The Khibiny Mountains ( Russian : Хиби́ны [xʲɪˈbʲinɨ] ; Kildin Sami : Umptek ) is one of the two main mountain ranges of the Kola Peninsula , Russia , within the Arctic Circle , located between Imandra and Umbozero lakes. The range is also known as Khibiny Massif, Khibinsky Mountains, Khibinsky Tundras, Khibins or Khibiny. The Khibiny National Park was set up in 2018.
128-585: The Kola Peninsula ( Russian : Ко́льский полуо́стров , romanized : Kólʹskij poluóstrov, Kolsky poluostrov ; Kildin Sami : Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк ) is a peninsula located mostly in northwest Russia and partly in Finland and Norway . It is one of the largest peninsulas of Europe . Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast , it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and
256-674: A constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in
384-519: A new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to
512-569: A formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) Khibiny Mountains The Khibiny Massif are the highest mountains of the Kola Peninsula , a large peninsula extending from northern Russia into the Barents and White seas. The total land area of the peninsula is approximately 100,000 square kilometres (39,000 sq mi). It
640-484: A language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service. In Lithuania , Russian has no official or legal status, but
768-588: A lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic , Turkic , Persian , Arabic , and Hebrew . According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between
896-622: A minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Azerbaijan , Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Georgia , Russian has no official status, but it
1024-526: A qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society. In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in
1152-409: A railway was also considered, but no action was taken at the time. Also in 1896, Alexandrovsk (now Polyarny ) was founded, and grew in size so rapidly that it was granted town status in 1899; Kolsky Uyezd was renamed Alexandrovsky on that occasion. During World War I (1914-1918), the still poorly-developed peninsula suddenly found itself in a strategic position, as communication between Russia and
1280-661: A reindeer disease epidemic in their home lands in the southeast of the White Sea. The original administrative and economic center of the area was Kola , situated at the estuary of the Kola River into the Kola Bay . In 1916, Romanov-na-Murmane (now Murmansk) was founded and quickly became the largest city and port on the peninsula. Russian migration to the peninsula continued into the 16th century, when new settlements such as Kandalaksha and Porya-Guba were established. Kola
1408-658: A result of this, a recreational fishery has been developed, with a number of remote lodges and camps available to host sport-fishermen. The Kandalaksha Nature Reserve , established in 1932 to protect the population of common eider , is organized in thirteen clusters located in the Kandalaksha Gulf of the Kola Peninsula and along the coasts of the Barents Sea. The Kola Peninsula has many small but fast-moving rivers with rapids. The most important of them are
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#17327658329881536-551: A year. The waters of the Murman Coast remain warm enough to remain ice-free even in winter. Precipitation levels on the peninsula are rather high: 1,000 millimeters (39 in) in the mountains, 600–700 millimeters (24–28 in) on the Murman Coast, and 500–600 millimeters (20–24 in) in other areas. The wettest months are August through October, while March and April are the driest. The average temperature in January
1664-487: Is 1,116 metres (3,661 ft). The mountains form the shape of a horseshoe topped by a high plateau , drained by a series of deep canyons. The peaks are of plateau type, with steep slopes, with glaciers , icefields and snowfields in some places. The overall terrain is alpine tundra . The second, and similar mountain range of the Kola Peninsula, the Lovozero Tundras , is located about 5 km east from
1792-539: Is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%. In Estonia , Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022,
1920-558: Is a 95% reduction (compared to 2015) in SO2 by 2030 for its Polar Division on the Taimyr peninsula, which includes its Nadezhda smelter and Copper plant, partly through a SO2 capture solution. Other polluters of note include the thermal power stations in Apatity and Murmansk . The Rybachy Peninsula in the north of the Kola Peninsula was already settled in the 7th – 5th millennium BCE . In
2048-481: Is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan . The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group. In Tajikistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under
2176-401: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian , and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level. Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Older letters of
2304-610: Is a post-posed definite article -to , -ta , -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian. In the Southern Russian dialects , instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi] , not [nʲɪsˈlʲi] ) – this
