Mixed oriental culture, amazing virgin nature and the special atmosphere of the "end of the world" - all this can be found by going on a Far Eastern expedition. Every corner of this part of the country is beautiful, but a few lifetimes are not enough to explore everything. We decided to make it easier for you to prepare and chose 10 places that you must visit.

This mesmerizing canyon is visited by thousands of tourists every year, despite its inaccessibility. The Valley of Geysers is the only place in all of Eurasia where you can see fountains of boiling water and steam. The most powerful geyser in the valley releases a jet of steam 300 meters high. In addition, there are a huge number of waterfalls, lakes, hot springs and other beauties of nature. An ecological trail has been laid for tourists, from which beautiful views open up, and if you're lucky, you can also see bears in their natural habitat. The valley is open for visits only with excursion groups.

The Far East of Russia is good not only for its amazing nature, but also for interesting cities. The port city of Vladivostok boasts the world's largest cable-stayed bridge, impressive views of the Pacific Ocean, and the country's famous crabs. The longest railway in Russia, the Trans-Siberian Railway, also ends in this city. But we certainly recommend taking the plane. It is better to go to Vladivostok in August, this month the most pleasant weather is set there. When exploring the city, don't forget to look at the monument to the Amur tiger, walk at sunset to the Star Lighthouse and take a walk along the local embankment. If it seems that Vladivostok is too far away, and there is no route for the May holidays, then there are options.

Renowned as one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, this harbor can be visited all year round thanks to its peculiarity – it does not freeze even in winter. In addition, it is so large that it can accommodate a vessel of any size. At the entrance to the Avacha Bay are the so-called "three brothers" - three rocks with an interesting history. They say that once a terrible endless storm broke out here, destroying the entire coast, and three brave brothers stood up to protect their people. The bad weather receded, and the brothers turned into stones and still guard the harbor. Local rivers are famous for excellent fishing, and in the area you can meet many marine animals, such as seals.

If you want to explore the whole Kamchatka Territory (so beautiful and so cheap!), but there is no such opportunity, you can look at all its beauties in miniature. All types of Kamchatka landscapes, forests and mountain ranges are found in Bystrinsky Park. Due to the uniqueness of nature, this park is included in the UNESCO Natural Heritage List. Tourists can explore this place as part of numerous excursions available all year round, or on their own. Here you can raft along the rivers, ride a dog sled, climb a volcano, go hiking in alpine meadows and deciduous forests.

This park is unique in that there is a training ground on its territory, where the daily processes of mountain formation, volcanoes and the development of animal and fish populations are recorded. There are many active volcanoes and they are also on the UNESCO list. The local nature is especially carefully protected from human encroachment, so getting into the park is not easy - you need a special permit, as well as mandatory adherence to all the rules of the reserve. A little more about.

The most anomalous place in the Far East - Death Valley - got its name not for the sake of a red word; it is really dangerous to be here because of the huge amount of poisonous gases. However, this deadly place is located very close to the famous Valley of Geysers, and for a long time no one even suspected that such a danger was literally at hand. Everything was discovered by chance, when local hunters missed several dogs, and then found them dead and felt bad themselves. Fortunately, a few hours after a person leaves this area, the weakness passes, but the valley is still closed to the public. However, there is a unique opportunity to look at it from above by ordering a helicopter tour.

This volcano appeared more than forty thousand years ago, and as a result of the last eruption formed a caldera - a bowl that turned out after the collapse of the walls of the volcano's crater. Now there are many rivers and streams, thermal springs and lakes with sulphurous water, the temperature of which reaches 40 degrees. The most ancient microorganisms and even oil were found here. In the center of the caldera there is a helipad from which tours of this amazing place begin. To get there, you need to get a special permit.

Nature sometimes creates unusual things, looking at which it is hard to believe that there was no human intervention here. One of these objects is the Steller Arch, located on Bering Island. Its height is 20.6 meters, and it is made of solid stone; for many centuries, all soft rocks have been washed away by water or destroyed by winds. The arch is named after a German scientist who devoted most of his life to studying the nature of the Far East. The best time to visit this place is, of course, summer, although in winter the snow-covered arch looks very bewitching.

On the huge plateau of the park there are 12 main volcanoes, among which there is the highest active volcano in Eurasia, Klyuchevskoy. It reaches 4750 meters in height. The tops of the volcanoes are covered with ice, and almost all the rivers of the natural park originate from them. The park is home to rare animals such as bighorn sheep and wolverines and very rich vegetation. Going on a trip along the local trails, you need to be careful and be sure to have a satellite phone and a GPS navigation device with you. Some routes are designed specifically for professional climbers only. The best time to visit Klyuchevskoy Park is from June to August.

What is considered the Far East and what countries does it include? What are the main attractions of the Russian Far East? Read about it below.

Far East

The concept of "Far East" covers all regions of the eastern part of the Eurasian continent. In geopolitics, the definition is included in the concept of "Asia-Pacific region". There are 20 countries and territories of the Far East: Brunei, Singapore, Philippines, Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, East Timor, part of Russia, etc. Australia and New Zealand, which are located to the east, have never been included in this concept.

It occupies 36% of the entire territory, while only 4.5% of the country's population lives in the region. Geographically, this includes the river basins that flow into the Pacific Ocean and the territories of Sakhalin, the Kuril, Commander, Shantar Islands. Often Transbaikalia is also included in the Far East of Russia.

This region of Russia has the lowest population growth. Over the past 20 years, the number of residents here has decreased by 22%. This trend will leave Chukotka and Magadan without a population in 60 years.

The northern part of the region is located beyond the Arctic Circle, so there is snow almost all year round. In the north, the tundra rules the ball, and in the southern part - taiga, mixed with subtropical vegetation. Cataclysms are not uncommon for the Far East, for example, earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers.

Sights of the Far East, photo

Getting to such a remote region is not too easy and often tiring (train travel can take up to a week). But still the game is worth the candle. Severe weather conditions, not designed for excessive lovers of comfort, will repay with amazing landscapes and a warm welcome from the local population.

The main attractions of the Far East are natural objects. Lena Pillars and the national park of Yakutia, Avacha bays and the peaks of the hills resting against the sky. Sakhalin will conquer with lakes, amazing mountain ranges and islands. Kamchatka will open its cold glacial sides, fast rivers and seething geysers and waterfalls to guests.

