The city of Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk is the first sea port, a Russian gateway to the West. Here the Russian fleet was destined to appear and the Russian state «three-coloured» flag to be hoisted. In 1694 «Cvyatoi Pavel» (‘St.Paul’), the first ship of the Russian trade fleet was launched here.

The town of Velsk

The town of Velsk is one of the most ancient towns of Russian North. First it was mentioned as ‘a settlement on the Vel River’ in 1137. In 1397 it was described as ‘the Velsky country church-yard in the Vazhsky Region’ and belonged to Veliky Novgorod. In 1550 under Ivan the Terrible rule the Velsky ‘posad’ (trading quarters) of the Vazhsky Region belonged to the Moscow State.

The Vilegodsky District is situated in the south-east of the Arkhangelsk region. Its administrative centre is the settlement of Ilyinsko-Podomskoye. In summer of 2004 the settlement celebrated its 625th anniversary. Along the Viled River traditional culture is developing, folklore and ethnographic data are being collected; the Ilyinskaya (Elijah) and Blagoveshchenskaya (Annunciation) Fairs have been held, exhibition of the Viled craftsmen’s produce are usually arranged.

The town of Kargopol

Kargopol is one of the oldest Russian towns and has a written history since 1146. Many centuries-old history of Kargopol is rich with events of different kinds. Here Daniil Zatochnik (Daniel ‘Imprisoned’) and Prince Ivan Shuisky were exiled, here Ivan Bolotnikov, the leader of the peasants’ rising, was beheaded. The Kargopol Land is the native place of F.S.Pradunov, the founder of the first in Russia oil extraction enterprise and of A.A.Baranov, the first governor of the Russian colonies in Alaska.

The settlement of Karpogory and the Pinezhsky District

The District is an original nature reserve of the Arkhangelsk Region attractive for numerous tourists who come here for recreation in natural environment, for scientists, writers, artists interested in traditional folk culture, special language and folklore singing. The Pinega Land gave birth to one of the world’s most prominent righteous men of the 19th - 20th centuries, to St. John of Kronstadt. In the second half of the 20th century a voice of another famous figure, a writer Fyodor Abramov, born in Verkola, was heard through all Russia. The Pinega Land is also a native place of M.D. Krivopolenova, a well-known narrator of folk tales, a woman Russia is proud of.

The settlement of Konosha and the Konosha District

The lands which today belong to the Konosha District used to be inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes. The evidences of it are the non-Slavic names of rivers, vales which have survived to our days – Konosha, Tavrenga, Vokhtoma, etc. Slavs came to settle here only at the end of the 1st millennium A.D.

The town of Kotlas and the Kotlas District

Kotlas was first mentioned in 1379 in connection with the missionary activities of St. Stephen of Perm, an outstanding Christian enlightener, fellow-champion of St. Sergius of Radonezh. For a long time Kotlas used to be in the shadow of other ancient merchant towns, Veliky Ustyug and Solvychegodsk. But it was here that the first trade routes ran from Siberia and from Arkhangelsk.

The town of Mezen

The initial penetration of Russians in to the land can be traced in the 9th century, and in the 13th century the first Slav settlements appeared there. The most ancient of them a large village of Lampozhnya, known as a trading centre on the ‘chrezkamenny’ (mountainous) way to Siberia. At the end of the 15th century there appeared one more village which was destined to become a centre of the Mezen Land – a falcon-breeding point of the Okladnikovs family (later it was called Okladnikova Sloboda , ‘The Okladnikovs’ Village’).

The town of Mirny

Mirny is a town of Regional subordination, a closed territorial area of the Russian federation Ministry of Defense, a base for the 1st State Testing Launch-site, of the 53d State Testing site of the Strategic Missile Forces. Today the launch-site makes 60 % of Russian rocket launches and 40 % of the world rocket launches.

The town of Novodvinsk

It is a smallish town, which was founded in the 1940s as a workers’ settlement of the Arkhangelsk Paper and Pulp Plant to be built... It is situated in the Arkhnagelsk Region, not far from Arkhangelsk itself, on the bank of the River Northern Dvina. Its existence is due to the construction and development of the Arkhangelsk Paper and Pulp Plant.

The settlement of Oktyabrsky and the Ustyansky District

The Ustyansky District covers the area of 10.72 thousand square km. Its administrative centre is the settlement of Oktyabrsky. Other administrative units are 4 workers’ settlements, 229 villages, 4 settlement and 14 village administrations. By 01.01.2000 the District population was 42 thousand people. The main industry there is the timber industry, also there are some building material and food productions, as well as agricultural enterprises.

The town of Onega

The settlement in the mouth of the Onega River is first mentioned in the Regulations of 1137 of the Grand Duke of Novgorod Svyatoslav Olegovich. The 12th -13th century geographic maps of Novgorod show that in the place the town of Onega is there used to be ‘Pogost na more’ (‘a grave-yard near the sea’). The Tsar’s Order of the 19th of August, 1780, by Yekaterina II announced the settlement Ust-Onega to be the town of Onega. In 1784 the town became a district centre of the Arkhangelsk Region.

The city of Severodvinsk

Severodvinsk is a ctiry of regional subordination, the second large city if the Arkhnagelsk Region. It is situated 35 km to the west of Arkhangelsk, in latitude 65° North, on the coast of the White Sea. The city construction started in 1936, simultaneously with the building of the largest ship-building plant in the country. When the Great Patriotic War broke out, in the years of 1941-1945, it was one of the ports which accepted the allied convoys with lend lease cargo supplies.

The settlement of Solovetsky

The settlement of Solovetsky is a contemporary settlement with its own piers, airfield, and infrastructure. But the most important there are the historical monuments. The picturesque curvy coastal line of the Solovki is hard to forget, as well as the huge monoliths along the sea coast, the wide massive forests, the numerous lakes scattered in them. Through many years of hard labour people connected lakes, made roads to different parts of the island, cleared hay fields, constructed dams. Harbours and a dock have been built, fisheries, fish wells have been installed, many crafts and industries have been developed.

The Kholmogorsky District

Since the time of foundation Kholmogory were an important political and economical unit of the Veliky Novgorod serving as a strong point of the Novgorod trading people in the land of Chud Zavolochskaya (local Finno-Ugric tribe). Having an advantageous geographic position in the crossroads of trading routes from Novgorod to the mouth of the Northern Dvina, it grew quickly - trading quarters and churches were built, a wooden fortress with towers on a man-made hill was constructed, the latter secured its name ‘Gorodishche’ ( a place with a fence round it).