Arkhangelsk Dutch that sailed to the White Sea area. In 1584 Ivan ordered the founding of New Kholmogory (which would later be renamed after the nearby Archangel Michael Monastery). At the time access to the Baltic Sea was still mostly controlled by Sweden, so while Arkhangelsk was icebound in winter, it remained Moscow's almost sole link to the sea-trade. Local inhabitants, called Pomors, were the first to explore trade routes to Northern Siberia as far as the trans-Urals city of Mangazeya and beyond. In December 1613, during the Time of Troubles, Arkhangelsk was besieged by Polish-Lithuanian marauders commanded by Stanislaw Jasinski
Onega River mid-April - May. It was used for timber rafting. The Onega flows among the coniferous forests (taiga of spruce, pine, and larch), mostly among the swamps. There are only four bridges across the Onega: one in Kargopol on the road connecting Kargopol to Nyandoma, one in the village of Sorokinskaya, on "Onezhsky Trakt", the road connecting Kargopol to Plesetsk and Yemetsk, one combined road and railway bridge connecting Oksovsky and Severoonezhsk, and one railway bridge in Porog on the railway from Arkhangelsk to Belomorsk (no road traffic). Elsewhere, including the former district center of Konyovo, the Onega can only be