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Murmansk
Coat of arms
Location of Murmansk
MurmanskLocation of Murmansk
Coordinates: 68°58′0″N 33°5′0″E / 68.96667°N 33.08333°E / 68.96667; 33.08333
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Murmansk Oblast
Founded	4 October 1916
Elevation	50 m (160 ft)
Time zone	UTC+3 (MSK )
Postal code(s)	183000
OKTMO ID	47701000001

Murmansk (Template:Lang-ru; Template:Lang-fi (archaic); Template:Lang-se; Template:Lang-sms) 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; 336,137 (2002 Census); 468,039 (1989 Soviet census). 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 (Рома́нов-на-Му́рмане), 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 has not 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 is believed that it will 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 Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident 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 does not 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:

• Akureyri, Iceland
• Vadsø, Norway
• Groningen, Netherlands
• Jacksonville, United States
• Luleå, Sweden
• Rovaniemi, Finland
• Tromsø, Norway
• Szczecin, Poland

References

1. "Об исчислении времени". Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in Russian). 3 June 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
2. Почта России. Информационно-вычислительный центр ОАСУ РПО. (Russian Post). Поиск объектов почтовой связи (Postal Objects Search) (in Russian)
3. Federal State Statistics Service (21 May 2004). Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек [Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000] (XLS). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (in Russian).
4. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров [All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers]. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики . 1989 – via Demoscope Weekly.
5. MSCO: Fleet: Icebreaking fleet
6. Atomflot - Bellona
7. Bolshevik, North Russian, Royal Navy, Expeditionary Force, Archangel, Dvina River
8. Мурманску исполняется 90 летTemplate:Ref-ru
9. Газета «Вечерний Мурманск» Выпуск № 93 от 28 мая 2005 Template:Ref-ru
10. Nature » Administrative-territorial system
11. "Pogoda.ru.net" (in Russian). {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• Murmansk: Info,News,Photo
• Murmansk Travelling Agent
• Atomic ice breaker fleet
• Murmansk's gorgeous garages — a photo journal by BBC news journalist Jorn Madslien
• Murmansk travel guide
• Satellite picture by Google Maps
• Map of Murmansk
• Views of Murmansk group on Flickr
• Murmansk State Technical University
• British North Russian Expeditinary Force 1918–1919 (based at Murmansk)
• "Big-dollar deals tempt Arctic firms" BBC article on the energy industry's effect on Murmansk
• Image of "Alyosha" statue

• Coastal cities
• Hero Cities of the Soviet Union
• Settlements established in 1916
• Port cities and towns in Russia
• Barents Sea
• Russian and Soviet Navy bases