2432-532: Is about −10 °C (14 °F), with lower temperatures typical in the central parts of the peninsula. The average temperature in July is about +11 °C (52 °F). Record lows reach −50 °C (−58 °F) in the central parts and −35 to −40 °C (−31 to −40 °F) on the coasts. Record highs exceed +30 °C (86 °F) almost on all the territory of the peninsula. First frosts occur as early as August and may last through May and even June. Most areas of
2560-488: Is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding , which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards. The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1 , and MESM models were produced in 1951. According to
2688-545: Is bordered by the Barents Sea to the north and by the White Sea to the east and southeast. The city of Murmansk , the most populous settlement on the peninsula, has a population of roughly 270,000 residents. While humans had already settled in the north of the peninsula in the 7th–5th millennium BCE, the rest of its territory remained uninhabited until the 3rd millennium BCE, when various peoples started to arrive from
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#17327658329882816-624: Is called yakanye ( яканье ). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/ , a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/ , whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/ , /v/ , and final /l/ and /f/ , respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There
2944-701: Is covered by two mountain ranges: the Khibiny Mountains and the Lovozero Massif ; the former contains the highest point of the peninsula— Yudychvumchorr . Mount Chasnachorr , the height of which is 1,191 meters (3,907 ft), had been formerly considered the highest point of the Khibiny. The Keyvy drainage divide lies in the central part. The mountainous reliefs of the Murman and Kandalaksha Coasts stretch from southeast to northwest, mirroring
3072-482: Is developed in the region. The Kola Peninsula as a whole suffered major ecological damage, mostly as a result of pollution from the military (particularly naval) production, industrial mining of apatite , and military nuclear waste. About 137 active and 140 decommissioned or idle naval nuclear reactors, produced by the Soviet military, remain on the peninsula. For thirty years, nuclear waste had been dumped into
3200-573: Is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City , Philadelphia , Boston , Los Angeles , Nashville , San Francisco , Seattle , Spokane , Toronto , Calgary , Baltimore , Miami , Portland , Chicago , Denver , and Cleveland . In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially
3328-564: Is odd") – чу́дно ( chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц ( molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец ( mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю ( uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ ( uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть ( otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать ( otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра ( aféra , "scandal, affair"), гу́ру ( gúru , "guru"), Гарси́я ( García ), Оле́ша ( Olésha ), Фе́рми ( Fermi ), and to show which
3456-554: Is one of the only places the rare Gray seals can be found. Greenland seals, or harp seals , also can be seen from time to time. Twenty-nine species of fresh water fish are recognized on the territory of peninsula, including trout , stickleback , northern pike , and European perch . The rivers are an important habitat for the Atlantic salmon , which return from Greenland and the Faroe Islands to spawn in fresh water. As
3584-402: Is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language. In China , Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and
3712-605: Is rich in minerals due to the removal of a layer of soil during the last ice age . The Khibiny Massif is of oval shape of about 1,300 km . and occupies the central part of the peninsula at a relative elevation of 900–1000 m above the surrounding plain. The mountains are not particularly high; the two highest peaks are the Yudychvumchorr , which stands 1,201 metres (3,940 ft), and the Chasnachorr , which stands 1,191 metres (3,907 ft). The average elevation
3840-569: Is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin , Polish , Dutch , German, French, Italian, and English, and to
3968-585: Is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook. In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006. Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in
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4096-518: Is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? ( Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? ( Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? ( Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners. The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using
4224-585: The Allies via the Baltic and Black Sea was cut. Britain helped in the development of the ice-free harbors of the Murman Coast as the only practical means of sending Allied war supplies to the Eastern Front . In March 1915, the construction of the railroad was rushed, and the railroad was quickly opened in 1916, even though it was only partially completed and poorly built. In 1916, Romanov-na-Murmane (Romanov on
