Everything about Vladivostok totally explained
Vladivostok is
Russia's largest port
city on the
Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of
Primorsky Krai. It is situated at the head of the
Golden Horn Bay not far from the Russo-
Chinese border and
North Korea. It is the home port of the
Russian Pacific Fleet.
Names
The name Vladivostok (Владивосток) loosely translates from Russian as "rule the
East" a name based on that of
Vladikavkaz, at that time a Russian fortress in the
Caucasus. The traditional
Chinese name for the city is
Hǎishēnwǎi (海參崴; also pronounced
Hǎishēnwēi; literally "
sea cucumber cliffs"). In
mainland China (
PRC), it's often known under the transliteration of
Fúlādíwòsītuōkè (符拉迪沃斯托克) today but not in Taiwan (
ROC). The Japanese name of the city is
Urajiosutokku (ウラジオストック; a rough transliteration of the Russian originally written in
Kanji as 浦塩斯徳 and often shortened to
Urajio; ウラジオ; 浦塩). In
Korean, the name is transliterated as
Beulladiboseutokeu (블라디보스토크) in
South Korea,
Ullajibosŭttokhŭ (울라지보스또크) in
North Korea, and
Beullajiboseu-ttokeu (블라지보스또크) by
Koreans in China.
History
Before Russia acquired the Maritime Province by the
Treaty of Aigun (1858), the Pacific coast near Vladivostok had been settled by the
Jurchen and
Manchu. A French whaler visiting the
Zolotoy Rog in 1852 discovered several huts of Chinese or Manchu fishermen on the shore of the bay.
The naval outpost was founded in 1859 by Count
Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky, who named it after the model of
Vladikavkaz, a Russian fortress in the
Caucasus. The first child was born in Vladivostok in 1863. An elaborate system of fortifications was erected between the 1870s and 1890s. A telegraph line from Vladivostok to
Shanghai and
Nagasaki was opened in 1871, the year when a commercial port was relocated to this town from
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. The municipal coat of arms, representing the
Siberian tiger, was adopted in March 1883.
Another interesting fact about the city is that it was the site of a major breakthrough between the
United States and the
Soviet Union in November 1974 during
SALT II nuclear arms limitation talks. At the time, the two countries decided quantitative limits on various
nuclear weapons systems and banned the construction of new land-based
ICBM launchers.
The city's economy was given a boost in 1903, with the completion of the
Trans-Siberian Railway which connected Vladivostok to
Moscow and Europe. The first
high school was opened in 1899. In the wake of the
Bolshevik Revolution, Vladivostok was of great military importance for the
Far Eastern Republic, the
Provisional Priamurye Government, and the
Japanese interventionists. The taking of the city by
Ieronim Uborevich's
Red Army on
25 October 1922 marked the end of the
Russian Civil War.
As the main naval base of the
Soviet Pacific Fleet, the city was closed to foreigners during the Soviet years. Nevertheless, it was at Vladivostok that
Leonid Brezhnev and
Gerald Ford conducted the
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in 1974.
Geography
The city is located in the southern extremity of
Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.
The highest point is
Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m.
Eagle's Nest Mount is often called the highest point of the city; however, with the height of only 199 m (214 m according to other sources), it's the highest point of the downtown area, but not of the whole city.
Vladivostok shares the latitude with
Sapporo,
Sukhumi,
Almaty,
Florence,
Marseille,
A Coruña,
Boston, and
Toronto.
Railroad distance to
Moscow is 9,302 km. The direct distance to Moscow is 6,430 km. Direct distance to
Bangkok is 5,600 km, to
Darwin—6,180 km,
San Francisco—8,400 km, to
Seoul—750 km, to
Tokyo—1,050 km, to
Beijing—1,331 km.
