ARKHANGELSK

oblast (province), Russia, along the northern coast of European Russia, from the Gulf of Onega to the Yugorsky Peninsula. Centred in Arkhangelsk city, it encompasses the Nenets autonomous okrug (district) in the east and a number of islands, including the Solovets, Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land archipelagoes. The low morainic hills and broad valleys are covered by tundra in the north and dense taiga (swampy forests) of spruce, pine, and birch in the south. Timber working dominates the economy. There is some fishing on the coasts and rivers and reindeer herding among the Nenets people. Area 226,800 square miles (587,400 square km). Pop. (1991 est.) 1,577,200. English Archangel city and administrative centre of Arkhangelsk oblast (province), Russia, on the Northern Dvina River, 30 miles (50 km) from the White Sea. With its suburbs, Solombala and Ekonomiya, the city extends for 10 miles along the river. Founded in 1584 as the fortified monastery of the archangel Michael, it was the first port of the Russian Empire to conduct trade with England and later with other countries. The port reached the height of its prosperity in the 17th century but subsequently declined with the founding of St. Petersburg (1703) and the exorbitant customs dues introduced by Peter I the Great to divert trade to his new town. Arkhangelsk later revived with the building of a railway from Moscow in 1898. It is now the largest timber-exporting port of Russia. It has large-scale timber-processing industries, including sawmilling and pulp making and papermaking. Shipbuilding and repair are important. Arkhangelsk is the base for a fishing fleet and the western terminus of the Northern Sea Route. There are institutes of epidemiology and of forestry and a teachers college. Pop. (1991 est.) 428,200.