The Murmansk region is located on the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia. The Murmansk region is a major mining center of the country, as well as the base of the Russian Northern Fleet. Most of the cities on the coast of the Barents Sea are ZATOs and are hardly interesting for tourists. At the same time, the coast of the White Sea attracts lovers of ecological tourism, in particular, fishing for valuable fish species, the Khibiny attract lovers of skiing, and ethnographic tourism is developing in remote places of the region.
Administratively, the region is divided into several districts
(Pechenga, Kolsky, Tersky, Lovozersky, Kandalaksha) and urban districts
(Kovdorsky district, Murmansk, Apatity, Kirovsk, Monchegorsk,
Olenegorsk, Polyarnye Zori and several ZATOs).
From a tourist
point of view, it is more interesting to present the region in terms of
geographical and recreational division:
Kandalaksha and Tersky coasts
Coast of the White Sea in a part of the Kola Peninsula. Historically,
the Pomeranian shores stretched from the Karelian White Sea to Cape
Svyatoy Nos. Shores covered with taiga forest with rivers flowing into
the sea. Commercial fishing for valuable fish species attracts some
tourists. The industrial Kandlalaksha is a transport gateway to visit
the interesting Pomeranian settlements of Umba and Varzuga.
Murmansk coast
Stony, harsh northern coast of the Kola Peninsula from
Cape Svyatoy Nos to the borders with Norway. The shores are cut by deep
bays.
Khibiny and mountain tundra
The central part of the Kola
Peninsula, which consists of mountainous rocky tundra plateaus, among
which there are lakes. The edge of active mining, at the same time,
attracts tourists with its ski infrastructure.
Murmansk
Kandalaksha
Kirovsk
Polyarny
Severomorsk
Sami village (Sam syyt) (Located between the city of
Olenegorsk and the village of Lovozero.). ✉ ☎ +7 (921)
169-62-99; +7 (911) 306-06-75. 1500 rubles per person.
Ethnographic open-air museum.
2Snow Village, Kirovsk
(near the Tirvas dispensary). ✉ ☎ +7-921-510-00-06.
11:00-21:00. 600 rub.
By plane
Murmansk Airport (IATA:MMK) has regular flights
to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk. There are also
international flights to Norway to Kirkenes and Tromsø.
Airlines flying to Murmansk: Aeroflot-Don, Aeroflot-Nord,
STC Rossiya, SkyExpress, Norwegian Widerøe.
By car
On the highway M18 "Kola" from St. Petersburg through Novaya
Ladoga, Syasstroy, Lodeynoye Pole, Petrozavodsk, Loukhi to
the settlements of the region.
From Moscow, take the
M10 Rossiya highway to St. Petersburg, take the M18 bypass,
or exit to Zuevo on Kirishi, then through Staraya Ladoga,
exit to the M18 at Novaya Ladoga.
The main danger is packs of stray dogs. The city of Apatity has dubious fame in the criminal sense. But in general, the Murmansk region is a fairly safe region.
The history of the Murmansk region spans several millennia.
The history of human habitation in the territory of the present-day
Murmansk region spans several millennia. Monuments discovered by
archaeologists confirm the presence of people on the Kola Peninsula as
early as the 8th-7th millennia BC, during the Arctic Paleolithic period
(Komsa culture).
During the Arctic Paleolithic period, the first
migrations of hunter tribes from Scandinavia to the Kola Peninsula
began. In the 4th-2nd millennia BC, people began migrating from the
Volga-Oka interfluve, settling mainly near water bodies in the central
part of the peninsula. The culture of settlements of this period is
attributed to the Pit-Comb Ware culture.
The Ponoy petroglyphs
were created in different periods between 3500-2500 BC and 2500-1500 BC.
The Kanozero petroglyphs date back to the 3rd-2nd millennia BC.
The next wave of migration, presumably from the Northern Urals, occurred
during the Early Metal Age. According to anthropologists and geneticists
who studied the skulls from the Oleniy Ostrov burial ground, about 3,500
years ago a population with a specific Ural anthropological type arrived
from Central Siberia to Bolshoy Oleniy Island, but then it died out and
traces of this migration were not reflected in the gene pool of modern
populations of the Kola Peninsula.
Due to the mixing of people of
the Caucasoid type of the first waves with people of Mongoloid
appearance from the Northern Urals, the Lapponoid type of the Ural race
was formed, spreading throughout the Kola Peninsula and northern
Scandinavia. In Rus', these people were called Lapps (Sami).
The boyars of the Novgorod Republic regularly sent fishing
expeditions to the north for fish, furs, seal fat and other "riches of
the north". Presumably by the 12th century, the expeditions, moving ever
further north, reached the Kola Peninsula.
