Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (), also known in English as Archangel and Archangelsk, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the north of European Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river and numerous islands of its delta. Arkhangelsk was the chief seaport of medieval and early modern Russia until 1703. A railway runs from Arkhangelsk to Moscow via Vologda and Yaroslavl, and air travel is served by the Talagi Airport and a smaller Vaskovo Airport. As
Port of Murmansk Arkhangelsk and St. Petersburg (later renamed Petrograd). However, after the blocking of the Ottoman Empire's straits of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to outside shipping and blockading of the Baltic Sea port of St. Petersburg, the Russian Empire could only use the northern port of Arkhangelsk. This port had limitations: when winter presented itself, navigation and shipping of any sort came to a halt. Therefore, it was decided to build a new port. The chosen location was in Murmansk due to its ability to accommodate sea traffic year-round, proximity to existing communities and relative ease to connect it to the empire's