administrative center is Severomorsk, a city with a population of 70,000 situated 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) north of Murmansk on the eastern side of the Murmansk Fjord. Three nuclear-powered Kirov-class battle cruisers are based in Severomorsk: Admiral Ushakov, Admiral Nakhimov, and Peter the Great. However, no nuclear submarines are permanently stationed there. Safonovo, a rural town in the Severomorsk area, is the repair center for nuclear submarines and surface vessels, including the largest Northern Fleet submarines, such as the Typhoon class.
The strategic importance of the Kola Peninsula became apparent to Russian military planners with the rise of German naval power in the Baltic Sea and the outbreak of World War I. Recognizing the need for access to ice-free harbors in the north, Russia built a modern port in Alexandrovsk (today called Polyarny) at the mouth of the Murmansk Fjord in 1899. A naval force dedicated to the northern region was established shortly after the outbreak of World War I. In 1917, a railroad line was built to Murmansk, connecting the rest of Russia to an ice-free port open year round. Not until Josef Stalin’s visit to Polyarny during the summer of 1933 was the Soviet Fleet of the Northern Seas actually established, however. Renamed the Northern Fleet in 1937, it consisted (before World War II) of just eight destroyers, fifteen diesel-powered submarines, patrol boats, minesweepers, and some smaller vessels. During World War II, supplies from the Western Allies were transported by convoy to Murmansk and then taken by railroad to military fronts in the south. A major naval buildup began after World War II in an effort to catch up with the United States. The first Soviet nuclear submarine (the K-3 Leninsky Komsomol) was commissioned to the Northern Fleet on July 1, 1958, just four years after the commissioning of the first American nuclear submarine, the Nautilus. During the period from 1950 to 1970, the Northern Fleet grew from the smallest to the largest and most important of the four Soviet fleets. See also: BALTIC FLEET; BLACK SEA FLEET; PACIFIC FLEET
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Burns, Thomas S. (1978). The Secret War for the Ocean Depths: Soviet-American Rivalry for Mastery of the Seas. New York: Rawson Associates. Jordan, John. (1982). An Illustrated Guide to the Modern Soviet Navy. New York: Arco. Nilsen, Thomas; Kudrik, Igor; and Nikitin, Alexandr. (1996). The Russian Northern Fleet: Sources of Radioactive Contamination. Oslo: Bellona Foundation. Nitze, Paul H., and Sullivan, Leonard. (1979). Securing the Seas: The Soviet Naval Challenge and Western Alliance Options: An Atlantic Council Policy Study. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Russia’s Northern Peoples (Malochislennye narody severa, literally, “numerically small peoples of the north”) constitute a distinct legal category of native peoples who live in the north, number less than fifty thousand each, and pursue traditional ways of life. During the early Soviet period, such a category was created as the focus for a special set of policies, informed by the state’s belief that, due to the “backwardness” of these peoples, they needed special protection and help to reach the stage of communism. The number of peoples belonging to this group varied over time, but at the end of the Soviet period it included twenty-six peoples: Sami, Khanty, Mansi, Nenets, Enets, Nganasan, Selkup, Tofalar, Evenki, Even, Yukagir, Chukchi, Chuvans, Eskimos, Aleut, Koryak, Itelmen, Dolgan, Ket, Negidal, Nanai, Ulchi, Oroki, Orochi, Udege, and Nivkhi. Together, these peoples numbered slightly under 182,000 in 1989.
The Northern Peoples inhabit an immense swath of Russia, from the Kola Peninsula to the Bering Sea, the Chinese border, and Sakhalin Island. They belong to numerous language groups, and have distinctive cultures, traditions, and adaptations to diverse ecosystems. At the outset of the Soviet era, most pursued traditional activities that included reindeer herding, hunting, fishing, and marine mammal hunting. Most were nomadic and
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A group of Dolgans stand together at their camp near the village of Syndassko, Russia, in 1993. © JACQUES LANGEVIN/CORBIS SYGMA lived in small kin-based groups. Most were organized into clans, although these had been disrupted by the twentieth century. During the tsarist period, most had been subjugated, and were required to pay a tribute of furs (yasak) to the state. Some missionary activity had occurred, but most groups remained largely animistic.
The Soviets brought sweeping changes to the Northern Peoples, introducing compulsory schooling (first in their own languages, but soon afterward in Russian) and health care; imposing collective farms, confiscating reindeer and hunting equipment; and repressing leaders, wealthier individuals, and shamans. The Soviets also settled as much of the population as possible in newly created villages. These policies radically disturbed the local family structures and the transmission of knowledge from elder to younger generations. Alcohol abuse and violent death became rampant, and by the end of the Soviet period, life expectancy of the Northern Peoples averaged a generation less than the (already low) Russian level. At the same time, the state nurtured a small indigenous intelligentsia, including doctors, teachers, writers, artists, and political leaders. Within these leaders the state engendered the larger, composite identity of “Northern Peoples,” laying the foundation of a common, pan-native response, once the political climate allowed for such.
The late Soviet policy of glasnost enabled the Northern Peoples to publicly address their horrific situation for the first time. A strong nativist movement ensued, with the organization of the Russian Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) in 1990. Native leaders lobbied for laws that would protect native rights, with special focus on the issue of native lands, which had been subject to extensive resource extraction and environmental degradation. Key federal legislation outlining native rights and mechanisms for land claims was finally adopted in 1999-2001. One outcome of the legislation has been the increase in the number of peoples included in the designation; several groups who were not considered distinct peoples during the Soviet period, among them the Shors, Teluets, and Kereks, have achieved recognition as Northern Peoples since 1991. The number of native persons claiming membership in the overall
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group has also increased, largely due to revitalized pride in native identity. While political reforms have encouraged native political development, economic reforms, including reduced northern subsidies, have severely challenged Northern Peoples’ livelihoods. See also: EVENKI; CHUKCHI; DOLGANS; KHANTY; KORYAKS; MANSI; NATIONALITIES POLICIES, SOVIET; NATIONALITIES POLICIES, TSARIST; NENETS; SAMI
Fondahl, Gail; Lazebnik, Olga; Poelzer, Greg; and Robbek, Vassily. (2001). “Native ‘land claims,’ Russian style.” The Canadian Geographer 45(4):545-561. Pika, Aleksandr, ed. (1999). Neotraditionalism in the Russian North: Indigenous Peoples and the Legacy of Pere-stroika. Edmonton: Canadian Circumpolar Institute Press. Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North website. Available at «http://www.raipon.org/». Slezkine, Yuri (1994). Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Wessendorf, Kathrin, and K?hler, Thomas, trs. (2002). Towards a New Millenium. Ten Years of the Indigenous Movement in Russia. IWGIA Document No. 107. Copenhagen: International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs.
GAIL A. FONDAHL
Geographically driven relations between northern Norway and the Russian Arctic coast predate the Slavic and Scandinavian colonization of the northern periphery of Europe starting in the twelfth century. Norwegian Vikings referred to the White Sea region as Bjarmeland, and had at least sporadic contacts with the local inhabitants by 900 C.E. Norwegian trading expeditions to the northern Dvina estuary took place regularly until the early thirteenth century, and there were at least occasional journeys into the Russian interior. A 1276 law code refers to Norwegian commercial expeditions via the Baltic to Novgorod.
Interest in the northern fisheries attracted a growing number of settlers to the Arctic coast in the Middle Ages. Commercial and military interaction in the area included raids that sometimes escalated to open warfare. The Norwegian-Novgorodian peace treaty of 1326 reaffirmed the status quo and ensured free shipping and trade. No formal border was demarcated and many regions were de jure placed under joint administration in the fourteenth
