Polyarny (literally Polar) is a city in the
Murmansk region of Russia, located on the banks of the Ekaterininsk
harbor of the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea, about 30 km (as the crow
flies) from Murmansk. Population - 17,650 (2018) people.
Polyarny is the location of the Northern Fleet. The city is part of
the Closed Administrative Territorial Organization (Closed
administrative-territorial formation) Aleksandrovsk, the
administrative center of which is. Entry into the city of persons
who do not live in it permanently, is allowed only with a permit. On
May 5, 2008, by the decree of the President of the Russian
Federation, Polar was given the honorary title of the City of
Military Glory.
The city is located in the subarctic climate
zone in the tundra. Polyarny is located on the banks of the
Ekaterininskaya harbor at a distance of 50 km from Murmansk. The
highest point of the city is Mount Vestnik (115 m above sea level).
The city is located in the subarctic climate zone in the tundra. Polyarny is located on the coast of Ekaterininskaya harbor at a distance of 50 km from Murmansk. The highest point of the city is Mount Vestnik (115 m above sea level).
Polyarny was founded in 1899, but there are almost no old buildings
left in the city. The oldest building is warehouses (storages) on the
territory of the base of the 161st brigade of submarines of the Kola
flotilla of heterogeneous forces. They were built in the late XIX -
early XX century.
In 1937, the Circular House was built. It was
erected when the main base of the Northern military flotilla was being
created in Polyarny.
In 1938, two more stone houses were built.
One of them now houses the city local history museum, which opened in
1999. Next to the museum is a museum of military equipment. It was
opened in 2000 on the site of the old House of Fleet Officers.
In
1999, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of the Russian
Orthodox Church (North Sea diocese) was built.
There are a lot of
non-residential five-story buildings in the city in a dilapidated state.
Project and construction
In the late 1880s, the Russian Empire
needed to build an ice-free port on the Barents Sea. The reason for this
decision of the Maritime Department of the Russian Empire was the active
development of the German fleet and the expectation that the Germans
would complete the construction of the Kiel Canal, which connected the
Baltic and North Seas, as well as the impossibility of withdrawing ships
from the Gulf of Finland in the winter in case of war with Great
Britain.
In the summer of 1894, in order to find a site for the
construction of an ice-free port, Count Sergei Witte, who at that time
held the post of Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire, set off on a
trip to the coastal regions of the Arkhangelsk province and determined
the construction site of Ekaterininskaya Harbor. About what he saw, he
later wrote in his memoirs: “I have never seen such a grandiose harbor
in my life; it makes an even grander impression than the port of
Vladivostok and the harbor of Vladivostok.”
Based on the results
of his visit to the Kola Peninsula, Count Witte suggested that Alexander
III build a naval base in the Ekaterininskaya harbor, as well as build a
railway and build a power plant. Nevertheless, on November 1, 1894,
Alexander III died. The project was later rejected by Emperor Nicholas
II, which the minister considered an "ill-fated decision", an
"unfortunate" and "frivolous" step.
However, after the emperor
refused to build a naval port in the Murmansk lands, Count Witte made
the following proposal to the State Council of the Russian Empire: for
the parking of ships of a commercial port, which at the same time would
serve as an administrative center. The proposal was approved on April 8,
1896. Thus, a decision was made to build a commercial port and the
county town of Aleksandrovsk-on-Murman on the shore of the
Ekaterininskaya harbor.
The management of the construction was
entrusted to the governor of Arkhangelsk A.P. Engelgardt, in the summer
of 1896 a place was chosen for the construction of the city, the order
and delivery of materials began. The construction was carried out by
Russian and Norwegian workers, there were four times fewer Norwegians.
On October 27, 1897, a decree was signed on the construction of a state
hospital with a maternity ward in Aleksandrovsk. In 1897, 30 public
buildings were built, in 1898 the county administration was transferred
from Kola to Catherine's harbor.
Aleksandrovsk
The
construction of the city itself was completed in the shortest possible
time - within three years. On July 7, 1899, Nicholas II approved the
opinion of the State Council on assigning the name "Alexandrovsk" to the
city settlement and port at the Ekaterininsky harbor and renaming the
Kola district of the Arkhangelsk province into Aleksandrovsky in honor
of Emperor Alexander III. The official opening of the city took place on
July 6 (June 24), 1899 in the presence of Grand Duke Vladimir
Alexandrovich.
