Vidyayevo
Encyclopedia
Vidyaevo is a closed
Closed city
A closed city or closed town is a settlement with travel and residency restrictions in the Soviet Union and some of its successor countries. In modern Russia, such places are officially known as "closed administrative-territorial formations" ....

 rural inhabited locality in Kolsky District
Kolsky District
Kolsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the five in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Kola Peninsula and borders with the Barents Sea in the north and Finland in the west. The area of the district is . Its administrative center is...

 of Murmansk Oblast
Murmansk Oblast
Murmansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in the northwestern part of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Murmansk.-Geography:...

, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. Despite having a rural status, it is municipally incorporated as Vidyayevo Urban Okrug, as such status is the only one allowed by the federal law for the closed inhabited localities. Population: 6,307 (2002 Census
Russian Census (2002)
Russian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...

).

It is mostly known for the naval bases located in the Ara and Ura Bays. The locality itself is situated on the eastern side of the Ura Bay.

History

It was founded in 1958 as Uritsa , after the river flowing from Pityevoye Lake into the bay and providing drinking water for the settlement. Most likely, the name Uritsa is a Russian diminutive of Ura, which is a native Saami (Lappi) name for the bay and for a larger river Ura also feeding into the Ura Bay several kilometers away from Vidyayevo. Uritsa was renamed Vidyayevo in 1964 in honor of the legendary World War II submarine commander Fyodor Vidyayev
Fyodor Vidyayev
Fyodor Alekseyevich Vidyayev was a Soviet Navy submarine commander during World War II. He was killed in action in 1943....

 who perished in the Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...

 in course of the military mission of the submarine SHCH-402 under his command. In the early 1960s, the area started serving as a base for diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

-powered submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

s, and in 1979 nuclear
Nuclear marine propulsion
Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship by a nuclear reactor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships...

-powered ones as well. In the 1980s, the base at Ara Bay was a relatively large one, serving submarines of all three generations. Remaining submarines in service in Ara Bay today are of the Akula
Akula class submarine
Project 971 Щука-Б , is a nuclear-powered attack submarine first deployed by the Soviet Navy in 1986...

 (Shchuka-B), Sierra
Sierra class submarine
The Sierra I class or Project 945 nuclear submarine was the Soviet Union's successor class to the partly successful Project 705 Lira class submarine...

, and Oscar-II
Oscar class submarine
The Project 949 and Project 949A Soviet Navy/Russian Navy cruise missile submarines ....

 (Antey) class.

Vidyayevo (particularly the Ara Bay) was the home base of the now lost K-141 Kursk
Russian submarine K-141 Kursk
K-141 Kursk was an Oscar-II class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine of the Russian Navy, lost with all hands when it sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000...

(which was an Oscar-II class). Naval radioactive waste storage facilities are located at the Ara Bay as well.

The base at Ura Bay is used for diesel submarines and a few smaller surface vessels. The settlement consists mostly of five-story apartment buildings built on granite rock foundations or on poles driven into permafrost.
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