Murmansk region. History of the Murmansk region. The history of the legendary Russian settlements in the Arctic

Our free guide to the Kola Peninsula is part of a large guide to Russia. In it you will find information about the natural attractions of the Kola, lakes and rivers, unique northern reserves.

Rest on the Kola Peninsula is:

• rafting on northern rivers and lakes;
• ascent to the passes of the Khibiny mountains;
• visiting the ancient settlements of the Far North;
• rest at recreation centers;
• skiing;
• fishing and hunting.

With the help of our guide to the Kola Peninsula, you can easily plan an independent trip, book a hotel or recreation center, select a full tour or a separate excursion.

Budget (2015)

Tickets

Traveling around the Kola Peninsula, most tourists start from Murmansk, Apatit or Kirovsk. It is in these cities that airports and large railway stations are located, which have direct communication with the center and north-west of Russia.

The prices for economy class air tickets for the main destinations are as follows (per person in both directions):

• Moscow - Murmansk: from 7000 rubles;
• St. Petersburg - Murmansk: from 10,600 rubles;
• Moscow - Apatity (Kirovsk): from 9000 rubles;
• St. Petersburg - Apatity (Kirovsk): from 8000 rubles.

Railway tickets for the same destinations are not much cheaper, especially given the much longer travel time (more than 1 day):

• Moscow - Murmansk: from 6300 rubles (reserved seat) and 12600 rubles (compartment);
• Moscow - Apatity: from 5300 rubles (reserved seat) and 7000 rubles (compartment);
• St. Petersburg - Murmansk: from 5,000 rubles (reserved seat) and 7,200 rubles (compartment);
• St. Petersburg - Apatity: from 4500 rubles (reserved seat) and 6600 rubles (compartment)

based on one person in both directions.

Intercity bus service is well established on the Kola Peninsula. So, from Murmansk you can get to the most popular cities and towns. Prices for a one-way ticket per person: to Apatit or Kirovsk - from 555 rubles, to Kandalaksha - from 630 rubles, to Monchegorsk - from 345 rubles, to Olenegorsk - from 261 rubles, to Severomorsk - from 160 rubles, to Umba - from 710 rubles, to Titovka - from 280 rubles, to Teriberka - from 331 rubles and Cola - 343 rubles

Accommodation

There are not so many hotels on the Kola Peninsula, although in recent years the tourist infrastructure has been noticeably developing. In Murmansk, a standard double room in a 3-star hotel will cost 2200-3500 rubles per day, in Monchegorsk, Kirovsk and Apatity the prices are higher, apparently due to the proximity to popular ski resorts. Here, prices for a room in the same category vary between 2900-5200 rubles per day. A popular type of recreation on the Kola is various camp sites on the rivers Kola, Tuloma, Viva, Lake Imandra, in the Lovozero region. Here, the cost of living starts from 900 rubles per day per person and rises depending on the complex of included services and the comfort of the residential facility.

Nutrition

Restaurant service on the Kola Peninsula in all its diversity is presented only in large cities - Murmansk, Monchegorsk, Kirovsk, Apatity. For example, the restaurants "Tsarskaya Okhota", "Tundra", "Dekante" top the rating of the best restaurants in the Murmansk region. Here you will be offered delicious dishes of the national Sami and Pomeranian cuisine, for example, venison with a variety of berry sauces. Of course, the average check in such establishments will start from 1,500 rubles per person. You can dine inexpensively in a variety of pubs, pizzerias and self-service cafes. Here, a complex lunch will cost 500-700 rubles per person, depending on the institution. If you go on a trip along the Tersky coast, then most of the settlements that you will meet on the way are small villages, half abandoned. There is no point in looking for a cafe there; at best, you will find a grocery store for organizing an independent picnic in nature. Food prices are basically the same as the average for Russia. The only thing is that there is a wide variety of types of sea fish, from which many national dishes, it is much cheaper, always fresh and tasty. You can buy from locals or go fishing yourself.

Story

The Kola Peninsula, located in the Far North of Russia on the border with Norway in the waters of the White and Barents Seas, was called Murman until the beginning of the 20th century. The ancient sites of the first people discovered by scientists on the territory of the peninsula date back to the Stone Age. As for the indigenous population of the peninsula - the Saami, their ancestors began to inhabit these northern lands later, only in the 2nd millennium BC. They were engaged in reindeer herding, hunting and fishing on the northern coast. Russians began to actively populate the Tersky coast Kola Peninsula only in the IX-XI centuries: in various historical documents and annals, large settlements of Varzuga and Kola are mentioned. They quickly begin to develop sea routes, organizing a promising trade in fish and furs with European countries in the North and West.

The natural wealth of the Kola land and established trade relations with many European countries attracted the attention of the Russian government. In the middle of the 19th century, active scientific study of the Kola Peninsula began. Numerous expeditions are sent for the purpose of a detailed study of the geography of the area, mapping. In 1916, the Murmansk railway line and the port of Romanov-on-Murman (modern Murmansk) were built. This ensured the connection of the central part of Russia with the Kola Peninsula both by land and by sea.

The peninsula was actively involved in the events of the civil war in Russia. In addition to the confrontation between the White Guards and the Bolshevik forces, intervention from England and America began in 1918, in connection with which a large-scale partisan movement was organized under the leadership of the Bolsheviks. As a result, foreign troops were forced to leave the peninsula, the White Guards were also defeated, and Soviet power was established throughout the territory.
Since that time, the active industrial development of the region began. Forestry and fisheries were restored. Huge deposits of various minerals, including the richest reserves of apatite, have been discovered in the depths of the Khibiny. The development of these deposits contributed to the development of several industrial sectors at once - the production of fertilizers (in Kirovsk), non-ferrous metallurgy (in Monchegorsk).

During the Great Patriotic War, the line of the northern front passed along the Kola Peninsula. Fierce battles were fought on land and in coastal waters. Ground forces, aviation and the Northern Fleet suffered huge human losses, holding back the active onslaught of the enemy, preventing him from reaching the strategically important Murmansk. Through courage and heroism Soviet soldiers, The port of Murmansk worked without interruption, and the enterprises of the region supplied products for the needs of the front without stopping. The complete liberation of the Kola Peninsula took place in October 1944, and in honor of the heroism of the Soviet people in the north, a special medal "For the Defense of the Arctic" was established.

In the postwar years, the active industrial development of the Murmansk region continued, and today it is one of the most powerful industrial regions of Russia. In the Khibiny, more than 9 million tons of apatite are mined per year, logging and fishing are actively carried out on the shores of the Barents and White Seas, non-ferrous metallurgy is successfully developing in Kovdor and Monchegorsk, and a whole network of hydroelectric power stations and nuclear power plants is operating to meet the large demand of the peninsula for electricity. The Kola Peninsula today is still of great military and strategic importance. The Northern Fleet is based here with headquarters in Severomorsk, major ports providing direct access to the open ocean throughout the year. Recently, it has been actively developing ecological tourism, skiing. More and more residents of our country and foreigners are striving to explore the amazing nature of the Far North of Russia.

Business card

The hallmark of the Kola Peninsula is undoubtedly the amazing nature of the Russian North, harsh, but no less beautiful. On the one hand, there are endless tundras, lonely peninsulas with half-forgotten villages and a cold ocean beating into sheer coastal cliffs. And on the other hand, these are green river valleys immersed in dense forests, picturesque mountain passes and gorges hidden in the heart of the Khibiny, a fabulous northern lights in winter and long white nights in summer.

A trip to Kola really builds character. If you are not afraid of cold and wind, many hours of off-road driving with a constant risk of getting stuck away from civilization when you next try to overcome the ford and you like campfire romance on the coast of the White or Barents Sea, then we can say with confidence that you will be able to see the real Far North Russia.

Go to the Tersky coast - the surrounding landscapes are inspiring there, and under your feet - placers of amethyst brushes, shining in a variety of shades. And someone will certainly want to visit the most that neither is northern point Russia - Cape German or wander in silence through the ruins of military fortifications and trenches from the Second World War on the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas, marveling at the courage and stamina of people who defended their homeland in such harsh conditions. It will be interesting to visit the Sami reindeer herders at Seydoozero or Lovozero, ride reindeer sleds and feel the traditions of this ancient people.

People from different parts of our country go to Kola also for the sake of fishing and hunting. The most popular places: lakes Imandra, Big and Small Vudyavr, Umboozero, as well as the Kola, Tuloma, Varzuga, Teriberka, Umba rivers are rich in valuable salmon species, among which there are truly record specimens. And hunting for fur-bearing animals has been practiced on Kola since the first Russian settlements appeared on the peninsula.

And yet, for most tourists who have visited the Kola Peninsula, the Khibiny leaves the most vivid impressions. This is the oldest mountain range, in the depths of which there are huge deposits of iron ores, semi-precious stones and a wide variety of minerals, many of which are not found anywhere else on Earth. On the slopes of the Khibiny Mountains there are popular ski resorts that can please experienced riders with extreme slopes and wide snowy couloirs for off-piste skiing. Ecological trekking is also actively developing here - fascinating mountain hikes with overcoming passes of various categories of difficulty.

Those who go to the Kola Peninsula can hardly be called tourists. These are real travelers who are accustomed to weather surprises and difficulties on the road, those who value natural beauty above hotel service and familiar tourist entertainment.

Make it a must

Explore the Khibiny

This natural attraction is number one among many tourists planning a trip to the Kola Peninsula. The Khibiny mountains have always been full of mysteries. Previously unknown minerals are still being found here - of course, because this is the oldest mountain range, the geological age of which is more than 350 million years. Unique natural resources attract researchers from all over the world, the largest mines for the extraction of a wide variety of minerals operate here. Khibiny attracts no less interest among lovers of outdoor activities and ecotourism. On the slopes of the Khibiny Mountains there are the best ski centers in the North, climbing routes of various complexity, hiking to mountain lakes and rivers are organized.

Relax on Lake Imandra

Lake Imandra is called the pearl of the Kola Peninsula. Its shores are very picturesque and diverse - these are steep cliffs, and gentle sandbanks strewn with huge boulders, and in some places you can even find comfortable pebble beaches. This place is very popular among tourists. Here you can just relax by renting a house at the base, go fishing, go boating or go hiking in the surrounding forests for berries and mushrooms. And for those who love speed, adrenaline and adventure, there are many developed routes for rafting on rapids that flow into the lake, as well as opportunities for various types of kitesurfing at any time of the year.

Catch your "record" salmon

Even if you are not an avid fisherman, fishing on the Kola is a real thrill. More than 18,000 rivers flow on the peninsula, all of them are different in nature and the surrounding landscape, but they have one thing in common - the wealth of valuable species of fish that come to spawn from the Barents Sea. "Salmon" are mountain-type rivers with a rapid current and shallow, but long rapids. By the way, in order to overcome such a threshold, the salmon must have a strong tail fin, which helps it to jump up to 3 meters high! Not all representatives of the salmon family are capable of this, so only the best specimens rise into the rivers. The rivers Kola, Yokanga, Tipanovka, Kharlovka, Rynda are considered places for first-class fishing. It is absolutely possible to catch a truly huge fish here: reports are full of photos of the lucky ones holding 1.5 meters long salmon in their hands, the weight of which can reach up to 45 kilograms! So feel free to go for your personal record.

Look for amethysts on the Tersky coast

There are especially beautiful place on the Kola Peninsula - this is the Tersky coast - southeast coast White Sea. It was here that the first Russian settlements began to appear, which later became major centers of maritime trade and fishing - Umba, Varzuga, Kuzomen, Kashkarantsy. Nowadays, unfortunately, they look rather depressing, almost nothing reminds of their former prosperity. But the surrounding nature has retained its charm. There is a wonderful place here - Cape Korabl, famous for its colorful amethyst shores. Of course, now you will not find large amethysts worthy of the rings of royal people here. But everywhere there are plenty of natural souvenirs in the form of rock fragments with small crystals of various shades - pale pink, lilac, bright purple, blue or even black. Here you need to walk slowly, completely forgetting about the daily routine, just admiring the magical glow of the coast in the rays of the northern sun.

Wander the Kuzomensky Sands

How do you like the idea to visit the desert in the middle of the northern tundra? It sounds unrealistic, but when traveling around Kola, what you will not see! It is worth coming to the village of Kuzomen to be convinced of this. Getting here is not the easiest thing, but the local scenery is really some kind of fantastic. Instead of the usual rocky shores, there are endless red sands, every year getting closer and closer to the village itself. There is almost no vegetation, except that in some places there are bizarre trees standing on bare roots - it is the wind that blows the soil out from under them, turning them into fabulous characters from a dense forest. And don't be surprised if you meet here free-roaming Yakut horses. They were once brought to the village for collective farm work, but they preferred a free life, and now they roam here on their own.

Visit reindeer herders

The Saami are an indigenous people who have inhabited the Kola Peninsula since the second millennium BC. Since time immemorial, they have been engaged in reindeer herding, preserving the ancient traditions of handling these noble northern animals to this day. Today, tourists have the opportunity to visit the Saami reindeer herders by going on their own to the Lovozero tundra or by ordering an organized snowmobile tour. In any case, it will be an exciting adventure: you can watch or even take part in reindeer sleigh competitions, taste the best dishes of the national Sami cuisine. This is a very hospitable people, so if you want to stay for a few days, you will be offered to spend the night on warm reindeer skins in a chum - a traditional Sami dwelling.

Why and when to go

Walks in the cities of the Far North

When: Anytime during the year.

One way or another, you will begin your journey around the Kola Peninsula by arriving in one of the major cities. Most likely, it will be Murmansk, Kirovsk, Apatity or Severomorsk. These cities initially developed as large industrial centers or important strategic ports with year-round access to the open ocean. Therefore, you should not count on outstanding architecture or a rich excursion program here. However, it is definitely worth taking a walk and feeling the specifics of the harsh northern cities, and at the same time taking a run through the most popular attractions.

The hallmark of Murmansk, the main port city in the Arctic, is the famous Lenin icebreaker and the northernmost oceanarium in Russia. By visiting the first one, you will be able to look at the legendary nuclear reactor, which provided the vessel with a unique speed in the arctic ice. And in the aquarium you will find a wonderful performance with the participation of talented gray seals, ringed seals and the only trained sea hare in Russia. They perform clever tricks and even play musical instruments.

Severomorsk is still an important basing center for Russia's Northern Fleet. A huge K-21 submarine flaunts on the pier near the main square of the city, which gained world fame thanks to a series of successful military operations at sea during the Great Patriotic War. It was a real "ocean storm" that sank 17 enemy ships. Now the submarine has a permanent museum exhibition, and tours of the combat compartments are conducted.

