Barentsburg
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Barentsburg (russian: Баренцбург) is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
, with about 455 inhabitants (). A
coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
town, the settlement is almost entirely made up of ethnic
Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...
and
Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
.


History

Rijpsburg, a now abandoned
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
settlement on
Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...
on Cape Boheman (
Bohemanflya Bohemanflya ("Boheman peninsula") is a peninsula on the northwestern side of Isfjorden, in Oscar II Land on Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It is named after Swedish entomologist Carl Henrik Boheman. The peninsula has a length of about and a width of , bou ...
), at the north site of Nordfjorden in the Isfjord, stood roughly diagonally opposite Longyearbyen. The
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
-based Van der Eb and Dresselhuys Scheepvaartmaatschappij (ship-building company) built it in 1920, using prefabricated huts, for the mining of coal. Twelve
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
staff and 52
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
miners started mining coal here that year. The Dutch Spitsbergen Company, founded in 1920, bought a mine in Green Harbour from the Russians and mined coal from 1921 to 1926. The company renamed its settlement Barentsburg after the Dutch explorer
Willem Barentsz Willem Barentsz (; – 20 June 1597), anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch Republic, Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northern Sea Route, N ...
. In 1932 the company sold the mine, including its settlement Barentsburg, to the
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n trust
Arktikugol Arktikugol (russian: Арктикуголь, lit=Arctic Coal) is a Russian coal mining unitary enterprise which operates on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. Owned by the government of Russia, Arktikugol currently performs limited mi ...
. The population has declined over the decades; in its heyday, over 1,000 Soviet citizens inhabited Barentsburg.


2006 fire

On October 17, 2006, Norwegian inspectors detected a smouldering underground fire in Barentsburg, prompting fears that an open fire might break out, which would have forced the total evacuation of Barentsburg for an indefinite period of time, and would also have caused environmental problems of unknown magnitude for the entire archipelago. The fire was later contained. Coal mining resumed at the end of 2010.


Status

Under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, citizens of signatory countries have equal rights to exploit natural resources, and as a result Russia, along with
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
(via the
Sveagruva Sveagruva (), or simply Svea, was a mining settlement in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, lying at the head of Van Mijenfjord. It was the third largest settlement in the archipelago (after Longyearbyen and Barentsburg). Around 300 workers ...
mine and Mine 7), maintains mining operations on Svalbard. However, as Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty, the
Russian government The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...
is represented in Barentsburg by a
consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...
. This is the northernmost
diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
of any kind in the world. Consequently, the town has a Norwegian postcode, 9178. Similarly, it uses Norwegian telephone numbering.Consulate General in Barentsburg (Spitsbergen)
/ref>


Economy

Barentsburg started as a Dutch mining town in the 1920s. In 1932 the Dutch sold their concession to the Soviet Union. Since 1932 the Russian state-owned Arktikugol (Russian for "arctic coal") trust has been operating on Svalbard and the main economic activity in Barentsburg is
coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
by Arktikugol. The coal is usually exported to Northern European buyers. The town relies entirely on mainland Russia for food and coinage. There have been instances in which not enough food was sent, and aid packages were sent from Longyearbyen. Tourism is now being developed, but does not yet generate enough income to revive the town. Russia has said it intends to build a facility in Barentsburg to process fish for export.


Transportation

The distance from Longyearbyen to Barentsburg is about but there are no roads connecting the two settlements. Most contact between the two is by
boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on inl ...
,
snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...
, or
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
. There is a heliport ( ICAO code ENBA) with a road connection at
Heerodden Heerodden is a cape at the southern side of Isfjorden, on the eastern side of the outlet of Grønfjorden, in Nordenskiöld Land on Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It is named after Swiss paleobotanist Oswald Heer. It is the site of Barentsburg Heliport, H ...
(), north of Barentsburg. The port is located in the middle of Barentsburg. Tourists usually arrive via a 2-3-hour boat trip from Longyearbyen. The coal is freighted by ship.


Climate

Barentsburg features a "Mediterranean"
tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...
(''ETs'' under the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
), with short, dry, chilly summers and long, very cold, snowy winters, though winters here are noticeably warmer than winters in a number of locations with tundra climates. Due to the fact that the town is located at a latitude approaching 80 degrees, only four months of the year have average temperatures above freezing, and in no month does the average monthly temperature exceed , meaning it is north of the
tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...
. Average low temperatures during the winter routinely drop below . Barentsburg averages roughly of precipitation, much of which falls as
snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
. The town typically experiences snowfall in every month of the year.


Science and culture

The
Barentsburg Pomor Museum The Barentsburg Pomor Museum is a small museum located in Barentsburg, a town in Svalbard, a Norway, Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Created during the 1920s by the Netherlands, Dutch, the coal mining settlement was sold to the Soviet U ...
presents
Pomor Pomors or Pomory ( rus, помо́ры, p=pɐˈmorɨ, ''seasiders'') are an ethnographic group descended from Russian settlers, primarily from Veliky Novgorod, living on the White Sea coasts and the territory whose southern border lies on a ...
culture, Arctic flora and fauna, and archaeological objects preserved in the
permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
. It is open when the daily, summer-only boat from Longyearbyen arrives, and by special arrangement. There is an athletic complex, including a swimming pool with heated seawater. Every summer, several dozen geophysicists, geologists, archaeologists, biologists, glaciologists, geographers, etc., from Russia and elsewhere work in the scientific research centre. There is also a year-round meteorological observatory and the northernmost cosmic rays station.


Education

Barentsburg has its own school serving the Russian community; in 2014 it had three teachers, with one for most subjects, one for music, and one for the English language. By 2014 its welfare funds had declined.


See also

*
Pyramiden Pyramiden (; rus, Пирами́да, r=Piramída, p=pʲɪrɐˈmʲidə; literally 'The Pyramid') is an abandoned Soviet coal mining settlement on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard which has become a tourist destination. Founded by Sweden in ...


Notes


References


''The Economist'': Arctic Norway - The Big Chill


External links

*

Dream Town, Film Trailer
Barentsburg Research Base
Official site

from th
Polar Geophysical Institute
in Englis

version of site

fro
Galen R Frysinger siteMany photos of Barentsburg
on this
flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professional ...
site
More photos of Barentsburg
fro
a Svalbard siteStory on Barentsburg
from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, December 25, 2006 {{authority control Norway–Soviet Union relations Populated places in Svalbard Populated places established in the 1920s 1920s establishments in Norway Norway–Russia relations Ethnic enclaves in Norway Company towns in Norway Pomors Russian diaspora in Norway Ukrainian diaspora in Europe