City Name:

Nickname:

“Gateway to the Arctic”

Location:

Kola Peninsula

125 miles (200 km) to the border with Norway and Finland, 745 miles (1200 km) from Saint Petersburg, 870 miles (1400 km) from Moscow, 1500 miles (2300 km) from the North Pole, 30 miles (48 km) from Barents Sea

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Population:

Founded:

Climate:

Government:

City Homepage:

Social Services:

• Murmansk State Technical University - the biggest and the most prestigious educational Center in the Far North of Russia
• Teacher’s Institute

Transportation

• International Airport – flights to/from Moscow (2 hours), St. Petersburg (1.5 hours), Kiev, Tromse Norway (1.5 hours), Lulea Sweeden, and Rovaniemi Finland
• Regular bus service to/from Ivalo (Finland) and Kirkenes (Norway).
• Rail service connects Murmansk to Petrozavodsk, Archangelsk, Saint Petersburg and Moscow, as well as cities in Norway and Finland.

Sports & Leisure:

• Ice Palace is home to many sporting events
• Sports Festival of the Peoples of the North takes place every March
• Cross Country Skiing is popular

Points of Interest:

• Sedov (world’s largest ship)
• The Cathedral of St. Nicholas
• Church of St. Trifon of Pechenga
• Church of St. Panteleymon
• Atomflot – nuclear-powered icebreaker base
• The polar lights 

Culture:

• Ocenarium
• Regional Science Library
• Museum of the Life of Pomore People

Business & Industry:

• Commercial fishing
• Ship building and repair
• Seafood processing

Economic Development:

Port:

• one of the largest ports in northwestern Russia, fourth largest in Russia
• world’s largest commercial sea port beyond the Polar Circle
• connected to all regions of Russia by road and rail
• Kola Bay is free from ice year-round, due to the jet stream.
• The average height of tide is 12 feet (3.5 m)
• The pilotage inwards and outwards is carried out on all 21 miles (34 km)
• In case of severe weather conditions the shipping is regulated by means of Radar station ashore. Docking tugs are used for anchorage and departure of ships from berths.
• Port operates 19 piers with a total length of more than 8000 ft (2500 m) and capacity for ships with a draft up to 38 ft (11.5 m) and length of up to 820 ft (250 m). Designed depth of some piers is 52 ft (16 m).
• Divided into 3 unloading complexes
• Complexes 1 and 2 handle general and bulk cargoes with portal cranes (capacity up to 40 tons), fork trucks (capacity 1.5-32 tons), bucket trucks and roll-trailers (capacity 40 tons), and floating cranes (capacity 500 tons). Storage in open storage places and covered warehouses is available – up to 1,076,391 ft² (100,000 m²).
• Complex 3 is specialized for handling apatite concentrate with handling equipment for unloading apatite from rail cars into ships. Its capacity is 1000 tons per hour (3,000,000 tons per year). There is a covered warehouse with a capacity of 25,000 tons.
  Railway scales can weight empty and loaded rail cars up to 120 tons, car scales can weigh up to 15 tons, and cargo scales can way up to 3 tons.
• Total capacity of the Port is 9,000,000 tons per year.