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Barentsburg
Barentsburg (Russian: Баренцбург) is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard, Norway, with about 300 inhabitants (2025[update]). A coal mining town, the settlement is almost entirely made up of Russian nationals.
Rijpsburg, a now abandoned Dutch settlement on Spitsbergen on Cape Boheman (Bohemanflya), at the north site of Nordfjorden in the Isfjord, stood roughly diagonally opposite Longyearbyen. The Rotterdam-based Van der Eb & Dresselhuys Scheepvaartmaatschappij (a navigation company) built it in 1920, using prefabricated huts, for the mining of coal. Twelve Dutch staff and 52 German miners started mining coal here that year.[citation needed]
The Dutch Spitsbergen Company, founded in 1920, bought a mine in Green Harbour from the Russians and mined coal from 1921 to 1926. The company renamed its settlement Barentsburg after the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz. In 1932 the company sold the mine, including its settlement Barentsburg, to the Soviet trust Arktikugol.[citation needed]
On 17 October 2006, Norwegian inspectors detected a smouldering underground fire in Barentsburg, prompting fears that an open fire might break out, which would have forced the total evacuation of Barentsburg for an indefinite period of time, and would also have caused environmental problems of unknown magnitude for the entire archipelago. The fire was later contained. Coal mining resumed at the end of 2010.
In 2022, Russia announced new investment plans to support its presence in Barentsburg and Pyramiden. Then, in 2023, amid continuing tensions around Russia's war against Ukraine, the Russian Consulate General and Arktikugol staged a May 9 Day victory parade through Barentsburg consisting of 50 cars, snowmobiles, trucks and buses and also including a low-flying Mi-8 helicopter. While the Governor of Svalbard, Lars Fause, was reportedly invited to attend, he declined. According to a report in the Economist in 2025, relations between Russian and other towns were better during the Cold War, with residents ending visits on national days.
The Russian parades are more militaristic nowadays [...] and involve symbols of cultural difference such as a wooden Orthodox cross. A few Soviet flags have been painted on structures in Barentsburg. Russians can enter Svalbard, visa free, if they travel by boat from Murmansk. One pro-Putin bishop has paid repeated visits to be filmed beside Orthodox religious items.
Under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, citizens of signatory countries have equal rights to exploit natural resources, and as a result Russia, along with Norway (via the Sveagruva mine and Mine 7), maintains mining operations on Svalbard. However, as Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty, the Russian government is represented in Barentsburg by a consulate.
Consequently, the town has a Norwegian postcode, 9178. Similarly, it uses Norwegian telephone numbering.
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Barentsburg
Barentsburg (Russian: Баренцбург) is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard, Norway, with about 300 inhabitants (2025[update]). A coal mining town, the settlement is almost entirely made up of Russian nationals.
Rijpsburg, a now abandoned Dutch settlement on Spitsbergen on Cape Boheman (Bohemanflya), at the north site of Nordfjorden in the Isfjord, stood roughly diagonally opposite Longyearbyen. The Rotterdam-based Van der Eb & Dresselhuys Scheepvaartmaatschappij (a navigation company) built it in 1920, using prefabricated huts, for the mining of coal. Twelve Dutch staff and 52 German miners started mining coal here that year.[citation needed]
The Dutch Spitsbergen Company, founded in 1920, bought a mine in Green Harbour from the Russians and mined coal from 1921 to 1926. The company renamed its settlement Barentsburg after the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz. In 1932 the company sold the mine, including its settlement Barentsburg, to the Soviet trust Arktikugol.[citation needed]
On 17 October 2006, Norwegian inspectors detected a smouldering underground fire in Barentsburg, prompting fears that an open fire might break out, which would have forced the total evacuation of Barentsburg for an indefinite period of time, and would also have caused environmental problems of unknown magnitude for the entire archipelago. The fire was later contained. Coal mining resumed at the end of 2010.
In 2022, Russia announced new investment plans to support its presence in Barentsburg and Pyramiden. Then, in 2023, amid continuing tensions around Russia's war against Ukraine, the Russian Consulate General and Arktikugol staged a May 9 Day victory parade through Barentsburg consisting of 50 cars, snowmobiles, trucks and buses and also including a low-flying Mi-8 helicopter. While the Governor of Svalbard, Lars Fause, was reportedly invited to attend, he declined. According to a report in the Economist in 2025, relations between Russian and other towns were better during the Cold War, with residents ending visits on national days.
The Russian parades are more militaristic nowadays [...] and involve symbols of cultural difference such as a wooden Orthodox cross. A few Soviet flags have been painted on structures in Barentsburg. Russians can enter Svalbard, visa free, if they travel by boat from Murmansk. One pro-Putin bishop has paid repeated visits to be filmed beside Orthodox religious items.
Under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, citizens of signatory countries have equal rights to exploit natural resources, and as a result Russia, along with Norway (via the Sveagruva mine and Mine 7), maintains mining operations on Svalbard. However, as Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty, the Russian government is represented in Barentsburg by a consulate.
Consequently, the town has a Norwegian postcode, 9178. Similarly, it uses Norwegian telephone numbering.