The natural attractions of the Far East capture from the first seconds. There are numerous reserves and national parks, black volcanic beaches, lakes and rivers. You can also see a fir grove, Death Valley and Steller's Arch.

Yakutia

The Yakutsk Territory is one of the richest in interesting natural objects. In addition, there are places with a bright historical past. About two million years ago, settlements were located on the banks of the Deering-Yuryakh River, which may be the oldest in Eurasia.

Speaking about the sights of the Far East, one should not forget about the unique natural formations of the Lena and Sinsk pillars. Forty-meter sheer cliffs stretch for 80 km along the Sinya and Lena rivers. Many of the rocks contain samples of ancient rock paintings.

Mount Kisilakh, sacred to the Yakuts, has been open to the public only since 2002. It is an elevation up to 1 km, where there are huge boulders resembling human figures. The idols reach almost 30 meters in height.

Death Valley is a unique place. Not a single living creature lives in the local dead forest, except for insects. The Ust-Vilyui National Park and the Olemkinsky Reserve amaze with natural beauties. Of interest in Yakutia is the memorial museum called "Political Exile", which contains samples of wooden buildings of the 17th century.

Kamchatka

A distant and contrasting region that has absorbed all the colors and sights of the Far East. There are many glaciers and more than 100 volcanoes, of which 29 are active.

They call it the Kamchatka Gate. Its length reaches 24 km, and the depth is 26 meters. After Port Jackson in Australia, it is the largest in the world. The cities of Vilyuchinsk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky are located on the coast of the bay. During a boat trip along the Avacha Bay, you can see the Three Brothers rock, visit the bird market. Those who are especially lucky will be able to see killer whales passing by.

There is the Valley of Geysers, which is included in the list of the Seven Valley, located on the territory of the Kronotsky Biosphere Reserve. The accumulation of geysers in this region is the largest in Eurasia.

Often tourists-hunters come to Kamchatka to hunt brown bears, lynxes and elks. The fishermen come looking for salmon. Outdoor enthusiasts rush to Kamchatka for skiing and snowboarding, and in May for diving.

Parks and reserves

Reserves, natural and national parks are the most amazing sights of the Far East. In their territories are the most impressive and untouched natural beauties. The Kamchatskiye Volcanoes Natural Park combines Klyuchevskiy, Yuzhno-Kamchatskiy, Bystrinsky parks and Nalychevo park.

The area of ​​the park is about 2.5 million hectares. There are extinct and active volcanoes throughout the area, which makes it possible for researchers to observe the process of mountain formation. This is a unique place where the landscape changes daily, and thermal springs erupt from the ground.

About 15 islands are part of the Komandorsky Biosphere Natural Park. The main feature of the park is the animal world. Many animals live here, rare or endangered animals that are listed in the Red Book.

Conclusion

The Far East includes the eastern part of Russia, as well as the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The sights of the Far East include historical monuments, such as sites of ancient people, and natural areas and unique objects.

Plan:

Introduction

• 1 Far East countries
• 2 Discovery history
• 3 Physical and geographical characteristics
  • 3.1 Geographical position
  • 3.2 Relief
  • 3.3 Climate
  • 3.4 Soils
  • 3.5 Hydrology
  • 3.6 Flora and fauna
• 4 Minerals
• 5 Gallery
Notes

Introduction

Far East on the world map

Far East(Chinese 遠東, Kor. 극동, Japanese 極東, Thai. ตะวันออกไกล , viet. Viễn Đông, Indon. Timur Jauh Far East) is a region that includes Northeast, East and Southeast Asia. An integral part of the geopolitical concept of "Asia-Pacific region".

1. Countries of the Far East

1. Amurskaya Oblast
2. Republic of Yakutia
3. Khabarovsk region
4. Jewish Autonomous Region
5. Primorsky Krai
6. Magadan Region
7. Kamchatka Krai
8. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
9. Sakhalin region

2. History of discovery

For a long time in Western Europe, no one knew anything about the Far East. Even the ancient Greeks believed that beyond India there is nothing but uninhabited deserts inhabited by monsters and wild animals. However, gradually more plausible information about distant eastern countries began to penetrate the West. From there they began to bring airy fabrics, for which Persian satraps and Roman patricians were ready to pay huge sums of money. Rumors about the distant Land of Silk soon spread very widely, but the truth about this mysterious land, even after the stories of Islamic merchants and the first Christian missionaries, for the most part was still hidden under a veil of secrecy. And only at the beginning of the 16th century, the Far East, especially South China, began to penetrate “barbarians who come from unknown, unheard of, inconceivably distant lands lying beyond several seas, where the sun sets, then, in order to disturb the peace and tranquility in business affairs." These were the Portuguese who first set foot on Chinese soil in 1514, disembarking from their ships on the island of Linjin, at the mouth of the river on which stood the great city of Canton. In 1557 they received permission to use the Macau peninsula, south of Canton, as their trading base. She was assigned the role of the middle core of the trade axis, which began in Goa, in India, and reached the Japanese port in Nagasaki, where the Portuguese had their inn. After these events, the Europeans began a massive penetration into the Far East.

3. Physical and geographical characteristics

3.1. Geographical position

Geographical position. The Far East occupies almost one sixth of Russia. It consists of six administrative units: Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, Amur, Kamchatka, Magadan and Sakhalin Regions. For almost 4,500 km, from Chukotka to Primorsky Krai, the Far East stretches along the coast of the Pacific Ocean and its seas. The northern regions of the Far East lie beyond the Arctic Circle, and the southern regions lie at the latitude of the Mediterranean. Therefore, the Far East is a land of contrasts. The territory of the Far East consists of the mainland (Kolyma, Koryak, Chukotka highlands, Sikhote-Alin, Dzhugdzhur, Primorsky Krai, Zeya-Bureya plain, etc.), peninsular (Kamchatka, Chukotka) and island (Sakhalin, Kuril, Commander islands, etc.).

3.2. Relief

The relief of the Far East is mostly mountainous. This is the area of ​​earthquakes and tsunamis, that is, the seismic zone. In the south, medium-altitude and low mountains prevail (Sikhote-Alin, Dzhugdzhur), high mountains (volcanoes) stand out on the Kamchatka Peninsula (Klyuchevskaya Sopka - 4750 m), there are territories with a flat relief (Central Kamchatka Plain - intermountain depression), there is also Kolyma Highlands, Anadyr Plateau.

