The Colonization of the Russian Barents Sea Coast (Mid-19th to Early 20th Century): Two Approaches to the Economic Development of the Area

This article deals with the early colonization of the Russian Barents Sea Coast (the so-called Murman Coast) in the middle of the 19th and early 20th century. It focuses mainly on the household economy and economic adaptation in the area by groups of Finnish, Russian, Karelian, Norwegian and Sami colonists. The opening up of the new territory by the colonists resulted partly in the employment of traditional methods of using natural resources and partly in the culture of these groups being transformed. Based on this, two different patterns of using natural resources were singled out within the ethnic groups that settled on the Murman Coast (western and eastern). These patterns were more suited to the new living conditions in each of the respective areas, and became the basis for different trends in the economic development of the Murman Coast.