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Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog on the Sea of Japan, covering an area of , with a population of 603,519 residents Vladivostok is the second-largest city in the Far Eastern Federal District, as well as the Russian Far East, after Khabarovsk. It is located approximately from the China–Russia border and from the North Korea–Russia border.
What is now Vladivostok was part of Outer Manchuria. Shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Aigun between Qing China and the Russian Empire and affirmed by the Convention of Peking – from which it is also known as the Amur Annexation – the city was founded as a Russian military outpost on July 2, 1860. In 1872, the main Russian naval base on the Pacific Ocean was transferred to the city, stimulating its growth. In 1914 the city experienced rapid growth economically and ethnically diverse with population exceeding over 100,000 inhabitants with slightly less than half of the population being Russians. During this time, large Asian people communities developed in the city. The public life of the city flourished; many public associations were created, from charities to hobby groups. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Vladivostok was occupied in 1918 by White movement and Allied forces, the last of whom, from the Japanese Empire, were not withdrawn until 1922 as part of its wider intervention in Siberia; by that time the antirevolutionary White Army forces had collapsed. That same year, the Red Army occupied the city, absorbing the Far Eastern Republic into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the city became a part of the Russian Federation.
Today, Vladivostok remains the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, and the chief cultural, economic, scientific, and tourism hub of the Russian Far East. As the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the city was visited by over three million tourists in 2017. The city is the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District, and is the home to the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy. Due to its geographical position in Asia combined with its Russian architecture, the city has been referred to as "Europe in the Far East". Many foreign consulates and businesses have offices in Vladivostok, and the city hosts the annual Eastern Economic Forum. With a yearly mean temperature of around , Vladivostok has a cold climate for its mid-latitude coastal setting. This is due to winds from the vast landmass in winter and the cooling ocean temperatures.
The city, along with other features in the Peter the Great Gulf area, was first given its modern name in 1859 by Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky. The name initially applied to the bay, but following an expedition by Alexey Karlovich Shefner in 1860, it was later applied to the new settlement.В. В. Постников. (V. V. Postinkov.) "К осмыслению названия 'Владивосток': историко-политические образы Тихоокеанской России." ("To the comprehension of the name "Vladivostok": historical and political images of the Pacific Russia.") Ойкумена. (Ojkumena.) Vol. 4. July 2010. p. 75. The form of the name appears analogous to that of the city of Vladikavkaz ("Ruler of the Caucasus" or "Rule the Caucasus"), now in North Ossetia–Alania, which was founded and named by the Russian Empire in 1784.
Chinese maps from the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) referred to Vladivostok as Yongmingcheng (labels=no). Since the Qing dynasty,: "Russia has built railways which run from Europe to the neighborhood of Hao Han, and she purposes to build one from Hai-Shen-Wei to Hui Ch’un, and the reason why she did not proceed to send troops recently, when the quarrel with us commenced, is not that she feared to encounter our soldiers, but that her railways were not quite completed." the city has also been known as Haishenwai/ Haishenwei/ Hai-shen-wei (labels=no) from Mandarin Chinese, ultimately from the Manchu language Haišenwai (links=no ) or small seaside fishing village. However, according to National Chung Cheng University's research department for Manchu studies, the Manchu name comes from Chinese, specifically Mandarin Chinese, that was named for its historical abundance of sea cucumbers. In China, Vladivostok is now officially known by the transliteration ), although the historical Chinese name 海參崴 (Hǎishēnwǎi) is still used in common parlance and outside Mainland China to refer to the city. According to the provisions of the Chinese government, all maps published in China must bracket the city's Chinese name.
The modern-day Japanese name of the city is transliterated as Urajiosutoku. Historically, the city's name was Ateji as and shortened to Urajio (ウラジオ, 浦鹽).
For a long time, the Russian government looked for a stronghold in the Far East; this role was played in turn by the settlements of Okhotsk, Ayan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. By the middle of the 19th-century, the search for the outpost had reached a dead end. None of the ports met the necessary requirement: to have a convenient and protected harbor next to important trade routes.Turmov G.P., Khisamutdinov A.A. Vladivostok. Historical guide. – M .: Veche, 2010. – 304 p. – . After China was threatened with war on a second front by Governor-General of the Far East Nikolay Muraviev when China was suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, the Aigun Treaty was concluded by Muraviev's forces, after which Russian exploration of the Amur region began, and later, as a result of the signing of the Treaty of Tientsin and the Convention of Peking, the territory of modern Vladivostok was annexed to Russia. The name Vladivostok appeared in the middle of 1859, was used in newspaper articles and denoted a bay. On June 20 (or July 2 of the Gregorian calendar), 1860 the transport of the Siberian Military Flotilla "Mandzhur" under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Alexei Karlovich Shefner delivered a military unit to the Golden Horn Bay to establish a military post, which has now officially received the name of Vladivostok.Old Vladivostok. / Auth. text and comp. B. Dyachenko. – Vladivostok: Morning of Russia, 1992. – P. 51. – 36,000 copies. – .
