The area of Zapadnaya Litsa was originally developed in 1939 as a small naval base for Nazi Germany, at the beginning of World War II, as a result of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. It was to be used for German ships under the name Basis Nord, but the successful German invasion of Norway the following year quickly rendered the port obsolete. The area remained largely untouched until the late 1950s, when it was further developed by the Soviet Union to house the fleet of the newly created nuclear submarine program of the Soviet Navy. The first facility built, Malaya Lopatka, became the home port of the first Soviet nuclear submarine, K-3 "Leninsky Komsomol". In 1958, the settlement of Zaozerny (now Zaozyorsk) was formed near to the Zapadnaya Litsa base, and was kept secret and known under several different names.