Where is the city with the strictest control in Russia? Some people say it is the capital Moscow or St. Petersburg . After all, these two are Russia's most important political, economic, cultural and industrial centers.
However, this is not the case. The city with the strictest control in Russia is Beimoersk in Arctic Circle . Not to mention that many foreigners don’t know, even most Russians have never heard of this name, because this city is Russia’s “branch of the country” - the headquarters of Northern Fleet .
Northern Fleet was the most powerful naval force in the Soviet Union. At its peak, it was equipped with nearly a thousand combat ships such as nuclear submarine , nuclear destroyers, cruiser , aircraft carrier , frigate and other combat ships. This alone is enough to make European and American countries frightened.
Although the Northern Fleet abolished a large number of ships and soldiers after collapsed , it still retained the main nuclear strike forces, possessing thousands of nuclear missiles and 27 active nuclear submarines, and is also the only Russian navy with heavy aircraft carriers.
After 2013, the Northern Fleet was officially expanded into a "cross-service strategic military region". One of its tasks was to develop military infrastructure in the Arctic region, and Northmorsk was the top priority. The Russian Federation issued only one order to the Northern Fleet: give priority to ensuring Russia's national interests in the Arctic. In order to confirm the status of the main team, the privilege of "independent administrative unit" was also specially granted.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Northern Fleet is Russia's "branch of the country". This team not only carries the pressure of Russia to fight against the Western camp, but also Russia's only counterattack force when it loses its nuclear initiative.
Therefore, Northmorsk, where the Northern Fleet is headquartered, naturally became the city with the strictest control in Russia. It has been a "first-level restricted area" from 1951 to 2000. The confidentiality level is one level higher than the largest city of the Kola Peninsula and the capital of Murmansk. Everyone must apply for a special pass when entering and leaving, and even Russians are no exception. All relocation applications will be rejected.
Northorsk has been gradually unblocked since 2009 and officially opened for relocation applications in 2010. Unexpectedly, the permanent population quickly decreased from 67,000 to 40,000.
A large-scale population loss has led to the predicament of insufficient manpower in the city's operation, and large-scale abandonment of housing. The only cement plant on the Kola Peninsula was also stopped because it could not recruit workers, and finally it was abandoned. On the other hand, the continuous expansion of the Northern Fleet, with the number of soldiers in Hong Kong increased from 11,000 at the lowest tide to 30,000, equivalent to a total population of 70,000 in North Morsk, of which 30,000 were naval soldiers.
If it is allowed to develop, the living and maintenance costs of the Northern Fleet will greatly increase, but Normoirsk cannot open tourism like ordinary cities. After several years of discussion, it was decided that "there are restrictions on the development of tourism resources, only for the objects that have passed the three-party review."
At first I didn’t understand which three parties were. It was not until I entered North Morsk that I realized that these "three parties" were actually the Russian Federation Special Security Force stationed in North Morsk, the Northern Fleet Guard Corps and the Murmansk Police Station. These three parties can be seen on almost every street. Before we arrived in Murmansk, it took us three months to obtain the license issued by the "three parties".
Guide reminded early: A police car suddenly stopped in front of you, indicating that they are preparing to check you. The blue-label black car is the duty car of the Federal Force, the red car is the patrol car of the Northern Fleet , and the blue-label white car is the police car of the local police station. Just provide the corresponding license according to their department attributes.
All three departments have the power to enforce the law. The red-label car has the greatest power and has the right to search passers-by, or even enter the private home without the search certificate.Fortunately, none of the three parties made us too difficult. We only checked us 3 times in the first and next four days (two times were almost 1 hour, and it took four hours to check the red car).
Beimoersk had only 13 Sami lived before the Second World War. In 1926, Murmansk began to build a large-scale military port and set up a logging point in Beimoersk, which led to the military camp and communication facilities.
During World War II, Murmansk was bombarded 792 times by the Luftwaffe , dropping more than 200,000 bombs, but North Morsk, 15 kilometers away, only suffered sporadic attacks. After discussion, the senior management of the Northern Fleet decided that instead of clearing the battlefield and rebuilding the headquarters on a large scale, it is better to build a new military-civilian city directly in North Morsk, which saves time and effort. In the future, the distance between ships entering and leaving the port was shortened by more than ten kilometers, which can save a lot of fuel.
