thumb |Map of the Kola Peninsula and adjacent seas. From the [[Netherlands|Dutch ' (1635). Cartographer: Willem Janszoon Blaeu]]
The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is bordered by the Barents Sea to the north and by the White Sea to the east and southeast. The city of Murmansk, the most populous settlement on the peninsula, has a population of roughly 270,000 residents.
While humans had already settled in the north of the peninsula in the 7th–5th millennium BC, the rest of its territory remained uninhabited until the 3rd millennium BC, when various peoples started to arrive from the south. By the 1st millennium CE only the Sámi people remained. This changed in the 12th century, when Russian Pomors discovered the peninsula's rich resources of game and fish. Soon after, the Pomors were followed by the tribute collectors from the Novgorod Republic, and the peninsula gradually became a part of the Novgorodian lands. However, the Novgorodians established no permanent settlements until the 15th century, and Russian migration continued in the following centuries.
The Soviet period (1917–1991) saw a rapid population increase, although most of the new arrivals remained confined to urbanized territories along the sea coast and the railroads. The Sámi people were subjected to forced collectivization, including forced relocation to Lovozero and other centralized settlements, and overall the peninsula became heavily industrialized and militarized, largely due to its strategic position (as the pre-eminent Soviet ice-free Atlantic coast) and to the discovery of the vast apatite deposits in the 1920s. As a result, the peninsula suffered major ecological damage. After the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, the economy went into decline. Its population fell from 1,150,000 in 1989 to 795,000 in 2010. The peninsula recovered somewhat in the early 21st century, and is the most industrially developed and urbanized region in northern Russia.
Despite the peninsula's northerly location, its proximity to the North Atlantic Current (an extension of the Gulf Stream) leads to unusually high temperatures in winter, but also results in high winds due to the temperature variations between land and the Barents Sea. Summers are rather chilly, with the average July temperature of only . The peninsula is covered by taiga in the south and by tundra in the north, where permafrost limits the growth of trees, resulting in landscape dominated by shrubs and grasses. The peninsula supports a small variety of mammals, and its rivers are an important habitat for the Atlantic salmon. The Kandalaksha Nature Reserve, established to protect the population of common eider, is located in the Kandalaksha Gulf. The peninsula is also the site of the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole drilled into the Earth.
Geography
Location and overview
The peninsula is located in the far northwest of Russia, almost completely inside the Arctic Circle, and is bordered by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast. Geologically, the peninsula occupies the northeastern edge of the Baltic Shield. although some sources push it all the way west to Russia's border with Finland.
Under a more restrictive definition, the peninsula covers an area of about . The Keyvy drainage divide lies in the central part.
thumb|500px|center|View of the Kola Peninsula near [[Murmansk]]
Natural resources
Because the last ice age removed the top sediment layer of the soil, as well as rare-earth elements and non-ferrous ores.
Precipitation levels on the peninsula are rather high: in the mountains, on the Murman Coast, and in other areas.
|date=November 2019
Flora and fauna
thumb|right|Ripe cloudberry
thumb|An Arctic fox
The peninsula is covered by taiga in the south and tundra in the north. In northern coastal areas, stony and shrub lichens are common. American minks, which were released near the Olenitsa River in 1935–1936, are now common throughout the peninsula and are commercially hunted. as well as large whales, such as bowhead, humpback, blue, and finback, also visit the area.
The coasts of the Kandalaksha Gulf and the Barents Sea are important breeding grounds for bearded seals and ringed seals. The Barents Sea is one of the only places the rare Gray seals can be found. Greenland seals, or harp seals, also can be seen from time to time.
Twenty-nine species of fresh water fish are recognized on the territory of peninsula, including trout, stickleback, northern pike, and European perch. The Kandalaksha Nature Reserve, established in 1932 to protect the population of common eider, is organized in thirteen clusters located in the Kandalaksha Gulf of the Kola Peninsula and along the coasts of the Barents Sea.
Hydrology
thumb|View of [[Lake Imandra and Khibiny Mountains]]
thumb|Lake Umbozero
The Kola Peninsula has many small but fast-moving rivers with rapids. For thirty years, nuclear waste had been dumped into the sea by the Northern Fleet and Murmansk Shipping Company. Additionally, several nuclear weapons test ranges and radioactive waste storage facilities exist on the peninsula.
The main industrial pollution source is Norilsk Nickel in Monchegorsk—the large smelters responsible for over 80% of the sulfur dioxide emissions and for nearly all nickel and copper emissions. Since 1998, SO<sub>2</sub> emissions in the area have dropped by almost 60%, from 88.3 thousand tonnes to 37.3 thousand tonnes in 2016, according to Norilsk Nickel. Based on its new ‘Sulphur programme 2.0', Norilsk Nickel has set itself staged targets in cutting down sulphur dioxide emissions, which can have negative health and environmental effects. The ultimate aim is a 95% reduction (compared to 2015) in SO2 by 2030 for its Polar Division on the Taimyr peninsula, which includes its Nadezhda smelter and Copper plant, partly through a SO2 capture solution. Other polluters of note include the thermal power stations in Apatity and Murmansk. In the 3rd–2nd millennium BCE, the peninsula was settled by the peoples who arrived there from the south (the territory of modern Karelia).
