KILDINSKY-NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSE

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

Eleven miles east of the mouth of the Kola Bay in the Barents Sea lies the large island of Kildin. This is the most noticeable place in terms of navigation on the entire Murmansk coast, and the southwestern coast of the island is considered the most beautiful area in our North. The length of the island in the direction from northwest to southeast is about 9 miles, and the width is 1.5-3.5 miles.

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The northern tip of Kildin - the Likhoy cliff - is an almost vertical cliff up to 180 m high from sea level; to the east of it the coast is steep almost everywhere, but gradually decreases and has a drying reef at the lower edge of the cliff.

The southern coast of the island is very beautiful, especially at sunset, when the reddish clay screes take on a crimson glow and seem to be made of precious stones.

The island was known to Russian industrialists already in the 11th century. It is also shown on the map of the Dutch navigator V. Barents, published in 1598. In 1594, on Kildin there was a meeting point for his expedition, equipped to find a northern sea route to China and India.

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Kildin Island (16th century engraving)

Judging by ancient drawings, the island's roadstead off its southern shore was a busy camp. Not only Pomor ships came here, but also foreign ships: “and for trading, the ships of the Danish king are stationed near that island” [18].

In 1779, the squadron of Rear Admiral Khmetevsky collected a lot of information about the conditions of navigation along the Murmansk coast, but they remained unpublished; handwritten notes from the participants in the campaign passed from hand to hand, as did the Pomors' sailing directions.

Kildin Island was first explored, described and more accurately mapped in July 1822 by an expedition on the brig “Novaya Zemlya” under the command of F.P. Litke. Litke's research was continued by Lieutenant M.F. Reinecke, who published in 1843 “Hydrographic description of the northern coast of Russia. Part II. Lapland coast,” which was the first sailing guide for this area.

In this book, Reinecke does not mention any navigational signs on the island, which indicates that natural landmarks remained the main landmarks when sailing here in the mid-19th century. This is explained by the fact that although the island of Kildin is located in the center of fishing and there are convenient bays on its shore, there have never been significant fish on it before

atsky camp. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, only one colonist of Norwegian descent lived on the island. He had a large family and was mainly engaged in cattle breeding.

It must be said that until the 1890s there were no lighthouses or towers, not only on Kildin, but generally on the entire northern coast of the Kola Peninsula, which can be explained by the weak economic development of the region.

The beginning of its development dates back only to the sixties of the last century, when several Finnish families, as a result of the famine in Finland, appeared in Zemlyanoy Bay and in Ur, where they took up fishing and cattle breeding. The appearance of these settlers in Murman, and after the Finns and Norwegians, attracted the attention of the government to this region. In 1870, a commission was created to “seek measures for the economic development of the Northern Territory,” which recognized it as useful to establish a commercial port on the Murmansk coast, in which the trade interests of our North would be concentrated.

In the same 1870, thanks to the energetic activities of the Arkhangelsk governor N.A. Kachalov, the White Sea-Murmansk Express Shipping Company was formed. In 1875, four steamships began sailing along the Arkhangels route

k-Vyrde (Rybachy Peninsula). Scientists and private individuals took up the issues of improvement of Murman. The Arkhangelsk governor began to travel around the Murmansk coast almost every year. The amount of cargo transported along the Murmansk line began to increase annually.

In 1894, the Commission for the Development of the Northern Territory raised the question of building a railway to Murman before the government. This proposal was supported by the Ministry of Finance, which noted that "the importance of Murman lies in its beautiful natural harbors, which lie near the open ocean and do not freeze all winter. The shores of Murman are deep, there are no shoals or reefs; thanks to the warm equatorial current, the climate of the Murmansk coast is relatively mild; all the way from the Iokang Islands to the border of Norway, the coast is clear of ice in winter, and Pomors go to the their trees to Norway... Given the combination of such favorable conditions and the proximity of the Murmansk coast to Western Europe, one cannot help but value the exceptional benefits that they represent for meeting the needs of our navigation... The Murmansk railway, facilitating in many ways the conditions of permanent life on Murman, will represent the best solution

food for raising fisheries and animals in the Arctic Ocean and for giving our Pomors the opportunity to compete in this regard with the Norwegians... The development of fishing and navigation in the open ocean directly meets the interests of the state...” [9].

The government in every possible way contributed to the development of shipping in the North, which in turn required measures to protect against dangers. In the 1890s, the first navigational signs appeared on Kildin: Cape Mogilny and the entrance to the Kildinsky Strait, separating the island from the mainland coast, were fenced off. In 1909, at the southern tip of Cape Mogilny, “to identify the eastern entrance to the strait,” a small lighthouse was built - a white octagonal iron tower on a quadrangular foundation. The acetylene lighting apparatus installed on the tower in the lantern worked automatically.

On the northern shore of the island, the lighthouse was built only in 1931. It was a temporary structure. At the end of the 1930s, they planned to replace it with a permanent stone lighthouse. However, the Great Patriotic War prevented this from happening, and the lighthouse stood in this form until the end of the war. In 1953 it was rebuilt. On the spot

temporary structure has grown

corner reinforced concrete tower 19 m high with a lantern structure and a modern electric rotating apparatus of the EMV-930 type. In 1991, a KRM-300 radio beacon was installed at the lighthouse. The lighthouse tower is painted with white and red horizontal stripes.

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Kildinsky-Severny Lighthouse

In 1997, after replacing the light-optical equipment with an ASA-500M powered by the IEU-1 isotope power plant, the lighthouse was switched to automatic operation. It currently shines a white, rapidly flashing light up to 18 miles away.