4352-470: The 2011 Lithuanian census , Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population. In Moldova , Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population
4480-591: The 3rd – 2nd millennium BCE , the peninsula was settled by the peoples who arrived there from the south (the territory of modern Karelia ). Bolshoy Oleny Island in the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea is the location of an important Bronze Age archaeological site where ancient DNA has been recovered. By the end of the 1st millennium CE , the peninsula was settled only by the Sami people , who did not have their own state, lived in clans ruled by elders , and were engaged mostly in reindeer herding and fishing. In
4608-1000: The Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975. In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su . Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian
4736-413: The Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business. In Turkmenistan , Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in
4864-623: The Grand Duchy of Moscow after the Battle of Shelon in 1471, and the republic itself ceased to exist in 1478 when Ivan III took the city of Novgorod. All Novgorod territories, including those on the Kola Peninsula, became a part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The Novgorod Republic lost control of the peninsula to the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1471, but the Russian migration did not stop. Several new settlements were established during
4992-570: The Internet . Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script ; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language, which is usually shown in writing not by a change of
5120-646: The Jacob's River , which now is a part of Norway. The Sami population was forced to pay tribute. The Norwegians were also attempting to take control of these lands, resulting in armed conflicts. In 1251, a conflict between the Karelians, Novgorodians and the servants of the king of Norway led to the establishment of a Novgorodian mission in Norway. Also in 1251, the first treaty with Norway was signed in Novgorod regarding
5248-647: The Karelian Isthmus border and the border north of Lake Ladoga . Another treaty dealing the matters of the northern borders was the Treaty of Novgorod signed with Norway in 1326, which ended the decades of the Norwegian-Novgorodian border skirmishes in Finnmark. Per the terms of this treaty, Norway relinquished all claims to the Kola Peninsula. The treaty did not address the situation with
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5376-785: The Ponoy , the Varzuga , the Umba , the Teriberka , the Voronya , and the Yokanga . Most rivers originate from lakes and swamps and collect their waters from melting snow. The rivers become icebound during the winter, although the areas with strong rapids freeze later or not at all. Major lakes include Imandra , Umbozero , and Lovozero . There are no lakes with an area smaller than 0.01 square kilometers (0.0039 sq mi). Recreational fishery
5504-690: The Russian Federation , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Tajikistan , and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine , Moldova , the Caucasus , Central Asia , and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel . Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe , the most spoken Slavic language , as well as
5632-517: The Tsardom of Russia cede the peninsula. Russia declined, and in order to organize adequate defenses established the position of a voyevoda . The voyevoda sat in Kola, which became the administrative center of the region. Prior to that, the administrative duties were performed by the tax collectors from Kandalaksha. Newly established Kolsky Uyezd covered most of the territory of the peninsula (with
5760-664: The Turiy Peninsula . Kolo Volost lay to the west of that line, while Tre was situated to the east of it. By the 13th century, a need to formalize the border between the Novgorod Republic and the Scandinavian countries became evident. The Novgorodians, along with the Karelians who came from the south, reached the coast of what now is Pechengsky District and the portion of the coast of Varangerfjord near
5888-584: The Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration , media, education, science, culture, advertising, services . The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On
6016-507: The United States Census , in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States. Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following: The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to
6144-441: The okrug was separated from Leningrad Oblast, merged with Kandalakshsky District of the Karelian ASSR , and transformed into modern Murmansk Oblast . All in all, the Soviet period saw a significant increase in population (from 15,000 in 1913 to 1,150,000 in 1989), although most of the population remained concentrated in the urban localities along the railroads and the sea coast. Most of the sparsely populated territories outside
6272-454: The 1251 treaty. The treaty led to a short period of peace, but the armed conflicts resumed soon thereafter. Chronicles document attacks by the Novgorodians and the Karelians on Finnmark and northern Norway as early as 1271, and continuing well into the 14th century. The official border between the Novgorod lands and the lands of Sweden and Norway was established by the Treaty of Nöteborg on August 12, 1323. The treaty primarily focused on
