He accompanied Peter to the White Sea (1694-1695); took part in the Azov campaign (1695); and was one of the triumvirate who ruled Russia during Peter's first foreign tour (1697-1698).
Even the White Sea is merely a gulf of that ocean.
The White Sea has also been brought into connexion with the central Volga basin while the sister-river of the Volga - the Kama - became the main artery of communication with Siberia.
Dvina flows with a very slight gradient through a broad valley, and reaches the White Sea at Archangel.
The rivers freeze rapidly; towards November 10th all the streams of the White Sea basin are ice-bound, and so remain for an average of 167 days; those of the Baltic, Black Sea and Caspian basins freeze later, but about December the 10th nearly all the rivers of the country are highways for sledges.
