Kola Peninsula
67°41′18″N 35°56′38″E / 67.68833°N 35.94389°E
The Kola Peninsula (from Northern Sami: Guoládat; Russian: Ко́льский полуо́стров, Kolsky poluostrov) is a peninsula in the far northwest of Russia, a part of Murmansk Oblast.
Geography
Location and overview
The peninsula is located in the far northwest of Russia, almost completely to the north of the Arctic Circle and is washed by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast.[1] The western border of the peninsula stretches along the meridian from the Kola Gulf through Lake Imandra, Lake Kola, and the Niva River to the Kandalaksha Gulf.
The peninsula covers an area of about 100,000 square kilometres (38,610 sq mi). The northern coast is steep and high, while the southern coast is flat. The western part of the peninsula is covered by two mountain ranges: the Khibiny Massif and the Lovozero Massif. The former contains the highest point of the peninsula—Mount Chasnachorr, the height of which is Template:M to ft.[1] The Keyvy watershed lies in the central part of the peninsula. The mountainous reliefs of the Murman and Kandalaksha coasts of the peninsula stretch from southeast to northwest.[1]
Natural resources
Because the last ice age removed the top sediment layer of the soil, the Kola Peninsula is on the surface extremely rich in various ores and minerals, including apatites, alumina sources, iron ore, mica, ceramic raw, titanium ore, phlogopite, and vermiculite, as well as ores of less-common and colored metals. MMC Norilsk Nickel conducts mining operations on the peninsula. The Kola Superdeep Borehole which is the deepest borehole in the world, is located near the Norwegian border.
Climate
Closeness of the peninsula to the Gulf Stream leads to unusually high temperatures in winter, which results in significant temperature variations between land and the Barents Sea and to the fluctuating temperatures during high winds.[2] Cyclones are typical during the cold seasons, while the warm seasons are characterized by anticyclones.[2]
The average temperature in January is about −10 °C (14 °F) and about 10 °C (50 °F) in July. The peninsula is covered by taiga in the south and tundra in the north. Record lows reach −50 °C (−58 °F) in the central parts and −35 – −40 °C (−31 – −40 °F) on the coasts.[2] Record highs exceed 30 °C (86 °F) almost on all the territory of the peninsula.[2]
Hydrology
The Kola Peninsula has many small but fast-moving rivers with rapids.[2] The most important of them are the Ponoy River, Varzuga River, Teriberka River, Voronya River, and the Iokanga River. Most rivers originate from lakes and swamps and collect their waters from melting snow.[2] The rivers of the peninsula are an important habitat for the Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar, which return from Greenland and the Faroe Islands to spawn in fresh water. As a result of this a recreational fishery has been developed, with a number of remote lodges and camps hosting sport-fishermen throughout the summer months. Kola rivers become icebound during the winter.
The major lakes include Imandra, Umbozero, and Lovozero.
Ecology
The Kola Peninsula as a whole suffered major ecological damage, mostly as a result of pollution from the military (particularly naval) production, as well as from industrial mining of apatite. About 250 decommissioned naval nuclear reactors, produced by the Soviet military, remain on the peninsula.