By the end of the 1st millennium CE, the peninsula was settled only by the Sámi people, who did not have their own state, lived in clans ruled by elders, and were engaged mostly in reindeer herding and fishing. In the 12th century, Russian Pomors from the shores of the Onega Bay and in the lower reaches of the Northern Dvina discovered the peninsula and its game and fish riches. The Novgorodians, along with the Karelians who came from the south, reached the coast of what now is Pechengsky District and the portion of the coast of Varangerfjord near the Jacob's River, which now is a part of Norway. Per the terms of this treaty, Norway relinquished all claims to the Kola Peninsula. The voyevoda sat in Kola, which became the administrative center of the region. By the end of the 19th century, the Sámi population had mostly been forced north, with ethnic Russians settling in the south of the peninsula.
During World War I (1914-1918), the still poorly developed peninsula suddenly found itself in a strategic position, as communication between Russia and the Allies via the Baltic and Black Sea was cut. Britain helped in the development of the ice-free harbors of the Murman Coast as the only practical means of sending Allied war supplies to the Eastern Front.
In March 1915, the construction of the railroad was rushed, and the railroad was quickly opened in 1916, even though it was only partially completed and poorly built. Alexandrovsky Uyezd was transformed into Murmansk Governorate by the Soviet government in June 1921. On August 1, 1927, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) issued two Resolutions: "On the Establishment of Leningrad Oblast" and "On the Borders and Composition of the Okrugs of Leningrad Oblast", according to which Murmansk Governorate was transformed into Murmansk Okrug (which was divided into six districts) and included into Leningrad Oblast.
All in all, the Soviet period saw a significant increase in population (from 15,000 in 1913 to 1,150,000 in 1989), although most of the population remained concentrated in the urban localities along the railroads and the sea coast. A significant portion of the people deported to Kola were peasants from southern Russia subjected to dekulakization. Prisoner labor was often used when building new factories and for manning those which were operational: in 1940, for example, the whole Severonikel Metallurgy Mining Complex was turned over to the NKVD system.
Demography
[[File:Kildin Saami map.JPG|thumb|Ethnic map of Kola Peninsula, 1941.
]]
thumb|Children in Murmansk, 2015
Until the 1800s, the Kola Peninsula was extremely sparsely populated, with only 5,200 inhabitants in 1858. In 1868 the Russian government created incentives for settlement and not only Russians but also Finns, Norwegians and Karelians moved to the peninsula. By the 1897 census 9,291 people were counted in the Kola uyezd; 63% Russian, 19% Sámi, 11% Finnish and 3% Karelian.
By 1913 about 13,000–15,000 people lived in the peninsula, mostly along the shores. However, the discovery of the vast natural resource deposits and industrialization efforts led to an explosive population growth during the Soviet times. to 890,000 in 2002 to 795,000 in 2010.
As of the 2010 Census, the population consisted mostly of Russians (89.0%), Ukrainians (4.8%), and Belarusians (1.7%).
By the mid-16th century, Atlantic cod fishing developed on the Murman Coast in the north. By the mid-1970s, the state farms were further consolidated into just two, based in Lovozero and Krasnoshchelye. In the 1920s–1930s, the Murmansk Trawl Fleet was created and the fishing infrastructure started to develop intensively.
Also the ELF-transmitter ZEVS of the Russian Navy is situated there.
Border tensions between Norway and the Soviets were dramatized in the premiere of The Sandbaggers. Norwegian concerns about Russian troops in the Kola peninsula persisted into the 1990s, after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Modern economy
thumb|Port of Murmansk
After the economic slump of the 1990s, the economy of the oblast started to rebound during the first decade of the 2000s, although at a rate below the country's average. and does not freeze in winter. The Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company, a division of Norilsk Nickel, conducts nickel-, copper-, and platinum-group-metals-mining operations on the peninsula. Other large mining companies include OAO Apatit, which is the largest producer of phosphates in Europe; OAO Olcon, one of the leading producers of iron ore concentrates in Russia; and OAO Kovdorsky GOK, an ore-mining and processing enterprise. Murmansk is a key base for three fishing fleets, including Russia's largest, the Murmansk Trawl Fleet. The energy surplus, accounting for about 20% of the total generated energy, is transferred to the unified energy system of Russia, as well as exported to Norway and Finland via the NORDEL system. On the Kola Peninsula, the transportation network includes ship transport, air transport, automotive transport, electrified public transport, and access to the railways mostly passing through the rest of Murmansk Oblast.