Murmansk, city, northwestern Russia, the largest city in the world north of the Arctic Circle. Situated on Kola Inlet, an arm of the Barents Sea, the city is an important port with an ice-free harbor. It is the capital of Murmansk Oblast. Murmansk is a Russian naval base and has major shipbuilding and fish-processing facilities. It is the seat of institutes of oceanography and polar research.
Murmansk was founded in 1915, during World War I, as a port of entry for Allied supplies after Russian ports on the Black and Baltic seas had been closed. In 1916 it was linked by rail with Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg). After the Russian Revolution, an Allied force briefly occupied Murmansk, and it was an Allied port of entry in World War II (1939-45). Population (1999 estimate) 381,800.