The Novgorod
Chronicle, dating from 1216, contains the first mention of the death of
Smyun Petrilovitsa tribute-payer, which could be interpreted as evidence
of the presence of Novgorod Rus' power in the north of Kola, if not for
the existence of the so-called Terek Samoyed between the Mezen and
Indiga rivers.
According to Scandinavian sources, local residents
had long paid tribute to both the Norwegians and the northern Karelians,
dependent on Novgorod. The so-called The "Delimitation Charter" is a
later document (or fragment of a document), written in the first half of
the 13th century, which describes a vast (from the present-day Lyngen
commune near Tromsø to the present-day Vyala River near Kandalaksha)
zone in which both Norwegians and Novgorod subjects could impose tribute
on the Sami. Russian historians, following I. P. Shaskolsky, believe
that its compilation was connected with the embassy of Alexander Nevsky.
In the 1250s (according to the old version - in 1251, according to
the new - in 1257) Alexander Nevsky sent an embassy to Norway to Haakon
the Old, and although the contents of the concluded agreement have not
reached us (the Novgorod archive of diplomatic documents of that time
was lost), it is assumed that it concerned, among other things, the
border issue. In addition, in the earliest surviving Novgorod treaty
charter of 1264, the Tre volost appears in the list of Novgorod volosts.
Scandinavian historians associate the document with the
Novgorod-Norwegian peace treaty of 1326, which protected the inhabitants
of the lands of the King of Norway from the raids of Novgorod subjects,
restored the status quo ante bellum in relations between the countries
in general and the "ancient borders" in particular, and established the
procedure for demarcating land along these borders.
According to
the charter of Andrei Alexandrovich, fur tribute on the Terek side was
collected instead of boyar tribute-payers by his princely "vatags", and
Andrei imposed on Novgorod the obligation to "give them food and carts
according to the duty from the pogosts" along the entire route of his
tribute-payers.
In the 15th century, the first permanent
settlements began to appear on the territory of the Kola Peninsula,
mainly on the Terek coast - Korelsky pogost, Umba, Varzuga.
In
1478, the lands of the Kola Peninsula became part of the Moscow
Principality. The administration was carried out by tax collectors
authorized to collect tribute from local residents and conduct legal
proceedings. The Russian settlements that existed at that time - Umba,
Varzuga, Kandalaksha and others were governed by the governor of the
Dvina land. The basis of the region's economy was the extraction of sea
animals, fishing and salt production. Due to the lack of areas suitable
for arable land, only vegetable gardening was developed.
Since
the beginning of the 16th century, Christianity began to spread among
the Lapps. In 1526 and then in 1533, Novgorod Archbishop Macarius sent
priests to the Lapp settlements, baptized the Lapps and consecrated
churches.
Closer to the middle of the 16th century, the Kola
Peninsula became the center of international trade. Trading ships from
England, Denmark, Holland and Scandinavia came for fish and furs. Trade
was concentrated in Kola.
In 1550, the construction of the Kola
prison began.
In 1554, the Church of Boris and Gleb was built on
the Paz River, which became a kind of center of church power in the
north of Kola.
In 1568, the villages of the North-West White Sea
region were subjected to an oprichnina pogrom carried out by the
detachment of Basargi Leontiev. This event went down in history as
"Basargin Pravezh" (pravezh - collection of debts or taxes through
torture).
After the prison was ready in 1583, the management of
the lands moved to Kola, the necessary authorities were created.
The practice of "double-tributing" of the Sami, when tribute was
collected both by the Russians for their benefit and by the Karelians
for Norway, ceased in the early 17th century with the establishment of
the former in the region.
In 1625, about 2,500 people lived on
the Kola Peninsula. The center of the northern lands continued to be the
Kola Fortress. Fishing and salt production, concentrated in the
monasteries of the Kola Peninsula, remained the basis of the region's
economy. The largest suppliers of salt were the Kola-Pechenga and
Kandalaksha monasteries, which received significant financial assistance
from the state. In the mid-17th century, the development of minerals
began on the Kola Peninsula, when the first silver and copper mines were
discovered in the Ponoy region. The decline in salt production occurred
at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. With the
appearance of cheaper Permian salt on the market, Moryanka salt became
very unprofitable.
In 1702, the reconstruction of the Kola
Fortress began.
The transfer of the capital of Russia to the
newly built St. Petersburg noticeably slowed down the development of the
Kola North. In addition, since 1704, the hunting and fishing industries
were transferred to the company of Peter I's favorite Alexander
Menshikov, which reduced the ability of individual fishermen and
trappers to engage in trade independently and forced them to sell their
goods for next to nothing.
In 1704, the reconstruction of the
Kola Fortress was completed. For abuse of power during the
reconstruction, the governor of the Kola Fortress D. I. Unkovsky was
removed.