Kirovsk and Apatity are located at the foot of the picturesque Khibiny mountains. Lifts lead directly from the city to the famous ski slopes of Aikuaayvenchorr and Kukisvumchorr. And nearby is the Polar Botanical Garden. N. Avrorina is one of the largest in Europe. Here you can look at the collections of plants from all over the world in huge greenhouses, as well as take a walk along the ecological path to the slopes of the Khibiny peaks to get acquainted with the northern flora in natural conditions. Fans of mineralogy should also visit the Geological Museum in Kirovsk, which contains unique samples of rare minerals and precious stones mined in the bowels of the Khibiny. If you come to Kirovsk in winter, be sure to visit the Snow Village. This is a whole city built of ice and snow. Interesting thematic events are held here, you can play hide and seek in the snow labyrinth and even hold a wedding ceremony in the solemn ice hall.

Visiting nature reserves

When: Year-round, the best time to visit is during the summer months.

You can get up close and personal with the interesting flora and fauna of the Far North of Russia by visiting one of the three nature reserves of the Kola Peninsula with an excursion. The oldest biosphere reserve in Russia, the Lapland Reserve, was created to protect the reindeer population. Today it is a unique corner of nature, uniting picturesque mountain landscapes, river and lake valleys and dense centuries-old coniferous forests. In addition to ecological routes to get acquainted with the flora and fauna of the reserve, tourists really like the excursion to "Fabulous Lapland" to visit Santa Claus.

The Kandalaksha Nature Reserve is one of the first and largest marine reserves in Russia, spread over more than 550 islands in the Barents and White Seas. Here is a real bird kingdom: during a tour of the archipelagos, you can see thousands of colonies of gulls, guillemots, cormorants and a wide variety of "flying". However, the most important inhabitant of the reserve is the common eider. This is a species of sea duck, whose down is considered very valuable. It was for the purpose of protecting eiders from mass destruction for commercial purposes that the Kandalaksha Reserve was created in the 30s of the 20th century. Excursions on a boat in the protected waters of the White Sea are popular: in addition to the "bird markets", you can see seals, sea hares, seals, and if you are especially lucky, then a flock of dolphins or beluga whales.

Pasvik is a nature reserve of international format, located on the border of Russia with Norway. This is a special place on the Kola Peninsula, where the forest-tundra meets the northern taiga, which determines the richness of flora and fauna. Here grow magnificent northern forests with centuries-old pines and many beautiful glacial lakes. The most popular tourist routes are visiting Varlam Island with the museum of the Norwegian explorer Hans Skonning and the border village of Rajakoski.

mountain trekking

When: The best time for climbing is from early June to mid-September.

The Khibiny are far from the highest mountains in Russia: the main peak of Yudychvumchorr has a mark of just over 1200 meters. However, this is a very picturesque and ancient mountain range, in the depths of which beautiful gorges and the purest lakes. Most of the Khibiny mountain passes have a difficulty category of 1A and 2A or are not categorized at all, so special equipment for climbing is usually not required, with the exception of passing through some gorges in winter. However, the hikers must be in good physical shape and ready for sudden changes in weather conditions, which is a common thing in the conditions of the northern climate, regardless of the time of year. For beginner climbers, many routes have been developed through the low passes of Ramsay, Geographers, Kukisvumchorr, Postman. More experienced athletes choose the Krestovy, Eagle's Nest, Shchel, Chorrgor North passes for climbing - their conquest requires more serious mountaineering experience and endurance. Also popular are routes to the Lovozero tundra (the highest point is Mount Angvundaschorr, 1127 meters high) with a visit to Seydoozero, sacred to the Sami people.

The most beautiful period for trekking on the Kola Peninsula is from late May to mid-July. At this time, the sun does not set below the horizon, and you can enjoy the amazing northern "white nights". They add a special romance to the already beautiful mountain landscapes.

Adventures

When: Anytime of the year, depending on your interests.

In itself, a trip to the Kola Peninsula is already a real adventure, a test of strength in harsh weather and off-road on the way to the most beautiful places in this amazing northern region.

Many rivers flow here, different both in landscape (plain, mountainous), and in speed of flow and the presence of rapids. This creates excellent opportunities for organizing a variety of water adventures: sports rafting, family rafting, recreational kayaking, kitesurfing. If you crave speed and have sufficient experience to overcome rapids of different difficulty categories, choose routes along the rivers Umba, Krasnenkaya, Kutsayoki, Tumcha. For calmer rafting, the Kola, Tuloma, Kolvitsa, Varzuga rivers, as well as the tributaries of Lake Imandra, are suitable. The best time for such trips is from late July to early September. Weather conditions are more or less stable, and there are many berries and mushrooms in the surrounding forests.

Traveling along the Tersky coast and to the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas will appeal to lovers of jeeping and extreme off-road driving. Some coastal villages are like ghosts: many houses are without windows, there are very few locals left, and there are even fewer tourists. This has its own advantage: you can enjoy the endless northern expanses, colorful rocky shores and bewitching landscapes of the harsh ocean. There is also the possibility of diving. For example, in the village of Dalnie Zelentsy on the shores of the Barents Sea, there is a diving school. True, getting here again is quite difficult without a reliable SUV. Alternatively, you can contact the instructors of the school in advance and arrange a transfer.

Popular options for winter adventures on the Kola Peninsula are various ski trips on frozen lakes and river valleys, as well as sports routes for experienced skiers in the mountains - to the gorges and passes of the Khibiny. March is considered the best time for ski tours on Kola.

You can also go on snowmobiles to Lovozero - get acquainted with the traditions of the indigenous people - the Sami and ride reindeer sleds. And if you are attracted by places shrouded in ancient mysticism and legends, go hiking to Seydozero. According to one of the legends, on the site of this lake there was once a highly developed ancient civilization of Hyperborea, destroyed as a result of some kind of natural disaster like Atlantis. Fragments of ancient buildings were even found at the bottom of the lake, and on land - traces of the existence of an old observatory, which has characteristic similarities with Stonehenge. The Saami consider the lake sacred, believing that it is guarded by the giant Kuyva, a legendary character in Saami myths. On one of the rocks surrounding the lake from all sides, its image is carved. For the Sami, this place inspires both fear and awe. Along the banks of the Seydozero there are many so-called "places of power" - ritual structures made of stones that have a special energy.

Fishing and hunting

When: throughout the year, depending on the place and purpose of fishing and hunting.

The Kola Peninsula is known throughout our country for its famous "salmon" rivers and extensive opportunities for salmon fishing, both independently and as part of specially designed tours. by the most popular place the Tersky coast of the White Sea is considered: it is from here that whole shoals of fresh and strong fish rise into the numerous lakes and rivers of the peninsula. The fishing season opens at the end of May and continues until September. However, the best time for salmon fishing is the period from the last week of May to the 20th of June. At this time, on the rivers Kola, Varzuga, Pana, Yokanga, Indel, Tipanovka, there are really huge specimens, weighing from 10 to 50 kg! However, experienced fishermen claim that salmon fishing requires special skill and knowledge. This is a very strong, smart and quirky fish that is able to jump out of the water for great height and always fights to the last - the more excitement the fisherman experiences from this fight. In addition to salmon, the coast of the Barents and White Seas, as well as reservoirs in the depths of the peninsula, are rich in cod, trout, grayling, pike, perch, burbot, pink salmon, whitefish and other fish species. So without a valuable trophy, you definitely won’t leave.

As for hunting, the spring season falls on the month of May, and the autumn-winter season opens from the second half of September and lasts until the end of February. It is allowed to hunt upland and waterfowl - partridges, ducks, geese, black grouse and capercaillie, fur-bearing animals, hare, it is forbidden - lynx and otter. However, for some animals the number of licenses is limited. For example, during the season only 40 licenses are issued for bear hunting, about 50 for elk, and there are also restrictions on shooting wolves and wolverines. It should be noted that for the lack of a license or violation of the rules of hunting, a fine of up to 4,000 rubles is levied.

Useful

How to get there

The Kola Peninsula is connected with the central and northwestern parts of Russia by air, as well as by a network of roads and railways. Airports are located in the cities of Murmansk and Apatity, they receive regular flights from Moscow and St. Petersburg. From the same cities, as well as from Minsk and Vologda, there are direct trains to Murmansk. A railway connection with Volgograd, Anapa and Adler is added to the summer schedule.

Suburban electric trains connect the main cities and towns within the region: large railway stations are located in Apatity, Kirovsk, Olenegorsk, Kandalaksha and Kolya. Cities and towns located far from the Murmansk railway can be reached by bus or private car. The main federal highway M18 "St. Petersburg - Murmansk" crosses the Kola Peninsula from south to north. Regular flights depart from Murmansk bus station to Kandalaksha, Umba, Varzuga, Teriberka, Kola and Titovka. From Olenegorsk by bus you can get to Monchegorsk, Revda and Lovozero. There is also an international bus service with Norway (bus Murmansk - Kirkenes) and Finland (flights Murmansk - Ivalo and Kandalaksha - Kemijärvi).

The state borders of Russia with Norway and Finland pass along the Kola Peninsula, therefore there are three international automobile checkpoints: "Borisoglebsk" - in the village of the same name in the Pechenga region towards Norway; "Lotta" - near the village of Svetly in the Kola region and "Salla" - near the village of Alakurtti in the Kandalaksha region towards Finland.

Time

Time on the Kola Peninsula coincides with Moscow.

Climate

The climate of the Kola Peninsula is very diverse, weather conditions can change dramatically at any time of the year. For example, thaws are not uncommon in winter, and unexpected frosts can occur in the summer months. Various climatic conditions characteristic of the sea coast of the Kola Peninsula, its central part and mountainous terrain. The northern coast is influenced by the Barents Sea with its warm currents. Most cold month here - February, when the thermometers drop to minus 12ºС, the warmest - July (+12-13ºС). In the central part of the Kola Peninsula, the climate becomes continental, which is characterized by relatively warm weather in summer and persistent cold in winter. When moving deeper into the region, there is a decrease average annual temperatures. In the mountainous region, it is already colder summer with average temperature in July + 10ºС and a rather mild winter (the minimum temperature in January is -13 ºС), and the most precipitation falls here. In winter, lingering blizzards are frequent, and in the summer-autumn period - rains, fogs and strong winds (up to 45-55 m/s). Snow falls already in October and completely melts only by the end of May, and in the mountains it does not lie until mid-June.

Another distinctive feature of the Kola Peninsula is the long polar days and nights. In summer, the sun does not set below the horizon for almost a month and a half, and in winter you can watch the beautiful northern lights.

Murmansk region in ancient times

The settlement of the Kola Peninsula occurred relatively recently - archaeologists attribute the discovered sites of Stone Age people to the 7th-6th millennium BC.
At the end of the 1st millennium AD, the territory of the Kola Peninsula was inhabited by the Saami. They led a nomadic lifestyle, lived in childbirth, fished, beat sea animals, and were engaged in reindeer herding.
In the 12th century, Russian coast-dwellers began to visit the White Sea coast. The chronicles speak of the fabulous riches of Murman: furs, fish, deer, sea animals.
They called this part of the peninsula the Tersky coast (from the ancient Scandinavian name of the Kola Peninsula "Trennes" - "Tersky Cape"). By the end of the 12th century, Russian Pomors were already sailing along the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula and reached Finmarken. The Russians called the Norwegians "Normans". The Norwegians themselves pronounced the word "Norman" a little differently, namely, "Murman". In the Russian sound, this self-name turned into "Murman". Of course, the name of the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula also came from "Murman". The Pomors called the Barents Sea the Murmansk Sea, since the path through it led to the country "Murman". Russian industrialists began to call the Terek coast not the entire coast of the Terek land, but only the White Sea part of it.
The first surviving evidence of the establishment of Russian power on the Kola Peninsula is contained in the Novgorod Chronicle under 1216.
Novgorodians, collecting tribute from the Saami, gradually expanded the area of ​​their activities. At the same time, the Norwegians also advanced from western Scandinavia to the northeast, into the lands of the Sami. They penetrated the Kola Peninsula and demanded tribute from the Terek Sams and Karelians, who were engaged in fur trade here. Armed clashes began to take place between the Novgorod and Norwegian tribute collectors. Novgorod the Great did not tolerate the hostile actions of the Murman. He considered any robbery of the inhabitants of the Kola Peninsula as an infringement of his own interests, the loss of part of his income.
In 1326, Norway and Novgorod signed a peace treaty. The Norwegians abandoned their claims to the Kola Peninsula and recognized it as the sphere of the predominant interests of Rus'.

Murmansk region in the XV-XVI centuries.

In the 15th century, Russians appeared on the peninsula as permanent residents. The appearance of the Russians not only contributed to the development of the region, but also ensured the protection of the indigenous population from the raids of Western conquerors. And in later times (in 1589-1591, in 1611, several times in the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century), Swedish and Danish troops, English pirates came to the land of Murman. They burned villages, robbed the population and monasteries, killed civilians.
The economic life of the population of the Kola Territory differed significantly from the life of the peasants inner Russia. There, in the feudal era, subsistence farming dominated. Engaged in arable farming and cattle breeding, the population attached to the land lived closed and inactive. Often, throughout their lives, the peasants did not go further than the surrounding villages.
Agriculture was almost non-existent on the Kola Peninsula. The inhabitants were mainly engaged in crafts. Commodity production prevailed. Commercial and industrial activity required a certain level of culture - the ability to keep records, make mathematical calculations, make deals, etc.
Russian North in the XVI - XVII centuries was not a deaf, isolated outskirts. Intensive international trade developed on the White Sea and Murman.

Murmansk region in the XVII-XX centuries.

