Murmansk Coast
or Peninsula, that section of the Arctic shore stretching from the frontier of Russia with Norway to Cape Svyatoff, on the White Sea, including a distance of about 250 miles. An inward sweep of the Gulf Stream washes the shore, keeping it free of ice the year round, though the White Sea, to the southward, is icebound six months of the year. This region assumed unusual importance during the latter part of the war, after the participation of Russia had been ended by the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, in the early months of 1918. As the only point on Russia's limited sea-coast open to receiving supplies from her allies by sea, large supplies of munitions and foodstuffs had been landed here. In the spring of 1918 the Germans, moving through Finland, attempted to advance in this direction, with the intent to seize these supplies.
The Allies immediately landed troops on the coast. The Soviet Government in region precipitated an uprising in favor of Allied intervention and established the Provisional Government of North Russia. More Allied troops, and later Americans, were landed and established a base from which a military campaign against the Soviet troops was waged for more than a year afterward.