Northomolsk became the new headquarters of the Northern Fleet. In order to improve the convenience of life of naval soldiers, railways and roads were built. Among the 300,000 people left behind in Murmansk Prefecture, they selected 3,000 residents with special skills, and promised to move to Northomolsk to take care of housing, work, medical education and other benefits. In just a few years, they developed into a small city with 28,000 residents.
In that era, the people selected were equivalent to the glory of being loaded on the first page of the genealogy, but what these lucky people did not expect was that they and their descendants would be trapped in this city for 50 years, and the people inside could not go out, and the people outside could not come in.
Although it has long been unblocked, the walls and iron fences used to blockade that year still exist. The guide pointed to the watchtower that was separated by a thousand meters and said: Although they are trapped here, people's lives are not stressed. Work is designated, materials are rationed, and medical treatment and school are also taken over by the military. The only disadvantage is that there is no university, and no matter how good the grades are, they cannot take the college entrance examination.
Before the unblocking of North Morsk, students who graduated from middle schools could only choose state technical night school or Northern Fleet Military Academy. After graduating from night school, they could directly join the army and board the boat after graduating from military academy.
After the ban is lifted, local students can take the local college entrance examination. Due to the regional restrictions on the Arctic Circle of the Kola Peninsula, few foreign students will choose Murmansk universities to study. Therefore, the difficulty of the college entrance examination is very low, so even the State University, the Arctic State University, the Moscow State Branch, and the University of St. Petersburg are not satisfied with the recruitment of students. Therefore, after 2017, the other three other than these four universities were simply closed and the Nasimov Naval Branch was jointly established.
Due to the existence of the Northern Fleet, it is difficult for North Morsk to systematically develop Arctic tourism resources. The guide can take us to visit only a few churches and monuments (the nearby highland hillsides are all restricted areas, with radar stations, communication stations and other facilities).
The most famous is the "Arctic Defender" monument on the maritime square. The sculpture of a naval soldier holding an automatic rifle is 15 meters high. The base is the bridge of a retired nuclear submarine. It is called the "Alyosha Monument".
It is said that this soldier rescued countless injured people in the bombing. By chance, he met the beautiful Sammy woman Alyosha. The two fell in love and set a wedding date. As a result, the wedding date was approaching, but he heard that the war ahead was in urgent need of emergency. The soldiers applied to board the boat without hesitation. A month later, the bad news came. Alyosha decided to join the army and go to the front line when she heard that her husband had died, and finally fell on the battlefield.
For this reason, the official has repeatedly reiterated that the locals still call it the "Alyosha Monument". Whenever there are tourists from other places stopping in front of the monument, they will tell you this story over and over again, and don't care even if you don't understand.
This patriotic sentiment that is deeply rooted in the bones is difficult for foreigners to understand. Perhaps only those who have been hurt by war can understand their persistence.
Another World War II memorial with a war background is on the west coast. The inscription only reads a sentence in Russian: "Commemorate the 700,000 Murmansk military and civilians who died in World War II."
You should know that during World War II, the total population of Murmansk was only 200,000 to 300,000. It was bombed by the German army to unrecognizable. The battle situation was extremely fierce and was called the "death battlefield." In order to ensure that the Allied aid materials can be sent from Murmansk to the front line as soon as possible, young people from all over the Soviet Union rushed to the "death battlefield". They risked their lives to transport the materials out in the bombing without the cover of air defense firepower, and fell down one batch and added the second batch, repeating them until the task was completed.
Why is there only one monument and no name of the victim recorded?
The guide said in a low tone: In the early stage of the German bombing, people unanimously signed the suicide note that "the bones would rather sink into the sea than fall into the hands of the Germans." Therefore, when cleaning up the battlefield after the war, the families proposed to scatter the ashes into the sea according to the last wishes of the victims.
has no name, it’s not that I don’t want to remember them, but because they all have the same name: Hero!
(I will write some happy content in the next article, mainly Arctic food and entertainment)
