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The town of Severomorsk is the capital of the Northern Navy of Russia. It is situated on the Gulf of Kola, 26km from Murmansk. It dates back to 1896 when it was a small settlement called Vayenga, inhabited mainly by Finns. In 1951 it was renamed Severomorsk, but one of the railway stations is still called Vayenga. Severomorsk is of special interest to tourists not least because there is no other place on the Kola Peninsula which has so many monuments, although these are mainly monuments of heavy battle machinery. On Primorskaya Square stands a huge statue of an armed sailor, wich is the symbol of town. It is dedicated to the defenders of the polar regions during the Second World War.
Kola was the first town to appear on the Kola North and is the town which gave the Kola Peninsula its name. 1996 marked its 440th anniversary. Unfortunately, nowadays there are hardly any traces left of the old town. The architecture is that of a typical, small provincial town of the 1950s-1980s.
Kirovsk< situated on the shore of lake Bolshoi Vudiavr and surrounded by the Khibiny Mountains, is the most picturesque town on the Kola Peninsula. The town as it is called today appeared on the map in 1934. before which time it was called Khibinogorsk. It was founded in the 1920s as direct result of the discovery in the area of the world's largest deposit of apatite. In 1929 construction began of the region;s largest enterprise, the Apatit Joint - Stock Company.
THe town of Apatity is situated at the geographical centre of the Kola Peninsula on the edge of the tundra. The Khibiny Mountains are nearby and the White Sea and Barents Sea are just a "stone's throw away". Apatity is on the main highway and railway line, leading from the depths of Russia to the ice - free port of Murmansk. The new international Khibiny Airport was opened in 1993.
The centre-piece of the town of Monchegorsk is the large, unique statue of an elk, standing proud in the main square. It symbolizes both the might and the defencelessness of nature before Man. The scorched woods around Monchegorsk are testimony to the pollution caused by the many enterprises in the area. The Laplandsky National Park, however, situated not far away, acts as a counterbalance to the smoke and dust of the factories. Such are the contradictions of a modern industrial town.
The old village of Lovozero is the national administrative district of the Lapps, or Laplanders, the indigenous population of the Kola peninsula. The first Lappish settlement, pogost, in Lovozero was founded in the 16th century. The assimilation of the Lapps with the more numerous Slavonic population of the peninsula has, over the centuries, inevitably obscured the original culture of this national minority. However, during the last few decades, measures have been taken to revive the traditions and language which had almost become extinct. Moreover, attempts are being made to create a written form of the Lapp language, something which had never existed before. The outlook is beginning to look brighter.
Kandalaksha is one of the oldest Russian towns in the Kola North, first mentioned in historical documents in the 11th century. Until 1938 Kandalaksha was part of Karelia. It is an industrial town with a modern well-equipped port. It is also an important railway junction. Kandalaksha is considered to be the gateway to the Murmansk land.