A vast territory of the Arkhangelsk Province extends from the White and Barents Seas in the north to its boundary with Vologda Province to the south. 
Settlers, hunters, and traders moved primarily over a network of rivers and lakes. Forests, rivers, lakes, and the White Sea itself promised considerable rewards to those capable of mastering the area; and yet the remoteness of the north, the relative paucity of arable land-usually limited to certain river plains-and the length of the harsh winters discouraged population growth. Those who succeeded in settling the area during the tenth through the thirteenth centuries proved to be sturdy, self-reliant framers and craftspeople, a mixture of Slavs and Finns tribes.
By the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century, the Northern Dvina river system had become Russia's major route east to the Urals and west to England. Although the significance of this network declined after the founding of St. Petersburg in 1703, the north again functioned as a critical artery during the Second World War and the submarine race of the cold war.
The building of the Konosha- Kotlas-Vorkuta railroad began in 1939 and its length is about 1600km. The rail line was completed in only three years, but at a terrible cost. At the Konosha junction, the track merges with the mainline north to the city of Arkhangelsk. In spite of its size and population, Konosha can be found on any political map because of its importance as a rail junction. Konosha acts as a rail gate to the North.

Konosha, a town with a population about 20000, is more than 100 years old and located in the Arkhangelsk Province. It is more far to the north than the city of Churchill in Manitoba. I was born in Konosha, went to school and moved to another city for university after a school graduation. My childhood was great. Summer was short and not hot at all, but we had had a chance to swim. There is a pretty big lake very close to the town. Summer days there are longer than in other parts of the country. Our forest is rich with abundance of berries and mushrooms, which we used to pick. Three months of summer vacations were the best time for our family and in winter we all enjoyed cross-country skiing.

Most of the visitors like my kids come there only in summer to visit grandparents and to spend three adventurous months close to nature. There is a lot of space and a lot of freedom. Kids can spend all days outside and go home only to eat and to sleep. They often stood outside until 11p.m. because the sun is still high and no one has gone to sleep yet.

Russia has more forests than any other country on the planet. Forests in this region are called "taiga" and they are dotted with marshes. Most of these forests are conifers: spruce and pine, with birch as the major hardwood species. I like our forest. There are lots of mosquitoes in the summer, but the forest is beautiful in early fall and in spring there are many flowers. Almost every year there are large crops of all northern berries: bilberry (blueberry), loganberry, bog bilberry, cranberry and cloudberry.