Arkhangelsk

/urdd khahn"gyilsk/, n.

Russian name of Archangel.

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or Archangel

City (pop, 1999 est.: 366,200), northwestern Russia.

Located at the head of the Dvina Gulf, it has a large harbour kept open in winter by icebreakers. The area was settled by Norsemen in the 10th century AD. In 1553 it was visited by the English who were looking for the Northeast Passage. Founded in 1584 as a monastery of Michael the archangel, it became a trading station of the Muscovy Co. Opened to European trade by Tsar Boris Godunov, it flourished as the sole Russian seaport until St. Petersburg was built in 1703. It was the scene of British, French, and U.S. support of the northern Russian government against the Bolsheviks in 1918–19. In World War II it received convoys of lend-lease goods from Britain and the U.S. (1941–45). It is a major timber-exporting port and has extensive shipbuilding facilities.

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▪ Russia

English  Archangel 

 city and administrative centre of Arkhangelsk oblast (province), Russia, on the Northern Dvina River, 30 miles (50 km) from the White Sea. With its suburbs, Solombala and Ekonomiya, the city extends for 10 miles along the river. Founded in 1584 as the fortified monastery of the archangel Michael, it was the first port of the Russian Empire to conduct trade with England and later with other countries. The port reached the height of its prosperity in the 17th century but subsequently declined with the founding of St. Petersburg (1703) and the exorbitant customs dues introduced by Peter I the Great to divert trade to his new town. Arkhangelsk later revived with the building of a railway from Moscow in 1898. It is now the largest timber-exporting port of Russia. It has large-scale timber-processing industries, including sawmilling and pulp making and papermaking. Shipbuilding and repair are important. Arkhangelsk is the base for a fishing fleet and the western terminus of the Northern Sea Route. There are institutes of epidemiology and of forestry and a teachers college. Pop. (2006 est.) 349,772.

▪ oblast, Russia

      oblast (province), Russia, along the northern coast of European Russia, from the Gulf of Onega to the Yugorsky Peninsula. Centred in Arkhangelsk city, it encompasses the Nenets autonomous okrug (district) in the east and a number of islands, including the Solovets, Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land archipelagoes. The low morainic hills and broad valleys are covered by tundra in the north and dense taiga (swampy forests) of spruce, pine, and birch in the south. Timber working dominates the economy. There is some fishing on the coasts and rivers and reindeer herding among the Nenets people. Area 158,000 square miles (411,000 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 1,291,370.

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