Kandalaksha (Karel. Kandalakši, Kannanlakši, Kandalahti, Fin. Kantalahti, Koltta-Saami. Käddluhtt, old icelandic Handvik) is a city (since 1938) in the southwest of the Murmansk region of Russia. It is the administrative center of the Kandalaksha district and the urban settlement of Kandalaksha. Population - 31 329 people. (2018). The city is located beyond the Arctic Circle, at the base of the Kola Peninsula, deep in the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea. The port, the station on the railway line Petrozavodsk-Murmansk, an industrial center for the production of aluminum.
Culture, Tourism
Museums
Museum of the history of the city
of Kandalaksha. The following expositions work in the museum on a
permanent basis: "Crafts and life of Pomors", "Fighting in the
Kandalaksha direction during the Great Patriotic War".
Museum of
Nature of the Kandalaksha Reserve.
Cultural heritage sites
Stone labyrinth, 1500 BC e. (object of cultural heritage of federal
significance)
Late Neolithic site, 2nd millennium BC e. (object
of cultural heritage of federal significance)
A settlement dating
back to the end of the Neolithic era, II millennium BC. e. (object
of cultural heritage of federal significance)
Obelisk to the
fallen railway workers during the Great Patriotic War (an object of
cultural heritage of regional significance)
Monument to the
victims of the intervention of 1918-1920 (object of cultural
heritage of regional significance)
Monument to the Hero of the
Soviet Union A. Spekov (object of cultural heritage of regional
significance)
Embankments, squares
Friendship Alley is
located in the central part of the city on the street 50 years of
October. The official opening took place on December 17, 2017. On
the alley are installed: a sculpture of a harp seal Grigory, a
wooden sculpture "Communication" - a gift from the Finnish sister
city Kemijärvi for the 500th anniversary of Kandalaksha; a sculpture
created in honor of the achievements of the 50th anniversary of
October, author's forged benches, a tourist sign with distances to
cities. The implementation of the Friendship Alley project became
possible thanks to the regional program to support local initiatives
in 2017-2018.
The river embankment is located on the banks of the
Niva River in the area of the suspension bridge and the former
Spolokhi hotel. The embankment construction project was completed in
2021.
The sea embankment "City by the White Sea" was officially
opened on National Unity Day on November 4, 2022. In 2020, the
project became the winner of the All-Russian competition for the
best projects for creating a comfortable urban environment as part
of the national project "Housing and Urban Environment".
Square
near the city fountain. It was reconstructed in 2022 as part of a
program to create a comfortable urban environment.
The square
near the Metallurg Palace of Culture is located in the Niva-3
microdistrict. In the center of the square there is a monument to
Lenin with a seating area and benches. Over the past few years, many
new original art objects have appeared here: a photo frame, a
piano-themed bench, and a sculpture of a rock guitarist.
Movies
Observer (1987)
Twice Born (1983)
Cuckoo (2002)
Petya on the road to the Kingdom of Heaven (2009)
Female (2010)
Freedom of Solitude (2010) - Documentary
Split (TV series 2011)
Kandalaksha is the southernmost of all cities in the region. The city
is located on the coast of the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea, at the
mouth of the Niva River, 200 km south of Murmansk, surrounded by the
territory of the Zasheikovsky forestry.
The nearest settlements
are White Sea (10 km), Luvenga (14 km), Nivsky (16 km) and Kolvitsa (28
km). The city includes four microdistricts: Central, Zheleznodorozhny,
Niva-3 and Lesozavod.
In the vicinity of Kandalaksha there is the
Kandalaksha Nature Reserve (a place for the protection of nesting
colonies of seabirds on the islands of the White and Barents Seas).
It is included in the list of settlements in the Murmansk region
subject to the threat of forest fires.
In 1478, the Kola North, as part of the former Novgorod Republic,
became part of the Muscovite state. Kandalaksha, like other Russian
volosts of the Kola Peninsula, located on the Tersky coast and in the
west of the peninsula, was under the control of the governor of the
Dvina land, who sent the Dvinians here, who farmed the collection of
taxes from the Pomeranian population (“the tenth fish”) from the state
and carried out legal proceedings according to petty offences. For the
first time Kandalaksha is mentioned in documents dated 1517.
In
1526, on the right-bank side of the settlement, the Church of the
Nativity of John the Baptist was built, in which the first Sami, who
lived near Kandalaksha, converted to Christianity. Later, in 1548, the
Kandalaksha (Kokuev) monastery was founded at the church. In 1554, Tsar
Ivan the Terrible gave the monastery a charter for the surrounding land.
The payoffs gave the Dvinians great opportunities for abuse. In
1568, Kandalaksha and several other villages of the Kola Peninsula
suffered from a pogrom ("Basargin pravozh") of Pomorye by Basarga
Leontiev's oprichnina troops, provoked by Dvina tax-farmers.
In
1570, during these infamous events, the monastery ceased to exist. “And
those varnits and places of the courtyards of Poryegubsky were deserted
from the summer of 7078, from a dashing epidemic (epidemic) and from
hunger and from Basargin, I got right.”
On the night of May
23-24, 1589, the Swedish troops practically destroyed the village. The
monastery and peasant households were looted and burned. The survivors
rebuilt the monastery, but already in 1591, Swedish and Finnish troops
again invaded the Pomeranian lands. On May 23, 1598, they attacked
Kandalaksha and plundered the monastery.
