TravelTips24 : Europe : Russia : Northwestern Russia : Arkhangelsk Oblast

Arkhangelsk Oblast

Arkhangelsk Oblast is a region in Northwestern Russia, which borders Karelia to the west, the White Sea to the north, Nenetsia to the northeast, Komi Republic to the east, Kirov Oblast to the southeast, and Vologda Oblast to the south.

Regions

Cities

  • Arkhangelsk — the capital, chief sea port of medieval Russia, which houses Europe's largest museum of wooden architecture (Malye Korely) and is a great place to see ships on the White Sea
  • Kargopol — a 1000 year old historic town near Kenozersky National Park, notorious for sasquatch/bigfoot sightings
  • Kholmogory — a historic town, whose sights were demolished by the Soviets save the beautiful Antonievo-Siysky Monastery outside the town in the woods
  • Kotlas — an important rail junction in the region's southeast; served as a major gulag destination and transit point during the USSR—entire Polish villages were relocated here to do forced labor
  • Mirny — a large closed town, home to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and near major nuclear ballistic missle launch platforms
  • Onega — a small, old port and a base for tours heading out to Kiy Island
  • Severodvinsk — the center of the Russian Northern Fleet and a principal submarine base and construction site
  • Solvychegodsk — a historic town on the Vychegda River with an impressive Blagoveshchensky Cathedral and Vvedensky Monastery

Other destinations

  • Franz Josef Land — east of Svalbard, an icy archipelago only ~1,000 km from the North Pole, which served as a base for early North Pole expeditions and later for Soviet military purposes
  • Kenozersky National Park
  • Kiy Island — an uninhabited island in the White Sea that is a popular tourist destination for its disbanded Kiysky Monastery
  • Solovetsky Islands — home to a hauntingly beautiful monastery which has served as a Russian fortress in numerous wars for the past 500 years as well as one of the first Soviet gulags; a UNESCO World Heritage Site
  • Vodlozero National Park

Culture and History

Arkhangelsk Oblast is a big region (about the same size as Ukraine) in the Russian north. It is most famous for its capital, Arkhangelsk, and its fleet of Russian icebreaker ships, and for the Solovetsky Islands, where a beautiful northern monastery/citadel served as a brutal gulag during the Soviet years.

Talk

See Russian phrasebook.

Travel to Arkhangelsk Oblast & Visa Requirements

Flights arrive at Arkhangelsk from Moscow, Naryan-Mar, Murmansk, and Saint Petersburg.

The overnight train ride from Saint Petersburg takes a full 25 hours.

Tours & Getting around Arkhangelsk Oblast

Arkhangelsk Oblast attractions and sightseeing

Itineraries

Arkhangelsk Oblast city tours

Arkhangelsk Oblast Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

Arkhangelsk Oblast nightlife, bars, clubs & pubs

Stay safe

Get out

Travelers heading to Komi Republic by rail will need to pass through Kotlas. In the late summer, it may be possible to get on a boat heading east along the north coast of Russia towards Nenetsia and Yamalia.

Destinations in Arkhangelsk Oblast:

Arkhangelsk / Kargopol / Kotlas / Severodvinsk /

This page was last edited at 04:12, on 29 July 2008 by Peter Fitzgerald. Based on work by Sergey Kudryavtsev and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.

Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license