The story of my unexpected trip to Arkhangelsk is a wild one. Hearing about a conference one day, applying to it the other, and hearing back from them that I am in a few weeks later was what got me there. That was it, pure luck. With my ticket at hand and my backpack on my, well, back, I flew north after a quick stopover at Moscow. Boy oh boy, was I in for a treat and possibly the trip of a lifetime? The next three articles will be dedicated to this short but extremely memorable trip I made to the end of the Northern hemisphere during the last week of 2023’s April. Join me, as I share some of the highlights of Arkhangelsk proper just below!
I knew that this short “business” trip was off to a good when the unthinkable happened and I saw the Northern Lights for the first time in my life, on a random Sunday night, at the end of what seemed like an extremely long April, in a city I hardly had any plans to go before… Seeing them in April in itself is a big “success story” but seeing them as you are leaving a British pub in one of the most northernmost Russian cities is something else. Already being filled up by some decent beer at incredible prices, seeing these with my own eyes was, well, not expected but much welcome. To be fair, just as I had heard before, they do not look “that” impressive to one’s own eyes and look much better on a screen that is recording them. Nevertheless, I did do it, I saw it, and that is that. One more item off the bucket list!
Arkhangelsk is, to put it simply, quite up north. It is so far away from anything else that it takes a full day by train to get there from both Moscow and St. Petersburg. There is hardly anything of value on the way as well, as much as I could tell from the tiny window of the plane I took there. So why is it there? Well, it is a natural port of course! Before Russians could secure some decent sea access to the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and later on the Pacific Ocean, this access to the Northern Sea provided one of the most important routes of trade for the authorities in Moscow. The port itself never really lost its importance even with the introduction of many others in warmer waters. It provided a safer harbour for Allied land lease convoys during the WWII, and these days it is becoming clear that it will be one of the more important stops along the new trade route that is becoming a reality along the coasts of the Arctic Ocean, “thanks” to the global climate change.
A port city may make one think of golden sandy beaches and a ton of seaside activities but being situated so close to Northern pole, things are, obviously, a bit different for the denizens of Arkhangelsk. Here the top activities include watching the ice break apart even in May, and some said June, yes, June… You can see some occasional seals though I was not luck enough for that at the time. It was quite fun to watch icebreakers come in and out of the harbour, and how can I forget the ever so beautiful sunbeams catching your eye after being reflected on ice? To those that are not familiar with me and my work, these lines may read like an insult, but the truth could not be more different than that! For me, spending that one week in Arkhangelsk was like being teleported to a whole new dimension. Every single second was unique, unexpected, and weird, in the best way possible. I would not trade that for the hottest, sandiest, and most pristine beaches in the world.
Enough about the port, and the sea, and the ice, and what not. One of the quirkier and for me the best part of Arkhangelsk was the fact that it really kept its Soviet heritage intact, to a considerable degree at least. You could see the hammer and sickle adorning the walls and entrances of most buildings in the central part of the town. Some Soviet architecture, especially in the dead centre truly makes it a dreamscape for us brutalism lovers. And Lenin, oh Lenin… His statues could be seen anywhere. Anything from big sculptures to barely visible reliefs on the side of some nondescript buildings. He was literally everywhere, and I alone could see at least ten representations of him in the city centre, which in itself is quite a small area.
The Soviet heritage, obviously, does not stop there. The city is also home to a plethora of Soviet-era monuments and memorials, they too can be seen in almost every street corner. Once again, they are almost all in the old city center. I keep saying that because to be fair, though the city apparently boasts almost 350.000 people, it does not feel like that when you stay and explore in its old city centre. It almost feels like a ghost town, at least at the end of April. The more you move away from the centre, the more Soviet housing projects you see, but that does not mean that there are more “Soviet wonders” to explore that way. You more or less have to stick to the centre to make the most out of your stay here. With that being said, the roads that lead in and out of the city are home to a plethora of decaying and thus extremely depressing Soviet era factories, likely a ton of canneries, so those in themselves are worth a taxi ride in my book. I am not entirely sure if they can be visited legally though…
With temperatures reaching below freezing even at the end of April, Lenin statues adorning its every street corner, Soviet architecture clashing with the few remaining Tsarist era “villas,” and people that have hardly seen a ton of tourists in their lives, Arkhangelsk is an excellent and extremely unique weekend getaway for those with the money to burn during their stays in some other, much bigger, and well-connected Russian cities. Sure, it is not a must see for most, that is a given. But it is not a place anyone could regret visiting if you go in at the right time and look for the right things.