3.3. Climate

The climate of the Far East is distinguished by a special contrast - from sharply continental (the whole of Yakutia, the Kolyma regions of the Magadan region) to monsoonal (southeast), which is due to the vast extent of the territory from north to south (almost 4500 km.) And from west to east (to 2500-3000 km.). This is determined by the interaction of continental and sea air masses of temperate latitudes. In the northern part, the climate is exceptionally harsh. Winter with little snow, lasts up to 9 months. The southern part has a monsoonal climate with cold winters and wet summers.

The most significant differences between the Far East and Siberia are associated with the predominance of a monsoon climate in the south and a monsoon-like and maritime climate in the north, which is the result of the interaction between the Pacific Ocean and the land of North Asia. The influence of the marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean, especially the cold Sea of ​​Okhotsk, is also noticeable. The complex, predominantly mountainous terrain has a great influence on the climate.

In winter, currents of cold air rush to the southeast from the powerful Asian High. In the northeast, along the outskirts of the Aleutian Low, the cold continental air of Eastern Siberia interacts with warm sea air. As a result, cyclones often occur, which are associated with a large amount of precipitation. There is a lot of snow in Kamchatka, blizzards are not uncommon. On the eastern coast of the peninsula, the height of the snow cover can sometimes reach 6 m. Snowfalls are also significant on Sakhalin.

In summer, air currents rush from the Pacific Ocean. Maritime air masses interact with continental air masses, as a result of which monsoon rains occur throughout the Far East in summer. The monsoon climate of the Far East covers the Amur Region and Primorsky Territory. As a result, the largest Far Eastern river, the Amur, and its tributaries flood not in the spring, but in the summer, which usually leads to catastrophic floods. Devastating typhoons often sweep over coastal areas, coming from the southern seas.

3.4. Soils

1) Soils of the arctic and subarctic belts

• arctic desert
• Tundra
• Sod-coarse humus
• Permafrost-taiga
• pale permafrost

2) Soils of the temperate zone

• Podzolic, podzolic and neopodzolic taiga
• Volcanic (on the Kamchatka Peninsula)
• Brown forest broadleaf wet ocean forests
• Chernozem Prairie
• Chernozems of steppes and salmon-steppes
• Chestnut dry steppes
• Brown and grey-brown xerophytic forests and shrub steppes

3) Soils of the subtropical, subequatorial and equatorial belts

• Alluvial river valleys, marches and mangroves
• Serozems of semi-deserts
• Yellow and red soils of moist forests
• Mountain-meadow and mountain meadow-steppe
• Red-yellow farralithic permanently wet evergreen forests
• Red ferralitic seasonally wet forests and tall grass savannahs

3.5. Hydrology

There are many rivers in the Far East, short, mountainous, which overflow their banks.

Major rivers:

• Kolyma
• Huanghe
• Yangtze (Changjiang)
• Mekong

The lakes are located on the lowlands and in areas of volcanism.

Major lakes:

• Khanka

3.6. Flora and fauna

The International Red Book contains the following animal species:

• Far Eastern leopard
• white-naped crane
• Amur tiger

In addition, the Red Book of Russia contains the following endangered species of animals:

• Far Eastern stork
• Fish owl
• Baer Dive
• Siberian musk deer

Insects: Amur Snake Scoop, Puffy-winged Juno Scoop, Maak's Sailboat, Sericin Montela, Yankovsky's Ground Beetle, Ornithopters, Eupatorus, Chalcosoma.

In the Far East, the Komarov Lotus grows - a tertiary relic that lives in the Amur and Ginseng river basins, which lives wild in the mixed forests of the Primorsky Territory and in certain regions of China and North Korea.

4. Minerals

The Far East is rich in many minerals.

Types of minerals: gold, tin, mercury, copper, nickel, polymetallic, iron, manganese, tungsten ores, hard and brown coal, phosphorites, apatites, graphite, oil, natural gas.

The natural resources of the Russian Far East are now virtually untouched. Due to the small population of the region (less than 7 million people), the vast territory, which exceeds the territory of foreign Europe in area, most of which is difficult to access, active economic activity, both in the past and at present, is not possible.

At the same time, the situation is often different in other parts of the Far East. For example, China has almost exhausted its timber reserves, while Japan, experiencing a shortage of fossil resources, is forced to import them from abroad.

The territory of the Russian Far East is a geographical area that includes areas in the river basins that flow into the Pacific Ocean. This also includes the Kuril, Shantar and Commander Islands, Sakhalin and Wrangel Islands. Further, this part of the Russian Federation will be described in detail, as well as some cities of the Russian Far East (a list of the largest will be given in the text).

Population

The territory of the Russian Far East is considered the most depopulating in the country. About 6.3 million people live here. This is approximately 5% of the total population of the Russian Federation. During 1991-2010, the population decreased by 1.8 million people. As for the population growth rate in the Far East, it is -3.9 in the Primorsky Territory, 1.8 in the Republic of Sakha, 0.7 in the JAO, 1.3 in the Khabarovsk Territory, 7.8 in Sakhalin, 17.3 in the Magadan Region, and 17.3 in the Amur Region. - 6, Kamchatka Territory - 6.2, Chukotka - 14.9. If the current trends continue, Chukotka will be left without a population in 66 years, and Magadan in 57.

Subjects

The Far East of Russia covers an area of ​​6169.3 thousand kilometers. This is about 36% of the entire country. Transbaikalia is often referred to as the Far East. This is due to its geographical location, as well as the activity of migration. The following regions of the Far East are administratively distinguished: Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin, Jewish Autonomous Regions, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk Territories. The Far Eastern Federal District also includes Primorsky Krai,

History of the Russian Far East

In the 1-2 millennium BC, the Amur region was inhabited by various tribes. The peoples of the Russian Far East today are not as diverse as they were in those days. The population then consisted of Daurs, Udeges, Nivkhs, Evenks, Nanais, Orochs, etc. The main occupations of the population were fishing and hunting. The most ancient settlements of Primorye, which date back to the Paleolithic era, were discovered near the Nakhodka region. In the Stone Age, Itelmens, Ainu and Koryaks settled on the territory of Kamchatka. By the middle of the 19th century, Evenks began to appear here. In the 17th century, the Russian government began to expand Siberia and the Far East. 1632 became the year of foundation of Yakutsk. Under the leadership of the Cossack Semyon Shelkovnikov, a winter hut was organized on the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk in 1647. Today, this place is the Russian port - Okhotsk.

