Everything about Murmansk totally explained
Murmansk (; (archaic); ; ) is a
city in the extreme northwest part of
Russia with a
seaport on the Kola Bay, 12 km from the
Barents Sea on the northern shore of the
Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with
Norway and
Finland. Population: 320,900; The city is an important
navy base for the
Russian Navy.
Murmansk is the administrative centre of
Murmansk Oblast. The
port remains ice-free year round due to the warm
North Atlantic drift ocean current and is an important fishing and shipping port. It is home port to Atomflot, the world's only fleet of nuclear-powered
ice breakers. It is the largest city north of the
Arctic Circle.
Murmansk's evening newspaper is
Vecherny Murmansk, published since 1991.
History
The word "Murmansk" came from the Saami language. It means "the land on the sea shore". Saamese words: "mur" means the sea, and "maa" - the land. About 1 500 saamis live on the Kola Peninsula, they were hunters, reindeer breeders and fishermen. The city, known initially as
Romanov-on-Murman, was founded on
October 4, 1916 and named after the Russian royal dynasty of the
Romanovs. The city, the only ice-free port in the Russian Arctic, was built as a terminus of the
railroad line to
Kola designed to open the North Atlantic supply route to Russia in support of the
Eastern Front during the
First World War. The city was renamed to Murmansk after the
October Revolution in 1917.
From 1918 to 1920, the city was
occupied by the Western powers who had been
allied in the
First World War and
"White" forces during the
Civil War in Russia.
During
World War II, Murmansk was a link with the Western world for Russia, and a vast commerce with the
Allies, in items important to the respective military efforts passed through it: primarily manufactured and raw materials goods into the Soviet Union. These supplies were brought to the city in the
Arctic Convoys.
A joint German and Finnish force launched an offensive against the city in 1941 as part of
Unternehmen Silberfuchs. Murmansk suffered profound destruction, second only to
Stalingrad of all the Soviet cities. However, fierce Soviet resistance and unforgiving territory prevented the Germans from capturing the city and from cutting off the vital Karelian railway line. This resistance was eventually recognized in 1985 by the
Soviet Union with the formal designation of Murmansk as a
Hero City on
May 6,
1985 . In commemoration of this event, the massive statue
Alyosha, depicting a Russian soldier of World War II, was erected overlooking the city harbour. For the rest of the war, it served as a transit point for weapons and other supplies entering the Soviet Union from other Allied nations.
During the
Cold War it was a centre of Soviet
submarine activity, and since the breakup of the USSR, it remains the headquarters of the
Russian Northern Fleet.
To commemorate the 85th anniversary of the city's foundation, the snow-white church of the Saviour-on-Waters was modeled after the
White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal and built on the shore for sailors of Murmansk (
photograph
).
Arctic Bridge
Murmansk is set to be the Russian terminus of the
Arctic Bridge (or Arctic Sea Bridge), a sea route that would link it to the
Canadian port of
Churchill,
Manitoba. This passage hasn't yet been fully tested for commercial shipping but Russia has shown interest in it. Once this bridge is further developed (along with the
Northwest Passage) it's believed that it'll serve as a major trade route between
Europe and
Asia. The development of the trans-Arctic sea route is possible due to the retreat of Arctic ice, due to
global warming.
Murmansk in fiction
The city is one of the main settings in the novel by
Eoin Colfer. It is the place where Artemis's shipwrecked father is believed to have died after capture by the
Russian Mafiya.
The climatic scene of
Skeleton Key, (July 8, 2002) the third novel of the
Alex Rider series by
Anthony Horowitz, takes places in and around Murmansk with the now dilapidated nuclear fleet playing a pivotal role. Through all characters are fictional, the actual airport, city and port are described with Alex's final actions of this book being depicted in the port.
In the novels
HMS Ulysses (1955) by the Scottish writer
Alistair MacLean and
The Captain (1967) by Dutch author
Jan de Hartog, the protagonists are sailors in the
Second World War Murmansk-bound convoys who ran the gauntlet of German U-Boats and war planes. In their minds, Murmansk assumes the status of almost a "Promised Land" which lucky survivors will reach.
The physical city itself doesn't appear in either book. In de Hartog's book the protagonists, with their ship sunk, get in a lifeboat which is picked up at sea and get to Iceland instead; in the MacLean book, the survivors of the decimated convoy who arrive at the port of Murmansk are not allowed to set foot ashore, and remain cooped on board until the material is unloaded and the moment comes to set out back to Britain.
Sister cities
The
sister cities of Murmansk are:
