the soviet period saw a rapid increase of the population, although most of it remained confined to urbanized territories along the sea coast and the railroads. the sami people were subject to forced collectivization, including forced relocation to lovozero and other centralized settlements, and overall the peninsula was heavily industrialized and militarized, largely due to its strategic position and the discovery of the vast apatite deposits in the 1920s. as a result, the ecology of the peninsula suffered major ecological damage, including contamination by military nuclear waste and nickel smelting.