"This monograph is the first attempt to study consistently the events that took place in the White Sea region during the reign of Peter the Great and to determine their importance for the destiny of our country. Arkhangelsk was the only port in Russia through which the goods of vital importance (first of all for military purposes) were imported from Western Europe and Russia's own products were exported throughout the first and the most strenuous half of the Great Northern War 1700-1721. At the beginning of the 18th century domestic industry provided for the vital needs of the armed forces only to a small extent. Therefore Charles XII justly believed that having captured and destroyed that centre of international trade he would win the war against Russia An expedition of a powerful navy squadron sent to Arkhangelsk by the Swedish King in 1701 was to have been a decisive action, but it failed because of a successful defense by soldiers and the city residents.

This allowed Peter to continue the war operations. Then for two decades the Pomors (i. e. the inhabitants of the White Sea region) --

artisans and workers were building up the defense capacity of the White Sea coast that constantly lived under the threat of new attacks. Gradually the Novodvinsk fortress was erected on the Linsley Priluk island in the Northern Dvina delta, the city of Arkhangelsk and other Northern fortresses were also improved, Solovetsky monastery in the White Sea, Kola, Kem' and Suma among them. These measures ensured the continuous supply of huge consignments of military goods such as artillery guns, small firearms, cold steel and all kinds of kits. Our countrymen en mass left through Arkhangelsk to get educated in Western Europe and came back by the same route. Hundreds and even thousands of foreign military and civil professionals arrived in the country via the Northern port. Without these two processes it was unthinkable to build the new Russia. Diplomatic and other correspondence, financial operations including currency and precious metals imports were carried out via Arkhangelsk.

The simultaneous exports of Russian goods supplemented considerably to the national economy. Apart from all other things the Pomors rendered an incalculable service to the development and improvement of the Russian shipbuilding and navy for it was in the North that the descendants of shipbuilding and marine families lived; the Tsar recruited them for all kinds of work and services throughout the war. On the basis of this research we may conclude that Arkhangelsk and the whole of the White Sea region played the primary, crucial, and perhaps a most decisive role in the course of the Great Northern War and its results, and therefore in Russia's destiny"--P. 677.