The city had 500 inhabitants. Judging by the list
of names of persons buried at the Alexandrovsk cemetery in 1899-1920,
the first inhabitants included officials, colonists of Platonovka and
Ekaterininskaya Harbor, people from the former county center of Kola,
the northern provinces of European Russia. By the beginning of the 20th
century, an Orthodox church, a school and a port, railway lines from
berths to warehouses were built in the city; the city was well equipped,
lit by electricity from its own power plant.
In 1899-1908, the
Murmansk Scientific and Fishing Expedition was based in Aleksandrovsk,
headed first by N. M. Knipovich, then by L. L. Breiftus.
After
the landing of foreign troops in the North of Russia and the fall of
Soviet power in Arkhangelsk on August 2, 1918, the Supreme
Administration of the Northern Region was formed. On September 15, 1918,
the Murmansk Territory, including Aleksandrovsky and Kemsky districts,
was included in the Northern Region.
In February 1920, after the
news from the provincial zemstvo about the end of the war with Soviet
Russia and the disarmament of the White troops, the chairman of the
Aleksandrovskaya uyezd zemstvo council, V. V. Ushakov, staged a coup.
On March 24, 1920, the 1st Congress of Soviets of the Aleksandrovsky
Uyezd decided to rename the Aleksandrovsky Uyezd into Murmansk Uyezd,
since Murmansk was actually the county town by that time. However, the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee did not approve this decision,
and for fifteen months the county had two names: in the provincial and
county documents it was called Murmansk, and in the documents of the
central authorities the old name was used - Aleksandrovsky county.
On June 1, 1920, Aleksandrovskaya and Lovozerskaya volosts were
formed by a resolution of the Murmansk Uyezd Executive Committee.
By a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of June
13, 1921, the Aleksandrovsky (aka Murmansk) district was excluded from
the Arkhangelsk province and transformed into the Murmansk province with
the center in Murmansk.
On March 15, 1926, by the decision of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Aleksandrovsk lost the status
of a city and became the village of Aleksandrovsky. In 1927, the
Alexandrovskaya volost was abolished, Aleksandrovskoye became the center
of the Aleksandrovsky district as part of the Murmansk district.
Polyarny
On March 11, 1931, by a decree of the Presidium of the
Leningrad Regional Executive Committee, the village of Aleksandrovskoye
was renamed Polyarnoye, the district was named Polyarny. In the 1930s,
it had the status of a Finnish national region.
On July 2, 1933,
a group of commanders of the Red Army Navy Department, headed by the
head of the Red Army Navy, V. M. Orlov, on the Moroz hydrographic
vessel, inspected the Kola Bay in order to select places for the
construction of bases and defensive structures of the flotilla. On July
22, the party and government commission consisting of I. V. Stalin, K.
E. Voroshilov, S. M. Kirov arrived by rail in Murmansk and on the
tugboat "Petrel" examined the coast from Murmansk to Cape Set-Navolok,
visiting Rosta , Vaenga and Ekaterininskaya harbor.
On June 7,
1934, the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR adopted a resolution
"On the development of naval bases and airfields of the naval forces of
the North." The main operating base of the Northern Military Flotilla
was the settlement of Polyarny, the rear base was Vaenga Bay (now
Severomorsk), and the ship repair base was the city of Murmansk. The
Narkomvoenmor was instructed to develop a construction plan based on the
volume and cost of work, taking into account the deadlines for
completion of construction by January 1, 1939. In connection with the
military construction that began in the regional center of the Polyarny
District, on December 8, 1934, the presidium of the district executive
committee adopted a resolution on preparations for the transfer of the
district administration from Polyarny to Murmansk. By the beginning of
1935, the transfer of regional organizations to Murmansk was completed.
The construction that began swept away all pre-revolutionary
buildings - only wooden warehouses on the pier have miraculously
survived to this day. On November 6, 1935, the state and naval flags of
the USSR were raised over Polyarny - it became the main base of the
Northern Fleet. K. I. Dushenov was appointed commander of the fleet.
In 1935, the Krasny Gorn floating workshop was transferred from the
Baltic Sea to Polyarny to repair ships and vessels of the Northern
Fleet.
On May 11, 1937, the Northern Flotilla was reorganized
into the Northern Fleet.
On September 19, 1939, by decree of the
Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the village of Polyarnoye was transformed
into the city of regional subordination Polyarny.
In 1939-1940,
the forces of the Northern Fleet began to participate in the
Soviet-Finnish Winter War. The forces of the fleet carried out a landing
in Petsamo (Pechenga) in order to occupy the nickel-rich region of
Petsamo.