6400-415: The 12th century, Russian Pomors from the shores of the Onega Bay and in the lower reaches of the Northern Dvina discovered the peninsula and its game and fish riches. The Pomors organized regular hunting and fishing visits and started barter trade with the Sami. They also called the White Sea coast of the peninsula Tersky Coast ( Те́рский бе́рег ) or Terskaya Land ( Те́рская земля́ ). By
6528-451: The 15th century. The Soviet period (1917–1991) saw a rapid population increase, although most of the new arrivals remained confined to urbanized territories along the sea coast and the railroads. The Sami people were subject to forced collectivization , including forced relocation to Lovozero and other centralized settlements, and overall the peninsula became heavily industrialized and militarized, largely due to its strategic position (as
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#17327658329886656-414: The 15th–16th centuries, the main occupations of the Tersky Coast population were Atlantic salmon fishing, seal hunting, and the extraction of salt from the sea water. The salt extraction in Kandalaksha and Kola was mostly carried out by the monasteries in Pechenga and Solovki , and for a long time remained the only "industry" on the peninsula. By the mid-16th century, Atlantic cod fishing developed on
6784-514: The 16th century, and the Sami and Pomor people were forced into serfdom . In the second half of the 16th century, the peninsula became a subject of dispute between the Tsardom of Russia and the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway , which resulted in the strengthening of the Russian position. By the end of the 19th century, the indigenous Sami population had been mostly forced north by the Russians as well as by newly arriving Izhma Komi and Kominized Nenets (so-called Yaran people ), who migrated here to escape
6912-436: The 1930s led to the concentration of the reindeer herds in kolkhozes (collective farms), which in turn were further consolidated into a few large-scale state farms in the late 1950s–early 1970s. By the mid-1970s, the state farms were further consolidated into just two, based in Lovozero and Krasnoshchelye . The consolidations were rationalized by the necessity to isolate the herders from the military installations, as well as by
7040-405: The 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries. In Armenia , Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as
7168-412: The Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home
7296-409: The Great and developed from the Moscow ( Middle or Central Russian ) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution , the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However,
7424-468: The Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ( знак ударения ) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress . For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к ( zamók – "lock") – за́мок ( zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий ( stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий ( stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ ( chudnó – "this
7552-527: The Kola Peninsula are subarctic climate ( Köppen climate classification : Dfc ). The nearby islands usually belong to tundra ( Köppen climate classification : ET ). The peninsula is covered by taiga in the south and tundra in the north. In the tundra, cold and windy conditions and permafrost limit the growth of the trees, resulting in a landscape dominated by grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs such as dwarf birch and cloudberry . In northern coastal areas, stony and shrub lichens are common. The taiga in
7680-427: The Kola Peninsula gradually became a part of the Novgorodian lands. A 1265 treaty of Yaroslav Yaroslavich with Novgorod mentions Tre Volost ( волость Тре ), which is later also mentioned in other documents dated as late as 1471. In addition to Tre, Novgorodian documents of the 13th–15th centuries also mention Kolo Volost , which bordered Tre approximately along the line between Kildin Island and Turiy Headland of
7808-411: The Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada , Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers , after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Russian is one of the six official languages of
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#17327658329887936-441: The Murman Coast in the north. The 1560s saw a rapid growth of international trade, with the Russian merchants from different regions of the country arriving to the peninsula to trade with the merchants from Western Europe. In 1585 the trade was moved to Archangel , although the settlement of Kola was still permitted to trade locally produced goods. During the 17th century, the salt extraction activities gradually went into decline as
8064-442: The Murman: modern Murmansk ) was founded as the terminal point of the new railroad; the town quickly grew to become the largest one on the peninsula. Soviet power was established on the territory of the peninsula on November 9 [ O.S. October 26], 1917, but the territory was occupied by the forces of Russia's pre-war allies in March 1918–March 1920. Alexandrovsky Uyezd was transformed into Murmansk Governorate by
