Arkhangelsk Oblast.

History

Finno-Ugric peoples lived here from prehistoric times before settlers from Novgorod arrived. Their descendants, the Pomors, lived by fishing and hunting sea mammals, sailed northern seas in boats called koches, and from the mid-18th century traded with northern Norway. Arkhangelsk was founded in 1584 as Novo-Kholmogory and remained the country's main seaport until Saint Petersburg appeared in 1703. Mikhail Lomonosov, son of a Pomor shipowner and later a founder of Moscow University, was born near Kholmogory in 1711.

Culture & traditions

More than 600 timber and stone buildings in the oblast are protected at federal level. The Solovetsky Monastery, founded by two monks in the second quarter of the 15th century, has been on the UNESCO list since 1992, while the islands also carry the memory of the first Soviet prison camp, which operated from 1921 to 1939. The Malye Korely open-air museum, 25 km from Arkhangelsk, gathers buildings from Kargopol, the Dvina, Mezen and Pinega, including St Nicholas Church of 1581–1584. In Kenozero National Park, chapels keep their painted ceilings known as 'heavens'.

Nature

The oblast faces the White Sea, and its main river is the Northern Dvina, with Arkhangelsk at its mouth. The Solovetsky Islands are a world of granite, spruce and pine forests and chains of lakes linked by monks, and Bolshoy Zayatsky Island holds ancient stone labyrinths. Kenozero National Park has been a biosphere reserve since 2004 and a World Heritage cultural landscape since 2024. Since 2009 the Russian Arctic National Park has protected Franz Josef Land and northern Novaya Zemlya, home to polar bears, walruses, bowhead whales and huge bird colonies.

Sport

Arkhangelsk is famous for bandy. The local club Vodnik has been Russian champion nine times, a source of real pride for the northern city. The long winter from November to March suits this outdoor ice sport well.

Food & drink

Pomor cooking grew out of life at sea: for centuries the Pomors fished and hunted sea mammals. They traded fish and grain with the Norwegians, and the trade was lively enough to produce a Russian-Norwegian pidgin, Russenorsk.

Practical information

Flights to Arkhangelsk land at Talagi Airport. The Northern Railway runs to Moscow via Vologda and Yaroslavl, about 1,133 km, and the M8 highway connects the city by road. The region is on Moscow time. The climate is subarctic, with long cold winters from November to March and short, mildly warm summers from June to August. Summer is the best time to go, when Solovki, Kenozero and Malye Korely are easiest to visit.

What to see

• Solovetsky Monastery — a monastery fortified in stone in the 16th century, with an island history protected by UNESCO
• Stone labyrinths of Bolshoy Zayatsky Island — among the best preserved in northern Europe
• Malye Korely — wooden churches and houses of the Russian North in an open-air museum
• Kenozero National Park — chapels with painted 'heavens' among lakes and villages
• Arkhangelsk — an old port city stretching 40 km along the Northern Dvina
• Lomonosovo — Mikhail Lomonosov's home village on an island in the Northern Dvina

Cities on the map

• Arkhangelsk 301,199