Rybachiy Peninsula

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rybachiy Peninsula (Russian: Полуостров Рыбачий, Norwegian: Fiskerhalvøya, Finnish: Kalastajasaarento, Northern Sami: Giehkirnjárga) is the northernmost part of continental European Russia. Its name is translated as "Fishermen's peninsula". It consists of two parts: Sredniy Peninsula ("middle peninsula") connected with the continent by a thin isthmus and Rybachiy proper, connected with Sredniy by a similar thin isthmus. So the peninsula is in fact nearly completely surrounded by water. Administratively, it is included into the Pechenga raion of Murmansk Oblast and is within several hours of ride from Murmansk.

Main occupations of the population are reindeer herding and (since 2003) petroleum drilling.

The peninsula lies in an area where borders were marked relatively late; the Norwegian-Russian border was drawn in 1826, leaving Rybachiy on the Russian side of the border. At the time, several Norwegian settlers lived on the peninsula.

After the Russian Revolution, the Western parts of Srediy and Rybachiy were ceded to Finland. They were passed to the Soviet Union after the Soviet-Finnish Winter War in 1940. The Norwegian settlers became "trapped" in Soviet Russia after the revolution; some of their descendants were allowed Norwegian citizenship after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

During the World War II for three years it was an arena of a positional war between Germans and Soviets. The peninsula covered the access to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, which were the main gates for the Lend-Lease. The front split the peninsula in two parts, both sides having heavily fortified positions.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union the territory was heavily militarized because of the immediate vicinity of Norway, a NATO member. Now the military is removed, but the territory is still closed for foreigners (as of 2005).

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.