Murmansk

Murmansk turned out to be a fairly tolerable city, although I wouldn’t want to live here. It’s not as cold here as you might think, the record low is even higher than in Moscow. But then why hang a giant thermometer on the chimney?

It’s not about the temperature, it’s about what the sun does to this cursed land.

You can still argue which is scarier: polar night or polar day. Of course, the depression in Murmansk during winter is no joke, but in summer, Murmansk can blow your mind — the sun doesn’t set for 24 hours!

“What’s wrong with that?” the reader may ask. At a minimum, it means using “blackout” curtains. In fact, sunlight is the foundation of the human biological cycle. You see, sir, if the sun doesn’t set, your sense of fatigue is completely disrupted.

These photos were taken from 10 pm to 1 am. And not just because I didn’t have time to shoot everything during the day, but because I didn’t feel tired at all. Evening came, then night. And I kept running around the city until I was exhausted.

During the polar day in Murmansk, the city doesn’t die out at all. People are walking around the city, someone is grilling kebabs on a lawn near their house — if they’re lucky with the weather.

There is a sense of celebration, long weekends, or vacation in the atmosphere. Although the polar day lasts 62 days, Murmansk only has 50 sunny days throughout the year. People take to the streets of the city to enjoy the weather.

Polar night is probably still worse. The sun doesn’t come up over the horizon for 41 days. The only thing that alleviates the depression is the polar lights and the drug mephedrone, which is as ubiquitous in any northern city of Russia as moonshine — it’s just everywhere!

To somehow diversify the black and white winter time, houses in Murmansk are painted in bright colors.

But, to be honest, it’s so weak and insufficient that I would just explode a tanker truck with gouache here — and that would be the end of it.

As always, only the facades are beautiful. The yards are very bad.

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!

Soviet artifacts.

The government building.

The Soviet coat of arms is still hanging.

The sun at 12 midnight. It won’t set any lower than this.

City center. “Five Corners” square and Arctic Hotel — the tallest building beyond the Arctic Circle.

The northernmost McDonald’s is located on the square.

There is even a commemorative plaque with coordinates on it.

Not far away is a port with icebreakers. There is a long pedestrian bridge over the railway leading to it.

Every day, factory workers walk to work across this bridge. It’s probably very cold and windy enough to be blown away.

It’s 11:00 PM.

After crossing the bridge and diving into an inconspicuous alley behind the factory, you come out to the port.

Here stands the first atomic icebreaker made in the USSR — “Lenin”.

Once it rushed towards capitalists and bourgeoisie, but now a museum is open inside the icebreaker.

What else to say... One of the craziest monuments on the planet — Alyosha — stands on the outskirts of Murmansk.

This is a memorial in honor of the defenders of the Soviet Arctic. Yes, Murmansk was also attacked by the Germans. And they even burned it down to the ground.

From the hill on which the monument stands, there is a decent view of the city. It’s better not to look at Alyosha himself — you might become a Russophobe.

But, to be honest, people don’t come to Murmansk for Murmansk, but for Teriberka. Let’s go there too.