Climate
» Mean annual temperature:
Average temperature in January:
» Average temperature in August:
Average annual precipitation: 722 mm (strong summer maximum)
» Köppen climate classification: Dwb (monsoon-influenced
humid continental climate, warm summers)
Demographics
The city's population was 594,701 as of the
2002 Census; down from 633,838 recorded in the
1989 Census). Ethnic
Russians and
Ukrainians make up the majority of the population.
From 1958 to 1991, only Soviet citizens were allowed to live in or even visit Vladivostok (and even Soviet citizens had to obtain official permission in order to enter the city). Before this
closure, the city had large
Korean and Chinese populations. Some
Koreans who were deported during
Stalin's rule from the Russian Far East have since returned, particularly to Vladivostok. In recent times,
North Korean refugees have also begun settling in the city.
Recently many
Chinese illegal immigrants have moved to this city. They tend to work in the retail trading, catering and farming industries. This is considered such a serious social and economic problem to some that the government is actively legislating against them.
Vladivostok has one of the largest
Armenian communities in eastern Russia. There are a number of Armenian
bakeries and
restaurants in the city. There are also sizable communities of
Chechens,
Azeris and
Tajiks in the city. According to the latest statistics, there are currently about 100,000
Muslims living in the
Russian Far East.
Economy
The city's main industries are
shipping, commercial
fishing, and the
naval base. Fishing accounts for almost four-fifths of Vladivostok's commercial production. Other food production totals 11%.
In 1995, Vladivostok's annual
international trade totalled 725 million USD, including 206 million USD of exported goods, and 519 million USD of imported goods. The main export items were
fish,
timber products,
ferrous and
non-ferrous metals, and
ships. The main import items were food products,
medicine,
clothing,
footwear,
automobiles, household technical items, and ships.
Since the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, many businesses have opened offices in Vladivostok, taking advantage of its location on the
Pacific Ocean and in
East Asia.
Transport
The
Trans-Siberian Railway was built to connect
European Russia with Vladivostok, Russia's most important
Pacific Ocean port. Finished in 1905, the rail line ran from Moscow to Vladivostok via several of Russia's main cities. Part of the railroad, known as the
Chinese Eastern Line, crossed over into
Manchuria,
China, passing through
Harbin, a major city in Manchuria.
Air routes connect
Vladivostok International Airport with
Japan;
People's Republic of China;
North Korea (irregular);
South Korea and
Vietnam.
It is possible to get to Vladivostok from several of the larger cities in Russia. Regular flights to
Anchorage, Alaska and
Seattle, Washington were available in the 1990s but have been cancelled since. However, starting in July 2008,
Vladivostok Air will resume flying to Anchorage.
Urban transport
On
28 June 1908, Vladivostok's first tram line was started along Svetlanskaya Street from the railway station in Lugovaya Street. On
9 October 1912, the first wooden cars manufactured in Belgium entered service. Today, Vladivostok's means of public transportation include trolleybus, bus, tram, train, funicular, ferryboat and cutter. The main urban traffic lines are City Center—Vtoraya Rechka, City Center—Balyayeva, and City Center—Lugovaya Street.
Education
Vladivostok is home to numerous educational institutions, including six
universities:
The Presidium of the Far Eastern Division of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (ДВО РАН) as well as ten of its research institutes are also located in Vladivostok, as is the
Pacific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (Тихоокеанский научно-исследовательский рыбохозяйственный центр or ТИНРО).
Media
Over fifty
newspapers and regional additions to Moscow publications are issued in Vladivostok. The largest newspaper of the
Primorsky Krai and the whole
Russian Far East is
Vladivostok with a circulation of 124,000 copies at the beginning of 1996. Its founder, joint-stock company Vladivostok-News, also issues a weekly English-language newspaper
Vladivostok News
. Another source of information on the city is the online daily
Vladivostok Times. The subjects of the publications issued in these newspapers vary from information around Vladivostok and Primorye to major international events. Newspaper
Zolotoy Rog (
Golden Horn) gives every detail of economic news. Entertainment materials and cultural news constitute a larger part of Novosti (News) newspaper which is the most popular among Primorye's young people.