The development of the Russian Far East continued. So, by the middle of the 17th century, the explorers Khabarov and Poyarkov went south from the Yakut prison. Na and Zeya, they encountered tribes that paid tribute to the Chinese Qing Empire. As a result of the first conflict between the countries, the Nerchinsk Treaty was signed. In accordance with it, the Cossacks had to transfer to the Qing Empire the regions formed on the lands of the Albazinsky Voivodeship. In accordance with the agreement, diplomatic and trade relations were determined. The border under the agreement passed in the north along the river. Gorbitsa and mountain ranges of the Amur basin. Uncertainty remained in the area of ​​the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The territories between the Taikansky and Kivun ranges were undelimited. By the end of the 17th century, the Russian Cossacks Kozyrevsky and Atlasov began exploring the Kamchatka peninsula. In the first half of the 18th century, it was included in Russia.

XVIII century

In 1724, Peter I sent the first expedition to the Kamchatka Peninsula. He headed it Thanks to the work of researchers, Russian science received valuable information about the eastern part of Siberia. We are talking, in particular, about the modern Magadan and Kamchatka regions. New maps appeared, the coordinates of the Far Eastern coast and the strait, which was later called the Bering Strait, were accurately determined. In 1730 a second expedition was created. It was led by Chirikov and Bering. The task of the expedition was to reach the coast of America. Interest, in particular, was represented by Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Chichagov, Steller, Krasheninnikov began to explore Kamchatka in the 18th century.

19th century

During this period, the active development of the Russian Far East began. This was largely facilitated by the weakening of the Qing Empire. She was involved in the Opium War in 1840. Military operations against the combined army of France and England in the areas of Guangzhou and Macau required large material and human resources. In the north, China was left virtually without any cover, and Russia took advantage of this. She, along with other European powers, participated in the division of the weakening Qing Empire. In 1850 Lieutenant Nevelskoy landed at the mouth of the Amur. There he established a military post. Convinced that the Qing government had not recovered from the consequences of the opium war and was inflamed in its actions and, accordingly, could not give an adequate response to Russia's claims, Nevelskoy decided to declare the coast of the Tatar Prospect and the mouth of the Amur to be domestic possessions.

In 1854, on May 14, Count Muraviev, who had information received from Nevelsky about the absence of Chinese military units, organized rafting on the river. The expedition included the Argun steamer, 29 rafts, 48 ​​boats and about 800 people. During the rafting, ammunition, troops and food were delivered. Part of the military went to Kamchatka by sea to strengthen the Peter and Paul garrison. The rest remained for the implementation of the plan for the study of the Amur region on the former Chinese territory. A year later, a second rafting was organized. It was attended by about 2.5 thousand people. By the end of 1855, several settlements were organized in the lower reaches of the Amur: Sergeevskoye, Novo-Mikhailovskoye, Bogorodskoye, Irkutsk. In 1858, the right bank was officially annexed to Russia in accordance with the Aigun Treaty. On the whole, it should be said that Russia's policy in the Far East was not of an aggressive nature. Agreements were signed with other states without the use of military force.

Physical location

The Far East of Russia in the extreme south borders on the DPRK, in the southeast on Japan. In the extreme northeast in the Bering Strait - from the USA. Another state with which the Far East (Russia) borders is China. In addition to the administrative, there is another division of the Far Eastern Federal District. So, the so-called regions of the Far East of Russia are distinguished. These are fairly large areas. Northeastern Siberia, the first of these, roughly corresponds to the eastern part of Yakutia (mountainous regions east of Aldan and Lena). The North Pacific country is the second zone. It includes the eastern parts of the Magadan Region, the Chukotka Autonomous Region, and the northern parts of the Khabarovsk Territory. It also includes the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka. The Amur-Sakhalin country includes the Jewish Autonomous Okrug, the Amur Region, the southern part of the Khabarovsk Territory. It also includes the island of Sakhalin and Primorsky Krai. Yakutia is included in Central and Southern Siberia, except for its eastern part.

Climate

Here it should be said that the Far East of Russia has a rather large extent. This explains the special contrast of the climate. Throughout Yakutia and in the Kolyma regions of the Magadan region, for example, sharply continental prevails. And in the southeast - monsoon type of climate. This difference is determined by the interaction of maritime and continental air masses in temperate latitudes. The south is characterized by a sharply monsoon climate, and maritime and monsoon-like for the north. This is the result of the interaction of land and the Pacific Ocean. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk, as well as the Primorsky cold current along the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan, has a special influence on the state of the climate. Mountainous relief is also of no small importance in this zone. In the continental part of the Far Eastern Federal District, winters are not snowy and frosty.

weather features

Summer here is quite hot, but relatively short. As for the coastal regions, here winters are snowy and mild, springs are cold and long, autumns are warm and long, and summers are relatively cool. On the coast, cyclones, fogs, typhoons and torrential rains are frequent. The height of the fallen snow in Kamchatka can reach six meters. The closer to the southern regions, the higher the humidity becomes. So, in the south of Primorye, it is quite often set at around 90%. Almost throughout the Far East in the summer there are prolonged rains. This, in turn, causes systematic river floods, flooding of agricultural land and residential buildings. In the Far East, there are long periods of sunny and clear weather. At the same time, continuous rains for several days are considered quite common. This kind of diversity of the Far East of Russia differs from the "gray" European part of the Russian Federation. There are also dust storms in the central part of the Far Eastern Federal District. They come from the deserts of Northern China and Mongolia. A significant part of the Far East is equated or is the Far North (except for the Jewish Autonomous Region, the south of the Amur Region, Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories).

Natural resources

In the Far East, the reserves of raw materials are quite large. This allows him to be in the leading positions in the Russian economy in a number of positions. Thus, the Far East in the total Russian production accounts for 98% of diamonds, 80% of tin, 90% of boron raw materials, 14% of tungsten, 50% of gold, more than 40% of seafood and fish, 80% of soybeans, cellulose 7%, wood 13%. Among the main industries of the Far Eastern Federal District, it should be noted the mining and processing of non-ferrous metal, pulp and paper, fishing, timber industry, ship repair and shipbuilding.