8192-807: The Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ ( /je/ or /ʲe/ ); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩ , which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ ( /i/ ); ⟨ ѳ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ ( /f/ ); ⟨ ѫ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ ( /u/ ); ⟨ ѭ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ ( /ju/ or /ʲu/ ); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩ , which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/ . While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated
8320-491: The Russian government created incentives for settlement and not only Russians but also Finns , Norwegians and Karelians moved to the peninsula. By the 1897 census 9,291 people were counted in the Kola uyezd ; 63% Russian, 19% Sami, 11% Finnish and 3% Karelian. By 1913 about 13,000–15,000 people lived in the peninsula, mostly along the shores. However, the discovery of the vast natural resource deposits and industrialization efforts led to an explosive population growth during
8448-458: The Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from
8576-401: The Sami lands and the system of tribute collections, making the Sami people pay tribute to both Novgorod and Norway. By the terms of the treaty, Novgorodians could collect tribute from the Sami as far as the Lyngen fjord in the west, while Norwegians could collect tribute on the territory of the whole Kola Peninsula except in the eastern part of Tersky Coast. No state borders were established by
8704-400: The Sami people paying tribute to both Norway and Novgorod, and the practice continued until 1602. While the 1326 treaty did not define the border in detail, it confirmed the 1323 border demarcation, which remained more or less unchanged for the next six hundred years, until 1920. In the 15th century, Novgorodians started to establish permanent settlements on the peninsula. Umba and Varzuga ,
8832-405: The Sami population had mostly been forced north, with ethnic Russians settling in the south of the peninsula. In 1894, the peninsula was visited by the Russian Minister of Finance, Sergei Witte , who became convinced of the region's economic potential. Consequently, in 1896 telephone and a telegraph communications were extended to Kola, improving links with the mainland. The possibility of building
8960-405: The Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent. In Uzbekistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian
9088-462: The Soviet government in June 1921. On August 1, 1927, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) issued two Resolutions: "On the Establishment of Leningrad Oblast" and "On the Borders and Composition of the Okrugs of Leningrad Oblast", according to which Murmansk Governorate was transformed into Murmansk Okrug (which was divided into six districts) and included into Leningrad Oblast . This arrangement existed until May 28, 1938, when
9216-722: The Soviet times. By 1970, the population of the peninsula was around 799,000. The trend reverted in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union . The population of the whole Murmansk Oblast went down from 1,150,000 in 1989 to 890,000 in 2002 to 795,000 in 2010. As of the 2010 Census, the population consisted mostly of Russians (89.0%), Ukrainians (4.8%), and Belarusians (1.7%). Other groups of note include Komi (~1,600 inhabitants), Sami (~1,600), and Karelians (~1,400). The indigenous Sami people are mostly concentrated in Lovozersky District . During
9344-467: The United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics. In Belarus , Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus . 77% of
9472-403: The broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages. The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language ( современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter
9600-467: The collectivization were subject to forced labor or death. Various forms of repression against the Sami continued until Stalin 's death in 1953. In the 1990s, 40% of the Sami lived in urbanized areas, although some herd reindeer across much of the region. The Sami were not the only people subject to repressions. Thousands of people were sent to Kola in the 1930s–1950s, and in 2007 over two thousand people—descendants of those forcibly sent there—still live on
9728-417: The consonant but rather by changing the following vowel. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels . Stress , which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically , though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [ zamók , 'lock'] and за́мок [ zámok , 'castle']), or to indicate
9856-572: The country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus . See also Russian language in Israel . Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan . In Vietnam , Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English. The Russian language
9984-531: The deepest hole drilled into the Earth. The peninsula is located in the far northwest of Russia, almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is bordered by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast. Geologically, the peninsula occupies the northeastern edge of the Baltic Shield . The western border of the peninsula stretches along the meridian from the Kola Bay through
