Barentsburg

Barentsburg is a Russian coal mining settlement on Isfjorden, about fifty kilometres west of Longyearbyen, where a few hundred workers still live under a statue of Lenin. Soviet-era apartment blocks with painted murals, a small Orthodox chapel and the Pomor Museum on the history of Russian hunters in the Arctic line its single steep street. The settlement brews its own beer and serves Russian dishes in the hotel restaurant. There is no road to Barentsburg, so visitors come on day boats from Longyearbyen in summer or by snowmobile across the valleys in late winter and spring, and most spend a few hours on a guided walk.