Industries

In the Far East, the main income is brought by the forestry, fishing industry, mining, and non-ferrous metal mining. These industries account for more than half of all marketable products. Manufacturing industries are considered underdeveloped. When exporting raw materials, the region incurs losses in the form of value added. The remoteness of the Far Eastern Federal District causes significant transport margins. They are reflected in the cost indicators of many economic sectors.

Mineral resources

In terms of their reserves, the Far East occupies a leading position in the Russian Federation. In terms of volume, tin, boron, and antimony available here account for about 95% of the total amount of these resources in the country. Fluorspar and mercury account for about 60%, tungsten - 24%, iron ore, apatite, native sulfur and lead - 10%. In the Republic of Sakha, in its northwestern part, there is a diamond-bearing province, the largest in the world. The Aikhal, Mir, and Udachnoye deposits account for more than 80% of the total diamond reserves in Russia. The proven reserves of iron ore in the south of Yakutia amount to more than 4 billion tons. This is about 80% of the regional volume. These reserves are also significant in the Jewish Autonomous Region. There are large coal deposits in the South Yakutsk and Lena basins. Its deposits are also present in the Khabarovsk, Primorsky Territories, and the Amur Region. Placer and ore gold deposits have been discovered and are being developed in the Republic of Sakha and the Magadan Region. Similar deposits were found in the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories. In the same territories, deposits of tungsten and tin ores are being developed. Lead and zinc reserves are mostly concentrated in Primorsky Krai. A titanium ore province has been identified in the Khabarovsk Territory and the Amur Region. In addition to the above, there are also deposits of non-metallic raw materials. These are, in particular, reserves of limestones, refractory clays, graphite, sulfur, and quartz sands.

Geostrategic position

The Far Eastern Federal District has the most important geopolitical significance for the Russian Federation. There is access to two oceans: the Arctic and the Pacific. Taking into account the high rates of development of the Asia-Pacific Region, integration into the Far Eastern Federal District is very promising for the fatherland. With a reasonable conduct of activities, the Far East can become a "bridge" in the Asia-Pacific region.

Cities of the Far East of Russia: list

These cities of the Russian Far East are of great economic and geostrategic importance for the Russian Federation. Blagoveshchensk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Nakhodka, Ussuriysk are considered very promising. Yakutsk is of particular importance for the entire region. At the same time, it should be noted that there are also dying settlements. Most of them are located in Chukotka. This is mainly due to the inaccessibility of areas and severe weather conditions.

Interesting facts about the Far East

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is the largest administrative-territorial unit not only in the Russian Federation, but also in the world. Most of the territory of Yakutia is almost untouched by modern mankind.

The 17th century in the history of Yakutia is the era of the reign of Tygyn, the “Yakut king”, a wise old man and a fearless warrior, already deified during his lifetime. His death was the beginning of the process of entry of the eastern lands into the Russian Federation.

The first exiles appeared in Yakutia back in the middle of the 17th century, and later political criminals were exiled to Yakutia: Decembrists, populists, social democrats. And in the 19th - 20th centuries, Kolyma became the unspoken capital of criminal convicts.

In Yakutia, they eat stroganina - meat of river fish cut into thick chips, mainly chira and omul, stroganina from sturgeon and nelma is most valued (all these fish, with the exception of sturgeon, are from the whitefish family). All this splendor can be consumed by dipping the chips in salt and pepper. Some also make different sauces.

Yakutia covers three time zones, in Yakutsk the time differs from Moscow by 6 hours.

The city of Mirny is the center of the diamond industry. It arose in connection with the development of a diamond deposit - the Mir kimberlite pipe, from which the city got its name. Approximately a quarter of all diamonds in the world are mined in Yakutia.

In the early 1940s, the hunter V.N. Zakharov discovered a deposit of mica - phlogopite (insulating material) on the Emeldzhak spring, in the lair of a dead bear. Thanks to this discovery, the city of Tommot grew up next to the field, which used to be a small pier on the Aldan River.

The inhabitants of Yakutia celebrate the New Year twice: in winter and, according to an ancient tradition, in summer. Summer here is very short and comes at the end of June. It is at this time that the holiday falls.

Sometimes you can feel the shudder of the earth and a dull rumble. It is the earth cracking from the cold. After all, under your feet at a depth of about a meter - a powerful layer of permafrost, more than 500 meters thick. In the Yakutsk region, the thickness of the permafrost reaches 250 meters. Therefore, before building a house, a foundation pit is not dug, but a concrete pile is driven into the ground.

The legend of crowbars becoming brittle, like glass in severe frost, is true. If, at a temperature below -50 - -55 ° C, you smack a cast-iron crowbar on a solid object, the crowbar will shatter into pieces. And if you hang clothes after washing in the cold, theoretically it can be easily torn into pieces, and when you bring it into the house, such a strong smell of freshness spreads around the house.

The area of ​​Yakutia is larger than the area Argentina , and this despite the fact that Argentina is the eighth largest state in the world.

Cars in Yakutia are usually equipped with double sets of glass, like double-glazed windows, otherwise in winter they instantly freeze and are covered with frost.

In 1901, on the schooner Zarya, E. Toll went in search of the mysterious land of Sannikov. But, the ship could not overcome the ice, and the baron and three of his companions set off on sleds through the islands of Kotelny and Faddeevsky, towards the Sannikov Land. The fate of Toll became known only two years later, when his belongings were found on Bennett Island.

When the Yakuts eat bear meat, they make the sound "Hook" before eating or imitate the cry of a raven, thereby, as it were, disguising themselves from the spirit of a bear - it's not we who eat your meat, but crows.

The Laptev Sea belongs to the type of continental marginal seas. Half of its area is occupied by depths of no more than 50 meters, but in some places they reach 1,000 meters. The soil of the deep-water part of the reservoir is silt, in the rest of it - sand and silt. But, in the eastern part of the sea, under a thin layer of sediments, there is a second "ice" bottom - relic underground ice, preserved from the past geological era. Glaciers and ancient rivers played a significant role in the formation of the relief of the bottom and coasts.