10112-430: The easternmost point of Khibiny, separated from it by Lake Umbozero . The Khibiny range is extremely rich in minerals, mainly apatite and nepheline ores. 477 valid minerals have been reported and 108 of those are type localities or minerals first described in the Khibiny. The range is also seismically active. Khibiny mountains are mostly uninhabited, except for one of the world's richest mineral quarries. One of
10240-598: The end of the 12th century, the Pomors explored all of the northern coast of the peninsula and reached Finnmark (an area in the north of Norway ), necessitating the Norwegians to support a naval guard in that area. The name given by the Pomors to the northern coast was Murman —a distorted form of Norman meaning "Norwegian". Pomors were soon followed by tribute collectors from the Novgorod Republic , and
10368-578: The exception of Varzuzhskaya and Umbskaya Volosts, which were a part of Dvinsky Uyezd ), as well as the northern part of Karelia all the way to Lendery . Despite the economic activity, permanent settlement of the peninsula did not intensify until the 1860s, and even then it remained sporadic until 1917. The population of Kola in 1880, for example, was only around 500 inhabitants living in 80 households, compared to 1,900 inhabitants in 300 households living there in 1582. Transportation facilities were virtually non-existent and communication with
10496-413: The factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry,
10624-456: The final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian . From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM ) should be only in Latvian or
10752-647: The first documented permanent settlements of the Novgorodians, date back to 1466. Over time, all coastal areas to the west of the Pyalitsa River had been settled, creating a territory where the population was mostly Novgorodian. Administratively, this territory was divided into Varzuzhskaya and Umbskaya Volosts , which were governed by a posadnik from the area of the Northern Dvina . The Novgorod Republic lost control of both of these volosts to
10880-631: The generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to
11008-480: The government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and
11136-523: The last ice age removed the top sediment layer of the soil, the surface of Kola Peninsula is extremely rich in various ores and minerals, including apatites and nephelines ; copper , nickel , and iron ores ; mica ; kyanites ; ceramic materials , as well as rare-earth elements and non-ferrous ores. Deposits of construction materials such as granite , quartzite , and limestone are also abundant. Diatomaceous earth deposits are common near lakes and are used to produce insulation . Proximity of
11264-457: The locally produced salt was uncompetitive with cheap salt produced in the Kama River regions. Extensive poaching also led to the significantly reduced outputs from pearl hunting . Commercial deer herding became more popular, although its share in the economy remained negligible until the 19th century. By the end of the 17th century, the practice of seasonal fishing and hunting settlements in
11392-566: The lower reaches of the Ponoy River. Despite the efforts ongoing for the next two centuries, there was no commercial success. At the end of the 18th century, the local population learned the practice of peat production from the Norwegians and started using peat for heating. Timber cutting industry developed in the region at the end of the 19th century; mostly in Kovda and Umba. The Soviet era saw drastic industrialization and militarization of
11520-435: The minerals discovered there is reported to have a potential as a nuclear waste radioactivity absorbent. By the foot of the massif the cities of Apatity and Kirovsk are situated. Khibiny have an Arctic-moderate climate, with an average winter temperature of −5 °C (23 °F). However, the temperature can potentially drop to −30 °C (−22 °F) during the night. The Gulf Stream , which brings warmer water to
11648-417: The more economically profitable Komi approach, which emphasized permanent settlements over free herding. Since the Sami culture is strongly tied to the herding practices, this resulted in the Sami people gradually losing their language and traditional herding knowledge. Most Sami were forced to settle in the village of Lovozero , which became the cultural center of the Sami people in Russia. Those Sami resisting
11776-489: The most geographically widespread language of Eurasia . It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers , and the world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers . Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station , one of the six official languages of the United Nations , as well as the fourth most widely used language on
11904-489: The need to flood some territories to construct hydroelectric plants . Fishing, being the traditional industry of the region, was always considered important although the volumes of production remained insignificant until the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s–1930s, the Murmansk Trawl Fleet was created and the fishing infrastructure started to develop intensively. By 1940, fishing accounted for 40% of
