Murmansk

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Murmansk, seaport and center of Murmansk oblast (region), northwestern Russia, lying 125 miles (200 km) north of the Arctic Circle, and on the eastern shore of Kola Bay, 30 miles (48 km) from the ice-free Barents Sea. The town, founded in 1915 as a supply port in World War I, was a base for the British, French, and American expeditionary forces against the Bolsheviks in 1918. In World War II Murmansk served as the main port for Anglo-American convoys carrying war supplies to the U.S.S.R. through the Arctic Ocean. The town is now an important fishing port, and its fish-processing plant is one of the largest in Europe. Murmansk’s ice-free harbor makes it Russia’s only port with unrestricted access to the Atlantic and world sea routes. From December to May it replaces icebound St. Petersburg as the major port of the northwest. Murmansk is connected by railroad with St. Petersburg and Moscow and the mining and industrial centers of Monchegorsk and Kirovsk. Major industries in Murmansk include fishing, fish processing, and shipbuilding. Education and research establishments include a teacher-training institute and a research institute of marine fisheries and oceanography. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Murmansk’s economy suffered, as major industries were unprofitable under market economy conditions and most fishing vessels were contracted out to Norwegian and other foreign companies. As a result, many people left the city, and in the 1990s the city’s population dropped by more than one-fourth, though by the early 21st century the city had made a successful transition to a market economy. Murmansk is the largest city in the world north of the Arctic Circle. Its name probably derives from the local Sami word murman, meaning “the edge of the earth.” Pop. (2005 est.) 325,101.