The Laptev Sea is one of the harshest seas in the Arctic and is ice-bound for most of the year. Warm ocean currents do not reach here. For more than 11 months a year, the temperature in the northern part of the sea is below 0°C, strong winds blow, blizzards and blizzards rage. The sea begins to be covered with an ice shell in September in the north and in October in the south. And in winter, in the southeast, it looks like a fixed ice cover (fast ice), more than 3 meters thick. Under the influence of the prevailing southerly winds along the seaward edge of the fast ice, a unique natural phenomenon is annually preserved - the great Siberian polynya - a large expanse of non-freezing water. In summer, fast ice breaks up, and ice in the northwest and southeast forms stable ice masses. Sometimes ice can occupy most of the Laptev Sea in summer, but sometimes it is completely free.

In some regions of Yakutia, the temperature drops to -70 °C in winter. Basically, this, however, refers to uninhabited places, but in cities -55 ° C, for example, is not such a rarity.

Yakut horses are a very ancient breed. They graze all year round on their own without any supervision.

In Yakutia, you can see how children play on the street in 45-degree frost and eat ice cream right there.

On the Laptev Sea, the polar night continues for about three months in the south and five in the north, and the same length of polar day.

The life of most mammals is closely connected with polynyas. The existence of cetaceans suggests the presence of large expanses of ice-free water. Therefore, if in summer the number of beluga whales in the Laptev Sea can reach 20,000 - 30,000 individuals, then in winter - no more than 2,000. Also, from mammals, seals, bearded seals (sea hare), Laptev walrus, polar bear live in the sea.

In appearance, the Yakuts are very rarely muscular, but, at the same time, they are often very strong physically. Yakuts are very hardworking. They can easily work 18 hours a day without a break for lunch. In addition, the Yakuts are very clean. By nature, they are often phlegmatic, they combine a strong type of nervous system, balance and inertia of mental processes. Specific natural conditions made the Yakut prone to saving energy, causing poverty in the manifestation of their emotions, both positive and negative. For centuries, nature and society have selected only those who, in terms of their physiological and psychological characteristics, corresponded to survival in the extremely extreme conditions of the northeastern part of the Asian continent.

More than 40% of the territory of Yakutia is located beyond the Arctic Circle.

The main economic significance of the Laptev Sea is the transportation of timber and building materials along the North Sea Route, since minor fisheries and sea animals in the estuarine areas are of only local importance.

The Yakut language previously had three types of writing - runic, Latin and Cyrillic. Now, approximately since the end of the 30s of the twentieth century, the Cyrillic alphabet has been used. Many words in the Yakut language begin with the letter "y".

Marijuana in Yakutia grows wild in many places in many uluses, in the fall the police often organize raids in such places.

The islands of the Laptev Sea were visited by Russian people much earlier than the Laptev brothers. This is evidenced by the finds made on Kotelny Island, where a building and a grave with objects of Russian origin of the 16th-17th centuries were found. The ruins of a 17th-century dwelling were found on the Thaddeus Islands, and an old knife was also found there, with the inscription “Murak Akaki” on the handle.

The Yakuts eat raw meat - frozen foal meat, sliced ​​\u200b\u200band shavings or cut into cubes. The meat of adult horses is also eaten, but it is not so tasty. Foal meat is extremely tasty and healthy, rich in vitamins and other useful substances, in particular, antioxidants.

On the coast of the Laptev Sea, in layers of relic ice, tusks, mammoth teeth, and sometimes whole carcasses are found. The meat of “thawed” mammoths happened to be fed to dogs.

On the island of Kotelny, the remains of marine dinosaurs were discovered, whose age is about 220 million years (!).

Districts in Yakutia are called uluses.

The East Siberian Sea is the most arctic of the Arctic seas. From October - November to June - July it is completely covered with ice. In its eastern part, floating ice often remains close to the coast even in summer. Summer here is rainy and cloudy, rains are often replaced by sleet. Warm sea currents do not reach here. Strong storm winds blow at the end of summer. The salinity of the water varies greatly. In the mouths of the rivers it is about 5‰, in the northern part up to 30‰.

The flora and fauna of the East Siberian Sea is poorer compared to neighboring seas. However, in the areas of the mouths of the rivers, in addition to the cisco, whitefish and grayling, there are large schools of white fish. Mammals are represented by walruses, seals and polar bears, birds - guillemots, sea gulls, cormorants.

Significant waves are developing in the ice-free spaces of the East Siberian Sea. It is strongest during storm northwest and southeast winds. The maximum wave heights reach 5 meters. Strong waves are observed mainly in late summer - early autumn, when the ice edge recedes to the north.

The land of Sannikov (it was assumed that it might be the northern coast of America) was searched in vain for more than 100 years. Soviet sailors and pilots in 1937-1938 proved definitively that there is no such land. It is assumed that the island was composed of fossil ice, subsequently destroyed by the sea. According to another version, it was the so-called ice island (or islands) in the form of a flat iceberg, which in those years drifted in this part of the Arctic Ocean.

Contemporaries of mammoths were musk oxen. They disappeared too. In the middle of the 20th century, several heads were brought from America to Wrangel Island, now the island has its own population of musk oxen. A similar story happened with the reindeer. The original population died, but a new population came from the domestic deer brought from the mainland.

Cetaceans prefer to enter the East Siberian Sea from time to time. Too cold, and not enough food. More often than others, you can meet the beluga whale, gray whale, narwhal and polar whale here. The polar whale, also known as the bowhead whale, reaches a length of 21 meters and weighs up to 100 tons. The large head, which is about a third of the body long, gives it the appearance of a clumsy animal. But it is not so. The color of the whale resembles a dandy in a tailcoat: a black back and a white belly. Northern peoples often hunted him, because the thickness of the subcutaneous fat layer reaches half a meter. Newborn cubs, up to 4.5 meters in size, are already protected by subcutaneous fat approximately 15 cm thick. For about six months, mothers feed them with milk, the fat content of which is 10 times higher than cow's.

Pinnipeds - walruses, sea lions, seals and fur seals - have adapted to live in the harsh conditions of the northern seas. Their limbs are like oars. At the ends of the fingers of the hind flippers, cartilaginous plates are developed, and between the fingers there are swimming membranes that increase the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe “oar”. The soles of the hind limbs are adjacent to each other, and the animal can bend them to the right and left like the tail of a fish. On land, they move with difficulty, crawling on their belly, but water is their element. The body of pinnipeds is covered with short coarse hair. A thick subcutaneous layer of fat prevents the animal from freezing in cold water. Pinnipeds feed mainly on fish and crustaceans. They have a well-developed sense of smell and hearing, and their eyes see well both under water and on land.

