From the early years of its history, Arkhangelsk has been an important sea port and centre of trade, and also a starting point for numerous expeditions to explore the north - the Barents and White Seas, Arctic Ocean, Novaya Zemlya, Spitzbergen, France-Joseph Land and the North Pole.
During the Second World War, Arkhangelsk was a destination of convoys that delivered lend-lease goods and equipment from the USA and Great Britain to the Soviet Union.
Nowadays, the city's population is more than 360 thousand people. Arkhangelsk is the capital of the Arkhangelsk Region, with vast taiga and deserted tundra, villages of Pomor people and Nenets reindeer herders. The most famous place in the Arkhangelsk region is surely Solovetsky Islands, located in the White Sea not far from Karelian shore.