In the 1870s, the government encouraged resettlement to the South Ussuri region, which contributed to an increase in the population of the post: according to the first census of 1878, there were 4,163 inhabitants. The city status was adopted and the city Duma was established, the post of the city head, the coat of arms was adopted, although Vladivostok was not officially recognized as a city.
Due to the constant threat of attack from the Royal Navy, Vladivostok also actively developed as a naval base.
In 1880, the post officially received the status of a city. The 1890s saw a demographic and economic boom associated with the completion of the construction of the Ussuriyskaya branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Chinese-Eastern Railway. According to the first census of the population of Russia on February 9, 1897, roughly 29,000 inhabitants lived in Vladivostok, and 10 years later the city's population had tripled. Korean haenyeo divers from Jeju Island and vicinities were active in Vladivostok.
The first decade of the 20th-century was characterized by a protracted crisis caused by the political situation: the government's attention was shifted to Lüshunkou and the Port of Dalian (Talien). As well as the Boxer Rebellion in North China in 1900–1901, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and finally the first Russian revolution led to stagnation in the economic activity of Vladivostok.
Since 1907, a new stage in the development of the city began: the losses of Lüshunkou and Dalian (Talien) again made Vladivostok the main port of Russia on the Pacific Ocean. A free port regime was introduced, and until 1914 the city experienced rapid growth, becoming an important economic hub in the Asia-Pacific, as well as an ethnically diverse city with a population exceeding over 100,000 inhabitants: during the time ethnic Russians made up less than half of the population, and large Asian people communities developed in the city. The public life of the city flourished; many public associations were created, from charities to hobby groups.
Immediately after the October Revolution in 1917, during which the Bolsheviks came to power, the Decree on Peace was announced, and as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluded between the Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers, led to the end of Soviet Russia's participation in World War I. On October 30, the sailors of the Siberian Military Flotilla decided to "rally around the united power of the Soviets", and the power of Vladivostok, as well as all of the Trans-Siberian Railway passed to the Bolsheviks. During the Russian Civil War, from May 1918,PRECLÍK, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (Masaryk and legions), váz. kniha, 219 str., vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karviná) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (Masaryk Democratic Movement, Prague), 2019, , pages 38 – 50, 52 – 102, 124 – 128,140 – 148,184 – 190 they lost control of the city to the White Army-allied Czechoslovak Legion, who declared the city to be an Allied protectorate. Vladivostok became the staging point for the Allies' Siberian intervention, a multi-national force including Japan, the United States and China; China sent forces to protect the local Chinese community after appeals from Chinese merchants. The intervention ended in the wake of the collapse of the White Army and regime in 1919; all Allied forces except the Japanese withdrew by the end of 1920.
Throughout 1919 the region was engulfed in a partisan war. To avoid a war with Japan, with the filing of the Soviet leadership, the Far Eastern Republic, a Soviet-backed buffer state between Soviet Russia and Japan, was proclaimed on April 6, 1920. The Soviet government officially recognized the new republic in May, but in Primorye a riot occurred, where significant forces of the White Movement were located, leading to the creation of the Provisional Priamurye Government, with Vladivostok as its capital.
In October 1922, the troops of the Red Army of the Far Eastern Republic under the command of Ieronim Uborevich occupied Vladivostok, displacing the White Army formations from it. In November, the Far Eastern Republic liquidated and became a part of Soviet Russia.
In 1925, the government decided to accelerate the industrialization of the country. A number of subsequent "five-year plans" changed the face of Primorye, making it an industrial region, partly as a result of the creation of numerous concentration camps in the region. In the 1930s and 1940s, Vladivostok served as a transit point on the route used to deliver prisoners and cargo for the Sevvostlag of the Soviet super-trust Dalstroy. The notorious Vladivostok transit camp was located in the city. In addition, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Vladivostok forced labour camp (Vladlag) was located in the area of the Vtoraya Rechka railway station.