In the XVI-XVIII centuries, the Kola Peninsula played a significant role in the Russian economy: fishing, navigation, trade with many European countries. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, the economic development of the region slowed down due to the opening of new trade routes in other regions of Russia.
In the 60s of the XIX century, intensive settlement of the Murmansk coast began. Mostly Finns and Norwegians settled on the west coast, Russians settled in the east.
On February 8, 1883, the Kola district was formed with the center in the city of Kola. For more than two centuries, the Murmansk Territory was part of the Arkhangelsk Governorate. At the end of the 19th century, in addition to fishing, hunting and cattle breeding, the first logging began on the Tersky coast. In 1898, the Umbsky sawmill was built and put into operation in 1899, which laid the foundation for the development of the timber industry on the Kola Peninsula.
In 1899, a new urban settlement and port arose in the Ekaterininsky harbor, which was given the name Aleksandrovsk (now the city of Polyarny). Alexandrovsk became county town, and the Kola district was renamed Aleksandrovsky.
In December 1914, a decision was made to build the Petrozavodsk-Murman railway. It was dictated by the need to receive military supplies from Russia's allies in the First World War. The railway was built in less than 2 years. At the same time, a commercial port was being built in the area of ​​​​the Semenovy Islands: from September 21 (October 4), 1916 - the city of Romanov-on-Murman, from April 3, 1917 - Murmansk.
In 1923, the Murmansk railway was turned into an industrial, transport and colonization plant, which included the Murmansk port. During the years of the New Economic Policy, this organization led the development of the region, developed industry and crafts. Sawmills, brick, woodworking factories were built. The plant was engaged in the extraction of fish, timber, mica, and trading operations.
On June 13, 1921, the Aleksandrovsky district of the Arkhangelsk province, which for almost 2 centuries included the Murmansk region, was transformed into the Murmansk province with the center in the city of Murmansk, and on August 1, 1927, the province was transformed into the Murmansk district and included in the Leningrad region.
There was an intensive exploration and development of the bowels of the Kola North, the mining and chemical, metallurgical industries and energy were developing. In the late twenties - early thirties, the development of the richest apatite deposits began in the Khibiny mountain range, a mining and chemical plant (PO Apatit) was built. In 1930, the first ore was mined at the mine, and in 1931, the processing plant, ANOF-1, developed its first product (in 1963 - ANOF-2, in 1988 - ANOF-3). The construction of the first hydroelectric power station of the Niva cascade - Niva-P made it possible to provide the energy base of the plant.
The formation of fundamental science on the peninsula belongs to the same period. In the winter of 1930, the Mountain Station of the USSR Academy of Sciences was located in the center of the Khibiny Mountains. Now it is the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In the mid-thirties, the construction of the largest fish processing plant in the country was completed, the hulls of the ship repair plant grew, the most important event was the construction of the Severonickel copper-nickel plant in Monche-tundra (the first nickel was obtained in 1939). An energy base was created. In 1936, the unified Kola energy system "Kolenergo" was created.
Created in 1933, the Northern Naval Flotilla was transformed into the Northern Fleet in 1937.
After the end of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, according to the peace treaty between the USSR and Finland West Side peninsulas Rybachy and Sredny moved away from Finland to Soviet Union and on July 13, 1940, this territory was annexed to the Polyarny district of the Murmansk region.

Murmansk region during the Civil War

After the news of the victory of the February coup on April 3, 1917, Romanov-on-Murman was renamed Murmansk.
The overthrow of the Provisional Government was supported by the democratic organizations of the region (Soviet, Tsentromur, Sovzheldor), which, at an emergency meeting on October 26, 1917, recognized Soviet power. On the same day, the chief commander of the Murmansk fortified region and the Murmansk detachment of courts Ketlinsky K.F. Thus, on the Kola Peninsula, Soviet power was proclaimed one of the most rarely encountered ways in the practice of the revolution - the resubordination of the bodies created by the Provisional Government to the new government.
At the same time, the British, French and Americans who were on Murman, refusing to cooperate with the Soviet government in the center, headed for interaction with the local authorities of Murman, providing them with fuel and food. The unifying factor was the threat to Murman from the Finns and Germans: enemy submarines operated in the Barents Sea, troops were concentrated in northern Finland.
Under such conditions, Deputy Chairman of the Murmansk Council A.M. Yuryev (Alekseev) turned to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs L.D. Trotsky with a request about the position of the center in relation to the allies. The latter gave a telegram allowing "to accept any assistance from the allied missions", which became the basis for the conclusion on March 2, 1918 of the so-called "Verbal agreement on the joint actions of the British, French, Russians in the defense of the Murmansk Territory."
On this basis, the landing of foreign troops begins on Murman. On March 6, 1918, units landed from the English cruiser Glory, on March 18 - from the French cruiser Admiral Ob. Somewhat later, the American ship "Olympia" anchored in the port of Murmansk, from which the US Marine Corps went ashore.
All this happened in conditions when on March 3 the central Bolshevik government signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in Brest-Litovsk and thus withdrew from the war. As a result (although this was not the only reason), the now former allies decided to support the anti-Bolshevik forces in the North. In June 1918, their joint actions led to a coup that separated the Murmansk Territory from Soviet Russia. In August, Murman became part of the anti-Bolshevik Northern Region with its center in Arkhangelsk.
In the Northern region, the authorities tried to build a democratic model of development, providing albeit limited freedoms, focusing on the restoration of private property and entrepreneurship. However, the attempt to find a "third way" failed.
In the autumn of 1919, the Allies leave the Russian North. The northern region, having lost its support, fell a few months later.
In the Murmansk region, the fall of white power occurred on February 21, 1920, after an armed uprising of workers and military personnel.
Soviet power was restored in the region.

Murmansk region during the Great Patriotic War

During World War II, the Kola Peninsula became the northernmost combat area. On June 29, 1941, two German and one Finnish corps launched an offensive against Murmansk (an auxiliary strike was launched in the Kandalaksha direction). On September 23, 1941, after the counterattacks of the Soviet troops, the front stabilized in the area of ​​the Western Litsa River. On the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas, cut off from the main troops, the Northern defensive region was created; it was defended by the sailors of the Northern Fleet. The port of Murmansk operated without interruption, serving allied convoys.
Summer 1942 - the time of the highest intensity of the fighting. German air raids were daily, often several times a day. The fiercest fighting, as a rule, was in the Murmansk region. "It's better to fly to London three times than once to Murmansk," said the German pilots. Murmansk belonged to the four strongest air defense points of World War II - two "L" (London, Leningrad) and two "M" (Murmansk, Malta). It was over Murmansk that German aviation suffered the most significant losses - up to 30% of all aircraft shot down in the Arctic. The city suffered greatly from air raids, more than 70% of the buildings were destroyed.
In three years, the enemy created a powerful defensive area more than 100 km deep, saturated with long-term structures.
On October 7, 1944, the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation began. The Karelian Front went on the offensive in the area of ​​the river. Zapadnaya Litsa, from the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas, he was supported by units of the Northern Fleet; troops landed at Liinakhamari. On October 15, Petsamo (Pechenga) was liberated; on October 22, the village. Nikel, units of the 14th Army reached the Norwegian border.
Having lost the Kola Peninsula and East Finnmark, the German command lost bases close to the routes of the northern convoys.

Murmansk region in the post-war years

Already in 1948, the level of industrial production in the Murmansk region caught up with the pre-war level. After the war, the construction of industrial giants continued in the region, around which new cities arose: Kovdor, Zapolyarny, Nikel, Polyarnye Zori. Olenegorsky (1955) and Kovdorsky (1962) mining and processing plants were built in the areas of development of iron ore deposits on the Kola Peninsula.
Early 1960s - the time of rapid energy construction in the Murmansk region. Entire cascades and individual hydroelectric stations were built.
In 1967, geological exploration of the largest Koashvinskoye deposit was completed. The total reserves of high-quality apatite ore in the Khibiny are about 4 billion tons.
In 1973, the Kola NPP gave its first current.
Today, the Murmansk region surprises with its contrasts. Industrial mining centers, such as Monchegorsk or Zapolyarny, coexist here with huge areas of fantastically beautiful nature untouched by man.

Seas.

In the western part there are the Khibiny mountain ranges (up to 1200 m high) and Lovozero tundras (up to 1120 m high). In the north - tundra vegetation, to the south - forest tundra and taiga.

Borders

Story

Physical and geographical characteristics

Geographical position

The Kola Peninsula is located in the far north of Russia. Almost the entire territory is located beyond the Arctic Circle.

In the north it is washed by the waters of the Barents Sea, in the south and east by the waters of the White Sea. The western boundary of the Kola Peninsula is the meridional depression, which runs from the Kola Bay along the valley of the Kola River, Lake Imandra and the Niva River to Kandalaksha Bay. The area is about 100 thousand km².

Climate

The climate of the peninsula is varied. In the northwest, warmed by the warm North Atlantic Current, it is subarctic marine. Towards the center, east and southwest of the peninsula, continentality increases - the climate here is moderately cold. Average January-February temperatures range from -8 °C in the northwest of the peninsula to -14 °C in the center; July, respectively, from +8 °C to +14 °C. Snow lies on average from mid-late October to mid-May (in mountainous areas from late September-early October to mid-June). Frosts and snowfall are possible in summer. Strong winds (up to 45-60 m/s) are frequent on the coast and mountain plateaus, and lingering snowstorms occur in winter. Due to the high humidity and strong winds, even slight frosts are extremely difficult to endure.

Hydrology

Many rivers flow through the Kola Peninsula: Ponoi (the longest river on the peninsula), Varzuga, Kola, Yokanga, Teriberka, Voronya, Umba and others.

There are a large number of lakes, the largest are Imandra, Umbozero, Lovozero.

Geological structure

In the western part of the Kola Peninsula, which has a dissected relief, the territory reaches greatest heights. There are separate mountain ranges with flat tops, separated by depressions: Khibiny and Lovozero tundra. Their heights reach 900-1,000 m. (397 m), consisting of separate chains stretched from northwest to southeast along the central part of the peninsula.

The Kola Peninsula occupies eastern part Baltic Crystal Shield, in geological structure which the powerful strata of the Archean and Proterozoic take part. The Archaean is represented by highly metamorphosed and intensely dislocated gneisses and granites, in places cut through by pegmatite bodies. Proterozoic deposits are more diverse in composition - quartzites, crystalline schists, sandstones, marbles, partly gneisses interbedded with greenstone rocks.

Minerals

In terms of the variety of mineral species, the Kola Peninsula has no analogues in the world. About 1000 minerals have been discovered on its territory - almost 1/3 of all known on Earth. About 150 minerals are found nowhere else. Place of Birth

The history of the legendary Russian settlements in the Arctic

Russia is a northern country. One fifth of its territory is located beyond the Arctic Circle. The regions of the Far North, and primarily their natural resources, provide 40% of our country's GDP.

The natural and man-made wonders of the Russian North are innumerable and amaze the imagination. For example, it is Russia that owns the world's longest road and rail bridges located in the Arctic. The first one - 2.5 km long - is located in Murmansk, it crosses the Kola Bay, built in 2005. The second - almost 4 km long - is located 1.5 thousand km to the east, on the Yamal Peninsula. This bridge was built in 2009 and crosses the Yuribey River, which flows into the Kara Sea.

The three largest polar cities of our planet are located in Russia - these are Murmansk, Norilsk and Vorkuta. But not everyone knows that Russian cities beyond the Arctic Circle have five centuries of history.

"Russian Planet" will tell about how and why Russian cities arose in the Far North and what role they played in the fate of our country.

From Pustozersk to Salekhard

The very first Russian city in the Arctic was founded by decree of Moscow Prince Ivan III in the autumn of 1499. In the spring of that year, more than 5 thousand Russian soldiers from Ustyug and Vyatka, under the command of the Yaroslavl princes Semyon Kurbsky and Peter Ushaty, set off on a campaign to the Yugra land, that is, beyond the Urals, to the lower reaches of the Ob River.

In Russian history, this polar campaign played the same role as the voyages of Columbus for Western Europe. It was then that Moscow discovered the incalculable riches of Siberia. The direct route to the east was still blocked by fragments of the Golden Horde, so the Russians had to go "meeting the sun" through the Far North.

The troops of Semyon Kurbsky and Peter Ushaty on river boats climbed up the eastern tributaries of the Northern Dvina and through portages on the territory of the modern Komi Republic reached the tributaries of the Pechora. At the mouth of this northern river, 100 kilometers from its confluence with the Barents Sea (about 650 km northeast of modern Arkhangelsk), on the shore of Lake Pustoye, Moscow troops founded a base for a further campaign - Pustozersky prison, which became the first city in Russian history beyond the Arctic Circle.

The Ustyuzhans and Vyatichi from the Russian army were the descendants of the Novgorod ushkuyns, well adapted to survive and act in the conditions of the northern winter. At the end of 1499, they left the newly built Pustozersky prison and crossed the mountains of the Polar Urals on skis, where the temperature drops to minus 55 degrees in winter.

During the campaign at the very beginning of 1500, in the lower reaches of the Ob, the Russian army founded another base - the Obdorsky prison. Now it is Salekhard, the only city in the world located directly on the Arctic Circle.

That winter, the troops of Semyon Kurbsky traveled a total of 4,650 miles across the ice and snow of the Far North. This is comparable to the distance that Christopher Columbus sailed from Europe to America. The third expedition of Columbus took place just at the same time as the campaign of Semyon Kurbsky, but if the Spaniards were waiting for a fertile climate Caribbean, then the Russians were met with frosts unprecedented even in the European north of Russia.

The main strategic goal of the campaign was the conquest of Yugra, the Khanty and Mansi tribes, so that they paid fur tribute not to the Kazan and Siberian khanates, but to Moscow. The fur of sables, ermines and silver foxes was then the most valuable commodity that the Moscow principality could offer for export. The army of Semyon Kurbsky conquered 58 local princes, they were sworn in to the Russian ruler - "to kiss according to their faith for the great prince."

Throughout the 16th century, Pustozersk was the largest trading center in the northeast of Russia. On the eve of the Time of Troubles, about 2 thousand people lived here, that is, by the standards of that time, it was a rather big city - and a real metropolis, when compared with the tiny settlements of the northern peoples.

The Pustozersky Epiphany Fairs were then the largest marketplace in the Russian North. Pomor merchants, merchants from the small peoples of the Arctic and even European merchants met here. There were three churches in Pustozersk, trading posts of English and Danish merchants worked.

In 1620, the first Romanov tsar, fearing Western expansion, banned European merchants from trading in Siberia. Trade with foreigners was allowed only in Arkhangelsk, and the trading posts of overseas merchants in Pustozersk were closed. From now on, the Polar City became a place of exile - it was here that the leader of the Old Believers, Archpriest Avvakum, spent 14 years in prison and was executed.

“Although the king has many lands…”

Simultaneously with Pustozersk, 800 kilometers to the west of it, on the other side of the White Sea, another polar center of Russian statehood arose - the Kola prison. It was first mentioned in 1517 in the charter of Grand Duke Vasily III, but the settlement itself arose earlier.

The Kola prison was built 200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle on the banks of the Kola River, at its confluence with the Kola Bay (10 km from modern Murmansk). "Kola" - this is how the Russian Pomors changed the Sami name "Kol'yok" ("golden or fish river"), giving the name not only to the northern city, but to the entire peninsula.

The Kola prison became the main outpost of Russia in the far north-west. In the 16th century, there was already a large trading port here, where Dutch, Danish and English merchants bought fish and furs.

Our country then did not have access to the Black Sea and the Baltic, so its main trading ports located in the North, in the area of ​​the White Sea. And it was the Kola fortress that defended them from claims from the west, it was Kola that determined the Russian borders in this region, because the lands inhabited by Russian coast-dwellers and small Sami reindeer herders were then claimed by Sweden and Denmark (which then owned all of Norway).

In 1598, the Danish government tried to force Russia to give up the entire Kola Peninsula. The ambassadors of the Danish king offered Tsar Boris Godunov to cede the peninsula for 50,000 thalers (one and a half tons of silver), a huge amount for those times. The Russian representatives at the negotiations answered with dignity: “Although the tsar has a lot of lands, he will not give up his property to the king if he offered him 10 times more ...”.

In 1599, the Danish king Christian IV with a large squadron personally sailed to Kola and demanded that the inhabitants take an oath of allegiance to him. But Danish claims met with a decisive rebuff.

