the kola peninsula (, '; from , '; ; ; ) is a peninsula in the far northwest of russia. constituting the bulk of the territory of murmansk oblast, it lies almost completely inside the arctic circle and is bordered by the barents sea in the north and the white sea in the east and southeast. the city of murmansk is the most populous human settlement on the peninsula, with a population of over 300,000 as of the 2010 census.