In 1708, the Kola District became part of the
Arkhangelsk Governorate, formed by decree of Peter I on December 18
(December 29, new style) 1708. Despite this, the local government of the
Kola district continued to play a significant role in the affairs of the
region, which was not least due to the poor communications between the
regions; the only way to get from Arkhangelsk to the Kola Peninsula was
by sea.
The introduction of the customs tariff in 1724 reduced
the level of trade with the north of the country, including through
Kola. The monopoly on sea trades was abolished only in 1765 under
Catherine II. The rise of the economy of the Kola district began with
the creation of the White Sea Fishing Company, although even after it
the Kola Peninsula remained one of the most underdeveloped regions of
the country.
After the Russian border with Norway was drawn in
1826, Norway received part of the territories of the Nyavdemsky and
Pazretsky Pogosts.
The region underwent its first serious test of
fire during the Crimean War. In 1854, an attack was made on Kola by an
English squadron. During the bombardment of the city on the night of
August 10-11, which lasted more than 28 hours, about 110 houses, 2
churches and several stores (warehouses) were burned by enemy fire. In
1855, the British attacked Kandalaksha.
The defeat of Kola led to
a significant reduction in international trade in Murman, despite the
receipt of permission for duty-free trade with Norway. However, despite
everything, the colonization of the Kola North continued, in 1864 the
village of Ura-Guba was founded, in 1870 - the settlements of Teriberka,
Rynda. In the 70s of the 19th century, plans appeared to establish a
port city beyond the Arctic Circle.
On February 8, 1883, the Kola
District left the Arkhangelsk Governorate, becoming an independent
administrative entity.
At the end of the 19th century, the first
sawmills appeared on the territory of the Kola Peninsula in Umba, Kovda
and other settlements.
In 1899, the port city of Aleksandrovsk
(now the city of Polyarny) was founded in the Yekaterininskaya harbor.
The first explorers came to Murmansk to explore new places in 1912.
In 1914, 13 thousand people lived on the entire territory of the Kola
Peninsula. The next important stage in the development of the lands of
the Kola Peninsula was the construction of a railway that connected the
Kola Bay with the center of Russia. In 1915, during the First World War,
the port settlement of Semenovsky was founded on the right bank of the
Kola Bay of the Barents Sea. Its creation was associated with Russia's
desire to gain access to the Arctic Ocean through an ice-free bay in
order to uninterruptedly deliver military supplies from the Entente
allies under the blockade of the Black and Baltic Seas. On October 4,
1916, the settlement received the status of a city and a new name -
Romanov-na-Murmane. On this day, on a low hill where the Kirov Palace of
Culture and Technology is now located, a ceremonial laying of the
foundation of a church in honor of the patron saint of seafarers,
Nicholas of Myra, took place. Romanov-on-Murman became the last city
founded in the Russian Empire. Six months later, on April 3, 1917, after
the February Revolution, it took its current name - Murmansk.
On
March 2, 1918, most of the territory of the Aleksandrovsky district
(today's Murmansk region) became part of the Northern region under the
government of Nikolai Vasilyevich Tchaikovsky.
On March 6, 1918,
two detachments of marines with two guns landed in Murmansk from the
English battleship Glory, which marked the beginning of the intervention
on the part of the Entente. By the middle of the month, the intervention
of the White Finns began. During the reign of the interventionists, the
Murmansk tram was built and put into operation.
In 1920,
Academician Alexander Fersman began conducting systematic geological
exploration expeditions, which resulted in the discovery of large
deposits of apatite and other, partly previously unknown minerals. After
these discoveries, the rapid growth of industry on the Kola Peninsula
began. Already in 1920, the total gross product amounted to 2.4 million
rubles.
On June 13, 1921, the Kola (Alexandrovsky) district of
the Arkhangelsk province was transformed into the Murmansk province with
its center in the city of Murmansk.
On August 1, 1927, the
Murmansk province was transformed into the Murmansk Okrug and included
in the Leningrad region.
In 1930, the first ore was mined by the
Khibinogorsk mine. Subsequently, the first hydroelectric power stations
in the region (the Niva-1 cascade) were built to meet the needs of the
mine and the nearby town of Khibinogorsk. The population of the region
also increased: in 1930, there were 20,000 residents in Murmansk alone,
and in 1935, over 100,000. In 1935, construction of the Severonikel
plant began near the settlement of Moncha-Guba. After the launch of the
plant, the population of the settlement began to increase rapidly and in
1937 it was given the status of a city under the name Monchegorsk. The
rapid growth of industry, culture and population led to the creation of
an independent administrative unit in 1938 from the Murmansk District
and Kandalaksha District of the Karelian ASSR - the Murmansk Region. The
total gross product increased to 361 million rubles in 1939. In 1940,
after the end of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, the western parts
of the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas, which had been ceded to the Soviet
Union, became part of the Murmansk Region.
