Kola Peninsula

Kola Peninsula (in former times Lapskiy (Lopskiy) Coast, where the Lapps lived, who were the original inhabitants of the Kola Peninsula – hence the name Lapland) – is located in the extreme northwest of the European part of Russia and is part of Murmansk Oblast. In the north it is washed by the Barents Sea and by the White Sea in the south and the east. In the west the K.P. is limited by the meridional trench stretching from the Kola Bay through the Kola River valley, the Imandra Lake and the Niva River to the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea. In the fifteenth century the Russians called it “Terskiy Nos” (“overthrust folding”) or the Tersk Peninsula. In the eighteenth century the name of the Kola Village was transferred on the entire peninsula. It occupies the area of approximately 100,000 km².

The northern coast is high and steep, while the southern is low and flat. The K.P. is the northeastern edge of the Baltic Shield. In the western part of the peninsula the following mountain...