The height of the reindeer does not exceed 140 cm. Both males and females are decorated with large branched horns. They move easily in the snow because their toes can spread out, increasing the area of ​​the hoof and, consequently, the area of ​​​​support. Deer are good swimmers. About 200 years ago, deer were domesticated by humans.

When Russian Cossacks appeared on the banks of the Indigirka, they were extremely surprised to see how the local
the population rides on dog sleds. In this regard, the river received another name - Dog.

The Indigirka Valley has the most severe winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The village of Oymyakon is located here, where the absolute minimum air temperature (-71°C) was recorded.

Lena is one of the largest rivers not only in Russia, but throughout the world. Its length is 4,400 km. The Lena River is born in a small lake on the slopes of the Baikal Range, at an altitude of 930 meters, just 10 km from Lake Baikal. Winding in the mountains, it descends into the valley, where in winter it freezes almost to the bottom, in spring, having drunk melt water, it turns into a wayward stream, and dries up in summer. But, the first tributaries turn the stream into a river.

The hydronym Lena is, most likely, the Tungus-Manchurian "Yelyu-Ene" changed by the Russians, which means "big river". There is also a comic version of the origin of the hydronym Lena: on the Muka River, the Cossacks suffered, on the Kupa River they swam, on the Kuta River they reveled, but on the Lena one could be too lazy.

There are no dams, no hydroelectric power stations, no dams on the Lena, and the beautiful river flows along its natural course, just like millions of years ago. The water in the Lena is so pure that, despite the large cities that have grown up on its banks, it can still be drunk without being subjected to heat treatment.

The Lena gold mines became world famous in the 19th century. In 1861, the Lena gold mining partnership was established, and in 1908 the Russian-English joint-stock company Lenzoloto was created, the number of mines owned by him increased with incredible speed.

The people, who in Russia are called Yakuts, call themselves "Sakha", and in myths and legends - "people of the sun's rays with reins behind their backs."

Until the 19th century, polygamy was preserved in Yakut families, moreover, the wives lived separately and each ran their own household. They preferred to choose a bride in another ulus (district), they paid a dowry, which consisted of cattle, part of which went to the wedding feast. The groom received a dowry for the bride, which amounted to half of the kalym, in the form of clothes, shoes, and household utensils. Young people from poor families ran away from home and started living together far away and without the help of relatives.

The main type of dwelling of the Yakuts was a log booth, which combined under its roof a dwelling (yurt) and a cattle shed (hoton). Outside, the house was coated with clay and manure, and warmed with earth from above. Roofs were covered with bark, over which earth was thrown. Small windows were covered with fish bladder, mica or paper, and in winter they were covered with thick ice floes. Summer dwelling - urasa, was a conical frame, up to 10 meters high, made of thin poles and covered with birch bark on top.

The main holiday of the Yakuts is Ysyakh. It is celebrated at the end of June, on the days of the summer solstice. This is the holiday of the New Year, the holiday of the revival of nature. Everyone drinks freshly prepared koumiss from ritual vessels (chorons), which symbolizes the bright heavenly beginning, divine grace and fertility, make sacrifices to gods and spirits, and organize sports competitions.

Racially, the Yakuts are representatives of the Central Asian anthropological type of the North Asian race, with a pronounced Mongoloid complex.

The Verkhoyansk Range, or rather the whole mountain system, is one of the most powerful and largest in length and area in northeast Asia.

The Chersky Ridge is characterized by a large number of icings (taryns), which are formed as a result of the release of deep frozen waters. Frosts occupy an area of ​​2,300 km² here. In the middle reaches of the Moma, the world's largest Great Moma ice (Ulakhan-Taryn) stretches for 26 km, with an area of ​​120 km² and an ice thickness of up to 7 meters.

The Aldan River is the largest tributary of the Lena, bringing more than 30% of its flow into it. This is one of the most beautiful rivers in Russia. In the upper and middle reaches, it flows through a mountainous country. During its life, the river has worked out a huge valley. Huge limestone cliffs are located on four terraces, whitening among the greenery of coastal forests. They look like some kind of fairytale castles.

The Aldan basin has over 114,000 streams and over 51,000 lakes.

Almost all of Yakutia lies in the permafrost zone, here its layer reaches almost one and a half kilometers. And despite the fact that Yakutsk is located almost in the very center of the republic on permafrost, the city is growing, developing, and prospering.

Yakutsk is home to Russia's only and the world's largest permafrost research institute of the Academy of Sciences. On the territory of the institute there is an experimental multi-storey underground laboratory, 12 meters deep.

Houses in Yakutsk were built from thick trunks of larch and covered with two layers of boards instead of iron. This tree, for the strength of its wood, is often called the Siberian oak. It almost doesn't rot. Wooden buildings, cut down from larch logs 200 - 300 years ago, have survived, and they are still quite strong, although they have turned black from time to time.

In the spring of 2001, Lensk experienced a terrible flood. As a result of the traffic jam, the Lena overflowed its banks and almost completely washed away the city and the villages nearby. About 3,500 houses were destroyed. As a result of the flood, the water in the river rose by more than 20 meters.

In 1898, in connection with the 250th anniversary of Dezhnev's sea voyage, by decision of the Russian Geographical Society, Bolshoy Kamenny Nose on the Chukotka Peninsula was renamed Cape Dezhnev. Now there is a monument to the brave explorer and navigator.

The landmark of Anadyr is the world's largest statue of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Everyone who saw the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro immediately remembers it when they see this monument. This is explained by the fact that the arms of Nicholas the Wonderworker are quite extended, although his figure does not resemble a cross, as in Brazilian sculpture.

In addition to the strait between Asia and America, Dezhnev discovered the Chukotka Peninsula and the Gulf of Anadyr. He was the first to cross the Koryak Highlands, surveyed, described and made a drawing of the Anadyr River basin and the Anadyr Lowland.

The climate of Chukotka is very severe. Local old-timers joke that one month of the year the weather in Chukotka is bad, two are very bad, and nine are bad. In winter, in the western continental regions of Chukotka, the air temperature often reaches -60°C. Especially strong winds are raging in the eastern regions, snow blizzard sometimes lasts for many days in a row. Summer is very short, rainy and cold - the temperature rarely rises to +10°C, in some places the snow does not even have time to melt, forming ice. In any summer month, snowfall can begin. Permafrost occurs everywhere and starts very shallow from the surface.

