Pechenga
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- For other uses of "Pechenga", see Pechenga (disambiguation).
Pechenga (Russian: Пече́нга; Finnish: Petsamo; Northern Sami: Beahcán; Skolt Sami: Peäccam) is an urban-type settlement in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. As of 2002 Census, its population was 2,959 people, composing 6.4% of Pechengsky District's population total. The population increased from 2,671 recorded in the 1989 Census).
[edit] History
The area of Pechenga is located in northern Lapland (picture), indigenously inhabited by Samis, since 1533 part of Russia (Archangelsk krai and guberniya), became part of Finland in 1920 and part of the Soviet Union in 1944.
The settlement was founded as the Pechenga Monastery in 1533 at the influx of the Pechenga River into the Barents Sea, 135 km west of modern Murmansk, by St. Trifon, a monk from Novgorod.
Inspired by the model of the Solovki, Trifon wished to convert the local Saami population to Christianity and to demonstrate how faith could flourish in the most inhospitable lands. His example was eagerly followed by other Russian monks. By 1572, the Pechenga Monastery counted about 50 brethren and 200 lay followers. Six years after St. Trifon's death in 1583, the wooden monastery was raided and burnt down by the Swedes. It is said that the raid claimed the lives of 51 monks and 65 lay brothers, bringing the history of Trifon's establishment to an end.
The area was resettled by the Pomors and other Russians; its development considerably accelerated in the late 19th century, when the monastery was reestablished there. The harbour Liinahamari in Petsamo was important for the Russian economy during World War I as the Baltic Sea was blocked by the Germans. In the Treaty of Tartu (1920), Soviet Russia ceded Petsamo to Finland.
Deposits of nickel were found 1921, after Petsamo became a part of Finland, and in 1934 it was estimated that the deposits contained over five million tonnes of nickel. Mining operations started in 1935 by Canadian and French corporations.
Construction of a road from Sodankylä through Ivalo to Liinahamari started in 1916 and was completed in 1931. This made Petsamo a popular tourist attraction, as it was the only port by the Barents Sea that could be reached by automobile.
In the Winter War the Soviet Union occupied Petsamo. In the following peace agreement only the Finnish part of the Rybachi peninsula (Finnish Kalastajasaarento) was ceded to the Soviet Union, although the Soviet Union had occupied all of Petsamo during the Winter War.
In 1941, during the Continuation War, Petsamo was used by Nazi Germany as a staging area for the attack towards Murmansk. In 1944 the Red Army occupied Petsamo again. Petsamo was ceded to the Soviet Union as part of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1946. In 1947 Finland in addition sold the Jäniskoski area, with its hydroelectric plant, in exchange for Soviet confiscated German investments in Finland.
Pechenga is still important for its ice-free harbour, Liinahamari, and deposits of nickel. After the war the Soviet Union expanded the mining operations, which had a negative impact on the environment.
