Varzuga Estuary

The Varzuga enters the White Sea on the southern coast of the Kola Peninsula. The river freezes in autumn and stays under ice until spring; salmon fishing has long been important to communities along its course.

Upstream, the village of Varzuga appears in a document of 1466 recording the transfer of river land and coastal hunting grounds to the Solovetsky Monastery. By 1563 its inhabitants included many salmon fishers, and in the seventeenth century some moved to new settlements on the coast. The village's history illustrates the river's connections with the White Sea.