Vladivostok was not a place of hostilities during the Great Patriotic War, although there was a constant threat of attack from Japan. In the city, a "Defense Fund" was created (the first in the country), to which the residents of Vladivostok contributed personal wealth. During the war years Vladivostok handled imported cargo (lend-lease) of a volume almost four times more than Murmansk and almost five times more than Arkhangelsk.
By the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union "Issues of the Fifth Navy" dated August 11, 1951, a special regime was introduced in Vladivostok (it began to operate on January 1, 1952); the city was closed to foreigners. It was planned to remove from Vladivostok not only foreign consulates, but also the merchant and fish fleet and transfer all regional authorities to Voroshilov (now Ussuriysk). However, these plans were not implemented.
During the years of the Khrushchev Thaw, Vladivostok received special attention from state authorities. In 1954, Nikita Khrushchev visited the city for the first time to finally decide whether to secure the status of a closed naval base for him. It was noted that at that time the urban infrastructure was in a deplorable state. In 1959, Khrushchev visited the city again. The result was a decision on the accelerated development of the city, which was formalized by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union on January 18, 1960. During the 1960s, a new tram line was built, a trolleybus was launched, the city became a huge construction site: residential neighborhoods were being erected on the outskirts, and new buildings for public and civil purposes were erected in the center.
In 1974, Gerald Ford paid an official visit to Vladivostok, to meet with Leonid Brezhnev, becoming the first President of the United States to visit the city.
On September 20, 1991, Boris Yeltsin signed decree No. 123 "On the opening of Vladivostok for visiting by foreign citizens", which entered into force on January 1, 1992, ending Vladivostok's status as a closed city.
In December 2018, the seat of the Far Eastern Federal District, established in May 2000, was moved from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok. In November 2020, the city and region had experienced a rare weather phenomenon in the face of freezing rain caused by collision of warm and cold air masses. The result was wires and trees encrusted in ice up to 1.2 cm thick. More than 1,500 homes were left without electricity, 900 without heating, 870 without hot water, 500 without cold water. Between 60% and 70% of Vladivostok's forests were damaged.
The responsibilities of the administration of Vladivostok are:
Legislative authority is vested in the City Council. The new City Council began operations in 2001 and in June that year, deputies of the Duma of the first convocation of Vladivostok began their work. On December 17, 2007, the Duma of the third convocation began. The deputies consist of 35 elected members, including 18 members chosen by a single constituency, and 17 deputies from single-seat constituencies.
Vladivostok City Duma's history dates from November 21, 1875, when 30 "vowels" were elected. Great changes took place after the 1917 Revolution, when the first general elections were held and women were allowed to vote. The last meeting of the Vladivostok City Duma took place on October 19, 1922, and on October 27 it was officially abolished. In Soviet times, its functions were performed by the City Council. In 1993, by a presidential decree, the Soviets were dissolved and, until 2001, all attempts to elect a new Duma were unsuccessful. The Duma of the city of Vladivostok of the fifth (current) convocation began work in the fall of 2017, consisting of 35 deputies.
The head of Vladivostok, on the principles of one-man management, manages the city's administration, which he forms in accordance with federal laws, laws of the Primorsky Territory and the city charter. The city's administrative structure is approved by the City Duma on the proposal of the head, and may include sectoral (functional) and territorial bodies of the administration of Vladivostok.
Igor Pushkaryov was the city's mayor from May 2008 to June 2016; previously he was a Federation Council member of Primorsky Krai. On June 27, 2016, Konstantin Loboda, the first deputy mayor, was appointed as the Vladivostok's new acting mayor. On December 21, 2017, Vitaly Vasilyevich Verkeenko was appointed the head of the city.
The population has risen by 30,000. Since 2013, natural growth dynamics added 727 individuals to this figure by 2015's end. By 2020, Vladivostok's population reached over 600,000, as reported by the Russian Federal Statistics Bureau.
The city's age distribution includes a large segment of older adults. Overall, the population includes 12.7% who are younger than able-bodied; 66.3% who are able-bodied; and 21% who are older than able-bodied. Vladivostok's population, like that of Russia as a whole, includes a significantly greater number of women than men.
| Russians | 92.4% |
| Ukrainians | 2.0% |
| Uzbeks | 1.4% |
| Koreans | 0.8% |
| Han Chinese | 0.5% |
| Others | 2.9% |
According to the Russian census of 2010, Vladivostok's residents include representatives of over seventy nationalities and ethnic groups. Among them, the largest ethnic groups (over 1,000 people) are: ethnic Russians (475,200); Ukrainians (10,474); Uzbeks (7,109); Koreans (4,192); Han Chinese (2,446); Tatars (2,446); Belarusians (1,642); Armenians (1,635); and Azerbaijanis (1,252).