During the 16th century, Kola was attacked several times by the Swedes and once by the Danes. In the next century, in 1611 and 1623, the city was again besieged by the troops of Sweden and Denmark, therefore, by order of Moscow, the northern city was well fortified. The walls and towers of the Kola fortress carried numerous cannons capable of repelling an attack both from land and from the sea.

In the middle of the 17th century, there were 49 archery regiments in Russia. One of them, numbering 500 fighters, served as a garrison in Kola. At that time it was a very large garrison and the largest polar army in the world.

During the war between Peter I and Charles XII, the Swedes again unsuccessfully tried to capture Kola. The last time the Kola prison withstood an enemy attack was already during the years of the Crimean War. By that time, it had already lost its military and strategic importance - there were no guns in the city, and its garrison, the "disabled team", consisted of only 40 soldiers with outdated flintlock guns.

In August 1854, English ships approached Kola and demanded to surrender the city (the text of the British ultimatum is still kept in the archives of the Arkhangelsk region). The small garrison and the inhabitants of the city refused to surrender. The British shelled the city for several days, British cannons destroyed almost all the houses, ancient walls and towers of the Kola prison, as well as the Resurrection Cathedral - a masterpiece of Russian wooden architecture of the 17th century, the largest and old building throughout the Kola Peninsula.

However, thanks to the actions of the city militia, the British landing force did not succeed in gaining a foothold in Kola.

"Gold-boiling Mangazeya"

The third large polar city in Russian history was the legendary Mangazeya, the main center of the Siberian fur trade in the 17th century. It was founded in 1601 on the banks of the Taz River, 180 kilometers from the coast of the Arctic Ocean, on the territory of the current Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Krasnoyarsk Territory.

The name Mangazeya comes from "Molgonzeya" - this is how the Russians have long called the small northern peoples of Western Siberia. In the Komi-Zyryan language, "molgon" means "final", "extreme" (on the edge of the earth near the Arctic Ocean). That is, "Mangazeya" is the same as "Ukraine", only in Siberian.

It is noteworthy that among the 200 Cossacks and archers who founded the Mangazeya prison, there was Savluk Pushkin, a distant ancestor of the famous Russian poet. At the beginning of the 17th century, the “boyar son” Pushkin was for several years the “Mangazeya head”, that is, the governor of the new polar prison.

Mangazeya quickly became the center of fur production and the fur trade, which brought huge incomes to the Russian state. The archives preserved data that only in 1629 in the Mangazeya district, in the territory from the mouth of the Ob to the mouth of the Yenisei, 85 thousand sables were mined.

In 1635, 200,000 sables, 10,000 silver foxes and 500,000 squirrel skins left Mangazeya for Moscow. It was fantastic money - in trade with foreign merchants, the price of a sable then reached from 5 to 20 rubles per skin, while a good house cost 10 rubles, and an average horse - 2 rubles. The fur of silver foxes then cost more than gold, the best specimens reached a price of 70 rubles per skin.

In some years of the 17th century, the fur trade passing through Mangazeya provided half of the income of the entire treasury of the Muscovite kingdom. Therefore, the polar Siberian city was unusually rich, contemporaries called it "gold-boiling" for a reason. Here, beyond the Arctic Circle, the windows in the town's huts of simple artisans were covered with mica, as in the best houses in Moscow. The city had its own self-government, several thousand “industrialists” lived here permanently, engaged in the extraction and buying up of precious sable furs.

The city was surrounded by high wooden walls and towers (up to 12 m high), it was decorated with four churches, including the Trinity Church, the highest in Siberia in the 17th century. There was no danger of an attack by an external enemy at Mangazeya, so the garrison was almost 10 times smaller than in Murmansk Kola - only 65 archers.

In the era of great geographical discoveries, Mangazeya was the most populous and richest settlement on our planet from those located beyond the Arctic Circle.

From Dudinka to Chukotka

It was the Cossacks from Mangazeya who were the first among the Russian people to reach the Lena River in the 20s of the 17th century. Soon, in 1635, just on the Arctic Circle, on the left bank of the Lena, Cossacks-pioneers founded the Zhigansk winter hut.

Zhigansky prison became the northernmost stronghold of explorers of the 17th century. From here, the Cossack half-hundred Ivan Rebrov in 1638 was the first of the service people to reach the Indigirka River in the north-east of Yakutia. However, Russian people have lived here for more than half a century: one of the channels at the mouth of the Indigirka was called “Russian mouth”. The descendants of Novgorodians who fled during the destruction of the city by Ivan the Terrible lived there. These fugitives mingled and intermarried with the Yukaghirs, the most ancient natives of the north-east of Siberia.

In 1641, the Cossacks of Semyon Dezhnev reached the Oymyakon area, which is now known as the Pole of Cold of our planet. Oymyakonskaya valley is the most harsh place on Earth, where man lives permanently. One of the absolute minimum temperatures is recorded here - 64 degrees below zero.

In the same 1641, the Cossacks, under the command of the "son of the boyar" Ivan Rodionovich Erastov, having sailed through the waters of the Arctic Ocean, reached the mouth of the Alazeya River - and today an almost deserted river 1.5 thousand kilometers long, flowing between Indigirka and Kolyma. On the banks of the Alazeya, the Cossacks of Erastov, 300 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, founded the Alazeya prison. Here, for the first time in Russian history, they met with the Chukchi, then the most warlike of the northern peoples.

Surrounded by a palisade and wooden towers made of larch, Alazeya prison as a Russian settlement beyond the Arctic Circle between Yakutia and the Kolyma Territory existed for more than two centuries, until in 1884 a smallpox epidemic killed half of all people in the 400-kilometer space between Indigirka and Kolyma. The northern nomads who lived in isolation partly survived, and the Russian population living in the settlements then died out almost completely.

But let's go back to the 17th century, in the era of great geographical discoveries. In the summer of 1643, Semyon Dezhnev's Cossacks discovered the Kolyma River. The pioneers climbed up it and founded the Kolyma winter hut, which later became a large prison Srednekolymsk - a stronghold of Russian power in these places. In 1644, Dezhnev founded another prison, later called Nizhnekolymsky. Both prisons were located in the Arctic.

In 1648, it was from the mouth of the Kolyma that Dezhnev's Kochi ships went to sea and, having rounded Chukotka, opened the strait between Asia and America. In 1649, they founded the polar Anadyr prison, which later became a base for the war with the Chukchi. Militant Chukchi repeatedly besieged this prison, which in the 18th century had the largest garrison in the Far North of Russia - several hundred soldiers and Cossacks. Other northern peoples - Yukaghirs and Koryaks - supported the Russians in the war with the Chukchi, as they constantly suffered from their predatory raids.

Simultaneously with the discovery of Chukotka by the Russians, the Cossacks from Mangazeya, in search of precious furs for the royal treasury, founded the Dudino winter hut. Now it is the polar city of Dudinka, the northernmost international seaport of Russia, located on the right bank of the Yenisei at its confluence with the Kara Sea.

The first mention of the Dudino winter hut is found in the documents of Moscow orders for 1667. In winter, the frost here reaches -50 degrees, and the temperature stays above zero for only four months a year.

From Romanov-on-Murman to Norilsk

Murmansk, today the largest city located beyond the Arctic Circle, was founded exactly 100 years ago. It also became the last Russian city founded during the Romanov dynasty.

The First World War gave birth to this polar city. The fighting blocked all the Baltic and Black Sea ports of the Russian Empire. Vladivostok was very far away, cargo from it had to be transported through all of Russia, and the port of Arkhangelsk was blocked by the ice of the White Sea for five months a year.

And only on the Kola Peninsula, thanks to the warm Atlantic Gulf Stream, even to the north of the Arctic Circle, there were bays that did not freeze throughout the year. At the same time, the shores of the Kola Peninsula were separated from the capital of the Russian Empire by less than 1,000 miles - eight times closer than to Vladivostok.

Therefore, exactly a century ago, in the summer of 1915, a new port began to be built not far from the ancient Kola prison. A year later, on October 4, 1916, the newborn port and village were named Romanov-on-Murman - this very day is considered the official date of the city's foundation. The name was given to him in honor of the ruling dynasty of Russia and the ancient name of the Kola Peninsula.

Simultaneously with the creation of the city and the port in 1915-1916, there was an urgently built railway from Petrozavodsk to Romanov-on-Murman. Hundreds of miles through the taiga and tundra were 150 thousand Russian peasants, German prisoners of war and hired workers, "coolies" from China, employed in the construction of the road.

However, the road to Murmansk was completed only at the very end of 1916, shortly before the revolution, and the last city and port of the Romanov dynasty did not play a decisive role in the First World War. But during the years of the Great Patriotic War, in its most difficult period, it was the port of Murmansk that had the most important strategic importance.

The polar port not only withstood all the German bombardments (185 thousand bombs fell on Murmansk in 1941-1944), but also gave the country and the front more than 2 million tons of military cargo, which arrived by sea convoys from the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. During the most difficult period of the war, in 1941-1942, almost half of Lend-Lease deliveries reached our country through Murmansk.

The second and third polar cities in the world in terms of population are also Russian cities— Norilsk and Vorkuta. Both of these cities appeared already in Soviet times, in the 30s of the XX century. And both at the very beginning of their existence were created by prisoners of the Stalinist camps.

But the convicts were sent beyond the Arctic Circle not out of senseless cruelty, but out of severe necessity - on the eve of World War II, the resources and minerals that the Russian land of the Far North is so rich in were vital for the country.

Vorkuta is located on the western slopes of the Urals, 80 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and 450 kilometers east of the former Pustozersky prison, the first Russian city beyond the Arctic Circle. "Vorkuta" in the language of the Nenets tribes - "bear river". The settlement here arose in 1938 precisely as a camp for prisoners for the extraction of coal.

The coke and anthracite of Vorkuta, necessary for the metallurgical industry and thermal power plants, played a strategic role during the Great Patriotic War. At that time, Vorkuta in the Soviet media was symbolically called the "polar stoker". When the enemy captured the Donbass, it was Vorkuta coal that became the main source of fuel for the industry of the European part of Russia to the west of the Urals (to the east, coal was provided by the Kuznetsk basin). It is no coincidence that Vorkuta is the only settlement that officially became a city in the midst of the Great Patriotic War, on November 26, 1943.

The city of Norilsk is located in the very north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory - on the Taimyr Peninsula, 250 km above the Arctic Circle. The name of the city was given by the Norilka River, whose waters flow through lakes and other rivers into the Kara Sea. Back in the 17th century, it was in the region of Norilsk that the inhabitants of the Mangazeysky prison mined copper. By Siberian standards, the Mangazeya prison was located not far from the current Norilsk - only 400 kilometers to the south-west.

In 1935, the construction of a large mining and smelting plant began here. Already during the war years, the Norilsk plant began the production of strategic metals - nickel, copper and cobalt.

“There is no armor without nickel” - so they said then, it was this metal that made the T-34 armor invulnerable. Artillery is impossible without copper - cannon cases are made of copper alloys, and each artillery shell (333 million of them were made in the USSR during the war years) is equipped with a "guiding belt" made of an alloy of nickel and copper for stability in the rifling of the barrel. Cobalt was indispensable in armor-piercing shells, it was he who gave the necessary strength to alloys that pierced enemy armor. And Norilsk gave the country these metals.

History itself proves to us that without the northern cities there would have been neither the Great Victory of 1945, nor Russia itself.

ancient history

Human history in the Kola North goes back several millennia. Its early stage is known from the discovered archaeological sites, which allow us to conclude that ancient people inhabited the Kola Peninsula in waves starting from the 8th-7th millennium BC. e.

The first tribes of hunters came from Scandinavia and settled in the territory to the west of the Kola Bay (see Arctic Paleolithic). The tribes of the next wave of the Neolithic period (IV-II millennium BC), who came from the Volga-Oka interfluve and settled along the banks of rivers and lakes of the inner part of the Kola Peninsula, were engaged in hunting, fishing, animal trade, and pottery ( see Pit-Comb Ware culture). In the era of early metal, the Kola Peninsula received a new wave of newcomers, probably from the Northern Urals (see Asbestos ceramics culture; Oleneostrovskiy burial ground).

The mixing of the latter, who had a Mongoloid appearance, with the old, most likely Caucasian, population led to the formation of the Sami Finnish-speaking people, who settled on the Kola Peninsula and in the northern regions of the Scandinavian Peninsula (Finnmark). The Norwegians called them "terfinns" (from the name of the peninsula "Ter", or "Tre"), in Rus' - "lop", "lops".

"Novgorod period". The emergence of the "Lapland dispute"

The "Land of the Lapps" (Lapland) remained unknown to Europeans for a long time. The inhabitants of Northern Norway (Halogland Island) were the first to learn about it. The Norwegian navigator Otar (Oter), who committed in the 2nd half of the IX century. swimming in the White Sea, spoke about the desert of the Kola Peninsula, where "only in a few places do terfins live, who are engaged in hunting, fishing and catching birds."

Promotion in the direction of the Kola Peninsula also came from the Novgorod land, the market of which, like the market of the Norwegian Halogland, was constantly in need of new goods. Novgorod boyars organized expeditions to the North for furs, fish, seal fat, walrus tusk. In the XI century. Novgorodians reached the White Sea, and in the XII century, apparently, the Kola Peninsula. So, the chronicle tells about the Novgorodian Ulyb, who in 1032 with his people reached the White Sea, however, "few of them came" back.

Following the merchants and industrialists, representatives of the Novgorod authorities came to the Kola North, imposing tribute on the Saami (in the annals under 1216, the “Terek tribute-taker” Semyun Petrilovich, a tribute collector from the Terek land, is mentioned among the Novgorodians). The advance of the Novgorodians for tribute deep into Lapland, to the west, pushed them against the Norwegians ("Murmans" in the ancient Russian chronicles), who also claimed the right to collect tribute from the "Lapps". Thus, the "Lapland dispute" arose in relations between Novgorod and Norway.

The first attempt at a settlement, undertaken in 1251 (see Rune (Differentiating) Charter by Alexander Nevsky), led to the establishment of Lapp duality (payment of tribute to 2 states at once) and the actual creation of a common Norwegian-Novgorod district, including Finnmark and the Kola North. At the same time, over time, spheres of predominant influence developed: Finnmark - Norwegian, Kola Peninsula - Novgorod.

The compromise was due to the lack of strength on both sides to resolve the issue in their favor, which gave rise to uncertainty about the state status of the lands, accusations of violating the terms of the agreement, and periodic clashes in the region.

However, from the thirteenth century The Tersky coast (Tre) firmly entered the number of Novgorod possessions (volosts), which were regularly mentioned in the treaties of Novgorod with the Grand Dukes (the first - 1265).

The desire of Ancient Novgorod to expand its influence in Lapland, caused both by its economic attractiveness and the desire to strengthen contacts with Western Europe through it, intensified its onslaught on the northern lands, especially at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th centuries, when the raids of the Russian-Karelian-Sami detachments on Finnmark became permanent (1271, 1279, 1302, 1303). So, in 1323, such a detachment penetrated Halogoland on ships and burned the estate of the ruler of Norway, Bjarkei.

