Olenya Bay or Olenya Guba () is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

of the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

on the

Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and 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 is border ...

in the

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is an extension of the

Kola Inlet Kola Bay () or Murmansk Fjord is a 57-km-long fjord of the Barents Sea that cuts into the northern part of the Kola Peninsula. It is up to 7 km wide and has a depth of 200 to 300 metres. The Tuloma, Rosta and Kola Rivers discharge into t ...

, which opens out to the north into the

. The

Pechenga River The Pechenga (, ) is a river in Murmansk Oblast, Russia (Kola Peninsula). It is the namesake for the Pechenga settlement, Pechenga Monastery and the Pechenga District. The river discharges into the Pechenga Bay by the Barents Sea coast. The L ...

discharges into the bay.

GUGI: 29th submarine division Military Unit 13090

A Russian naval, formerly Soviet, base is located on the shores of the bay. During the Soviet era, the base, which is located at 69-13N and 33-23E and is northwest of the

Russian Shipyard Number 10 Russian Shipyard No. 10—Shkval () is located in Polyarny, Murmansk Oblast, Russia, on the outermost western side of the Murmansk Fjord. In the West, it is more often referred to by the name of the town than its official name. As the first n ...

at Polyarny, was known as the "Olenya Guba Submarine Base, Olenya Bay, USSR". The base supports GUGI (, transcribed as Glavnoye upravlenie glubokovodnikh issledovanii or GUGI) with its objective to operate submarines that are able to dive deep into the sea, in order to gather intelligence or to work with installations on the seabed, including sabotage. It is part of the naval installation at Gadzhievo (also known as Skalisty) in the

, and is home port to submarine units of Russia's

Northern Fleet The Northern Fleet (, ''Severnyy flot'') is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Arctic. According to the Russian ministry of defence: "The Northern Fleet dates its history back to a squadron created in 1733 to protect the terri ...

including the 29th submarine division Military Unit 13090 () which was known as the 29th special purpose submarine brigade from 1979 until January 2018. The Russian vessel '' Yantar'' is often seen moored at Olenya Bay. According to a 2008 article in ''

Kommersant (, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...

'', the 29th special purpose submarine brigade included: *29th Separate Submarine Brigade (Olenya Bay) under the command of Commander Captain 1st Rank Nikolai Gritsevich (). **AS-13, a Project 1910 deep-sea nuclear power plant. In the fleet since 1986. **AS-15, a Project 1910 deep-water nuclear power plant. In the fleet since 1991. **AS-33, a deep-water nuclear power plant of Project 1910. In the fleet since 1994. **AS-21, a special-purpose nuclear submarine of project 1851. In the fleet since 1991. **AS-23, a special-purpose nuclear submarine of project 1851. In the fleet since 1986. **AS-35, a special-purpose nuclear submarine of project 1851. In the fleet since 1995. **AS-12, a Project 10831 deep-water nuclear power plant. In the fleet since 1997. ** KS-129 Orenburg, a special-purpose nuclear submarine of project 09786. In the fleet since 1981. As of February 2008, Commander Captain 1st Rank Alexei Sokolov () and under repair.

''Belgorod''

In July 2022, the ''

Belgorod Belgorod (, ) is a city that serves as the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River, approximately north of the border with Ukraine. It has a population of It was founded in 1596 as a defensiv ...

'', which is a sister ship of the ''

Kursk Kursk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur (Kursk Oblast), Kur, Tuskar, and Seym (river), Seym rivers. It has a population of Kursk ...

'' that was home ported at Vidyayevo, joined the 29th submarine division.

GUGI reactors

Okolnaya Bay () is the location of undersea GUGI reactors. Near Severomorsk according to a ''

Barents Observer ''The Barents Observer'' (formally ''The Independent Barents Observer'') is a Norwegian online newspaper which publishes news and op-ed content about the Barents Region in English language, English, Russian language, Russian and Chinese language ...

'' article, support for nuclear weapons handling which possibly could be used for Poseidon drones deployed in the Barents Arctic region are located at Okolnaya Bay as well. According to a November 2016 ''

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of th ...

'' article, Okolnaya supports "Harmony-S" () for the system index "Harmony-NZ" () which uses robotic autonomous bottom stations (ABS) that are covertly installed on the seabed by special submarines.

Hvaldimir

In May 2019 satellite views of the base taken from

Google maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

were republished noting pens that suggested military use of

cetaceans Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...

at Olenya Bay, including possibly a tame beluga whale discovered in Northern Norway what has been dubbed

Hvaldimir Hvaldimir (; – 31 August 2024) was a male beluga whale that fishermen near Hammerfest (town), Hammerfest in northern Norway noticed in April 2019 allegedly wearing a camera harness. After being freed from the harness, the whale remained in th ...

References

External links