Underwater World With Natalia Avseenko, The White Sea, Russia

The British ships were soon followed by Dutch, and the port of Kholmogory became busy with shipments of fur and fish. Local and foreign shops and factories were established in the city at that time. The port was reinforced with a fortress which sustained a siege by the Polish-Lithuanian army in 1613. Increasing traffic was overloading the port, which was standing on shallow river waters and had a limited ship capacity. However, instead of expanding the old port, a new one, called New Kholmogory, was founded on the sea shores in 1584 and later became the city of Arkhangelsk.
Between the 15th and early 18th centuries, the White Sea provided the major trade route to Russia. This role decreased later with the foundation of Saint Petersburg, which opened a more favorable connection via the Baltic Sea. From the 1920s, most Russian sea shipments were diverted from the White Sea to the new port of Murmansk, where the waters did not freeze in winter.