The R21 highway (in Cyrillic Р21), also known as the

Kola unit was the big kola int eh Kola may refer to: People * Koła, a Polish noble family * Kola (name), people with the given name/surname Kola * Kola (singer), Ukrainian singer, songwriter and performer of her own songs * Kola people, Gabonese p ...

Motorway, is a major

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

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 ...

, running from

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

. The highway is part of

European route E105 E105 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe. It is a north–south reference road, meaning it crosses Europe from north to south, and other E-road numbers have been calculated based on these referen ...

and is the main transportation route by road in the

Republic of Karelia The Republic of Karelia, or simply Karelia or Karjala (; ) is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia situated in the Northwest Russia, northwest of the country. The republic is a part of the Northwestern Federal District, and covers an area of ...

and 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 ...

. Its length is 1592 kilometers. Before 2018, the R21 was designated as M18.

Route

The R21 highway runs from Saint Petersburg, south of

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (, ; Karelian language, Karelian, Veps language, Vepsian and ) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population of the city is 280,890 as of 2022. ...

Kondopoga Kondopoga (; ; ) is a town and the administrative center of Kondopozhsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located by the northern tip of the Kondopoga Bay of Lake Onega, near the mouth of the Suna River and Kivach Nature Reserve, ...

Medvezhyegorsk Medvezhyegorsk (; ; ) is a town and the administrative center of Medvezhyegorsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Population: 15,800 (1959). History Between 1703–1710 and 1766–1769, a factory was operating in the village. ...

Segezha Segezha (; ; ) is a town and the administrative center of Segezhsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located north of Petrozavodsk on the Segezha River and on the western shore of Lake Vygozero. Population: History The town was ...

, Kem,

Loukhi Loukhi (; ) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Loukhsky District in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located on the shore of , north of Petrozavodsk, the capital of the republic. As of the 2010 Ce ...

Kandalaksha Kandalaksha () is a town in Kandalakshsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located at the head of Kandalaksha Gulf on the White Sea, north of the Arctic Circle. Population: 40,564 ( 2002 Census); Etymology According to the most common ...

Polyarnye Zori Polyarnye Zori (, lit. ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Niva River, Lake Imandra, and Lake Pinozero, south of Murmansk. The nearest settlements to Polyarnye Zory are: Zasheek (3&nbs ...

Monchegorsk Monchegorsk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Kola Peninsula, south of Murmansk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 52,242 (Russian Census (2002), 2002 Census); ...

, Olenegorsk,

and ends in

Severomorsk Severomorsk (), known as Vayenga () until 18 April 1951, is a closed city, closed types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. Severomorsk is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. The town is sit ...

. It passes the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

a couple of kilometers south of the border of Karelia and the Murmansk oblast, north of Loukhi.

Landscape

In the Republic of Karelia, the landscape through which the R21 runs is mainly forest (

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

es), rivers and lakes. In the Murmansk Oblast, the highway runs for the most part through 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 ...

, a severely polluted area. The landscape here is more open and consists partly of half-

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

References

Roads within the Arctic Circle Roads in Saint Petersburg Roads in Leningrad Oblast Roads in the Republic of Karelia Roads in Murmansk Oblast {{Russia-road-stub