Railway between Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean and Saint Petersburg on the Baltic Sea ">Baltic_Sea.html" ;"title="Arctic Ocean and Saint Petersburg on the Baltic Sea">Arctic Ocean and Saint Petersburg on the Baltic Sea
Kirov Railway (russian: Кировская железная дорога, ''Kirovskaya zheleznaya doroga'', until 1935 ''Murman Railway'') is a Russian gauge">broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
Russian railway network that links the Murman Coast and Murmansk city (in the north) and Saint Petersburg (in the south). The railway is operated by the ''Arktika'' passenger train. The total distance between Saint Petersburg and Murmansk is , the section between Petrozavodsk and Kola having a length of . It has 52 stations. The line is of vital military importance because of Murmansk being an
on the Arctic Sea. The northern part between
was built in 1915–1917, due to a lack of workers under assignment of an increasing number of German and Austrian war prisoners. In 1941–1943 the central part between
. Originally called the ''Murman Railway'', the line was renamed the ''Kirov Railway'' in 1935 in honor of
, who had been assassinated the year before. The railway was
