The Guardian Unlimited

(adapted version)
Owen Bowcott
Monday January 10, 2000

A gargantuan Soviet monument to the unknown soldier dominates the terraces of high-rise flats in Murmansk at the head of the Kola fiord - but his descendants have begun deserting Russia's frozen, far north. The largest city within the Arctic circle is emptying. The collapse of the communist command economy is dispersing the population south to warmer housing estates and better job opportunities. Some residents are slipping across the border into Scandinavia, mainly to Norway.

Founded in 1915, Murmansk is Russia's only year-round, ice-free port on the Barents sea. It survived Hitler's panzer divisions in the second world war and by the time Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet president in 1988 it was home to more than 500,000 people. They were drawn in by the higher wages, longer holidays and lower pensionable age, granted for working in harsh conditions.

Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, 100.000 people have gone, discouraged by the end of the privileges and the breakdown of municipal central heating systems. Emigration, plus with spiraling rates of alcoholism, a falling birthrate and shorter life expectancy, are driving down Russia's population. In 1990 it stood at 148 million. By October it was 145.7 million.

With the nouveaux super-rich exporting their wealth to the safety of hard currency accounts in the west, there are few signs of investment for economic recovery in cities such as Murmansk. The private kiosks may be full of food but secondhand Volkswagens and Ford Sierras mingle with elderly Ladas, Trabants and Fiat Polskas on the roads. The average wage is only 1,000 roubles (£23/5.800 pts) a month. Prostitutes mill around near large hotels. The smell of incinerated oil hangs in the cold air.

"People used to receive all sorts of special benefits for working here," explains Otto Mamelund, Norway's consul-general. "In the past, people came to the Arctic for 10 or 15 years for the extra cash. Many of them are going now. Most consider themselves to be from somewhere else in Russia." This migratory trend is pronounced across Russia's north-west in places like Archangel: the region's second city.

Archangel was built on the principle of state intervention. Peter the Great decreed it should be a naval base. The canals linking the city to St Petersburg in the south were built by slave labour in Stalin's days. Memories of state oppression linger. A local joke asks: "What is the tallest building in Archangel?" The answer goes: "The three-storey courthouse, - because from there you get to see Siberia. "

Many Russians seek work in the west, in Norway. This year 100,000 people are expected to cross the border between the Norwegian town of Kirkenes and Russia. The prosperity of Norway, the world's second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia, gleams like a welcoming beacon for those trapped in a bankrupt Russia. But the opening of the border has prompted Norway to step up customs inspections and military patrols to counter illegal immigration, alcohol smuggling and prostitution.

"Prisoners in Norway are paid a small, weekly allowance," explains one Norwegian official. "That sum is double the industrial wage paid in Russia. People are coming across the border and if they get caught committing a crime they know they will be jailed somewhere safe and warm - and get paid for it. It's a great deal."