Benefiting from the North Atlantic Current, Murmansk resembles cities of its size across western Russia, with highway and railway access to the rest of Europe, and the northernmost trolleybus system on Earth.

[16] In 1915, World War I needs led to the construction of the railroad from Petrozavodsk to an ice-free location on the Murman Coast in the Russian Arctic, to which Russia's allies shipped military supplies.

[3] The terminus became known as the Murman station and soon boasted a port, a naval base, and an adjacent settlement with a population that quickly grew in size and soon surpassed the nearby towns of Alexandrovsk and Kola.

July 12], 1916, Russian Transport Minister Alexander Trepov petitioned to grant urban status to the railway settlement.

[18] In the winter of 1917 the British North Russia Squadron under Rear Admiral Thomas Kemp was based at Murmansk.

[18] While this plan was not confirmed by the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee, in 1935–1937 several rural localities of Kolsky and Polyarny Districts were merged into Murmansk anyway.

[18] According to the Presidium of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee resolution of February 26, 1935, the administrative center of Polyarny District was moved from Polyarnoye to Sayda-Guba.

[21] However, the provisions of the resolution were not fully implemented, and due to military construction in Polyarnoye, the administrative center was instead moved to Murmansk in the beginning of 1935.

During World War II, Murmansk was a link to the Western world for the Soviet Union, with large quantities of goods important to the respective military efforts traded with the USSR's Allies: primarily military equipment, manufactured goods and raw materials brought into the Soviet Union.

However, fierce Soviet resistance and harsh local weather-conditions,along with the bad terrain, prevented the Germans from capturing the city and cutting off the vital Karelian railway line and the ice-free harbor.

[24][25] For the rest of the war, Murmansk served as a transit point for weapons and other supplies entering the Soviet Union from other Allied nations.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the nearby city and naval base of Severomorsk remains the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet.

[18] In the Charter of the Hero City of Murmansk, adopted on December 17, 1995, the districts started to be referred to as administrative okrugs.

Murmansk experiences a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc), with long and cold (though average by arctic standards) winters and short, cool summers.

[48] Norway, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries take part in the North Festival Polar Olympiad.

[49] To commemorate the 85th anniversary of the city's foundation, the snow-white Church of the Saviour on the Waters was modeled after the White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal and built on the shore for the sailors of Murmansk.

The city has about a dozen Orthodox churches, the department of the head of the diocese and the metropolis of Metropolitan Simon is located in St. Nicholas Cathedral.

The port of Murmansk remains ice-free year round due to the warm North Atlantic Current and is an important fishing and shipping destination.

[54] The Port of Murmansk is the headquarters of Sevmorput (Northern Sea Route) and the administration of Russian Arctic maritime transport.

Murmansk is set to be the Russian terminus of the Arctic Bridge, a sea route linking it to the Canadian port of Churchill, Manitoba.