Magadan
| Magadan (English) Магадан (Russian) |
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|---|---|
 Magadan vicinity from the US Defense Mapping Agency (1978) |
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| Coordinates |
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| Coat of Arms | Flag |
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| City Day: July 14 | |
| Administrative status | |
| Federal subject In jurisdiction of Administrative center of |
Magadan Oblast Magadan Oblast Magadan Oblast |
| Local self-government | |
| Charter | Charter of Magadan |
| Municipal status | Urban okrug |
| Mayor | Vladimir Pechyony |
| Legislative body | City Duma |
| Area | |
| Area | 180 km² (69.5 sq mi) |
| Population (as of the 2002 Census) | |
| Population - Rank - Density |
99,399 inhabitants 169th 552.2/km² (1,430.2/sq mi) |
| Events | |
| Founded | 1930s |
| Town status | July 14, 1939 |
| Other information | |
| Postal code | n/a |
| Dialing code | +7 4132 |
| Official website | |
| http://www.magadangorod.ru/ | |
Magadan (Russian: Магада́н) is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region. It is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast (since 1953), in the Russian Far East. Founded in the 1930s on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the town status in 1939. It lies in Nagayevo Bay in the Gulf of Tauisk. Population: 107,500 (2006 est.); 99,399 (2002 Census);[1] 151,652 (1989 Census).[2] Ship building and fishing are the major industries. The town has a seaport (fully navigable from May to December) and a small international airport, Sokol Airport. There is also a small airport nearby, Magadan 13. The unpaved Kolyma Highway leads from Magadan to the rich gold-mining region of the upper Kolyma River and then on to Yakutsk.
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History
Magadan was founded 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 Władysław Anders. WWII survivors became residents of the 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.
Economy
Magadan is very isolated. The nearest major city is Yakutsk, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) away via an unpaved road which is best used in the winter, especially since there is no bridge over the Lena River at Yakutsk (the choices are: ferry from Nizhny Bestyakh in the summer, when rest of the road may not be passable due to standing water, or over the ice in the dead of winter).
The principal sources of income for the local economy are gold mining and fisheries. Recently, gold production has declined[3] 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.[4] Other local industries include pasta and sausage plants and a distillery.[5] Although farming is difficult owing to the harsh climate, there are many public and private farming enterprises.
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.
The severe climate and poorly developed infrastructure are partly to blame but the difficult transition from Soviet times has led to the collapse of a number of companies with the result that many inhabitants have left the region.
Recently, there do seem to have been renewed efforts to encourage foreign investment which could lead to improvements in the economy. Indeed, on a visit to Magadan in November 2005, President Putin supported the extension of special tax advantages for the region in order to encourage gold exploitation.
Culture
The city has a number of cultural institutions including the Regional Museum of Anthropology, a geological museum a regional library, and a university. 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.
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.
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."
Famous people
- 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[6].
- Inna Korobkina (b. 1981), Russian actress, famously known for her appearance in the 2004 film Dawn of The Dead
Twinning
Bibliography
- McGregor, E & Boorman, C: Long Way Round. Time Warner Books, 2004. ISBN 0-7515-3680-6
- David J. Nordlander: Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s, Slavic Review, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812
Footnotes
- ↑ Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (2004-05-21). "Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек (Population of Russia, its federal districts, federal subjects, districts, urban localities, rural localities—administrative centers, and rural localities with population of over 3,000)" (in Russian). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia Population Census of 2002). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved on 2008-07-25.
- ↑ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров. (All Union Population Census of 1989. Present population of union and autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts and okrugs, krais, oblasts, districts, urban settlements, and villages serving as district administrative centers.)" (in Russian). Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года (All-Union Population Census of 1989). Demoscope Weekly (website of the Institute of Demographics of the State University—Higher School of Economics (1989). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
- ↑ Russian gold mine production declined 4 tonnes in 2006, Mineweb, 31 January 2007
- ↑ New Russian Fishing Quotas Distribution System, Strategis international market reports, 28 August 2004
- ↑ Magadan Region from Kommersant, Russia's Daily Online. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
- ↑ Killers of Magadan Governor Found in Spain, Kommersant, 13 July 2006
External links
Media related to Category:Magadan at Wikimedia Commons- Map of Magadan in Russian
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