A very important employer and a major source of revenue for the city's inhabitants is the import of Japanese cars. Besides salesmen, the industry employs repairmen, fitters, import clerks as well as shipping and railway companies. The Vladivostok dealers sell 250,000 cars a year, with 200,000 going to other parts of Russia. Every third worker in the Primorsky Krai has some relation to the automobile import business. In recent years, the Russian government has made attempts to improve the country's own car industry. This has included raising tariffs for imported cars, which has put the car import business in Vladivostok in difficulties. To compensate, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the car manufacturing company Sollers JSC to move one of its factories from Moscow to Vladivostok. The move was completed in 2009, and the factory now employs about 700 locals. It is planned to produce 13,200 cars in Vladivostok in 2010.
In 2015, the total volume of external trade seaport amounted to more than 11.8 billion dollars. Foreign economic activity was carried out with 104 countries.
In addition to being a cultural hub, the city also is a tourism hub in the Peter the Great Gulf. The city's resort area is located on the coast of Amur Bay, which includes over 11 sanatoriums. Vladivostok also has a bustling gambling zone, which has over 11 casinos planned to open by 2023. Tigre de Cristal, the city's first casino, was visited by over 80,000 tourists, in less than a year of its opening.
In 2017, the city was visited by around 3,000,000 tourists, including 640,000 foreigners, of which over 90% are tourists from Asia, specifically China, South Korea and Japan. Domestic tourism is based on business tourism (business trips to exhibitions, conferences), which accounts for up to 70% of the inbound flow. In Vladivostok, diplomatic tourism is also developed, as there are 18 foreign consulates in the city. There are 46 hotels in the city, with a total fund of 2561 rooms. The vast majority of the travel companies of Primorsky Krai (86%) are concentrated in Vladivostok, and their number was around 233 companies in 2011.
It is possible to get to Vladivostok from several of the larger cities in Russia. Regular flights to Seattle, Washington, were available in the 1990s but have been cancelled since. Vladivostok Air flew to Anchorage, Alaska, from July 2008 until 2013, before being transformed into Aurora. in the central part of Vladivostok (August 2005)]]Vladivostok is the starting point of Ussuri Highway (M60) to Khabarovsk, the easternmost part of Trans-Siberian Highway that goes all the way to Moscow and Saint Petersburg via Novosibirsk. The other main highways go east to Nakhodka and south to Khasan.
In 2012, Vladivostok hosted the 24th Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. In preparation for the event, the infrastructure of the city was renovated and improved. Two giant cable-stayed bridges were constructed in Vladivostok, namely the Zolotoy Rog Bridge over Golden Horn Bay, and the Russky Bridge from the mainland to Russky Island, where the summit took place. The latter bridge is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.
there operate nineteen radio stations, including three 24-hour local stations. Radio VBC (FM 101,7 MHz, since 1993) broadcasts classic and modern rock music, oldies and music of the 1980s–1990s. Radio Lemma (FM 102,7 MHz, since 1996) broadcasts news, radio shows and various Russian and European-American songs. Vladivostok FM (FM 106,4 MHz, was launched in 2008) broadcasts local news and popular music (Top 40). The State broadcasting company "Vladivostok" broadcasts local news and music programs from 7 to 9, from 12 to 14 and from 18 to 19 on weekdays on the frequency of Radio Rossii (Radio of Russia).
In 1995, the Arka gallery of contemporary art was opened, the first exposition of which consisted of 100 paintings donated by the collector Alexander Glezer. The gallery participates in international exhibitions and fairs. In 2005, a non-commercial private gallery "Roytau" appeared. In recent years, the centers of contemporary art "Salt" (created on the basis of the FEFU art museum) and "Zarya", have been active.
Russian rock band Mumiy Troll hails from Vladivostok and frequently puts on shows there. In addition, the city hosted the "VladiROCKstok" 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) and Seattle (Supersuckers, Goodness), as well as several leading local bands.
Nowadays there is another annual music festival in Vladivostok, Vladivostok Rocks International Music Festival and Conference (V-ROX). Vladivostok Rocks is a three-day open-air city festival and international conference for the music industry and contemporary cultural management. It offers the opportunity for aspiring artists and producers to gain exposure to new audiences and leading international professionals.
