Murmansk (Russian: Му́рманск) is a city in the extreme northwest of Russia (north of the Arctic circle) with a seaport on the Kola Gulf, 12 km from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland. Population: 308,100 (2004 est.); 336,137 (2002 Census). The city is an important navy base. Geographical coordinates:68°58′N 33°05′E
Murmansk is the administrative centre of Murmansk Oblast. The port remains ice-free year round due to the warm North Atlantic drift ocean current. It is the largest city in the Arctic.
History
The city, known initially as Romanov-on-Murman, was founded on September 21, 1916, when the railroad line to Kola was built, and named after the Russian royal dynasty of the Romanovs. Murman is the old Russian name for the Barents Sea and for Norwegians, derived from the ethnonym Normans. The city was renamed to Murmansk after the October Revolution in 1917.
From 1918 to 1920, the city was occupied by the Western powers who had been allied in the First World War and "White" forces during the Civil War in Russia. During Soviet-German cooperation 1939-1940 Murmansk was a most important port for Kriegsmarine. Russians allowed to utilise their infrastructure by German navy. Many U-boats were stationed here. And many Russian ice-breakers helped to German battleships to trespass into a Pacific Ocean, where they atacked many civil allied ships. During World War II, Murmansk was a link with the Western world for Russia, and a vast commerce with the Allies, in items important to the respective military efforts passed through it: primarily manufactured goods into the Soviet Union, and raw materials out. These supplies were brought to the city in the Arctic Convoys.
German forces launched an offensive against the city in 1941, but in the face of fierce Soviet resistance and active defence of the Soviet Navy, neither capture of the city nor cutting off the vital Karelian railway line resulted. This resistance was eventually recognized in 1985 by the Soviet Union with the formal designation of Murmansk as a Hero City.
During the Cold War it was a centre of Soviet submarine activity, and since the breakup of the USSR, it remains the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet as well as its Nuclear powered icebreaker fleet.
The weather is similar to Alaska. It is very close to the northern parts of Norway and Finland. There is near perpetual daylight in June and darkness in December.
Trivia
The city is also known to be one of the main settings in the novel, Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, by Eoin Colfer. It is the place where Artemis's shipwrecked father is believed to have died after capture by Russians.
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