Germany paid special attention to the capture of the Kola Peninsula
due to the strategically advantageous location of the region. The German
command planned to capture Murmansk and the Kirov railway. To do this,
German and Finnish troops attacked in three directions: Murmansk,
Kandalaksha and Louhi.
On June 29, 1941, German and Finnish
troops began an offensive, delivering the main blow in the Murmansk
direction (see Murmansk operation (1941)) and secondary blows in the
Kandalaksha and Louhi directions. In the Kandalaksha and Louhi
directions, Soviet troops stopped the advance of German-Finnish troops
trying to reach the railway, and they were forced to go on the
defensive.
Military operations resumed on September 8, 1941. The
command of the Army "Norway", in accordance with the order of the
Wehrmacht headquarters, transferred the main blow to the Murmansk
direction. But here too the offensive of the reinforced German mountain
army corps failed. The northern group of Germans, advancing on Polyarny,
was able to advance only 4 km in 9 days. The southern group, with the
support of aviation, managed to cut off the Titovka-Murmansk road by
September 15 and create a threat of reaching the Murmansk region.
However, the 14th Army, with part of its forces, with the support of
aviation and artillery of the Northern Fleet, launched a counterattack
on September 17 and routed the 3rd mountain infantry division, pushing
its remnants back beyond the Zapadnaya Litsa River. After this, the
German command stopped the offensive on Murmansk.
The evacuation
of the population began. As a result of the evacuation, the population
of the Murmansk region by the end of 1941 decreased from 313.4 thousand
to 102.3 thousand people, and the number of residents of Murmansk - from
117.1 thousand to 35.6 thousand people.
In the spring of 1942,
both sides were preparing offensive actions: the Germans with the aim of
capturing Murmansk, the Soviet troops with the aim of pushing the enemy
back beyond the border. The Soviet troops were the first to go on the
offensive. During the Murmansk operation (1942) and the amphibious
landing in the Bolshaya Zapadnaya Litsa Bay, they failed to achieve
decisive success. But the planned German offensive was also thwarted,
and the front in the Arctic stabilized until October 1944.
The
first combat operation at sea was undertaken by German troops on July
12-13, 1941, destroyers near Kharlov Island attacked a Soviet convoy
guarded by a patrol ship, as a result of the attack, the patrol ship and
one of the two trawlers were sunk. The second operation was carried out
on July 22-24 near Teriberka, then the Germans sank the hydrographic
vessel Meridian. During the third campaign, on August 10, 3 destroyers
sank the patrol ship Tuman. After an air raid by the Northern Fleet, the
destroyers were seriously damaged and returned to Germany for repairs.
In total, during the war, the Northern Fleet escorted 1,471 convoys,
which included 2,569 transport ships, while the merchant fleet lost 33
ships.
On October 7, 1944, Soviet troops went on the offensive,
delivering the main blow from the area of Lake Chapr on the right
flank of the 19th German Corps in the direction of Luostari - Petsamo.
Pursuing the retreating German troops, the 14th Army, supported by naval
forces, drove the Germans out of Soviet territory, crossed the Finnish
border and began to capture Petsamo, on October 22, Soviet troops
crossed the Norwegian border and on October 25 liberated the Norwegian
city of Kirkenes. By November 1, the fighting in the Arctic ended, the
Petsamo region was completely liberated by Soviet troops.
By the
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 5,
1944, the Medal "For the Defense of the Soviet Arctic" was established,
which was awarded to 24,000 residents of the region. About one hundred
and fifty participants in the battles became Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Three - pilot Safonov, boatman Shabalin and scout Leonov - were awarded
this title twice. Later, on May 6, 1985, for heroic actions during the
war, Murmansk was awarded the status of Hero City.
Despite the serious damage received, in particular Murmansk was
almost completely destroyed, by 1948 the level of the economy in the
region had reached the pre-war level, and by 1952 the volume of living
space in the capital of the region had reached the pre-war level.
In the post-war years, the authorities of the RSFSR began to
increasingly realize the need to develop the region, both industry and
the Northern Fleet. In the early 1960s, a preferential allowance for
labor was introduced for residents of the region, the so-called northern
allowances.
In 1951, the workers' settlement of Vaenga, located
25 kilometers east of Murmansk on the shore of the Kola Bay, received
city status and a new name - Severomorsk and became the capital of the
Northern Fleet. In 1957, the settlement of Olenye was transformed into
the city of Olenegorsk, in 1965 the settlement of Kovdor received city
status, and in 1966 - Apatity. Between 1955 and 1965, a number of
enterprises were launched: the Olenegorsk and Kovdor Mining and
Processing Plants, the Kirov State District Power Plant, and the
Apatite-Nepheline Processing Plant in Apatity.