12032-514: The north of the peninsula became very common. Peter the Great , recognizing the political and economical importance of the peninsula, promoted its industries and commerce. The region fell into neglect after St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 and most of the shipping trade shifted there. In 1732, large deposits of silver in native form were discovered on Medvezhy Island in the Kandalaksha Gulf and copper, silver, and gold deposits were found in
12160-566: The north, where permafrost limits the growth of trees, resulting in landscape dominated by shrubs and grasses. The peninsula supports a small variety of mammals, and its rivers are an important habitat for the Atlantic salmon . The Kandalaksha Nature Reserve , established to protect the population of common eider , is located in the Kandalaksha Gulf . The peninsula is also the site of the Kola Superdeep Borehole ,
12288-524: The northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964. In Kazakhstan , Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of
12416-606: The oblast's and for 80% of Murmansk's economy. Russian language Russian is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians . It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union . Russian has remained an official language of
12544-515: The other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east . But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion , their number dropped by almost half. According to
12672-461: The other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect , although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century,
12800-446: The parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year. In Latvia , Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held
12928-453: The peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky , who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or
13056-608: The peninsula to the Gulf Stream leads to unusually high temperatures in winter for the region, resulting in significant temperature variations between land and the Barents Sea and in fluctuating temperatures during high winds. Cyclones are typical during the cold seasons, while the warm seasons are characterized by anticyclones . Monsoon winds are common in most areas, with south and southwesterly winds prevailing in winter months and with somewhat more pronounced easterly winds in summer. Strong storm winds blow for 80–120 days
13184-414: The peninsula's main orographic features. Administratively , the territory of the peninsula consists of Lovozersky and Tersky Districts , parts of Kandalakshsky and Kolsky Districts , as well as the territories subordinated to the cities and towns of Murmansk , Ostrovnoy , Severomorsk , Kirovsk , and parts of the territories subordinated to Apatity , Olenegorsk , and Polyarnye Zori . Because
13312-500: The peninsula's northerly location, its proximity to the North Atlantic Current (an extension of the Gulf Stream ) leads to unusually high temperatures in winter, but also results in high winds due to the temperature variations between land and the Barents Sea. Summers are rather chilly, with the average July temperature of only 11 °C (52 °F). The peninsula is covered by taiga in the south and by tundra in
13440-445: The peninsula. Beluga whales are the only cetacean being common around the peninsula. Other dolphins, including Atlantic white-sided dolphins , white-beaked dolphins , and harbor porpoises , as well as large whales, such as bowhead , humpback , blue , and finback , also visit the area. The coasts of the Kandalaksha Gulf and the Barents Sea are important breeding grounds for bearded seals and ringed seals . The Barents Sea
13568-644: The peninsula. The main industrial pollution source is Norilsk Nickel in Monchegorsk —the large smelters responsible for over 80% of the sulfur dioxide emissions and for nearly all nickel and copper emissions. Since 1998, SO 2 emissions in the area have dropped by almost 60%, from 88.3 thousand tonnes to 37.3 thousand tonnes in 2016, according to Norilsk Nickel. Based on its new ‘Sulphur programme 2.0', Norilsk Nickel has set itself staged targets in cutting down sulphur dioxide emissions, which can have negative health and environmental effects. The ultimate aim
13696-514: The peninsula. A significant portion of the people deported to Kola were peasants from southern Russia subjected to dekulakization . Prisoner labor was often used when building new factories and for manning those which were operational: in 1940, for example, the whole Severonikel Metallurgy Mining Complex was turned over to the NKVD system. Until the 1800s, the Kola Peninsula was extremely sparsely populated, with only 5,200 inhabitants in 1858. In 1868
13824-639: The peninsula. In 1925–1926, significant deposits of apatite were discovered in the Khibiny Mountains, and the first apatite batch was shipped only a few years later, in 1929. In 1930, sulfide deposits were discovered in the Moncha area ; in 1932–1933 iron ore deposits were found near the upper streams of the Iona River ; in 1935, significant deposits of titanium ores were discovered in the area of modern Afrikanda . The collectivization efforts in
13952-459: The population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025. In Kyrgyzstan , Russian
14080-418: The population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census , out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in