During the Battle of the Atlantic, the Polyarnoye naval
base was offered to the Kriegsmarine for basing German submarines there,
so that the forces of the German submarine fleet could hide there from
persecution by the allies - at that time the USSR was not part of the
anti-Hitler coalition, - the Soviet side completed and re-equipped an
object. A base similar in size was offered to the German side on the
Black Sea. Through Polyarnoye and Basis Nord, not only the parking and
repair of German ships were carried out, but also the blockade was
bypassed. The cooperation of the Nazi and Soviet regimes was made public
during the Nuremberg trials as a result of the interrogation of Ernst
von Weizsäcker (N. Zorya, who was to interrogate Weizsäcker from the
Soviet side, died under unclear circumstances a few days before the
interrogation). During the Cold War, the Polyarnoye naval base was the
largest weapons depot in the world. Fuel for nuclear reactors of Soviet
nuclear submarines was delivered from it to Cuba in Cienfuegos.
During the Great Patriotic War, the main base of the Northern Fleet of
the USSR Navy was located in Polyarny. The submarines of the KVMF of
Great Britain "Trident" (commander - Steiden) and "Tigris" (commander -
Boon [en]) were based in Polyarny. After the war, the main base of the
Northern Fleet was transferred to Vaenga (Severomorsk).
In 1952,
a monument to I. V. Stalin was opened in the city; this monument stood
until 1961. In 1959, the Sever cinema was opened.
On January 11,
1962, an explosion occurred on the diesel-electric submarine B-37 in the
Yekaterininskaya harbor of the Polyarny base point. 59 people died. As a
result of the explosion, the nearby S-350 submarine was damaged and
sank, killing 11 people on it.
For some time he was subordinate
to the North Sea City Council. In 1974, 17 thousand people lived in
Polyarny.
One of the last neighborhoods in the city to grow was
Bokovaya, half of whose houses have been completely evicted. The Krasny
Gorn microdistrict is named after the floating workshop that gave rise
to the Polyarninsky Shipyard.
In 1989, the city council of
deputies approved the master plan for Polyarny.
Now in Polyarny
there is a basing point for the minesweeper division of the Northern
Fleet of the Russian Navy Polyarny.
In 2019, a bust of Alexander
III was erected in the city.
Medical institutions:
branch 5 of FGKU "1469 VMKG" of the Ministry
of Defense of the Russian Federation (naval hospital)
city hospital
(branch of the Ministry of Emergency Situations No. 5 of the Federal
State Budgetary Institution of Health “TsMSCh No. 120 of the Federal
Medical and Biological Agency of Russia”);
City Polyclinic;
children's Hospital;
Women's consultation;
Education
The
city has two secondary schools and one gymnasium.
In addition, there
is the "Children's and Youth Sports School named after twice Hero of the
Soviet Union V.N. Leonov", which includes: the sports and recreation
complex "Cascade" with two pools and five halls for team sports, the
sports complex "Kansk" , ski base with a ski track, ski base, hockey
club "Avangard", football stadium.
There is also a center for
additional education for children and a children's art school.
Branch of the Murmansk State Technical University College.
culture
The City Museum of Local History is located on Moiseev Street
in a building built in 1938.
There is a city center of culture
"Sever", a centralized library system that unites five city libraries.
The Fleet Officers' House is in a dilapidated state - it is planned
to create a shopping center on its basis.
Mass media
The
newspaper "Ekaterininskaya Gavan" was published.
A television
Television and radio broadcasting in the city of Polyarny is provided by
on-air and cable operators. On-air television broadcasting is carried
out by the branch of RTRS "Murmansk ORTPTS". In the public domain there
are packages of terrestrial digital television (multiplexes) RTRS-1 and
RTRS-2. Regional tie-ins of GTRK Murman are broadcast in the digital
package RTRS-1 on channels Russia 1, Russia 24 and Radio Russia,
regional tie-ins of TV-21+ on the OTR channel. There is no television
transmitting center in the city, the coverage of the city with digital
terrestrial television broadcasting is provided by the Snezhnogorsk CNTV
facility for 21 TVK (RTRS-1) and 31 TVK (RTRS-2). In some areas of the
city located on hills, reception from the objects of the Central
Television Network "Murmansk" and "Severomorsk" (23 and 44 TVK) is
possible.
Broadcasting in cable networks is carried out by the
following operators: Rostelecom, Kompakt LLC.