Pre-20th century Vikings explored the territories around the North Dvina River - part of
Bjarmaland - at the start of the second millennium. British and Norman ships came to these places for mining, fur and fishing before the 13th century, but later the climate became colder and access to the northern seas became closed. The historical records first mention the settlement on the site of modern Severodvinsk in 1419, when the Swedes sailed into the bay and burnt down the
Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery that stood by the shore during the
Swedish–Novgorodian Wars. Tradition has it that
Saint Euphemius, an
Orthodox missionary in
Karelia, founded this monastery. The abbey stood in ruins until 1471, when two sons of
Marfa Boretskaya died in a vicious storm; their bodies were recovered on the beach near the monastery twelve days later. At the urging of Boretskaya, the monastery was restored and her sons were buried there. On August 24, 1553, a ship of
Richard Chancellor reached the salt-mining settlement of
Nyonoksa, which is still famous for its traditional wooden architecture. The British sailors visited the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery, where they were surprised to find a community of "sailors in
soutanes (cassocks)" and a pier large enough to accommodate several ships. The main church of this extraordinary establishment was dedicated to
Saint Nicholas, the holy
patron of sailors; hence, the whole
White Sea became known in 16th-century English maps as "St. Nicholas Bay". In late 1613, during the
Time of Troubles in Russia, Polish-Lithuanian vagabonds, the
Lisowczycy, captured and looted Severodvinsk with the monastery. The Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery flourished after the establishment of the
Muscovy Company, as the bulk of their trade passed through the local harbor. In August 1618 the harbour was visited by
John Tradescant the elder, who conducted a survey of an island situated opposite the monastery. This island became known to the British as "Rose Island", because it was there that Tradescant found an exceedingly rare plant which he named "
Rosa moscovita" (which is now known as
Rosa acicularis) and brought back to
London. The surviving buildings of the monastery were constructed at the close of the
Muscovite period. The five-domed cathedral of St. Nicholas was built between 1670 and 1674, preceded by the Assumption church (1664–1667), to which it is joined by a gallery. Several decades later, the walls and towers were built of timber; the Soviets transported the best-preserved of these towers to
Kolomenskoye,
Moscow, where it still remains.
Modern city Severodvinsk is the second-largest city in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its main industry remains defense-related — the construction and repair of
submarines at the huge Northern Machine-building Enterprise
SEVMASH (Северное Машиностроительное Предприятие-СЕВМАШ). The Soviet Union's first
nuclear submarine Leninsky Komsomol was built here in 1957. At the beginning of the 1980s, the world's largest submarine, a
Typhoon class, was also built here, later recorded in the
Guinness Book of World Records. The modern city of Severodvinsk developed in the Soviet period. As it began to be built it was called
Sudostroy ( - "Boat-build"). During
World War II, a significant portion of the materials delivered by the
Arctic Convoys to
Murmansk and
Arkhangelsk for the Soviet Union were unloaded in Severodvinsk. For example, the
Empire Elgar, a British
heavy lift ship that arrived in Arkhangelsk with convoy
PQ 16 and subsequently spent eight weeks unloading ships from the ill-fated
convoy PQ 17. A Russian naval-base supports the sea trials of nuclear submarines from the major submarine construction- (64.5817 N, 39.8307 E) and repair-facilities located in the area. In Soviet times, the 17th-century buildings of the Nikolo-Korelsky monastery, located on the territory of the shipyard, were adapted and used for shipbuilding purposes. In recent years, the monastery buildings, specifically the main church, have been restored and re-consecrated. Church-goers attending services have to be shipyard workers or able to obtain a pass to enter the church portion of the shipyard. Severodvinsk is an access-restricted town for foreign citizens. A special pass is required. ==Administrative and municipal status==