14208-481: The pre-eminent Soviet ice-free Atlantic coast) and to the discovery of the vast apatite deposits in the 1920s. As a result, the peninsula suffered major ecological damage . After the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union , the economy went into decline. Its population fell from 1,150,000 in 1989 to 795,000 in 2010. The peninsula recovered somewhat in the early 21st century, and is considered the most industrially developed and urbanized region in northern Russia. Despite
14336-479: The pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/ , /ĭ/ . Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz , and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš' . Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration
14464-472: The proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names. Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family . It is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language used in Kievan Rus' , which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language , its closest relatives are Ukrainian , Belarusian , and Rusyn ,
14592-491: The respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents). In Ukraine , Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed
14720-463: The rest of Russia was irregular. 1887 saw an influx of Izhma Komi and Nenets people who were migrating to the peninsula to escape a reindeer-disease epidemic in their homelands and brought their large deer herds with them, resulting in increased competition for the grazing lands, a conflict between the Komi and the Sami, and in marginalization of the local Sami population. By the end of the 19th century,
14848-487: The sea by the Northern Fleet and Murmansk Shipping Company . There is also evidence of contamination from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster , with contaminants being found in the flesh of reindeer and other animals, and from the 1972 and 1984 controlled nuclear explosions 21 kilometers (13 mi) northwest of Kirovsk . Additionally, several nuclear weapons test ranges and radioactive waste storage facilities exist on
14976-475: The south. By the 1st millennium CE only the Sami people remained. This changed in the 12th century, when Russian Pomors discovered the peninsula's rich resources of game and fish. Soon after, the Pomors were followed by the tribute collectors from the Novgorod Republic , and the peninsula gradually became a part of the Novgorodian lands. The Novgorodians, however, established no permanent settlements until
15104-608: The southern areas is composed mostly of pine trees and spruces . Reindeer herds visit the grasslands in summer. Other animals include red and Arctic foxes , wolverines , moose , otters , and lynx in the southern areas. American minks , which were released near the Olenitsa River in 1935–1936, are now common throughout the peninsula and are commercially hunted. Beavers , which became endangered by 1880, were re-introduced in 1934–1957. All in all, thirty-two species of mammals and up to two hundred bird species inhabit
15232-679: The survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language. In
15360-459: The syntax of Russian dialects." After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930: The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to
15488-786: The two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern , Central (or Middle), and Southern , with Moscow lying in the Central region. The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ( оканье ). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/ , respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature
15616-425: The urbanized areas were used for deer herding. This region is also home to the Kola Superdeep Borehole . In 1920–1940, the town of Kirovsk and several work settlements were established on the peninsula. The Sami peoples were subject to forced collectivization , with more than half of their reindeer herds collectivized in 1928–1930. In addition, the traditional Sami herding practices were phased out in favor of
15744-511: The use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to
15872-468: The valley of the Kola River , Lake Imandra , and the Niva River to the Kandalaksha Gulf , although some sources push it all the way west to Russia's border with Finland. Under a more restrictive definition, the peninsula covers an area of about 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 sq mi). The northern coast is steep and high, while the southern coast is flat. The western part of the peninsula
16000-468: Was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska , Russian
16128-405: Was first mentioned in 1565. In the end of the 15th century, the Pomors and the Sami people were forced into serfdom , mostly by the monasteries. Monastery votchiny greatly expanded during the 17th century, but were abolished in 1764, when all of the Kola Peninsula peasants became state peasants . In the second half of the 16th century, King Frederick II of Denmark–Norway demanded that
16256-421: Was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census , Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian. According to the 2010 census in Russia , Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of
16384-402: Was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between
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