The Norwegians responded to this by building in 1307 the fortress Vardegaus (Russian name - Vargav) and the intensification of the missionary activities of the Catholic Church among the pagan Saami.

The transition of a significant part of the Saami of Finnmark to the bosom of Catholicism (which largely determined the ideas of that time and state affiliation) and the lack of forces forced Ancient Novgorod to abandon its offensive policy and conclude the Norwegian-Novgorod Treaty (1326), according to which the old boundaries of spheres of influence were restored . Although this agreement was sometimes violated (see Dvinskaya land; Valit), in general, until the 16th century, the "Lapland dispute" was in a latent phase.

The colonization movement of Russian people to the North led to the appearance of first temporary, and from the 15th century. permanent settlements (Korelsky churchyard, Umba, Varzuga) on the Kola Peninsula (mainly on the Tersky coast). Due to the small number of the Saami and the large area of ​​fishing grounds, which does not create competition for them, the settlement of the Tersky coast took place without noticeable clashes with the locals.

The main wave of colonization in the Kola North came from the Novgorod land. This is evidenced by some features of the dialect of the Pomors of the Tersky Coast, recorded by linguists in a later period. So, in the local dialect, one of the features was "clatter" (replacing the sound "ch" with "c"), for example, "tselovek" instead of "man", characteristic of Novgorodians. There was also the name of the southwestern wind here - "shelonik", used by the Novgorodians to designate the wind blowing against the river. Sheloni.

The "launching pad" for the colonization of the Tersky coast was Pomorie, which by the beginning of the 15th century. was well mastered by the Novgorodians.

Russian settlers (see Pomors) brought with them a more complex system of social relations than that of the Saami, which also influenced the development of the Saami society. Through the exchange of goods with the Russians, metal products, fabrics, fishing gear, etc. came to the Sami economy, production skills, elements of Russian culture were borrowed, religious ideas began to change, and individual ownership of fishing lands was born.

"Moscow" period

In 1478 the Kola North, as part of the Novgorod land, became part of the Muscovite state. During this period, until the 2nd half of the 16th century, it actually did not have its own administrative center. The management of the Sami territories was carried out by tribute collectors, who, according to the letter of Vasily III to the tribute collectors in the Lop land (1517), collected tribute from local Lapps and carried out trials for serious crimes (theft, murder).

The Russian volosts of the Kola Peninsula, located on the Tersky coast and in the west of the peninsula (Umba, Varzuga, Porya Guba, Kandalaksha, Kovda, Knyazhaya Guba), were under the control of the governor of the Dvina land, who sent the Dvinians here, who farmed the collection of taxes from the state Pomeranian population ("the tenth fish") and carrying out legal proceedings for minor offenses. The disordered relations between tax-farmers and local peasants led to conflicts between them and complaints from the inhabitants of Keret and Kovda against the visiting Dvinians. This forced the central authorities to issue to the peasants, on behalf of the Grand Duke Ivan IV, two letters of commendation (February 16 and 20, 1542), which established a single period (from early February to mid-March) for the arrival of the Dvinians in Kovda and Keret to administer justice. At the same time, legal proceedings could be considered competent only if there were kissers elected from the peasants at the court.

And yet, the payoffs gave the Dvinians great opportunities for abuse. It was the Dvina tax-farmers (P. V. Bachurina and others), who sought to retain their right to collect taxes from the Pomeranian volosts, who provoked a pogrom (“Basargin pravezzh”) of significant territories of Pomorye by Basarga Leontiev’s oprichnina detachments (1568), during which the villages also suffered Kola Peninsula - Varzuga, Umba, Kandalaksha, Porya Guba. After the pogrom, the territory of the Tersky coast was transferred to the oprichnina lands, and then again returned to the Dvina district.

With the creation of the Kola jail (1584) and the establishment of the Kola voivodship (1582), the administration of the region moved to the city of Kola, where the relevant bodies were settled - the governor, the staff of clerks, moving out and the zemstvo hut (from the 17th century).

The main occupations of the peasant population of the Pomeranian volosts were sea and river crafts. Initially, it was the prey of a sea animal (see Spring fishing; Hummock fishing; Seal fishing), but from the 2nd quarter of the 16th century. fishing began to develop on Murman, which was carried out on special vessels - karbas (later - shnyaks) with the help of long gear - tiers, which ensured high productivity.

Peasants were also engaged in salt production: according to the cadastres of the 2nd half of the 16th century, 7 salt pans operated in Umba, 44 in Keret, and 12 in Kovda (1563); However, at the end of the sixteenth century Salt production in the Kola North almost completely passed into the hands of the monasteries.

The lack of conditions for arable farming (needs for grain were met by imports from outside) led to the fact that only horticulture developed on the territory of the peninsula.

The peasants disposed of the fishing grounds, forests and hayfields within the framework of the so-called system. onion ownership, in which the unit of taxation was "onion" - a certain fishing area. The relatively free disposal of "bows" (they could be sold, rented out) formed, albeit very weak, sprouts market relations.

In the middle of the XVI century. on the Murmansk coast, a sea fishing industry arises, which originally developed in Eastern Murman, where Pomor industrialists from the volosts of the Kola North, as well as Pomorye and Podvinya, came annually in the summer. Later, for catching cod and herring (the most favorable season for this was April and May), industrialists by land through the Karelian coast, Lapland and the Kola Bay from the end of winter began to get to Western Murman (Motka Peninsula). The need for a long stay at the fishing grounds led to the emergence of temporary fishing settlements - camps. The camp consisted of several fishing huts, where the fishermen themselves were located, as well as fishing equipment, and special cellars (sky) for salting, drying and storing fish. According to the scribe book of Alai Mikhalkov, there were 21 camps in Western Murman, and 50 in Eastern Murman.

Each camp was designed for 2-3 fishing artels, each of which consisted of 3-4 industrialists and several assistants from among minors (zuiks). At the beginning of the XVII century. up to 300 artels with a total number of up to 1200 industrialists worked on the Murmansk coast. The vast majority of industrialists did not have their own ships and fishing gear and acted as stalkers of wealthy coast-dwellers. Pokrut as a form of labor organization in the fields and a socio-economic phenomenon was widespread in almost the entire Russian North.

On the Tersky coast, herring fishing developed, which was carried out by the inhabitants of Kandalaksha, Knyazha Guba, Kovda, Porya Guba and Umba. The catch reached 17-20 thousand centners at the end of the 16th century and 35-40 thousand centners by the end of the 17th century.

From the middle of the XVI century. first Norwegian, Danish and Dutch, and then English merchant ships began to come to Murman to buy fish. Bargaining arose in the area of ​​the Kegor camp (Rybachy Peninsula). Later it was moved to the area of ​​the Pechenga Monastery and the camp of Korabelnoye (Kildin Island), and from the late 1560s to Kola. The emergence of international trade in Murman contributed to the rise of the economic life of Pomorie: the opportunity to profitably sell fishery products to foreign merchants increased the production of furs, fat, and fish.

Another auction in the middle of the XVI century. in the Kola North existed in the Kandalaksha region. Here, according to the report of the Finn Nousia, merchants from Pomerania came to buy fish, especially salmon.

The competitive struggle among foreigners at the Murmansk market made the fish, fish oil, bacon, furs, salmon and down sold by the Pomors more expensive, so Russian merchants (the first were the Stroganovs) began to send other goods here (linseed oil, hemp, honey, wax, and etc.). Foreigners, in turn, brought cloth, weapons, metals and metal products, gold jewelry, gunpowder, tools, paints, paper, sugar, dry fruits, spices, mirrors to Murman. As a result, trade on Murman reached a significant size in a short time.

From the end of the 1560s, the center of international trade moved to Kola, which had a more favorable geographical position (it was closer to Kandalaksha than other villages, which allowed the industrialists of Pomorye to keep their yards here and go fishing in a timely manner) and more protected from the attacks of sea robbers. If in 1574 there were 44 courtyards, then in the early 1580s - already 71, the population exceeded 400 people.

The main occupations of the inhabitants of Kola were sea fishing and serving the needs of visiting industrialists (repairing ships, providing their own services in the fishery as spinners, renting residential and utility premises to visitors).

The transfer of the center of international trade in 1585 to Arkhangelsk did not lead to the decline of Kola, the city still remained the center of the sea fishing industry not only in the Kola North, but throughout Pomorie. Foreign merchants (mostly Dutch and Danes) also continued to come, who bought up the harvested commercial products in Kola - herring, cod, blubber, etc.

The process of development of the Kola North by Russian settlers was accompanied by the process of spreading Christianity among the Lapps. The reason for this was not only the desire of individual missionaries and church hierarchs to spread Orthodoxy among all subjects of the Muscovite state, but also the need for power to gain a foothold through religion in the Kola North, to create obstacles to encroachment on these lands by western neighbors (Denmark and Norway).

The first news of the spread of Christianity dates back to the beginning of the 16th century. So, in 1526 and 1533, at the request of delegations of Lapps who arrived in Moscow (the first from Kandalaksha Bay, the second from the Kola and Tuloma rivers), Archbishop Macarius of Novgorod sent priests to them, who baptized many Lapps and consecrated 3 churches (the Nativity of John the Baptist, the Annunciation and Nicholas the Wonderworker).

Following this, the efforts of preachers Theodoret, who preached in the Kola Peninsula in the 1530-1550s, who acted in the area of ​​the Kola and Tuloma rivers, and Tryphon, who settled in the area of ​​the river. Pechengi, and the rest of the Sami adopted Orthodoxy. This success was consolidated by the construction of the Pechenga Monastery in the middle of the 16th century, which became not only a means of establishing Orthodoxy, but also a sign of the presence Russian state in the most disputed northwestern region of the Kola North bordering Finnmark. The Borisoglebskaya Church, built in 1565 on the r. Paz by Tryphon himself and continued to exist even after the monastery itself was moved to the Kola prison.

The basis of the patrimonial land tenure of the Pechenga Monastery was the lands of local Lapps, transferred as contributions, which in 1581 was confirmed by a charter of Tsar Ivan IV, according to which the Motovsky and Pechenga Lapp graveyards were transferred to the possession of the monastery. By the middle of the XVI century. also applies to the appearance of the Nativity of the Most Pure Theotokos (Kokuev) monastery in Kandalaksha.

A distinctive feature of the economic activity of the Kola medieval monasteries, which distinguished them from other northern monasteries, was the almost complete absence of a serf population. According to the census books of the Kola district, in 1646-1647 there were 6 (by 1678-1679 - 3) households of beavers behind the Kandalaksha monastery, and 9 behind the Trifono-Pechenga monastery.

Along with local monasteries, monasteries of other regions of the North (mainly) and the center of Russia operated in the Kola North (see Monastic colonization of the Kola North). As a rule, they acted here as patrimonials, acquiring land from peasants and Lapps in various ways, and did not take part in the Christianization of the Sami population of the Kola North.

The Solovetsky Monastery was the first to come to the Kola North, which in 1469-1470 received from the posadnik Marfa Boretskaya a fiefdom "from the Umbsky borders, from the Kashkaran stream to the Red Slit" as a gift. Later, lands in Umba are transferred as contributions from peasants. As a result, in the 1570s the monastery in Umba had 11 bows, 2 salt pans and a mill. He also had "bows" in other volosts - Kandalaksha, Kereti, Porya Guba, Varzuga. By 1586, there were 356.5 "bows" in his possessions (41% of all volost lands).

The farmstead of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery was also located in Umba, which owned 5 (in 1578 - 32) exempted under the granted tarkhan letter of Tsar Ivan IV from paying taxes "bows" along with the peasants. Among the estates in the Varzuzhskaya volost there were other monasteries - Antonievo-Siysky (45.5 "bows"), Nikolo-Korelsky (30.5 "bows"), Novospassky (in 1614 - 134 "bows", 25 yards), Patriarchal house (in 1619 - 267 "bows", 61 yards).

From the end of the 16th century the lands of the Terek Lapps also fall into the patrimony of the monasteries. In 1581, the Trinity-Sergius Monastery received half of the river. Ponoy, Antoniev-Siysky monastery in 1618-1626 acquired the territory of the sea coast from the river. Pyalitsa to the river. Ponoi and half of the river. Yokangi.

Despite the repeated prohibitions of the authorities to acquire the lands of the Lapps, the buying up of lands by monasteries and the granting of lands continued in the 2nd half of the 17th century. By the end of the XVII century. about half of the territory of the Kola North was in the possession of the church. The acquisition of Sami lands by monasteries provoked resistance from the Sami. For 100 years, the Songel and Notozero Lapps fought against the Kola-Pechenga Monastery for the right to dispose of the land themselves.

At the same time, the creation of large monastic estates in the Kola North did not lead to the emergence of serf relations. Peasants and Lapps retained personal freedom, although they were forced to take part in sea and river fisheries together with monastic workers, receiving a certain share of the catch for this.

The development of crafts and trade in Murman again attracted the attention of its neighbors. Since during the XIV-XV centuries. Norway, like Novgorod, which became part of the Muscovite state, gradually became part of Denmark, former disagreements over the Kola Peninsula moved to a new level in the 16th century. the "Lapland dispute" resumed already as a conflict between the Danish and Muscovite states (see Danish attacks). The struggle, both armed and diplomatic, lasted over 40 years (1580-1620), although it never resulted in a formal treaty; after 1623 the Danes did not attempt any more attacks. In fact, the collection of tribute from the Saami, who ceased to be double-data, also ceased to exist. Finnmark went to Denmark, the Kola Peninsula was preserved by the Russian state.

Almost simultaneously, Sweden also made claims to the Kola Peninsula (as well as to Finnmark). First, in 1589-1591, and then in 1611, a series of Swedish attacks followed (see Swedish attacks) on Kola, Kandalaksha and the Pechenga Monastery, however, without achieving results, the Swedes each time were forced to abandon their claims to the Kola Peninsula. The delimitation of the territory led to the fact that the Saami graveyards of North Karelia (Rebolsky volosts) moved to the Kola district and continued to remain in its composition throughout the 17th - early 18th centuries.

Thus, Kola region became part of the territory of Russia. However, a strict state border with Denmark, and then with Sweden (which successively included Norway) was not established. Formally, the delimitation was made only in 1826 (see the Russian-Swedish convention "On the borders between Russia and Norway in the Lapland churchyards").

Kola region in the 17th - early 20th centuries.

The Kola North, being a remote northern outskirts of the Moscow state, practically did not experience the social and political cataclysms that erupted in the central regions of the country. However, the economic consequences of the Time of Troubles affected Murman. After the census of the taxable population conducted by the scribe Alai Mikhalkov and the clerk Vasily Martemyanov in 1608-1611 in the Kola district, the taxes of the townspeople, peasants and Lapps were increased several times.