As of 2006, there are fourteen channels broadcasting. They are
Channel One,
RTR,
OTV-Prim,
Rambler,
STS,
TNT,
MTV Russia,
Muz-TV,
Kultura,
Ren-TV,
NTV,
DTV Viasat.
As of 1999, there are also seven radio stations, the most popular being 24-hour VBC (612 kHz, 101.7 MHz) and Europa+ (738 kHz, 104.2 MHz). Europa+ normally broadcasts popular modern British-American music, while the ratio of Russian and foreign songs over VBC is fifty-fifty. Every hour one can hear local news over these radio stations. Radio Vladivostok (1098 kHz) operates from 06:00 till 01:00. It broadcasts several special programs which are devoted to the music of the 1950s-1980s as well as
New Age.
Arguably Russia's most famous rock band,
Mumiy Troll (Мумий Тролль), hails from Vladivostok and frequently puts on shows there. In addition, the city played host to the now-legendary
"VladiROCKstok '96" International Music Festival in September 1996. Hosted by the Mayor and Governor, and organized by two young American expatriates, the festival drew nearly 10,000 people and top-tier musical acts from St. Petersburg (
Akvarium and
DDT (band)) and Seattle (Supersuckers), as well as several leading local bands.
It is the nearest city to the massive
Sikhote-Alin Meteorite, which fell on
February 12,
1947, in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, approximately 440 km northeast of Vladivostok.
Pollution
Two thirds of Vladivostok's suburbs are so
polluted that living in them is classified as a health hazard, according to the local ecological specialists,
Ecocenter. Some areas, such as those near the printing works in Pokrovsky Park and the
Far Eastern National University campus, are so polluted that they're defined as ecological disaster zones. Only a few areas have permissible levels of contamination. Professor Boris Preobrazhensky, a top ecologist at the Pacific Institute of Geography said that there was nowhere in the area that was really healthy to live in.
The
Ecocenter report has taken ten years to compile and is believed to be the most comprehensive of its kind. It was based on analysis of over 30,000 samples of water, snow, soil, air and human tissues taken between 1985 and 1993. Samples showed significant rises over that period in the levels of heavy metals, such as
cadmium,
zirconium,
cobalt,
arsenic, and
mercury, which severely affect the respiratory and nervous systems.
The pollution has a number of causes, according to
Ecocenter geo-chemical expert Sergey Shlykov. Vladivostok has about 80 industrial sites, which may not be many compared to Russia's most industrialized areas, but those around the city are particularly environmentally unfriendly, such as shipbuilding and repairing, power stations, printing, fur farming and mining. In addition, Vladivostok has a particularly vulnerable geography which compounds the effect of the pollution. Winds can't clear pollution from some of the most densely populated areas around the Pervaya and Vtoraya Rechka as they sit in basins which the winds blow over. In addition, there's little snow in winter and no leaves or grass to catch the dust to make it settle down.
Sport
Vladivostok is home to the football club
FC Luch-Energia Vladivostok, who play in the
Russian Premier League, and basketball club
Spartak-Primorye.
Sister cities
Vladivostok is a
sister-city of:
Niigata (Japan)
Akita (Japan)
Hakodate (Japan)
Busan (South Korea)
Dalian (China)
San Diego (USA)
San Francisco (USA)
Tacoma (USA)
Juneau, Alaska
Davao City, Philippines
Notable people
Igor Ansoff, mathematician
Vladimir Arsenyev, explorer
Feliks Gromov, admiral
Boris Gryzlov, politician
Eugene Kozlovsky, writer
Igor Kunitsyn, tennis player
Elmar Lohk, architect
Yul Brynner film actor
Mary Losseff, singer and film actress
Igor Tamm, physicist
Alexey Volkonsky, canoer
Victor Dmitrievich Zotov, botanist
Mumiy Troll, Russian rock group:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Vladivostok'.
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