Russia's most heavily controlled city has been locked down for 50 years, and 30,000 of the 70,000 people are soldiers
Which country in Russia has the strictest control?Some people believe that the capitals of these two countries are Moscow or St. Petersburg, because both countries are the most important economic, cultural and industrial centers in Russia.
But the opposite is true, Russia's tightest control is Severomorsk in the Arctic Circle, which is a strange place for most Russians and the stronghold of Russia's "pillar" of the Northern Fleet.
At the height of the Soviet Union, there were thousands of aircraft carriers, and this alone was enough to terrify European and American countries.
Russia's Northern Fleet, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, although it has reduced a lot of military personnel, still retains a powerful nuclear fleet and 27 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service, which is also the only large aircraft carrier left at present.
After 2013, the Northern Fleet was officially named the "Multi-Service Strategic Theater of Operations", which is mainly responsible for the construction of the Arctic region, while Severomorsk is the key construction area, and the instructions of the Russian Federation to the Northern Fleet are only: to maintain the sovereignty of the Arctic as the first priority. And as a real army, it was given the power of an "independent administrative body".
It is no exaggeration to say that the Northern Fleet is Russia's "pillar of national protection", and this team not only shoulders the heavy responsibility of Russia's defense against Western forces, but also the only force that Russia can carry out after losing its nuclear superiority.
As a result, Severomorsk is the most heavily controlled city in Russia, with security levels that surpass even the largest city on the Kola Peninsula and a top-secret area of the capital of Murmansk, where anyone who wants to enter requires a special permit, even if they are Russian citizens.
Severomorsk has been gradually lifted since 2009, and the doors to immigration were only opened in 2010, when the number of residents plummeted from 67,000 to 40,000.
Due to the declining population, the city was severely short of manpower, most of the houses were abandoned, and the only cement factory on the Kola Peninsula could not recruit enough manpower and was eventually abandoned. On the other hand, the army in the north is constantly expanding, from more than 11,000 at its peak, to more than 30,000 now, that is, the total number of people in Severomorsk has reached 70,000, of which 30,000 are navy.
If left unchecked, the daily expenses and maintenance costs of the Severtaic Navy would rise significantly, and Severomorsk would not be able to open sightseeing as a normal city at will, so after several years of discussion, it was finally decided to "only develop limited tourists who have passed the tripartite examination".
At first, I didn't figure out who these three forces were, but when I got to Severomorsk, I figured out that the so-called "three parties" are the special security forces of the Russian Federation stationed in Severomorsk, the Northern Fleet Garrison Brigade, and the Murmansk Police Department. And we, before arriving in Murmansk, had already spent more than three months getting a license from the "three parties".
The tour guide had warned them long ago that if there was a blue label sedan stopped in front of them, it meant that they would have to check them, the black license plate was the police of the federal army, the red license plate was the northern convoy, and the white license plate was the police, depending on the nature of the work, the relevant documents were required.
All three agencies have law enforcement powers, with the red motorcycles having the greatest power to search pedestrians and even enter without having to do so. Luckily, they didn't cause us much trouble, and in four days, they only searched us three times.
Before the Second World War, there were only 13 inhabitants in Severomorsk, and in 1926 Murmansk built a large naval base and a logging base in Severomorsk, where military camps and communications systems were set up.
In World War II, the Luftwaffe bombed Murmansk 792 times, dropping more than 200,000 artillery shells, while Severomorsk, just 15 kilometers away, was subjected to some sporadic attacks. After some discussion, they decided that instead of cleaning up the battlefield, it would be better to build a new civilian city in Severomorsk, which would save time, save time for ships to get in and out of the dock, and save a lot of fuel.
Thus, Severomorsk became the new base camp of the Northern Fleet, and they built a new road to improve the living conditions of the navy, and selected 3,000 people from the 300,000 people in the Murmansk region, promising that as long as they settled in Severmorsk, they would receive housing, employment, medical care and other benefits, and in just a few years, it developed into a small town with a population of 28,000.
It was as glorious to be selected as being on the family tree, but I didn't know that I and my descendants would be stuck in the city for fifty years, and I couldn't get out.
Although the seal has been lifted, the walls and metal railings that were once used to seal the city are still there, and the guide pointed to the watchtower a kilometer away and said: "We were locked up there, but it was not affected in any way, their work, supplies, medical care, education, were all provided by the army, except that none of the universities, no matter how high your score, could not take the exam." ”
Before the lifting of the lockdown in Severomorsk, high school graduates either went to the State Institute of Crafts or the Northern Naval Academy, worked at night in various military factories, family enterprises, and got on the ship after coming out of school.
Because the Kola Peninsula is located in the Arctic Circle, very few students from other countries study at Murmansk University, which is why even the State University, the Arctic University, Moscow State University, and St. Petersburg University did not have enough students, so after 2017, in addition to these four universities, three other universities were closed down to form Nasimov University.
Due to the Northern Navy, it is difficult to plan the development of tourism resources in the Arctic in Severomorsk, and the only thing that the guide can show us is some churches and memorials (the surrounding mountains are not open areas, where there are radar stations and communication stations).
One of the most famous is the statue of the Arctic Guardian in Ocean Square, which is a fifteen-meter-tall statue of a sailor holding an automaton, based on the bridge of a retired nuclear submarine, and is known by local residents as the Alyosha Memorial.
The soldier saved a lot of wounded in **, and met a beautiful girl named Alyosha by chance, the two fell in love at first sight, and soon set the date of the wedding, but just as the wedding was about to begin, a soldier received urgent news from the front, he did not hesitate to ask to participate in the war, more than a month later, Alyosha learned that her husband was killed in battle, so she chose to go to the front line, and finally died on the battlefield.
Therefore, despite repeated emphasis, local residents named it "Alyosha Memorial", and whenever foreign tourists come here, they take the trouble to repeat it over and over again, even if they don't understand it, they don't care.
That kind of patriotism that goes deep into the bone marrow is difficult for outsiders to understand, and it is probably only those who have been injured in the war that can appreciate that kind of persistence.
Another World War II memorial in the western United States, also named in Russian, reads: "In memory of the 700,000 civilians and civilians killed in World War II in Murmansk." ”
With only 2.3 million people in World War II, Murmansk has become unremarkable under repeated German air raids, and it is a place known as the "battlefield of death". The young people of the Soviet Union, in order to ensure that the relief materials in Murmansk could be delivered to the "battlefield of death" as quickly as possible, they desperately sent supplies without air defense, wave after wave, wave after wave, until the end of their mission.
Why was a stone tablet erected, but the name of the deceased was not recorded?
The tour guide whispered: "At the beginning of the German air raids, there was a consensus that they would rather throw the bodies into the sea than let them fall into the hands of the Germans", so when it came time to clean up, many families expressed their willingness to follow the wishes of the deceased and sprinkle their ashes into the sea.
The reason why there are no names is not that people can't forget, it's just that the names of these people are all the same: heroes!