The history of the Krasnobakovsky District and its existence on the map of the Nizhny Novgorod Region is closely linked to the history of the district center, the first mention of which in written sources dates back to 1617.

In 1720, by the decree of Peter the Great, 350 thousand desyatinas of larch forests were designated in the Vetluzhsky region, called "Forbidden State Shipyards." At the site where the "Lesnoy Kurort" recreation center and the villages of Karasi and Semyonovka are now located, there was the so-called "Bakovo Shipyard." The Church of Elijah the Prophet, built in 1773 in the village of Ilyinsk, was considered a monument of wooden architecture, but only the bell tower has survived to this day. In the villages of Medvedikha and Skvozniki, the churches have remained to this day.