History
Early history
In the 3rd millennium B.C.E., the peninsula was settled by the peoples who arrived here from the south (the territory of modern Karelia).[3] By the end of the 1st millennium C.E., the peninsula was settled only by the Sami people, who did not have their own state and lived in clans ruled by elders.[4] In the 12th century, Russian Pomors from the shores of Onega Bay and in the lower reaches of the Northern Dvina River discovered the peninsula and its game and fish riches.[4] The Pomors organized regular hunting and fishing visits and started barter trade with the Sami.[4] They also named the White Sea coast of the peninsula Tersky Coast (Те́рский бе́рег), or Terskaya Land (Те́рская земля́).[4]
By the end of the 12th century, the Pomors explored all northern coast of the peninsula and reached Finnmark (area in the north of Norway), necessitating the Norwegians to support a naval guard in that area.[4] The name Pomors gave to the northern coast was "Murman"—a distorted form of "Norman".[4]
Novgorodians
Pomors were soon followed by the tribute collectors from the Novgorod Republic, and the Kola Peninsula gradually became a part of the Novgorodian lands.[4] A 1265 treaty of Yaroslav Yaroslavich with Novgorod mentions Tre Volost (волость Тре), which is later also mentioned in other documents dated as late as 1471.[4]
In addition to Tre, the Novgorodian documents of the 13th–15th centuries also mention Kolo Volost, which bordered Tre approximately along the line between Kildin Island and Turiy Headland of the Turiy Peninsula.[4] Kolo Volost laid to the west of that line, while Tre was situated to the east of it.[4]
By the 13th century, the need for a formal border between the Novgorod Republic and the Scandinavian countries became evident.[5] The Novgorodians, along with the Karelians who came from the south, reached the coast of what is now Pechengsky District and the portion of the coast of Varangerfjord near the Voryema River, which is now a part of Norway.[5] The Sami population was forced to pay tribute.[5] The Norwegians, however, were also attempting to take control of these lands, which often resulted in armed conflicts.[5] In 1251, a conflict between the Karelians, Novgorodians, and the servants of the king of Norway lead to the establishment of a Novgorodian mission in Norway.[5] Also in 1251, the first treaty with Norway was signed in Novgorod regarding the Sami lands and the system of tribute collections, making the Sami people pay tribute to both Novgorod and Norway.[5] By the terms of the treaty, the Novgorodians could collect tribute from the Sami as far as Lyngenfjord in the west, while Norwegians could collect tribute on the territory of the whole Kola Peninsula except for the eastern part of Tersky Coast.[5] No state borders were established by the 1251 treaty.[5]
The treaty lead to a short period of peace, but the armed conflicts resumed soon thereafter.[5] Chronicles document attacks by the Novgorodians and the Karelians on Finnmark and northern Norway as early as 1271, and continuing well into the 14th century.[5]
The official border between the Novgorod lands and the lands of Sweden and Norway was established by the Treaty of Nöteborg on August 12, 1323.[5] The treaty primarily focused on the Karelian Isthmus border and the border north of Lake Ladoga.[5]
Another treaty dealing the matters of the northern borders was the Treaty of Novgorod signed with Norway in 1326, which ended the decades of the Norwegian-Novgorodian border skirmishes in Finnmark.[6] Per the terms of the treaty, Norway relinquished all claims to the Kola Peninsula.[6] However, the treaty did not address the situation with the Sami people paying tribute to both Norway and Novgorod, and the practice continued until 1602.[6]
While the 1326 treaty did not define the border in detail, it confirmed the 1323 border demarcation, which remained more or less unchanged for the next six hundred years, until 1920.[6]
In the 15th century, Novgorodians started to establish permanent settlements on the peninsula.[6] Umba and Varzuga, the first documented permanent settlements of the Novgorodians, date back to 1466.[6] Over time, all coastal areas to the west of the Pyalitsa River had been settled, creating a territory where the population was mostly Novgorodian.[6] Administratively, this territory was divided into Varzuzhskaya and Umbskaya Volosts, which were governed by a posadnik from the area of the Northern Dvina.[6]
The Novgorod Republic lost control of both of these volosts to the Grand Duchy of Moscow after the Battle of Shelon in 1471,[6] and the republic itself ceased to exist in 1478 when Ivan III took the city of Novgorod. All Novgorod territories, including those on the Kola Peninsula, became a part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.[6]
Russian settlement
