by 1913 about 13,000–15,000 people lived in the peninsula, mostly along the shores. however, the discovery of the vast natural resource deposits and industrialization efforts led to an explosive population growth during the soviet times. by 1970, the population of the peninsula was around 799,000. the trend reverted in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the soviet union. the population of the whole murmansk oblast went down from 1,150,000 in 1989 to 890,000 in 2002 to 795,000 in 2010.