Производительные силы района Мурманской железной дороги, 1923 г. / Правление Мурманской ж. д. – Петрозаводск : Типо-Литография Мурманской железной дороги, 1923.

P R E F A C E. The Olonetz-Mourman country, cut in an almost meridiona direction by the Mourman main-line, covers an area of more than 110.000 sq. miles nearly equal to that of Great Britain, but its popu lation amounting only to 300.000 is three times less numerous than Petrograd’s. That creates for the Mourman Railway quite peculiar conditions in comparison with other Russian Railways. Its part can not be reduced to that of a transport enterprise, as the region it cuts does not afford sufficient freights for such activity. It is true that the Mourman Railway binds Petrograd with an unfreezing* port on the North Arctic Ocean and has therefore something of the importance of a transit main, but the unsufficient construction of the Mourmansk port and the great length of the line weighing on the transport freights put it in a somewhat disadvantageous position in comparison'.Avith the Baltic ports, and, therefore, for a certain, more or less considerable time, transit freights will be reduced to a comparatively modest part in its operations. As, for the above reasons, the Railway can, for a certain time, develop its transport business neither on local nor on transit freights and must not, oil the other hand, burden the state budget during whole decades, it has only one way opened for it: immediate and active partaking in the cultivating of its region’s natural resources. And, as the chief reason of the latter’s poor exploitation lies in the lack of population, one of the Railway’s nearest duties i s— the coloni sation of the Country. The example of neighbouring Finland the density of whose popu lation is eight times greater and whose natural conditions are similar to those of the country cut by the Mourman Railway, shows that its colonizing capacity largely exceeds the actual numerousness of its in habitants. A population eight times greater w ill undoubtedly find application for its labour, as the exploitation of the country’s natural resources is yet in the first stage of development. Although the country in general is but unsufficiently explored and several regions in the centre of the Kola Peninsula literally re present a „terra incognita", it is nevertheless possible to roughly point out the principal industrial branches on which to base the whole re gions economical exploitation. The greatest economical importance must be afforded to silvicul ture, as the forest area contains oyer 30 millions acres. But the co untry,s agricultural possibilities are also of no little importance though at first it may seem rather doubtful. Of course, talking of agriculture, we do not mean crop growing (although this can also be successfully done up to the Arctic Circle and even in several more northern re-