On January 11,
1962, an explosion occurred on the diesel-electric submarine B-37 in the
Yekaterininskaya Harbor of the Polar base. 59 people died. As a result
of the explosion, the nearby submarine S-350 was damaged and sank,
killing 11 people.
On May 18, 1969, construction of the Kola
Nuclear Power Plant began, and on June 29, 1973, it began operating.
In 1970, the Kola Superdeep Borehole was sunk, the deepest borehole
in the world, drilled to study the lithosphere where the Mohorovičić
boundary comes close to the Earth's surface.
As of the late
1970s, the Murmansk Region ranked second in the northwestern region in
terms of gross industrial output.
By 1980, the region had 19
state farms, including Tuloma, Industriya, Arktika, Polyarnaya Zvezda,
and the Kolsky fur farm, 7 collective farms, 25 subsidiary farms,
poultry farms, and the Murmansk greenhouse complex.
In February
1982, a radiation accident occurred at the spent nuclear fuel storage
facility located 55 km northwest of Murmansk and 60 km from the
Norwegian border on the shore of Andreeva Bay (Zapadnaya Litsa Bay, Kola
Peninsula) - a leak of radioactive water from the pool of building No.
5. The accident was eliminated from 1983 to 1989. Hundreds of thousands
of tons of highly radioactive water ended up in the Barents Sea.
With the onset of perestroika, the Murmansk region, like other
regions of the country, experienced hard times. The collapse of the
Soviet Union and the subsequent hyperinflation caused an economic
crisis. The number of fishing vessels in the capital of the region alone
fell from more than 400 fishing vessels in 1989 to 290 in 1997. The
cargo turnover of ports fell sharply. Construction complexes throughout
the region came to a standstill, unemployment appeared. In addition, in
the very beginning of the 1990s, there was a mass outflow of population
from the region, in particular, from 1989 to 1992, 28 thousand people
left Murmansk. The main reasons for the departure of the population were
a sharp deterioration in the economic situation in the city, as well as
the great social mobility of the relatively young population of
Murmansk. By 2002, the number of residents of the city had decreased by
150 thousand compared to 1989, that is, by almost a third. A comparable
decline among cities with a population of over 100,000 was only in
war-torn Grozny, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Magadan. According to
current population census data, the number of Murmansk residents has
decreased by more than 20,000 people since the census. The reliability
of these data is questionable, since in 2002 the census population was
30,000 people lower than the current census data.
The population
of the region as a whole decreased from 965,727 people in 1989 to
760,862 in 2002, that is, by more than 200,000 people. However, in
recent years the population has begun to grow again and by 2009 the
region already had 842,452 people, of which 74,284 were rural and
790,323 were urban. 25 settlements in the region have more than 5,000
residents. The largest cities in the Murmansk region are Murmansk
(266,681 people), Apatity (48,748 people), Severomorsk (43,394 people),
Monchegorsk (39,477 people) and Kandalaksha (28,438 people).
The
outflow of young people has led to a sharp deterioration in the
demographic situation. If in 1990 the natural increase per 1000
inhabitants was 4.5 (birth rate 10.5; death rate 6), then in 2005 the
natural increase became negative and was 0.5% per year. The sharp
increase in mortality is due to the fact that numerous generations of
Murmansk residents who moved to the city in the 1950s-1970s are now at
an advanced age.
In the modern Murmansk region, the priority
industries are the fishing, mining, chemical industries and non-ferrous
metallurgy. The largest enterprises of the region: Apatit (Kirovsk,
Apatity) - production of apatite concentrate, Kandalaksha Aluminum Plant
(Kandalaksha) - production of primary aluminum, Kola Mining and
Metallurgical Company (Monchegorsk, Zapolyarny, Nikel) - production of
nickel, refined copper, sulfuric acid, Olenegorsk Mining and Processing
Plant - production of iron ore raw materials, Murmansk Trawl Fleet
(Murmansk) - fishing.
In recent years, ecotourism has begun to
gain strength, mainly foreign tourists who want to live in places where
"no man has set foot".
2020: the epidemic of the new coronavirus
has penetrated the backbone enterprises of the Murmansk region.
The Murmansk region is located in Northern Europe. About 70% of the
territory of the region is occupied by the Kola Peninsula (its area is
100,000 km2), it also includes the continental part, the Rybachy and
Sredny peninsulas, the islands of Ainovskie, Veliky, Kildin, Seven
Islands. Most of the region is located beyond the Arctic Circle.
In the west it borders with Norway and Finland, in the south with the
Republic of Karelia and across the White Sea with the Arkhangelsk
region. It is washed by the White and Barents Seas. The length is 550 km
from west to east and 400 km from north to south.