The Russian migration to the peninsula continued into the 16th century, when new settlements such as Kandalaksha, Kovda, Knyazhaya Guba, and Porya-Guba were established.[6] Pechenga Monastery was established in 1533, and Kola was first mentioned in 1565.[6]
In the end of the 15th century, the Pomors and the Sami people were forced into serfdom, mostly by the monasteries.[3] Monastery votchinas greatly expanded during the 17th century, but were abolished in 1764, when all of the Kola Peninsula peasants became state peasants.[3]
In the second half of the 16th century, King Frederick II of Denmark–Norway demanded the Tsardom of Russia to cede the peninsula.[6] Russia declined, and in order to organize adequate defenses established the position of a voyevoda.[7] The voyevoda sat in Kola, which became an administrative center of the region.[7] Prior to that, the administrative duties were performed by the tax collectors from Kandalaksha.[7] Newly established Kolsky Uyezd covered most of the territory of the peninsula (with the exception of Varzuzhskaya and Umbskaya Volosts, which were a part of Dvinsky Uyezd), as well as the northern part of Karelia all the way to Lendery.[7]
During the 15th–16th centuries, the main occupations of the Tersky coast population were Atlantic salmon fishing, seal hunting, and the extraction of salt from the sea water.[3] By the mid-16th century, Atlantic cod fishing developed on the Murman coast in the north.[3] The 1560s saw rapid growth of international trade, with the Russian merchants from different regions of the country arriving to the peninsula to trade with the merchants from the Western Europe.[3] In 1585, however, the trade was moved to Archangel, although the settlement of Kola was still permitted to trade locally produced goods.[3]
By the end of the 17th century, the practice of seasonal fishing and hunting settlements in the north of the peninsula became very common.[8]
Despite the economic activity, permanent settlement of the peninsula did not intensify until the 1860s and even then it remained sporadic until 1917.[8] Timber cutting industry developed in the region at the end of the 19th century; mostly in Kovda and Umba.[3] In 1896, Alexandrovsk was founded, which quickly grew in size and was granted town status in 1899.[9] In 1916, Romanov-na-Murmane was founded.
Soviet and modern periods
Soviet power was established on the territory of the peninsula on November 9 [O.S. October 26], 1917, but the territory was occupied by the Triple Entente forces in March 1918–March 1920.[10]
The Soviet period saw a significant increase in population (799,000 in 1970 vs. 15,000 in 1913), although most of the population is concentrated in the urban localities along the railroads and the sea coast.[8] Most of the sparsely populated territories outside the urbanized areas are used for deer herding.[8]
In 1920–1940, two new towns (Kirovsk and Monchegorsk) and twelve work settlements were established on the peninsula.[10]
The Sami peoples were forced to settle in the village of Lovozero, although some of them herd reindeer across much of the region and some live in the urbanized areas.
The major port of the peninsula is Murmansk, which is also the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast. During the Soviet period, Murmansk was a significant submarine production center, and remains home to the Russian Northern Fleet.[11]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Atlas of Murmansk Oblast, p. I
- ^ a b c d e f Atlas of Murmansk Oblast, p. II
- ^ a b c d e f g h Atlas of Murmansk Oblast, p. V
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Administrative-Territorial Divisions of Murmansk Oblast, p. 16
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Administrative-Territorial Divisions of Murmansk Oblast, p. 17
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Administrative-Territorial Divisions of Murmansk Oblast, p. 18
- ^ a b c d Administrative-Territorial Divisions of Murmansk Oblast, p. 19
- ^ a b c d Atlas of Murmansk Oblast, p. IV
- ^ Administrative-Territorial Divisions of Murmansk Oblast, p. 19
- ^ a b Atlas of Murmansk Oblast, p. VI
- ^ Northern Fleet: Naval Facilities near Murmansk, Murmansk Oblast. Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Sources
- Архивный отдел Администрации Мурманской области. Государственный Архив Мурманской области. (1995). Административно-территориальное деление Мурманской области (1920–1993 гг.). Справочник. Мурманск: Мурманское издательско-полиграфическое предприятие "Север".
- Главное управление геодезии и картографии при Совете Министров СССР. Научно-исследовательский географо-экономический институт Ленинградского государственного университета имени А. А. Жданова (1971). Атлас Мурманской области. Москва.
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External links
