The Petsamo Region

T I lHE Petsamo region, Finland's corridor to the open sea, was acquired in I920 under the terms of the Treaty of Tartu (Dorpat). This region of some 4000 square miles, smaller than Connecticut, was better known then by the Russian name, Pechenga. The new name, Petsamo, is of Lapp origin; it was originally the Skolt name for Peattsam Fiord. When Russia agreed to the cession of the Petsamo region to Finland, its mineral resources were practically unknown and its population was less than 2000. The recent Soviet demands for its return have been prompted largely by economic and strategic motives, reinforced by the development of the harbors of Murmansk, Aleksandrovsk, and Kola on the Kola Peninsula. To Finland acquisition of the region brought several advantages. Except for the mines of Outokumpu in the southeast, the principal mineral wealth of the country lies in the nickel and copper deposits of the Pitk'ajairvi district. These ores,' containing about i.6 per cent of nickel and I.3 per cent of copper, are mined by the Petsamo Nickel Company2 near the settlement of Kolosjoki. The ores are reached by an adit 32 kilometers long. There are also deposits of galena and native sulphide of zinc in the coastal area,3 but commercial mining had not started there, so far as we know, before the beginning of the Second World War. There is considerable fishing in the Barents Sea; in prewar years the catch averaged about i? million kilograms, mostly codfish; herring made up about IO-I5 per cent of the total, though the amount fluctuated greatly. Cod-liver oil was processed in Liinahamari by the Petsamo Fish Oil Manufactory.4 But of greater potential importance than either fishing or mining is geographical positionaccess to the Arctic Sea. COMMUNICATIONS

Geography · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Medicine

• Utilization of lichens in the arctic and subarctic

  Open Access•George A Llano•Economic Botany•1956

  Add to list