The Golden Ring of Russia unites old Russian cities of five Oblasts – usually excluding Moscow – as a well-known theme-route. The grouping is centred northeast of the capital in what was the north-eastern part of ancient Rus'. The ring formerly comprised the region known as Zalesye. The idea of the route and the term was created in 1967 by Soviet historian and essayist Yuri Bychkov, who published in Sovetskaya Kultura in November–December 1967 a series of essays on the cities under the heading: "Golden Ring". Bychkov was one of the founders of ВООПИК: the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments of History and Culture.

The Russian route M8 "Kholmogory" or Yaroslavl highway, is a major trunk road that links Moscow to the Russian North in general and the sea harbour of Arkhangelsk in particular. The road runs north of Moscow across a distance of 1271 kilometres through Mytishchi, Pushkino, Sergiyev Posad, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov the Great, Yaroslavl, Danilov, Gryazovets, Vologda, Kadnikov, Velsk, Kholmogory, and Arkhangelsk, ending up in the city of Severodvinsk. It passes Moscow, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Vologda, and Arkhangelsk Oblasts.