However, the western and part of the southern volosts of the Kola North in 1613-1615 were also affected by the attacks of the Cossack detachments, which were international in composition, which ravaged Kandalaksha (see Thieves' raids).

The center of the Kola North in the 17th - early 18th centuries. continued to remain under the departmental subordination of the order of the Novgorod quarter (from 1607 - the Novgorod order) Kola prison. After 1625, about 2.5 thousand people lived in it, the main role among which was played by hard-working townspeople and archers.

A significant part of the population of the Kola district was made up of peasants of Pomeranian volosts (Keret, Kovdy, Knyazha Guba, Porya Guba, Kandalaksha). In the 17th century in the peasant environment, an increasingly noticeable process of property stratification is observed. All large group peasants are beginning to be bobyls - the poorest part of the peasantry.

The category of Cossacks, who constituted the lowest stratum of peasants, who did not have their own economy and lived through employment in the yards of wealthy peasants or Pomor industrialists and monasteries, was associated with the stratum of beans.

The peasants were also obliged to pay taxes ("the tenth fish", "streltsy money", etc.) and perform duties: to serve the needs of clerks, archers of the Kola prison and all kinds of state envoys ("pit chase"). Sovereign envoys and clerks often abused their position, demanding more from the peasants, which often led to conflicts.

Conflicts similar to the Streltsy unrest of 1698-1699 also arose with the governors of the Kola district, who often abused their position (see Anti-voivodship speeches). An equally serious clash with the townspeople and peasants of the Kola district occurred in 1702-1704, when the harsh measures taken by the governor D.I. .), caused retaliatory resistance and a stream of petitions, as a result of which he was removed from office.

The economy of the monasteries in the Kola North also continued to develop. The Kola-Pechenga and Kandalaksha monasteries became one of the largest suppliers of salt (in the 2nd half of the 17th century, the Kandalaksha monastery had 5 salt pans, the Kola-Pechenga - 2) to the markets of large cities in the North of Russia (Kholmogor, Arkhangelsk, Vologda). So, in 1646-1616, more than 400 tons of salt were sent to the salt market of Vologda by the Kola-Pechenga monastery, and about 540 tons by Kandalaksha.

Both monasteries received material assistance (rugu) from the state, which at the end of the 17th century amounted to. for the Kandalaksha monastery 23.7 rubles, and for the Kola-Pechenga - 50 (from 1688 for the latter it was replaced with natural - 120 quarters of bread).

However, at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. the economy of the monasteries is going through a crisis in connection with the transfer of the marine monastic trades to the tax-farmers and the decline of salt production in the Kola North, caused by the appearance on the market of better salt-Permyanka.

National transformations of the beginning of the XVIII century. did not pass by the Kola North. In 1708, the Kola district became part of the newly formed Arkhangelsk province. After the abolition of the position of governor in 1713, the commandant became the head of the region, who was in charge only of the soldiers. The affairs of the civilian (posad) population were transferred to the bodies of city self-government. Still overcome the detachment of the edge from the center state power failed. The provincial center Arkhangelsk was connected with Murman only by sea, and even then mainly in the summer. The main role in the Kola region was played by the local administration.

At the beginning of the Northern War, Peter I, fearing a counterattack by Sweden, made an attempt to strengthen the North (including rebuilding the Kola prison), but after gaining access to the Baltic Sea, his attention to the North sharply weakened.

The founding of a new capital and a new port - St. Petersburg - caused significant damage to the economic development of the Russian North in general and the Kola North in particular. The administrative redirection of trade flows through the new capital by establishing a protective customs tariff led to a sharp decrease in trade through Kola (and Arkhangelsk as well).

The period of reforms of Peter I meant for the population of the Kola Peninsula, as well as for the whole country, not only a significant increase in the state tax burden, but also a weakening of those shoots of market relations that began to emerge in the 16th-17th centuries. The introduction of capitation taxation and the egalitarian principle of land use in 1718, which meant the transfer of land into the possession of rural communities, led to the loss of the right to individual disposal and gradual, during the first half of the 18th century. cessation of land trading.

The coast-dwellers and the opportunity to freely sell the products of the fishery were lost. In 1704, the government handed over the cod and fur trades of the North to A. D. Menshikov's Company, as a result of which the industrialists could sell their goods either directly to the consumer or to the Company's buyers. The inability to engage in trade directly forced the fishermen to give their products to the monopolist-buyer at a lower price, while the Company immediately, on Murman, resold it to foreigners. Although in 1722 Peter I, seeing that the Company did not provide the expected income to the treasury, abolished the monopoly, later similar attempts were made more than once with the same result for the treasury. Be that as it may, the monopoly meant a loss of income for fishermen, which, coupled with increased taxes, led many of them to ruin.

In the 1730s-1740s, the development of minerals began for the first time in the Kola North: silver and copper mines (near the village of Ponoy) were discovered on Medvezhiy Island near Porya Guba, where serfs were sent. However, the enterprises did not work for long and were closed.

During the reform period of Catherine II, the rejection of a significant part of the restrictions on maritime business activities (the abolition of the monopoly on maritime industries in 1765-1768, fees from maritime crafts and industrial premises in 1775, the cessation of collecting duties from ships and people coming to the Murmansk coast, to fish and fur trade in 1780) and the support of Alexander I for the creation of the White Sea fishing company on Murman somewhat revived the commercial and industrial life in the region, but did not lead to fundamental changes in the life of the Kola North. In the eyes of the Russian public, it remained a remote, uninhabitable outskirts, suitable for use only as a place of exile. Hence - the withdrawal of all artillery from the city of Kola to the Solovetsky Islands and the gradual reduction of the military garrison, which led to the fact that at the beginning of the nineteenth century. only a small team of soldiers remained in the city, consisting mainly of invalids.

The government clearly underestimated the degree of external threat: after Russia joined the "continental blockade" of England declared by Napoleon in 1807, the latter, without declaring war, undertook a number of hostile acts against it, including raids by the English navy to the coast of the Kola Peninsula. ova in 1809-1810 (see English attacks). The destruction of the city of Kola and the destruction of the property of the White Sea fishing company (followed by its collapse) led to an almost complete cessation of trade with foreigners on Murman, followed by the closure of the Kola customs gate. True, Kolyans received the right to duty-free export of bread to Norway to be exchanged for fish.

However, the experience gained did not change the attitude of the Russian authorities towards the Kola region. Evidence of this is the voluntary cession of the territory of Nyavdemsky and part of the Pazretsky churchyards during the establishment of the official border with Norway in 1826 (as part of Sweden, see the Russian-Swedish convention "On the borders between Russia and Norway in the Lapland churchyards") and the refusal to strengthen the Kola garrison. The consequence of such inattention was both the new defeat of the city of Kola during the Crimean War of 1854-1855 by the Anglo-French squadron, and the further decline of the region. Even the Kola district was liquidated, becoming part of the Kem.

The reforms of the 1860s-1870s practically did not affect Murman, where there was no landownership and serfdom. However, favorable conditions opened up for the activity of private capital led to the appearance on the Kola Peninsula of Umb, Kovd and other sawmills and the Arkhangelsk-Murmansk Express Shipping Company.

There are also some signs of increasing state attention to Murman (especially clearly during the reign of Alexander III, who patronized the North): in 1883 it was again allocated to an independent county, the development of local infrastructure began - the organization (together with private capital) of steamship communications, the construction of a telegraph, financing of fishing science (Murmansk Biological Station and the expedition of N. M. Knipovich), restoration of the Trifon-Pechenga Monastery.

In the 1890s, the government even considered a project to build a military port in the Kola Bay, initiated and authored by Russian Finance Minister S. Yu. Witte, who personally made a trip to Murman. However, due to the death of Alexander III, the idea could not be realized. True, in memory of his father, Nicholas II in 1899 founded a new city, Aleksandrovsk, on the shores of the Ekaterininskaya harbor of the Kola Bay, which became the county center and commercial port, but its development was very hampered by the lack of regular communication with the hinterland of Russia.

At the beginning of the twentieth century. Nicholas II expressed the desire to build a railway to Murman - to complete "Russia's great journey from ocean to ocean - from Vladivostok and Port Arthur to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk", but the lack of funds did not allow this project to be implemented until the First World War. In order to stimulate the economic life of Murman in 1868, benefits were established for persons wishing to move here (colonists), a free customs zone was introduced for local residents, and duties on essential goods imported from abroad (free port regime) were abolished. All this created the prerequisites for the accelerated colonization of Murman, a significant contribution to which was made not only by residents of the northern regions of Russia (Arkhangelsk, Olonets provinces, etc.), but also by Norwegian and Finn colonists (see Norwegians on Murman).

However, even with the government encouraging the colonization of the Murmansk coast in 1914, only 13 thousand people lived on the territory of the Kola Territory.

Kola North during World War I and Civil War (1914-1920)

The First World War, which began in 1914, in which Russia also participated, radically changed the position of the Kola Territory on the geopolitical map of the world. The impossibility for Russia's allies in the Entente (England, France, and later the United States) to supply it with strategic goods along traditional routes made it necessary to pay attention to the North, in particular to Arkhangelsk. However, due to the lack of year-round navigation on the White Sea, the question arose of the need to reorient cargo traffic to Murman through the non-freezing Barents Sea, which, in turn, raised the question of building the Murmansk railway. Thanks to the significant resources spent on the project, the railway was built in the shortest possible time - in 1915-1916. Both the construction of the road and its operation dramatically accelerated the development of Murman.

At the same time, a commercial port was built on the shores of the Kola Bay to receive allied ships, which went into operation in 1915, and in 1916 a new city, Romanov-on-Murman, was founded.

Following the allies, warships and submarines of hostile Germany appeared in the northern waters, to protect against which the Russian government had to create, and almost from scratch, a new naval formation - the Arctic Ocean Flotilla (1916). Warships are sent here (the cruiser Varyag, the battleship Chesma, etc.), headquarters are being set up in Arkhangelsk, and naval bases are being set up in the Kola Bay and on the river. Yokange. Allied warships, especially the British, are also invited. To ensure constant communication with Europe, the Alexandrovsk-London cable was laid along the ocean floor.

The abdication of Nicholas II from the throne in March 1917 had a noticeable effect on the life of the Kola North, where local political and professional organizations (soviets, trade unions) arose. Since the economic situation of Murman was much better than other regions of Russia due to the supply of food and fuel by the allies, the new organizations did not set the task of fighting the authorities, but were inclined to find a compromise with it.

In September 1917, by order of the Minister of the Navy, the post of Chief Commander of the Murmansk Fortified Region and the Murmansk Detachment of Ships (Glavnamur) was established, to which Rear Admiral K. F. Ketlinsky was appointed. He managed not only to establish contact with the Murmansk Soviet and other democratic organizations, but also to continue cooperation after the transfer of power to the Bolsheviks in October 1917. Having recognized Soviet power, Glavnamur retained all his powers.

The compromise between Glavnamur and the Soviet was based on a common political platform, expressed in a joint appeal by K.F. Averchenko of November 4, 1917, which called for an end to the fratricidal struggle, the establishment of a strong central government and the speedy conclusion of a democratic peace "under the obligatory condition of close unity with the allies."

The desire for a compromise persisted for some time after the assassination of K. F. Ketlinsky (January 28, 1918), the position of Glavnamur was replaced by the People's Collegium, established specifically for this purpose, from representatives of the Council and trade unions.

The course of the central government to exit the war through a separate agreement with Germany was contrary to the ideas of the Murmansk authorities, which were closely connected with the allies (especially food supplies), but the Council continued to compromise tactics, maintaining contact with both those and others. For some time, its implementation was facilitated by the half-heartedness of the policy of the Soviet government, which was trying to maneuver between the factions that continued the war: when the Murmansk Soviet asked People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs L. D. Trotsky about the possibility of accepting additional allied assistance, he suggested that the Murmansk authorities "accept any assistance from allied missions." On the basis of this permission, on March 2, 1918, the Murmansk Soviet concluded with the Allies, who considered it necessary to protect their military depots in Murmansk from their possible capture by Germany, the so-called "Verbal Agreement" on the provision of military and material assistance by them, but without the right to interfere in the internal affairs of Murman.

Even after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany on March 3, 1918, the center continued its maneuvering policy for some time, which allowed the Murmansk Soviet, on the one hand, to agree to the landing of military units of the allies on the territory of Murman (the first landing force landed from the English cruiser Glory on March 6), and on the other hand, not to interrupt contacts with the Soviet government.

However, the exhaustion by June 1918 of the center's maneuvering capabilities, which forced it to follow the terms of the Soviet-German treaty, on the one hand, and its inability to counteract the landing of German troops in Finland that threatened the interests of the Allies and the onslaught of the Finns on the border regions of Murman, on the other, forced the Murmansk leadership, refusing to from the tactics of compromise, to make a choice in favor of maintaining contacts with allies.

In this regard, on July 6, the Murmansk Regional Council (chairman A. M. Yuryev) signed the so-called. A temporary agreement with the allies, which meant a break with the center.

After the creation in August 1918 of the anti-Bolshevik Northern Region with its center in Arkhangelsk, the Murmansk Territory became part of it. The originally preserved autonomy and the Murmansk Regional Council were liquidated in the autumn of 1918, their place was taken by the zemstvos and the city duma.

Since the interests of the allies concentrated primarily on continuing the war with Germany, and support for the anti-Bolshevik forces was considered a secondary task, the end of the First World War reduced their interest in supporting the Northern Region, which, moreover, failed to realize its part of the plan to create a blockade ring around Soviet Russia by connecting with the army of A. V. Kolchak, nor independently ensure a successful armed struggle against the Bolsheviks. Realizing the futility of the anti-Bolshevik struggle in Russia, the Allies evacuated their troops from the North in the fall of 1919.

Left without the help of the allies, the anti-Bolshevik government, realizing its inability to maintain control over the entire territory of the Northern Region, tried to gain a foothold in Murman, hoping to get help from Finland. On February 2, 1920, the Supreme Government of the Northern Region created an independent Murmansk province, which never took shape. The offensive of the Red Army and the expansion of the rear led to the natural fall of the Northern Region in the last decade of February 1920, on February 21 an uprising took place in the city of Murmansk, which completed the history of "White Murman".

The Murmansk Territory came out of the Civil War dilapidated, with a population suffering from hunger and epidemics.

Kola region in 1920-1939

The continued diplomatic isolation of Soviet Russia even after the victory in the Civil War forced it to make concessions to the West. That is why in 1920 the Soviet government decided to transfer to Finland the northwestern part of the Kola North - the Pechenga region.

The unfavorable foreign policy situation also affected the administrative status of the border Murman: the territory of the former Murmansk province (Northern region) was divided into 2 counties (Murmansk and Kemsk) as part of the Arkhangelsk province.