1742 - Kandalaksha
Monastery was abolished.
Since 1785 - as part of the Kandalaksha
volost of the Kemsky district of the Olonets viceroy.
Since 1796 - as
part of the Arkhangelsk province.
1855 June 6 - during the Crimean
War, the British attacked Kandalaksha. The inhabitants repelled the
enemy attack.
1915 - construction of a pier in Kandalaksha began
November 3, 1916 - the Karelian part of the road was connected to the
Kandalaksha part of the Murmansk railway.
Years of the USSR
1920 - Kandalaksha is included in the Karelian labor commune.
1927 -
Kandalaksha district was formed as part of the Autonomous Karelian SSR
with a center in the village of Kandalaksha.
1930 - the beginning of
construction of the Niva HPP-2 - the first hydroelectric power station
on the Kola Peninsula.
1931, February 10 - the first issue of the
newspaper "Kandalaksha Communist" was published
1931 - the beginning
of the construction of a mechanical plant
June 30, 1934 - Niva-HPP
gave industrial current.
November 7, 1935 - the first stage of
electrification of the Kandalaksha-Apatity railway section was put into
operation.
1935 - Kandalaksha electric locomotive depot was formed; a
test run of the first electric locomotive was carried out by the
engineer of the Murmansk depot G. G. Ionas.
1936 - Kandalaksha wagon
depot was created.
April 20, 1938 - the working settlement of
Kandalaksha was transformed into a city.
May 28, 1938 - Kandalaksha
and the region were withdrawn from the Karelian Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic and became part of the Murmansk region.
1938 - the
first permanent berth in the port was put into operation.
1939, June
2 - the beginning of the construction of the Kandalaksha aluminum plant.
1941, July - in connection with the beginning of the Great Patriotic
War, a fighter battalion under the command of Captain Kryachko and a
regiment of the people's militia under the command of I. M. Uverov were
created in Kandalaksha
1942-1944 - residents of the Kandalaksha
region, together with units of the Red Army, stopped and defeated the
Nazi invaders in the Kandalaksha direction during the Great Patriotic
War.
1948 August - the construction and installation department
"Kandalakshstroy" was formed.
1950 - Niva HPP-3 reached its full
capacity.
January 28, 1951 - the first aluminum was obtained at the
Kandalaksha aluminum plant.
1952, December - Niva HPP-1 gave
industrial current.
1953 - the cascade of the Nivsky HPPs was
created.
November 12, 1956 - the Kandalakshtransstroy trust was
founded.
1971, June 6 - the museum of the history of the city was
opened.
1971 - The coat of arms of the city was approved by the
Kandalaksha City Council.
1974 — the Kandalaksha Heating Networks
centralized heating company was founded.
1984 - for the exploits of
the inhabitants of the city, the workers of the railway and the port
during the Great Patriotic War, the city of Kandalaksha was awarded the
Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.
Russia
In 2008, a
new coat of arms of the city and the flag of the city were approved.
By train
It is the city of Murmansk, with several connections
each day in both directions. There are no train connections to
Arkhangelsk. There are carriages coming all the way from Brest,
Minsk and Pskov. However, it was prepared that most long distance
trains arrive in the middle of the night. It is also a city of
Kovdor. 1 Kandalaksha railway station is located on Murmanskaya
ulitsa 1, a few blocks north of the city center.
By car
From Murmansk, St. Petersburg or Petrozavodsk on the federal highway
M18 "Kola".
From Finland through the Alakurtti or Salla road
crossings.
Kandalaksha is located significantly south of Murmansk, however, due
to being far from the Barents Sea, its climate is more continental, and
is transitional from temperate to subarctic. Summer is very short, cool;
winter is colder than in Murmansk, but less snowy, but still protracted.
Spring comes only towards the end of April, winter begins from the end
of October. The minimum temperature -43.5 ° C - was recorded in
Kandalaksha on January 8, 1985, the maximum temperature - +32 ° C - on
August 1, 2018.
The average annual air temperature is 0.4 °C
Relative humidity - 80%
Average wind speed - 2.6 m/s
Industry
Industry is the most stable sector of the Kandalaksha
economy. Key enterprises:
Kandalaksha aluminum smelter (branch of
Rusal Ural JSC). Produces aluminum - products for the needs of the
electrical industry. The plant's capacity is up to 76 thousand tons of
aluminum per year.
Niva HPP-3 of the Kolsky branch of PJSC TGC-1.
Kandalaksha sea trade port.
Structural divisions of Russian Railways
(including the railway station and locomotive depot). A major role in
the city's economy is played by the railway transport hub - a large
railway artery connecting the leading mining and metallurgical plants of
the Murmansk region with the central regions of Russia.
Since 1936,
the Kandalaksha experimental machine-building plant has been operating
in the city. The enterprise was one of the largest Russian manufacturers
and suppliers of spare parts for industrial diesel units, locomotive and
marine diesel engines. In 2019, the company was declared bankrupt.
Trade
There are more than 250 trading enterprises in the city,
including many food and non-food stores of federal and regional retail
chains, such as Pyaterochka, Magnit, Magnit Cosmetic, Outskirts, DNS,
Eldorado, Fix Price", "585", "Sports Market", "Rainbow Smile".