Arkhangelsk Oblast eventually spread well beyond the Arkhangelsk Region. The Mezen horses, bred in the Mezen River valley, are rather small but suitable for difficult work and easily survive cold winters. The area of current Arkhangelsk Oblast has always been located on the trading routes connecting central Russia to the White Sea, and, in fact, in the 17th century the White Sea was the main sea export route for Russia. The whole course of the Northern Dvina is navigable, as well as the lower course of some of its tributaries, most notably the Vychegda, the Vaga, and the Pinega. The Mezen is
Arkhangelsk Oblast most of these became unprofitable and have been destroyed. In the 1970s and 1980s the aviation was active, with all district centers connected to Arkhangelsk with regular flights, Kotlas being the second important hub. Currently, it has almost disappeared. There are two airports in Arkhangelsk, but regular local flights are only carried out to the destinations which do not have rail or road connections, such as Novaya Zemlya, Solovetsky Islands, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Onega Peninsula, and the north of the oblast. The exceptions with functioning airports are Mezen, Leshukonskoye, and Onega. The oil transport system, Baltic Pipeline System,