But even under these conditions, it was necessary to recreate local authorities here. The solution to this problem was carried out in difficult conditions: unlike most regions of Russia, the apparatus of Soviet government in the Kola North had to be created virtually from scratch: a small number of administrative structures in the county before the revolution, frequent relocation of the administrative center (Kola, Aleksandrovsk, Murmansk), constant reorganization of the system administration during the years of the revolution and the Civil War and the increased level of population migration did not contribute to the formation of the necessary bureaucratic traditions here.

However, already in February-March 1920, the Murmansk organization of the RCP(b) was created (the first leader was F. S. Chumbarov-Luchinsky) and a committee of the RCP(b) with the rights of a county was elected.

The most significant problem in the creation of the first local bodies - the uyezd committee of the RCP (b) and the executive committee of the uyezd Soviet - in the early years turned out to be the low qualifications of Soviet employees. Thus, out of 107 employees of the Murmansk district executive committee in 1920-1921, only 17% had a secondary education, 68 had a primary education, and 15% had no education at all. Only less than half (46%) before joining the county executive committee had at least some work experience in various institutions, 26% were engaged in agricultural or fishing work in the past, 16 were workers, 6% went to work in the Council from military service. The vast majority of managers (75%) came from peasants.

Gradually, the Soviet government began to develop A New Look to the Kola Arctic, increasingly considering Murman as an important source of resources needed to strengthen the economic foundation of Soviet Russia.

In the State Plan for the Electrification of Russia in 1920, it was supposed to turn the European North into an industrially developed region through the discovery and development of minerals here, the construction of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises, the chemical and fishing industries, power plants, and most importantly, the development of commodity exchange with foreign countries was to fall on Murmansk, which how the port would compete with Petrograd.

The realization of such significant prospects for the development of Murman naturally led to the creation in 1921 of an independent Murmansk province. This both expanded the functions and powers of local party and Soviet bodies, and complicated their internal organizational structure. In May 1921, the creation of the Murmansk Provincial Committee of the RCP(b) was proclaimed, its secretariat was elected, and its structure was approved.

Although part of the planned began to be implemented from the beginning of the 1920s, the state did not have the resources to fully implement the plans. In addition, the introduction in 1921 of the NEP, which was focused on the priority restoration of the peasant economy, diverted funds from industrial development, which was predicted for Murman with his non-agricultural economy. Nevertheless, the NEP measures had a stimulating effect here too: the abolition of the state monopoly on fisheries, exemption from the tax in kind created favorable conditions for the restoration and development of industry. In the Murmansk province, old sawmills (in Umba and Kovda) and new sawmills (in Kandalaksha and Khibiny) were restored, the first cannery in Kandalaksha, and a brick factory in Shongui.

In addition, a breakthrough in the diplomatic isolation of the USSR and the resumption of trade between Russia and Western countries led to the revival of the work of the Murmansk commercial port and the Murmansk railway. Striving for the comprehensive development of the territory, the government in May 1923 created the Murmansk transport, industrial and colonization plant (director A. M. Arnoldov), the basis of which was the Murmansk railway. The Kola ports were revived (in Kovda, Umba, Kandalaksha). Steamships with English coal, Egyptian cotton, American tractors and machine tools went to the Kola Bay. At the same time, caravans began to travel from Murmansk to the mouths of Siberian rivers.

Main industry National economy edge in the 1920s remained fisheries. In 1924, the Northern State Fishing Trust was established, which became the basis of the Murmansk fishing industry. The trawl fleet was transferred from Arkhangelsk to Murmansk, which began to be replenished with foreign-built trawlers.

The question of the prospects for the development of Murman was closely connected with the intra-party political struggle that unfolded after the death of V. I. Lenin. Since the world revolution, backed by a powerful army created on the basis of the accelerated development of the military-industrial complex, was considered by the "left opposition" as the main goal, it insisted on the redistribution of funds in favor of the development of industry. The leaders of non-agricultural Murman (the first secretary of the gubernatorial committee of the CPSU(b) I. M. Zhdanov, the chairman of the gubernia executive committee V. M. Melnikov, and others), who wanted to receive as much money as possible from the state for the development of the region, turned out to be on her side. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why in the course of the struggle against the opposition in 1927 the Murmansk province was reorganized into the Murmansk district of the Leningrad region.

However, despite the lowering of the administrative status of Murman and the loss of the remnants of former independence by the local administration, this change, firstly, contributed to a significant influx of funds for the development of the Kola Territory, and secondly, by bringing the northern outskirts closer to the center, not only strengthened the administrative guardianship, but also strengthened the local apparatus with qualified officials. Many party and economic leaders were sent to work in Murmansk from Leningrad.

The participation of Leningrad in the development of the Murmansk District was significant in the sense that hundreds of specialists came to Murman from it: scientists, geologists, engineers and economists. The Leningrad institutes developed projects for enterprises, equipment, and settlements.

In the late 1920s, industrialization began on Murman. In the course of the transformations, the technical base of the maritime industry has been significantly updated. The ports of Murmansk and Kandalaksha (which were part of the system of the Murmansk transport, industrial and colonization plant) received new equipment: floating and coastal cranes, powerful winches, cars and tractors, a floating dock; an icebreaker and 3 tugboats cruised in the Kola Bay; coastal enterprises were built - the first workshops of a fish processing plant, a shipyard, a cooperage plant.

In the 1930s, the Northern Sea Route turned into a permanent transport route. This problem began to be solved especially actively after the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route ("Glavsevmorput") was created in December 1932, headed by Academician O. Yu. Schmidt. Murmansk became the extreme western base for the development of the Arctic: it was from here in August 1933 that the icebreaker "Chelyuskin" left for the campaign.

Industrialization also had an impact on the central regions of the peninsula, where, thanks to the achievements of geological science, new mineral deposits were discovered in the Khibiny and Lovozero tundras, in Monchetundra. On the basis of explored reserves, new industries were formed and enterprises were built: the Apatit, Severonickel, Nivskaya hydroelectric power plants and many others. others

Thereby Natural resources The Kola Peninsula ensured close attention of the center to it, which made it possible to attract significant labor resources to the sparsely populated and unsuitable for life Far North. True, this problem was solved not so much by establishing material benefits for those wishing to work in the Far North, but by forcibly sending prisoners and dispossessed peasants from southern regions countries. It was they who made up the majority of the population of Khibinogorsk, Nivastroy, the state farm "Industriya" and a number of others. However, even among those who resettled voluntarily, a significant part were those who moved to the North by force: many peasant families left their villages for the North to "earn money" not of their own free will, but to escape the repressions of collectivization. Workers recruited in the middle lane also came (from the Vologda, Pskov, Penza, Vladimir and other regions) and specialists (by order or voluntarily) from Leningrad, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, etc. Workers' settlements and cities arose around industrial enterprises.

Following industrialization, the collectivization of fishing and reindeer farms in the Kola North began. The first associations of Pomors appeared here in the early 1920s; these were cooperative organizations, with the help of which credit funds were provided in the camps and settlements of the Murmansk and Tersky coast, motor vessels were purchased, fishermen were supplied and the fish caught was sold. In 1929, mass collectivization began on the coast of Murman, followed by complete collectivization: by 1936 more than 30 collective farms had been created, in which 2,500 fishermen were united. When creating collective farms, the principle of voluntariness was often violated, administrative methods of involvement were used, local conditions were not always taken into account and National composition population. Nevertheless, thanks to the long experience of artel work, a part of the fishing collective farms quickly gained strength (in Varzuga, Kuzomen, Ura-Guba).

Collectivization significantly changed the life of the Terek Pomors and Murmansk colonists: the volume of fishing increased (if in 1930 63 thousand centners were caught, then in 1932 - 164 thousand), fishermen began to live better (the wages of collective farmers amounted to 250-270 rubles per month) , clubs, libraries, schools, hospitals appeared in villages and camps. The life of fishermen included electricity, radio, gas and books. At the same time, the repressions of the 1930s caused significant damage to the fishing industry, when dozens of collective farm chairmen, brigadiers, and motorboat captains were arrested and shot.

Simultaneously with the collectivization of fishing farms in the Murmansk District, reindeer-breeding collective farms and state farms began to be created. The first wave of unification took place in 1928-1929 in the Lovozero district, however, as soon as the reindeer herders went to the tundra in the summer, all collective farms practically disintegrated. During the second wave of collectivization in the spring of 1930, 14 artels were created, uniting almost all reindeer herders in the eastern part of the peninsula (Ponoisky district) and half of the population of the Lovozersky district. The largest collective farms were Tundra in Lovozero and Sever in Ponoi.

Collective-farm construction in the tundra regions, as well as on the coast, was carried out by administrative-command methods. There was a desire to socialize all the deer in order to immediately create large artel herds. And yet, by the end of the 1930s, reindeer-breeding collective farms and state farms began to gradually grow stronger: herds and incomes grew, along with reindeer breeding in the villages, they began to engage in fishing, farming, and breeding sheep and pigs. The way of life of reindeer herders, who switched to a settled way of life, changed. Entire collective farm settlements appeared. Reindeer herders began to receive salaries both in money and in natural products. The living conditions of the Saami have improved.

The repressions of the 1930s did not bypass the tundra either. In 1938, in the Lovozero and Saami districts, so-called. "Sami conspiracies", as a result of which many leaders (the Artiev brothers, N. Gerasimov, I. Osipov, etc.) were shot.

The influx of population to the Kola North required the organization of healthcare, education and culture institutions here. The needs of growing industrial enterprises for qualified personnel led to the organization of secondary specialized educational institutions (the Murmansk Fishing Technical School, the Kirov Mining Technical School), and the rapid growth in the number of children (in 1939 - almost a third of the entire population of Murman) posed the problem of providing the region with teachers, which led to the establishment of a pedagogical technical school and teacher's institute in Murmansk.

In order to study the resource base of the Kola Peninsula and the seas surrounding it, a network of stationary scientific institutions, including the Polar Branch of the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, the Kola Base of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography.

Thus, as a result of industrialization, collectivization and cultural transformations, by the end of the 1930s, a powerful heavy industry had grown on the Kola Peninsula, sea and rail transport was reconstructed, and a reliable energy base was created. The transformation of the Kola North into an economically developed region of the country became a prerequisite for a change in its administrative status; in 1938 it was transformed into an independent region - the Murmansk region.

The importance of the Kola North also grew in terms of the country's defense capability. The Soviet leadership, realizing the inevitability of the impending war, tried to draw lessons from the First World War, in which the significant geopolitical role of the European North was manifested. All this forced the authorities to engage in the militarization of the region, which until the early 1930s was practically not guarded. In 1933, the Northern Military Flotilla (since 1937 - the Northern Fleet) was formed on Murman, the choice of the location for which was personally made by I. V. Stalin.

The fortification of the land borders of the Murmansk region began, which, in particular, was connected with the mass deportation of "foreigners" (especially Finns and Norwegians), who were considered "politically unreliable element", carried out in the summer of 1940 on the orders of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria.

The organization of military structures on the Kola Peninsula ensured close interaction of civil authorities with them, which was very successfully manifested later during the Great Patriotic War.

Murman's economy in 1920-1939:

The Kola North was also affected by the Soviet-Finnish war that began in November 1939, although the outcome of the war was decided to the south, where the main forces of the Finns were concentrated and where the Soviet offensive met with serious resistance from them. On Murman, where there was a relatively small enemy grouping, the Soviet troops (Northern Fleet, two divisions) quickly managed to capture the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas and take Petsamo (Pechenga).

Under the peace treaty concluded with Finland, the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas were returned to the Soviet Union, which was extremely important, since they were a convenient springboard that allowed them to control both the Kola and Pechenga bays.

Murmansk region in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)

Defense of the Soviet Arctic

In the plans for the war of Germany against the USSR, the capture of the Kola Peninsula was given great attention, since the Nazi command was aware of the strategic importance of the northern sea lanes of the USSR and the Kirov railway.

The Scandinavian bridgehead created by Germany, on the one hand, was a source of strategic raw materials for the military industry, and on the other, a means of concentrating the forces of the Wehrmacht.

Military operations in the Murmansk direction, in accordance with the additions to the Barbarossa plan - the Blue Fox and the Black-Brown Fox - were supposed to lead to the capture of the cities in the shortest possible time. Murmansk and Kandalaksha, the naval bases of the Northern Fleet, the cessation of the functioning of the Kirov railway.

By June 1941, the German command concentrated significant forces under the command of N. Falkenhorst in Northern Norway and Finnish Lapland: in the Murmansk direction - the mountain rifle corps "Norway" (27.5 thousand people, commander E. Dietl); on Kandalaksha - the 36th corps (40 thousand people, commander Feige) and the 3rd (Finnish) corps; from the sea - the ships of the naval group "Nord"; from the air - aircraft of the 5th Air Fleet (commander G. Stumpf).

The enemy troops were opposed by significantly smaller units and formations of the 14th Army of the Leningrad Military District (from the beginning of the Second World War - the Northern Front) under the command of Lieutenant General V.A. Frolov (14th and 52nd divisions in the Murmansk direction, 104 1st and 122nd - on Kandalaksha, 1st Panzer Division), Northern Fleet (commander Rear Admiral A. G. Golovko), 1st Mixed Aviation Division.

In the course of offensive operations in the Murmansk direction on June 29 - July 20 and September 8 - October 18, 1941, German troops, after stubborn battles in the area of ​​the Titovka and Zapadnaya Litsa rivers, accompanied by landing operations of the Northern Fleet, were stopped 60 km west of Murmansk.

Defensive battles in the Kandalaksha direction went on July 1-10 and from August 19 to mid-October 1941 and also ended with the stabilization of the front line at the "Vermana line" 90 km west of Kandalaksha.

During these battles, the defenders of the Arctic managed to defend the main part of the Kola Peninsula, ensuring the freedom of action of the Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea, navigation of ships along the Northern Sea Route, the possibility of a sea route for northern convoys and the functioning of the Kirov railway.

Tankers of the crews of A. M. Borisov and A. M. Gryaznov, pilot L. I. Ivanov, infantryman I. F. Danilov, soldiers of the Polar Division, gunners of the 6th "heroic" battery of the 143rd artillery regiment 14 distinguished themselves in defensive battles th division.

Since the autumn of 1941, the front line has stabilized and, despite individual attempts by the enemy through local operations, the largest of which was the Murmansk offensive operation in the spring of 1942, to change it, retained its configuration until the autumn of 1944.

In positional battles, the role of aviation was very important. Soviet pilots, such as B. F. Safonov, V. P. Balashov, N. A. Bokiy, I. V. Bochkov, S. G. Kurzenkov, P. G. Sgibnev and many others, did a lot to create an effective defense line defense and disruption of enemy traffic flows on land and at sea.

Great damage was done to the enemy by surface and submarine forces of the Northern Fleet. They not only managed to defend the coast and their naval bases, but also ensured the escort of a significant part of the northern convoys in the western sector of the Arctic, and disrupted the enemy's maritime traffic in the Norwegian Sea. The merits of submariners are especially great: F. A. Vidyaev, M. I. Gadzhiev, I. A. Kolyshkin, N. A. Lunin, I. I. Fisanovich, G. I. Shchedrin and others.