The Murmansk region is located on the Baltic crystalline shield. The
bowels are exceptionally rich in minerals and minerals. So, for 2021,
1,070 minerals (about 1/4 of all known on Earth) were discovered and
studied in the region, of which 256 are newly discovered (about 100 of
them were found only here).
The main minerals in the region are
apatite (Khibiny deposits of apatite-nepheline ores). Apatite, a
valuable raw material for phosphate fertilizers, has been mined on the
territory of the Murmansk region since pre-war times, nepheline is used
to produce alumina, a raw material for the aluminum industry, to produce
soda and to produce cement. The second place is taken by iron ores
(about 10% of Russian production) from the Olenegorsk and Kovdor
deposits. The Kovdor deposit also produces apatite, zirconium ore
(baddeleyite), phlogopite mica and vermiculite (the world's largest
reserves). Copper-nickel ores of the Pechenga and Monchegorsk group of
deposits give the country, in addition to nickel and copper, such metals
as cobalt, platinum, osmium, iridium and many others. In the bowels of
the Fedorovo-Pansky massif there is the largest deposit of platinum
group metals, which is one of the largest in the world.
Oil is
also produced on the shelf of the Barents Sea, one of the world's
largest gas fields, the Shtokman field, has also been explored here. The
largest reserves of rare earth metals in the country are concentrated in
the bowels of the unique Lovozero deposit. Almost unlimited reserves of
aluminum raw materials (kyanite schists in Keivy), almandine garnet. In
the same place in Keivy there are deposits of beryllium and lithium
(almost 50% of Russian reserves) ores, rare metals. Mica-muscovite and
pegmatites are mined.
There are numerous deposits of building
rocks, ornamental and semi-precious stones (amethyst, chrysolite,
garnet, "belomorite" moonstone, amazonite, eudialyte, etc.). Recently,
diamond finds have been noted.
The climate in the southern part is moderately cold, in the northern
part it is subarctic maritime, softened by the warm North Atlantic
Current (the northeastern continuation of the Gulf Stream), which allows
navigation all year round. Winter is characterized by polar night,
summer - polar day. The average air temperature of the coldest months
(January-February) ranges from -8 ° C in the north of the region
(influence of the warm current) to -12 ... -15 ° C in the central
regions. In summer, respectively, +8 °C and +14 °C. The lowest air
temperatures in winter are -35 °C on the coast of the Barents Sea, -45
°C on the White Sea coast and -51 °C in the central regions. Summer
maxima, respectively, are +27, +32 and +33 °C (the exception is
Teriberka (village), where the absolute maximum temperature is +34.5
°C). However, severe frosts are rare (as a rule, in the central and
eastern regions). On the contrary, thaws are quite frequent, especially
on the Murmansk coast. In general, winter is rather mild for the Arctic,
milder in the north of the region. In addition, it is quite snowy (with
the exception of mountainous areas).
Frosts are possible on any
day of summer; snowfalls are not uncommon in June. Strong winds are
frequent on the sea coast and mountain plateaus (in the Khibiny, gusts
reach 55-60 m/s). Snow lies on average from mid-late October to mid-May
(in mountainous areas from late September-early October to mid-June).
The entire territory of the Murmansk region belongs to the regions
of the Far North.
In the central part of the Murmansk region (in the western part of
the Kola Peninsula) there are the Khibiny mountain ranges (up to 1,200 m
high) and the Lovozero tundras (up to 1120 m high), even to the west -
Monchetundra, Chunatundra, Wolf Tundra, Nyavka Tundra, Greasy Tundra,
Pechenga tundra and Tuadash Tundra.
Hydrography
In the distant
past, the territory of the current Murmansk region was covered with a
glacier, which, when attacked, left deep scratches on the ground,
therefore, in the Murmansk region there are many rivers (Varzuga, Umba,
Niva, Voronya, Kola, Tuloma, the longest is the Ponoi River) and lakes
(Umbozero, Lovozero, the largest in area - Imandra). There are also
small rivers, such as Strelna. Water reserves are not limited to fresh
inland water bodies and seas; there are significant water reserves in
underground layers. There are more than 110 thousand lakes with an area
of more than 10 hectares and 18,209 rivers with a length of more than
100 m.
Due to the relief and high water supply, the region has a
significant hydroelectric potential, used in the 2000s up to 3 billion
kWh/year.
