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Concept
Murmansk
Summary
Murmansk (Мурманск; Murmánska; Мурман ланнҍ) is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far northwest part of Russia. It sits on both slopes and banks of a modest ria or fjord, Kola Bay, an estuarine inlet of the Barents Sea, with its bulk on the east bank of the inlet. It is in the north of the rounded Kola Peninsula which covers most of the oblast. The city is from the border with Norway and from the border with Finland.
Benefiting from the North Atlantic Current, Murmansk resembles cities of its size across western Russia, with highway and railway access to the rest of Europe, and the northernmost trolleybus system on Earth. It lies over 2° north of the Arctic Circle. Its connectivity contrasts to the isolation of Arctic ports like the Siberian Dikson on the shores of the Kara Sea, and Iqaluit, in the Canadian Arctic. Despite long, snowy winters, Murmansk's climate is moderated by the generally ice-free waters around it.
Although there was a building boom in the early twentieth century's arms races, Murmansk's population has been in decline since the Cold War, from to 270,384 (2021 Census). It remains the largest city north of the Arctic Circle, with over 100,000 more inhabitants than Norilsk, Russia, and is a major port of the Arctic Ocean.
The name of the city is derived from Murman, from an old name for Norwegians by Russians, likely a borrowing from Old Norse norðmaðr, which gave its name to the Murman Coast and the surrounding region including the Kola Peninsula.
Murmansk was the last city founded in the Russian Empire. In 1915, World War I needs led to the construction of the railroad from Petrozavodsk to an ice-free location on the Murman Coast in the Russian Arctic, to which Russia's allies shipped military supplies. The terminus became known as the Murman station and soon boasted a port, a naval base, and an adjacent settlement with a population that quickly grew in size and soon surpassed the nearby towns of Alexandrovsk and Kola.
Official source
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