Murmansk

Murmansk is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, 12 km (7.5 mi) from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland. Despite its rapidly declining population, Murmansk remains the largest city north of the Arctic Circle.

Murmansk in The Hot War

Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, and Odessa, were subjected to American atomic bombs in May 1952, in retaliation for the Soviet atomic bombings of Washington, DC, New York, and Boston.

Murmansk in Supervolcano

During the third winter after the Yellowstone Supervolcano eruption, Rob Ferguson went hunting for moose outside Guilford, Maine with a .30-06 rifle. He reflected that German and Russian soldiers would have hunted each other with similar rifles during World War II outside Murmansk in similarly cold weather. He wondered what Murmansk would be like now and thought it might still be habitable since it had been warmed by the last gasps of the Gulf Stream. Or maybe not, since the Gulf Stream was also in trouble since the eruption.

Murmansk in The War That Came Early

Murmansk was a major Russian port on the Barents Sea. After the "Big Switch" of 1940, the Royal Navy attempted to get at the Soviet Fleet, but mines and aircraft kept them at bay. In January of 1941, Pe-8 heavy bombers of the Soviet Air Force used air bases at Murmansk to bomb the British naval base of Scapa Flow.