Murmansk was the last city founded in the Russian Empire. In 1915, World War I needs led to the construction of the railroad from Petrozavodsk to an ice-free location on the Murman Coast in the Russian Arctic, to which Russia’s allies shipped military supplies. The terminus became known as the Murman station and soon boasted a port, a naval base, and an adjacent settlement with a population which quickly grew in size and soon surpassed the nearby towns of Alexandrovsk and Kola.

On June 29 (Old style – July 12), 1916, Russian Transport Minister Alexander Trepov petitioned to grant urban status to the railway settlement. On July 6 (Old style – July 19), 1916, the petition was approved and the town was named Romanov-on-Murman (Romanov-na-Murmane), after the royal Russian dynasty of Romanovs. On September 21 (Old style – October 4), 1916, the official ceremony was performed, and the date is now considered the official date of the city’s foundation. After the February Revolution of 1917, on April 3 (Old style – April 16), 1917, the town was given its present name.