Magadan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Coordinates: 59°33′N 150°48′E

Magadan vicinity from the US Defense Mapping Agency (1978)

Magadan, Russia city flag.

Magadan (Russian: Магада́н), a port city on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region, is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast (since 1953), in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1933 on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the status of a city in 1939. It lies in Nagaevo Bay in the Gulf of Tauisk. Geographical location: 59°33′N 150°48′E. Population: 99,399 (2002 Census); 152,000 (1989 Census). Ship building and fishing are the major industries. The city has a seaport (fully navigable from May to December) and a major airport, Sokol Airport. There is also a small airport close to town, Magadan 13. A highway leads from Magadan to the gold-mining region on the upper Kolyma River. This is known as the "Road of Bones" because of the prisoners who died during its construction; their bones are said to have been incorporated into the road.

1 History
2 Magadan today
3 Famous people
4 Climate
5 Long Way Round
6 Twinning
7 External links
8 References
9 Footnotes

[edit] History

Magadan was created in 1933 by Eduard Berzin, the first head of Dalstroy, to serve as a port for exporting gold and other metals mined in the Kolyma region. Its size and population grew quickly as facilities were rapidly developed for the expanding mining activities in the area.

During the Stalin era, Magadan was a major transit center for prisoners sent to labor camps. The operations of Dalstroy, a vast and brutal forced-labor gold-mining concern, were the main economic driver of the city for many decades during Soviet times.

Of the 12,000 Poles sent to Magadan and environs between 1940 and 1941, most POWs, only 583 men returned [1], released in 1942 to join the Polish free force of Polish II Corps under General Wladyslaw Anders. WWII survivors became residents of U.S., Britain, and other countries.

In May, 1944, U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace's official visit [2]failed to understand the true nature of Magadan. He took an instant liking to his secret policeman host, admired handiwork done by prisoners, and later glowingly pronounced the city "a combination TVA and Hudson's Bay Company". [3]

Further details of this period are given in the article on Kolyma.

Church of the Nativity, Magadan

[edit] Magadan today

Magadan is very isolated. There is only one road in and out, and the nearest major city is Yakutsk, 2000 km away via an unpaved road which is best used in the winter. The city has the enormous new orthodox Cathedral Church of the Trinity, a recently completed Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity and the Mask of Sorrow memorial, a huge sculpture in memory of Stalin's victims, designed by Ernst Neizvestny.

The principal sources of the local economy are gold mining and fisheries. Recently, gold production has declined^[1] although future prospects look good. Fishing production, although improving from year to year, is still well below the allocated quotas, apparently as a result of an ageing fleet^[2] . Other local industries include pasta and sausage plants and a distillery^[3]. Athough farming is difficult owing to the harsh climate, there are many public and private farming enterprises. The city has a number of cultural institutions including the Regional Museum of Anthropology, a geological museum and a regional library. There is also a university.

Conditions in Magadan have deteriorated since the 1970s when gold mining provided high levels of investment and employment. In recent years, many factories and mining interests have closed resulting in high levels of unemployment and alcoholism and huge declines in the local population. Furthermore, foreign investment has suffered from disputes of ownership despite very attractive prospects for mining gold, tin, silver and coal, not to mention petroleum and natural gas resources in the region.

[edit] Famous people

Natalia Dolgova, born 1968 in Ust-Omchug, Magadan Region, artist whose work is based on the ancient art of the peoples of Northeast Asia, in particular the Chukchee and Eskimos
Vadim Kozin, 1903–1994, a popular Russian tenor in the 1930s. Sentenced to the Kolyma camps in 1944, he became a resident of Magadan where he died.
Nikolai Getman, 1917-2004, Ukrainian artist, remembered for his paintings depicting the horrors of the Kolyma gulag. He organised the Magadan Artists' Union and was director of the Magadan section of the Arts Foundation of the RSFSR from 1963 to 1966.
Valentin Tsvetkov, 1948-2002, former governor (from 1996) of Magadan Oblast, gunned down in Moscow in October 2002, apparently for issues involving fish quotas^[4].

[edit] Climate

The climate of Magadan is subarctic. Winters are prolonged and very cold, with up to six months of sub-zero temperatures, so that the soil remains permanently frozen. Permafrost and tundra cover most of the region. The growing season is only one-hundred days long. Average temperatures on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk range from -8 °F (-22 °C) in January to 54 °F (12 °C) in July. Average temperatures in the interior range from -36 °F (-38 °C) in January to 60 °F (16 °C) in July.

[edit] Long Way Round

Magadan was the focal point of the Long Way Round motorcycle journey made by Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman and their team. Although their ultimate destination was New York, they frequently noted how reaching the Russian city was the ultimate measure of success or failure for their adventure. Despite encountering swollen rivers, broken bridges and virtually impassable roads as they travelled through Siberia, they were ultimately able to ride the Road of Bones into Magadan, and flew from there to Anchorage, Alaska from where they continued to New York. Recalling his final day in Magadan before leaving for America, McGregor wrote;

"Magadan, Siberia. The place that had been in my thoughts and dreams for two years, like a mythical city forever beyond my reach. I wanted to capture it, somehow hold on to it and take a part of it with me when we began the long journey home."