities, not just Ukhta but also Syktyvkar, Pechora, Vorkuta, and Inta. Prisoners built Komi's railways and roads, as well as its original industrial infrastructure." On 21 March 1996, the Komi Republic signed a power-sharing agreement with the government of Russia, granting it autonomy. The agreement was abolished on 20 May 2002. ==Geography==