The region is dominated by podzolic-gley, podzolic illuvial-humus and tundra-gley soils that are not practically valuable;
On the territory of the Murmansk region, the southern tundra, forest
tundra and northern taiga replace each other sublatitudinally. Plain
tundra occupy about 20% of the territory of the region, stretching from
the northwest to the southeast. The tundra is carpeted with mosses and
lichens, there are many berries: blueberries, cloudberries, blueberries,
lingonberries and cranberries. To the south of the tundra, the
forest-tundra stretches (in a strip from 20 kilometers in the northwest
to 100 kilometers in the southeast), represented by light forests of
downy birch. Trees in the forest-tundra zone are often dwarfed (birch
and aspen), spruce grows well, and pine is found. The northern taiga
extends south of the forest-tundra strip. The forest fund is 94.5
thousand km² or 69.2% of the region. The share of forest stands with a
predominance of pine accounts for 43%, spruce - 29%, birch - 28% of the
area. Clearcutting from the 1940s to the 1980s resulted in a 60%
reduction in commercial timber.
The fauna of the Murmansk region
is noticeably less diverse than the general Russian one. So, 32 species
of mammals live within the borders (in total in Russia - 326), about 280
species of birds (in total in Russia - 765), a small number of
amphibians and reptiles. Among mammals, foxes, martens, ermines, arctic
foxes are common, you can meet a wolf, a brown bear and a wolverine.
Moose and reindeer are also common. Sometimes in the southern part there
are lynx, wild boar and roe deer. Lots of squirrels and lemmings.
Of the birds here you can meet tits, bullfinches, waxwings. In the
forests - a polar owl, a hazel grouse, a white partridge, a black grouse
and a capercaillie. Lots of gulls, terns and other sea birds.
The
Murmansk region is rich in fish - such species of fish as cod, sea bass,
halibut, catfish, flounder, herring, saffron cod fish in the sea. In the
Barents Sea, off the coast of the region, the king crab has been
introduced. Lakes and rivers are rich in valuable species of fish, such
as: trout, salmon, whitefish, grayling, char, nelma, char. Perch, pike,
burbot are found in large quantities.
Nature reserves and
botanical gardens
Lapland Reserve
Kandalaksha Nature Reserve (also
in Karelia)
Pasvik (also in Norway)
Polar Alpine Botanical
Garden-Institute
As of the beginning of 2021, 21 power plants with a total capacity of
3,532.6 MW were operating in the Murmansk Region (excluding the
decentralized energy supply zone), including one nuclear power plant, 16
hydroelectric power plants, three thermal power plants and one tidal
power plant. In 2020, they produced 16,493 million kWh of electricity
(including the Kumskaya HPP, which is territorially located in Karelia,
but organizationally part of the Murmansk energy system).
The
region is supplied with electricity by the Kola NPP with an excess
capacity of 1,760 MW, the Apatitskaya CHPP (323 MW, 735 Gcal/h), the
Murmansk CHPP (12 MW, 1,111 Gcal/h), and a HPP with a total capacity of
1,550 MW on the Tuloma Rivers (Nizhnetulomskaya HPP and
Verkhnetulomskaya HPP). HPP), Niva (HPP-I, II and III), Paz (Pazskiye
HPPs), Kovda (Knyazhegubskaya HPP, Iovskaya HPP), Voronya
(Serebryanskiye HPPs), Teriberka (Teriberskiye HPPs). The Murmansk
region has a unique power plant: the Kislogubskaya tidal power plant,
which produces electricity from the energy of ebbs and flows (the only
tidal power plant in Russia).
Another unique object in the territory of the Murmansk region is the Kola super-deep well, its depth exceeds 12 km, the well is currently closed.
They mainly grow fodder crops, potatoes and vegetables. Developed berry picking. Most of the industry's output comes from cattle breeding—meat and dairy farming, reindeer breeding (about 60,000 heads), and pig breeding.
The region has developed a developed reindeer herding, and the number was relatively stable in the post-Soviet period: in 1990, there were 78 thousand deer, in 2000 - 70 thousand deer, and in 2010 - 62 thousand deer. Reindeer husbandry is distinguished by the significant role of agricultural enterprises: as of January 1, 2011, only 8% of reindeer were in private hands.
Recently, ecological and ethnotourism has been gaining momentum, mainly
foreign tourists who want to live in places in Lapland where no human
foot has set foot (for example, a camp site near Yokanga). Mineralogical
and extreme tourism is also popular in the region.
Ski resorts in
Khibiny near Kirovsk.
The federal road R-21 "Kola" runs through the territory
of the region from St. Petersburg through Petrozavodsk, Murmansk,
Pechenga to the border with Norway (international automobile checkpoint
"Borisoglebsk") from km 1068.
In total, there are 2,566 km of
public roads in the Murmansk region, of which 2,472 km (or 96.3%) are
paved (91.3% in Russia as a whole), including: category II (106 km),
category III ( 628 km). The largest roads in the region besides Kola are
Lotta, Salla and Serebryanka.
