Lovozero in Murmansk oblast is considered the Russian “Sami capital,” with 2,800 inhabitants. Of the 41 groups, 11 reside around or above the Arctic Circle. Russia accounts for over 100 identified ethnic groups, of which 41 are legally recognized as Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East. Since 2010, the population has decreased by nearly 40,000 people over the last 7 years. However, in the recent census of 2017, the Murmansk Oblast population was in clear decline. Norilsk has 175,365 inhabitants and Vorkuta counts 70,548 people.
Russia’s largest cities above the Arctic Circle are Murmansk, also the Arctic’s most populous city and historically known as an Arctic hub, with a population of 303,754. If we have missed anything, please contact Arctic population counts approximately 2 million people, about half of the people living in the Arctic worldwide. In the summer of 2018, the Russian Northern coastal regions also experienced an unprecedented heatwave with temperatures exceeding 30☌. During the summer month average daily high temperatures are between 15-25 ☌ but can reach as high as 35☌ especially in Russia’s sub-Arctic interior regions. Daily average low temperatures during winter, while inevitably varying across such large swaths of land, range from –20☌ –40☌. The village of Oymyakon in the Yakutsk region regularly sees temperatures below -50☌ and recorded a record low -71.2☌ in 1924. Temperatures across Russia’s Arctic and sub-Arctic territory are the coldest recorded outside of Antarctica. While these rivers are frozen for parts of the year, they represent a vital transportation route for parts of the year, aided in part by a specialized fleet of shallow-draft ice breakers to ensure access to communities and cities along these rivers. Russia’s Arctic territory is dominated by three major river systems, the Yenisey River in the west discharges in the Kara Sea, the Lena River empties in the Laptev Sea, and the Kolyma River ends in the East Siberian Sea. The Cape is a mere 911 kilometers from the pole. Russia’s closest point to the North Pole is Cape Fligely on Rudolf Island. To the north-east of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Russia’s Franz Josef Land is located just 950 kilometers from the North Pole.
Throughout the country’s Arctic waters a number of archipelagos can be found, most prominently the Novaya Zemlya in the Kara Sea, Severnaya Zemlya in the Laptev Sea, and the New Siberian Islands in the East Siberian Sea. Russia’s coastline accounts for 53 percent of the Arctic Ocean coastline and covers the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and East Siberian Sea. Russia’s Arctic territory stretches along 24,140 kilometers of coastline along the Arctic Ocean and waters above the Arctic Circle from the Barents Sea in the west at the border to Norway to the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk in the far east.