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
Arkhangelsk Oblast and the selo of Leshukonskoye, and there are still no roads into the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, on the left bank of the Onega downstream from Severoonezhsk, and very few roads on the right bank of the Northern Dvina. Many rivers can only be crossed by ferry boats, which means they cannot be crossed during the ice melting period. There is regular bus service on the main roads. The principal railway line in the oblast is the railroad connecting Moscow and Arkhangelsk. The piece between Vologda and Arkhangelsk was constructed in 1890s and passed through previously uninhabited areas between the valleys