A partisan movement became part of the general struggle against fascism, within the framework of which 2 partisan detachments were created from the inhabitants of the region: "Bolshevik of the Arctic" (commander A. S. Smirnov) and "Soviet Murman" (commander S. D. Kuroyedov).

Home front activities

Wartime required huge mobilization efforts from the rear, for which at least a partial restructuring of the control system in the direction of its centralization became necessary.

The remoteness of the region, poor communications, the busyness of the central government structures in solving common issues significantly increased independence in the management of the Murmansk region, which led to an increase in the role of the regional committee of the military-industrial complex (b). At the same time, special bodies of emergency leadership appeared in the region: Murmansk (chairman - 1st secretary of the OK VKP (b) M. I. Starostin) and Kandalaksha (chairman - 1st secretary of the CC VKP (b) G. V. Eliseev) of the State Defense Committee (since September 1942).

Practically throughout the Second World War, a system of joint party and military leadership functioned in the Murmansk region, when representatives of the military command participated in the administration of the region, and party leaders were involved in resolving military issues (the same M. I. Starostin was a member of the military councils of the 14th Army and the Northern Fleet ).

This cooperation was especially intensive in the initial period of the Second World War, when extremely complex measures were required to be carried out in an extremely short time. Thus, the Murmansk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Military Council of the 14th Army created the paramilitary organization Oboronstroy, which ensured the mobilization of 33 thousand residents of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Vologda regions and Karelia for the construction of defensive structures on the outskirts of Murmansk and Kandalaksha. In August 1941, they formed a division of the people's militia (see Polar division).

Since the Murmansk region became a front-line region, a significant part of the population (115 thousand people) and large enterprises were evacuated. As of August 1, 1943, only 624 enterprises (collective farms, state farms, organizations and institutions) remained in the region, employing 43.2 thousand people.

All the remaining enterprises mastered the production of products necessary for the front. Workers and engineering and technical workers of the Murmansk shipyard, the locomotive depot, the Kandalaksha Mechanical Plant launched the production of mortars, machine guns, mines and grenades, phosphorus for incendiary and lighting bombs, self-igniting mixture, and repaired equipment. Submarines and surface ships were repaired at three shipyards in Murmansk, and fishing trawlers for the Northern Fleet were converted into patrol vessels. The enterprises of local industrial and trade cooperation provided considerable assistance to the front - they made skis, stocks for machine guns and rifles, wagons, sewed and repaired soldiers' clothes and shoes. Reindeer-breeding state farms and collective farms provided the army with several thousand reindeer for reindeer transport units that transported ammunition, equipment, food and the wounded.

Despite serious difficulties (the departure of professional fishermen to the front, the danger from German aircraft and submarines, the need to search for new fishing grounds), the fishermen made a significant contribution to providing the army and the population with fish products: only in the 2nd half of 1941, the fishermen of the Murmansk trawl fleet got 50 thousand centners of fish.

From January 1942, a flow of Lend-Lease cargo went through Murmansk. Allied caravans were unloaded in the port around the clock, despite enemy air raids. Along with men, women worked on the piers, such as the winch M. Vaganova, who, being wounded, continued to operate the winch.

A significant contribution to the cause of the Victory was made by the employees of the Kirov Railway, who ensured the uninterrupted delivery of goods arriving under lend-lease to the central regions of the country. The team of the Murmansk Carriage Depot built the Murmanets armored train, which took part in a number of military operations.

Residents of the Murmansk region actively donated funds to the Defense Fund.

Liberation of the Soviet Arctic

By 1944, having created a significant superiority over the enemy forces, in accordance with the strategic plans of the Soviet command, the troops of the Karelian Front began to prepare for the offensive.

The first blow was delivered by the 19th Army (commanded by Major General G.K. Kozlov) during an offensive operation in the Kandalaksha direction against the 36th German Corps on September 5 - October 1, 1944 and ended with reaching the state border. As a result of the offensive, all territories that became part of the USSR after the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 (50 settlements) were liberated.

On October 7-29, 1944, the forces of the 14th Army (commanded by Lieutenant General V. I. Shcherbakov) and the Northern Fleet carried out the Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive operation, during which not only the territory of the Kola Peninsula was liberated, but also a significant part of the Northern Norway (Kirkenes, etc.).

Thus, in the fall of 1944, military operations on the Kola land ended. The contribution of its defenders to the common cause of the Victory was highly appreciated by the state: Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on December 5, 1944 established the medal "For the Defense of the Soviet Arctic", which was awarded to 24 thousand Murmansk residents.

Murmansk region during the years of post-war reconstruction (1945 - early 1950s)

The main goal of the first post-war years in the Murmansk region was to restore the economy destroyed by the war and achieve the level of pre-war production. This work began during the Second World War, but only since 1945 did it become a priority.

The restoration of the fishing industry proceeded most rapidly, which already in 1947 surpassed the highest pre-war achievements (see the section "Fishing Industry").

A more difficult task was the restoration of heavy industry, but here, by the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s, the Apatit and Severonickel plants reached the pre-war level of production, and the destroyed capacities of the nickel plant in the Pechenga region were restored. In addition, in the late 1940s, enterprises of two new industries appeared on the Kola Peninsula - iron ore (Olenegorsky GOK) and aluminum (Kandalaksha aluminum plant).

In 1949, the Niva HPP-3 was put into operation, for original solutions during the construction of which 9 engineers (including I. I. Naimushin) became laureates of the State Prize.

One of the most serious problems of the recovery period was an acute shortage of personnel, especially highly qualified specialists. The authorities tried to solve it by using the labor of prisoners of the Gulag labor camps (there were 5 of them in Kirovsk, 3 each in Monchegorsk and Olenegorsk, and 4 in the Murmansk region), but this attempt was not very successful.

Another difficult problem was the lack of housing. Therefore, the construction of residential buildings was carried out at an accelerated pace. Most of them were wooden 2-3-storey houses. Due to the lack of brick, cement and construction equipment, few stone buildings were built, mainly the houses of the central streets of Murmansk, Kirovsk, Monchegorsk, Kandalaksha and Kola were restored or reconstructed. Among the stone buildings there were many restored and renovated school buildings (schools No. 1, 8, 12 in Murmansk; Nos. 1 and 6 in Kirovsk; Nos. 3 and 12 in Monchegorsk).

And yet, despite these and other difficulties (lack of food, building materials, metal), the industry of the Arctic developed rapidly and by the end of the 1940s not only reached the pre-war level, but surpassed it in many respects.

Murmansk region in the 1950s - the first half of the 1980s

The restoration of the Murman economy created favorable conditions for its further stable and dynamic development. In addition, the central authorities have become increasingly aware not only of its domestic importance as one of the most important industrialized areas, but also of geostrategic and military value associated with open exit to the World Ocean and the capabilities of the modern Northern Fleet.

This was reflected, in particular, in the increasing number of visits by the leaders of the USSR to the Murmansk region (N. S. Khrushchev, L. I. Brezhnev, A. N. Kosygin, Yu. V. Andropov, M. S. Gorbachev, and others). The visit of N. S. Khrushchev, after which the wage benefits were reduced, was especially noticeable for the Murmansk residents. In 1963 Murmansk was visited by F. Castro, in 1965 by Yu. A. Gagarin.

Attention to Murman was also expressed in awards: in 1966 the Murmansk region was awarded the highest state award of the USSR - the Order of Lenin, and in 1985 Murmansk was awarded the title of Hero City. The growth of the center's attention was also expressed in an increase in funds allocated for the development of Murman's industry, due to which there was an accelerated development, primarily of large enterprises. The Apatit plant is expanding, new mines and processing plants are being put into operation, KAZ, Olenegorsky GOK, Kovdorsky GOK is being created, a whole branch of non-ferrous metallurgy is being formed (Severonickel and Pechenganickel plants, Lovozersky GOK, etc.). However, the provision of environmental safety has noticeably lagged behind the rapid growth in production: since the 1960s, more and more large-scale pollution of the lake has been going on. Imandra, destruction of forests in the area of ​​Monchegorsk and Pechenga.

In the 1980s, they began to try to introduce environmental technologies into production (the introduction of water recycling systems at enterprises, the disposal of harmful emissions into the air, increasing the efficiency of dust and gas protection devices, the rational use of mineral resources, the integrated exploitation of ore deposits, etc.), however , since they constantly came into conflict with industrial interests, all this was done extremely slowly.

The development of energy-intensive industries in the Murmansk region required everything more electricity, and, accordingly, the construction of new power plants. During the 1950s-1980s, several cascades of hydroelectric power stations, the Kola NPP were created (see Energy).

Along with the development of industries, the population increases, new cities are created - Apatity, Zapolyarny, Polyarnye Zori.

By 1980, the Murmansk region had its own agricultural production, which was carried out by 19 state farms, 7 collective farms, 25 subsidiary farms, poultry farms and a greenhouse complex. The most notable success among them was achieved by the Tuloma, Arktika, Polyarnaya Zvezda state farms, Murmansk greenhouse plant, Kolsky fur farm, and others. Poultry and fur farming, and dairy farming turned out to be profitable and profitable.

After the crisis that began in the 1940s, when there were 70.3 thousand reindeer in the reindeer herding of the Murmansk region, in 1945 there were only 42.9 thousand. state farms and the decision to concentrate the inhabitants of the tundra in large settlements, eliminating the "unpromising", brought a noticeable disorganization not only into the life and life of reindeer herders, but also into the production process.

The re-equipment of the fishing industry and the strengthening of human resources, carried out in the 1950s and 1960s, allowed it to overcome the difficulties of the 1950s, reaching a stable growth. A large role in this was played by the captains of the new generation, such as Yu. N. Bystrov - the captain of the trawler "Gogol", awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Hero of Socialist Labor P. P. Reshetov, I. T. Shankova and others.

At the same time, the increase in catches gradually undermined the raw material base of fishing in the Barents Sea, creating a threat to individual populations and entire species of northern fish.

An increasingly important role in the development of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route is played by the icebreaker fleet based in Murmansk, one of the most striking evidence of which was the trips of the nuclear icebreakers Arktika (Captain Yu. S. Kuchiev) and Sibir to the North Pole.

Housing construction grew: in 1971-1980 alone, more than 4.5 million m2 of housing was built.

In the 1970s, Murman ranked second after the Leningrad region among the regions of the North-West of the RSFSR in terms of total gross industrial output, providing 80% of raw materials for phosphate fertilizers, more than 30% of nickel, 20% of fish products, etc.

At the same time, the Kola Peninsula turned out to be convenient place for various forms of cross-border cooperation, therefore, from the second half of the 1960s, the central authorities delegated certain powers to the local authorities on Murman to establish it. It was then that the USSR joined the international movement of the Northern Calotte, which acted under the slogan "For peace and security in the North of Europe." The population of the northern provinces of the Scandinavian countries and Finland took part in the movement. Within its framework, the Days of the Northern Calotte were organized, there was an exchange of delegations.

Murmansk region in the years of perestroika

Perestroika in the USSR, proclaimed in 1985, was perceived by Murmansk residents as a new stage in the development of society, as the elimination and elimination of the accumulated deformations of socialism. The population of the region supported the undertakings to eliminate the reasons hindering the development of the economy, to give it more dynamism, to fully use the production potential created in Murman. Most northerners believed the new leadership of the country and personally MS Gorbachev, after his visit to Murmansk in 1987, a special resolution was adopted on the economic and social development of the Murmansk region.

During his visit to Murmansk, M. S. Gorbachev put forward the famous "Murmansk initiatives" to create a nuclear-free zone in the North of Europe and intensify international cooperation here, as a result of which the North of Russia was increasingly considered as a contact zone for cooperation between the USSR and the countries of Northern Europe.

The changes in the first years of perestroika seemed to be quite in line with expectations. In particular, the economic life of Murman revived, acquiring some new outlines. On the shelf northern seas Exploration work on the rich oil reserves discovered in the Barents Sea in the late 1970s was increasingly unfolding. In the spring of 1987, the pilot operation of the Peschanoozerskoye deposit on the Kolguev Island began. Thousands of specialists worked in a new industry for the region.

At the same time, both in new and traditional areas of the region's economy, the raw material nature of the region's development was obvious. The depletion of raw material reserves, which required more advanced, and therefore more expensive equipment for its extraction, led to an increase in the cost of manufactured products, which turned out to be insufficiently competitive in the market. Commitments made under social programs further complicated the situation.

In addition, the growth in the capacities of non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises in Monchegorsk and Pechenga increased environmental tension in the Murmansk region, which turned out to be the subject of international discussion, primarily in Norway and Finland.

All this led to a noticeable deterioration in the situation of the population, expressed in an increased shortage of industrial goods, food shortages, and the forced introduction of a rationed supply of food.

The leadership of the region was not ready to solve problems. In 1988, the 1st secretary of the CPSU OK V. N. Ptitsyn retired, A. K. Balagurov also worked in this post for a short time. Yu. Z. Balakshin, chairman of the OIC, also left his post.

Economic difficulties and the inability to resolve them led to an increase in mass discontent, which, under the conditions of the policy of glasnost and the state's refusal to use repressive methods of influence, resulted in the formation of oppositional views and sentiments in relation to the existing government or even the system as a whole. A higher level of education than in many other areas and an orientation towards "Western" values ​​(due to familiarity with life in the West, determined by proximity to the border and frequent contacts with sailors) ensured very radical views of a significant part of the population. This was quite clearly manifested in the election to the I Congress of People's Deputies in 1989 of A. M. Obolensky, known for self-nomination of his candidacy for the post of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR as an alternative to M. S. Gorbachev. In the Murmansk region, political groups are beginning to form, advocating the radicalization of reforms. These processes were most noticeable in Murmansk and Apatity.

The growth of discontent also resulted in economic movements, expressed in strikes in the Murmansk region, in which various groups of workers took part: miners, fishermen, teachers, doctors, hairdressers, kindergarten workers.

However, the political activity of the population as a whole was not high, and the emerging political movements, as a rule, were small and did not have mass support. Therefore, the peak of politicization, which, like throughout the country, fell on 1989-1991, ended in a sharp decline. And although the level of political preferences of the Murmansk region, judging by the majority of votes, as a rule, is very close to the years. Moscow and St. Petersburg, actions to ensure them, even in such cases as the "August putsch" of 1991 or the October events of 1993, were limited to a few rallies.

In 1991, as well as throughout the country, the Soviet period in the history of Murman ended, which was of great importance for him. From a sparsely populated outlying region that had no industry, the Murmansk region turned into one of the most significant and most important industrial centers of the country. The Kola Territory and the Northern Fleet based on its territory provide a solution to the defense-strategic tasks facing modern Russia. Culture and art reached a high level of development.

Undoubtedly, the difficulties of recent decades have slowed down this development to some extent, however, with all the existing problems, the Murmansk region has survived and has created a significant margin of safety that will help it move forward with confidence.