Murmansk known as Romanov-on-Murman at the date of its foundation September 21, 1916 is the centre of Murmansk region and the largest Russian seaport on the Arctic Ocean. The city was named after the Russian Royal Dinasty Romanovs Romanov-on-Murman. The name Murmansk the city got after the Revolution in 1917. Some consider that the word Murman is decsended from "Nurman" (Normann). Peoples of Scandinavia Russians called as "Murmans".

Murmansk's development has started just in the beginning of this century. Before that, the Kola Peninsula was inhabited only by the Skolt Lapps and a few Russian settlers. The main sources of livlihood are fishing, shipping and the navy. This is a great sight to see largely because of the unique Arctic nature. The peninsula is covered by thousands of lakes and dense forests. Here you'll observe the polar day in summer and the polar night in winter.

Murmansk is a strange city in many ways: it is above the polar circle, so endures weeks of total darkness in the winter and enjoys weeks of 24 hour sunshine in the summer. It is above the tree line; the trees peter out a couple of hundred miles to the south. It is above the 10 degree isotherm; that is a line drawn around the arctic where the average June temperature is 10 degrees celsius or less. And last but not least, despite cold winters, the sea doesn't freeze (because of the Gulf Stream). Go in winter, and you can have air temperatures of -16 degrees Celsius, with great clouds of steam coming off the water and hanging over the port area as fog. The people of Murmansk is genarally kindly but very few speak english. Lots of places in the surrounding are military areas and they are not marked. You should not take photographs in such places or in the harbour unless you don´t want to be stopped by the military police.

See also other cities:

Irkutsk Kazan Kizhi Moscow Novgorod Novosibirsk Orel Pyatigorsk St Petersburg Suzdal Tula Ulyanovsk Vladimir Vladivostok Yakutsk

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