In terms of the provision of public
roads with a hard surface, the Murmansk region has an indicator of 17.1
km per 1 thousand km².
Of the 145 rural settlements, 106, or
73.1%, have a connection via paved roads with the public highway network
(in Russia as a whole - 66.1%).
During the period of
implementation of the "Roads of Russia" program (2000-2004), 50.1 km of
federal and territorial roads and 453.7 linear meters of bridge
structures were built and reconstructed in the Murmansk region.
Until 2005, communication between the right and left banks of the Kola
Bay was carried out through bridges across the Kola and Tuloma rivers.
Launched in October 2005, the bridge across the Kola Bay is a key
link that provides motor transport links between the regions of the
Murmansk region and access to the borders of the Scandinavian countries
(Norway, Finland) and a significant part of the region with Murmansk.
The construction of this bridge has been carried out since 1992 with
the participation of the federal budget. The length of the bridge is
2,500 meters, the number of traffic lanes is 4, the design and estimate
cost of the facility in 2005 prices is 2,856.873 million rubles.
The main road is the Kovda-Murmansk section electrified with
alternating current 27.5 kV (double-track from Kovda station to Apatity
station and single-track with double-track inserts from Apatity station
to Murmansk station) of the St. Petersburg-Murmansk line. The line was
built in its original form during the First World War, and entered
temporary service on November 5, 1916. Later, diesel locomotive lines
were built to Alakurtti, Kovdor, Revda, Monchegorsk, Severomorsk, Nikel
and Liinakhamari.
In the early 1950s, construction began on a
branch line to the east, to the bays of Ponoi and Iokanga in the eastern
part of the peninsula (the so-called Kola railway), but due to the death
of Stalin, construction was not completed.
The Murmansk region is of great military and strategic importance. This is the only place in the European part of Russia where ice-free ports are located, providing year-round direct access to the open ocean. The Northern Fleet is concentrated here with headquarters in Severomorsk. In total, there are 5 ZATOs of the Ministry of Defense in the region (Severomorsk, Vidyaevo, Zaozersk, Ostrovnoy and Aleksandrovsk). Until recently, the Rybachy Peninsula was also closed to the public. Aviation of the Northern Fleet, including Tu-22M3 long-range missile carriers, is stationed at the Olenya, Severomorsk-1 and Severomorsk-3 airbases. There is a military airfield near Monchegorsk.
In 2016, in the Murmansk region, 2 public and 2 private universities
had a valid license, as well as 8 branches of universities in Moscow,
St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia.
The state educational
system of the region includes 240 preschool educational organizations,
166 general educational organizations, 19 secondary vocational
education.
The first museum in the region, the Murmansk Regional
Museum of Local Lore, was opened on October 17, 1926. Nine years later,
on May 1, 1935, the S. M. Kirov Memorial Museum appeared in Kirovsk.
After that, in the period from 1935 to 1950, museums arose throughout
the region, local history exhibitions were opened at schools in the
region, the first geological museum of Murman was opened at the Kirov
mine, in 1946, based on the works of artists and photographers from the
Great Patriotic War, in Murmansk opened the Naval Museum of the Northern
Fleet.
The first museums at large enterprises and institutions of
the Murmansk region began to appear in the late 1970s. Thus, the
exposition “Formation and Development of the Fishing Industry of the
Northern Basin” appeared in the recreation center of the fishermen of
the Murmansk trawl fleet, Kolenergo acquired its own museum in Murmashy,
the Lovozero Mining and Processing Plant in the Revda village, the
Apatit plant in Kirovsk, and in Murmansk - city customs, internal
affairs bodies, etc. In 1989, the Murmansk Regional Art Museum was
founded, the last museum that appeared in the region during the Soviet
period.
Due to the financial crisis that arose during the years
of perestroika, many museums, especially small school museums and
museums at enterprises and institutions, were closed and liquidated. The
revival of the museums of the Murmansk region took place in the second
half-end of the 1990s. In 1996, the North Sea Museum of the History of
the City and the Fleet was founded, in 1999 - the City Museum of Local
History and Local Lore of the ZATO city of Polyarny and a number of
municipal museums in Kandalaksha, Kovdor and other settlements of the
region. Museums began to appear at large regional libraries, for
example, the Oktyabrina Voronova Museum of Sami Literature and Writing
in the village of Revda, the Yesenin Museum at the Murmansk Regional
Children and Youth Library, the N. N. Blinov Literary Museum and others.
As of 2008, 89 museums are officially registered in the Murmansk
region: 2 regional, 8 municipal, 1 departmental and 78 public. From
public museums: 25 of military glory, 16 of the history of educational
institutions, 14 of the history of enterprises and organizations, 6 of
local history, 5 of literature and 12 of various profiles.