Musical theater in Vladivostok is represented by the Primorsky Regional Philharmonic Society, the largest concert organization in Primorsky Krai. The Philharmonic has organized the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the Governor's Brass Orchestra. In 2013, the Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theater was opened. On January 1, 2016, it was transformed into a branch of the Mariinsky Theater. The Russian Opera House houses the State Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theater.
Most of the city's movie theaters – Ocean, Galaktika, Moscow (formerly called New Wave movie theater), Neptune 3D (formerly called Neptune and Borodino), Illusion, Vladivostok – are renovated movie theaters built in the Soviet years. Among them stands out "Ocean" with the largest (22 by 10 meters) screen in the Far East of the country, located in the city's downtown in the area of Sports Harbor. Together with the "Ussuri" movie theater, it is the venue for the annual international film festival "Pacific Meridians" (since 2002). Since December 2014 the IMAX 3D hall has been operating in the Ocean movie theater.
There are five professional theaters in the city. In 2014, they were visited by 369,800 spectators. The Primorsky Regional Academic Drama Theater named after Maxim Gorky is the oldest state theater in Vladivostok, opened on November 3, 1932. The theater employs 202 people: 41 actors (of them, three folk and nine honored artists of Russia).
The Primorsky Pushkin Theater was built in 1907–1908, and is currently one of the main cultural centers of the city. In the 1930s–40s, the following still operating ones were successively opened: the Drama Theater of the Pacific Fleet, the Primorsky Regional Puppet Theater, and the Primorsky Regional Drama Theater of Youth. The regional puppet theater gave 484 performances in 2015, which were attended by more than 52,000 spectators. There are 500 puppets in the theater, where 15 artists work. The troupe regularly goes on tour to Europe and Asia.
In September 2012, a granite statue of the actor Yul Brynner (1920–1985) was inaugurated in Yul Brynner Park, directly in front of the house where he was born at 15 Aleutskaya St.
Vladivostok annually hosts various contests. In 2022, the 35th Regatta boat for the Goblet of Peter the Great and the 19th Russian Championship of Conrad-25R yachts were held.
In addition, Vladivostok has particularly vulnerable geography which compounds the effect of pollution. Winds cannot 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 is little snow in winter and no leaves or grass to catch the dust to make it settle down.
The highest point in the city is Mount Kholodilnik, at . Eagle's Nest Hill is often called the highest point in the city, but with a height of , or according to other sources, it is only the highest point in the city center, not the whole city.
Located in the extreme southeast of the Russian Far East, in the extreme southeast of North Asia, Vladivostok is geographically closer to Anchorage, Alaska, US and even Darwin, Australia than it is to the nation's capital of Moscow. Vladivostok is also closer to Honolulu, Hawaii, US than to the city of Sochi in Southern Russia. It also is further east than any area south of it in China and the entire Korean peninsula.
In winter, temperatures can drop below while mild spells of weather can raise daytime temperatures above freezing. The average monthly precipitation, mainly in the form of snow, is around from December to March. Snow is common during winter, but individual snowfalls are light, with a maximum snow depth of only in January. During winter, clear sunny days are common.
Summers are warm, humid and rainy, due to the East Asian monsoon. The warmest month is August, with an average temperature of . Vladivostok receives most of its precipitation during the summer months, and most summer days see some rainfall. Cloudy days are fairly common and because of the frequent rainfall, humidity is high, on average about 90% from June to August.
During the summer season, the city is prone to typhoons and tropical storms. Typhoon Sanba struck the city as a tropical storm in 2012. In Artyom, near Vladivostok, more than of crops were inundated. Preliminary losses over the region were estimated to be Russian ruble40 million (US$1.29 million). Typhoons can be rare, but tropical storms happen from the Sea of Japan after a typhoon landfall from South Korea and Japan.
On average, Vladivostok receives of precipitation per year, but the driest year was 1943, when of precipitation fell, and the wettest was 1974, with of precipitation. The winter months from December to March are dry, and in some years they have seen no measurable precipitation at all. Extremes range from in January 1931 to in July 1939.
In 2010, arches with the names of each of Vladivostok's twin towns were placed in a park within the city.
From Vladivostok ferry port next to the train station, a ferry of the DBS Cruise Ferry travels regularly to Donghae City, South Korea and from there to Sakaiminato on the Japanese main island of Honshu.
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