Murmansk, Russia

Murmansk is the Republic of Russia's principal port on the Arctic Ocean, and the world's largest city above the Arctic Circle. Its 500,000-plus inhabitants endure long, dark winters with sub-zero temperatures in carrying out their daily lives. Murmansk twinned with Jacksonville in 1975.

Murmansk was the last city founded in the Russian Empire.[citation needed] In 1915, World War I needs led to the construction of the railroad fromPetrozavodsk to an ice-free location on the Murman coast in the Russian Arctic, to which Russia's allies shipped military supplies.[8] The terminus became known as the Murman station, and soon boasted a port, a naval base, and an adjacent settlement with a population which quickly grew in size and soon surpassed the nearby towns of Alexandrovsk and Kola.