Josef Stalin visited Polyarny in July 1933, where he decided that this would be the main base for the new Soviet Fleet of the Northern Seas.
A memorial dedicated to the visit and establishment of the fleet was built in 1953. Nine years later, when Nikita Khrushchev ordered the statue removed, and the inscription on the base was covered with a picture of a vessel. The picture was removed in the 1990’s.
In connection with the anniversary for the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, a historical society called “Memory” has restored the inscription, which reads “Generalissimo of the Soviet Union I.V. Stalin, great leader, teacher, chieftain of the Soviet people and founder of the Northern Fleet”, the Russian Ministry of Defence writes on its web site.
