The Northern Fleet

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The White Sea and the Barents Sea have been of importance to the Russian merchant fleet ever since the 15th century. The matter of access to ice free harbours in the north became of increasing importance after Germany became a significant naval power in the Baltic Sea. In 1895, construction began on a modern harbour in Aleksandrovsk (present day Polyarny) at the mouth of the Murmansk Fjord. The port was completed in 1899. Events during World War I increased the strategic importance of the Kola Peninsula to Russia. The Kola Peninsula and the White sea played an important role in the transfer of military supplies to Russia, especially after the German conquest of the coastal areas as far as Estonia during World War I. A naval force dedicated especially to the northern region was established shortly after the outbreak of World War I. When the railway to Murmansk was opened in 1917, the rest of Russia was thereby connected to a ice free port which was open all year. The Soviet Fleet of the Northern Seas was established as a result of Joseph Stalin's visit to Polyarny during the summer of 1933. In 1937, it was renamed the Northern Fleet. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Northern Fleet consisted of eight destroyers, 15 diesel-powered submarines, a formation of patrol boats, mine sweepers and some smaller vessels.

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