[3]A settlement which eventually became Kirovsk was founded in 1929, soon after an expedition led by Alexander Fersman had discovered large deposits of apatite and nepheline in the Khibiny Massif in the 1920s.

[citation needed] By the end of 1930, its population grew to ten thousand people, and a mining and [11] chemical plant here was well under construction.

[2] Due to the rapid growth, the Presidium of the Murmansk Okrug Executive Committee petitioned on January 18, 1931 to grant the settlement town status and to name it Khibinogorsk.

[2] On December 15, 1934, the town was renamed Kirovsk after recently assassinated Sergey Kirov,[12] who had been in charge of planning the development of the deposits.

[14] Consequently, the Murmansk Oblast Executive Committee subordinated a part of the territory under Kirovsk's jurisdiction to the new town by the decision of October 13, 1966.