Not so long ago, the local Chukchi communities in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia were again allowed to harvest gray whales: the hunt for indigenous people, who annually harvest up to 140 gray whales of the local Chukchi population, is carried out by harpoons from boats. Whale skin (in Chukchi "itkhilgyn") is considered a local delicacy. Whale meat accounts for up to half of the annual diet of the indigenous population of Chukotka; in northern conditions it is the most valuable source of pure protein. Chukchi, Eskimos and Koryaks believe that everything in a whale is valuable: it is a lot, a lot of food and fat for lamps (one whale fed and heated the whole village during the year).

As the glacial layers of the last glaciation melted, the level of the world's oceans rose to 150 meters, and the vast plain between Chukotka and Alaska was flooded. Since then, the waves of the Bering and Chukchi seas have been splashing in its place.

The peoples of the Far East, which became part of the Russian state, had to pay the king yasak - tribute in kind - with furs, walrus ivory, and so on. The first mention of the Chukchi, as a numerous hitherto unknown nationality, dates back to 1641-1642. They resisted the yasak collectors, as the Cossacks reported in their petition.

Large deposits of tin, mercury, and coal have been discovered on the Chukotka Peninsula.

Lake Elgygytgyn in Chukotka has an almost perfect rounded shape. Its diameter is 14 km, the greatest depth is 175 meters, its age is 3.5 - 5 million years. It is possible that this is a meteorite funnel or the crater of an ancient volcano.

Chukotka holds many climatic records: it has the lowest radiation balance for these latitudes, maximum days without sun, minimum hours of sunshine, maximum average annual wind speed and the frequency of storms and hurricanes in Russia.

The Chukchi Sea is the easternmost of the seas of the Arctic Ocean, washing the territory of the Russian Federation. The Chukchi Sea has a border position between Asia and North America, between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

The southern part of the Chukchi Sea becomes available for navigation usually in the second half of July. The most difficult conditions for navigation are ice in the area of ​​the Long Strait. The system of constant currents and drift of ice is due to the inflow through the Bering Strait of a huge mass of relatively salty water (about 30,000 km³ / year), supplied by the Bering Sea Current. In the Chukchi Sea, these waters are divided into three branches - Alaska, Gerald and Long, respectively, spread along the coast of Alaska, to the northwest, east of Herald Island and into the Long Strait. In summer this current is warm (water temperature up to +12°C), in winter down to -1.8°C. It is this current that “warms” the cold waters of the Chukchi Sea, it is able to melt the ice of more than a third of the sea area. During storm winds, in ice-free areas, wind waves develop, up to 6.5 meters high.

The act of Pavlik Morozov, elevated to the rank of a feat, caused a wave of new denunciations of his relatives from children throughout the country. One of these "heroes" was a Chukchi boy named Yatyrgin. Having learned that part of the reindeer breeders of their village were going to leave with the herd to Alaska, Yatyrgin wanted to inform the Bolsheviks about this. The boy was guarded, hit with an ax and thrown into a hole, but he managed to get out and survive. When Yatyrgin was accepted as a pioneer, along with a tie, they decided to give him a new name with a surname - Pavlik Morozov.

The Chukchi Sea is shallow, the depth of more than half of its territory does not exceed 50 meters. The deeper sea is in the north, where the water layer reaches 200 meters, and the deepest mark is also located there. The shelf is crossed by two underwater canyons: Gerald and Barrow. There are several hills in the northern part of the sea. The tides in the Chukchi Sea are correct daily, the water rises and falls by a little less than 1 meter, but at Cape Barrow it reaches 3 meters.

The Chukchi Sea differs from other Arctic seas in its increased salinity up to 32 ‰ (offshore - 27 ‰).

Once, fluttering butterflies were seen above the ice of the Chukchi Sea. They were brought here by warm air masses from Alaska.

The greeting in the Chukchi language sounds funny - “etty”, which literally translates as “came”. In response, they say - "and"! Goodbye - "atau", thank you - "velynkhykun", thank you - "eygyt", please - "ivke". The phrase “I love you” is unlikely to be remembered immediately by anyone - “Gymnan gygyt ylgu tylgyrkynigyt”! The self-name of the Chukchi "luoravetlan" is translated as a person, a real person.

People no longer live on Wrangel Island, but polar bears have chosen it for themselves. Every year, in autumn, pregnant female bears come here to equip dens and give birth to offspring.

The climate on Wrangel Island is arctic, with severe long winters (from September to June) and cool short summers. Hurricanes hit the island at the beginning and end of winter. The snow that has fallen is blown off the mountains into the valleys, where snowdrifts form, sometimes up to 25 meters deep. In July the temperature does not rise above +5°C. Even at this time there can be severe frosts and snowfalls. From mid-November to January, the polar night sets in. The polar day lasts two months - from mid-May to mid-July. At this time, all nature wakes up, mosses, lichens, dwarf shrubs appear on the thawed patches.

In 1948, a small group of domestic reindeer was brought to Wrangel Island and a department of a reindeer-breeding state farm was organized. But, part of the deer fled and ran wild, giving rise to a population of a kind of "northern mustangs". And since the main regulator of their numbers - the polar wolf - is absent on Wrangel Island, deer have bred and are now found throughout the island.

According to evolutionary theory, a walrus is a bear that has gone underwater. Its dimensions reach 4.5 meters, and its weight is 1.5 tons. The Bering Strait, Wrangel Island and the northern coast of Chukotka are the most important habitats for the Pacific walrus, with a population of about 200,000 individuals: this is 80% of the world population of the species.

In the 1960s, the village of Zvyozdny was built on Wrangel Island, and an alternate airfield for the military was built.
aviation, a military radar station was organized, rock crystal was mined. Nothing remains on the island today. The only settlers, employees of the reserve, immigrants to the mainland. Here is now the kingdom of polar bears, walrus rookeries, bird colonies, herds of deer and musk oxen.

The name "Chukotka" is derived from the Russian name for the Chukchi people. The word "Chukchi" comes from the Chukchi "chauchu", which means "rich in deer."

Chukotka has accumulated such a huge variety of modern relict ice as nowhere else in the world. These are powerful reservoir deposits, and ice veins with a vertical length of up to 50 meters, and underground ice of stone glaciers, the remains of ancient glaciers and various cave ice.

Houses in Chukotka are built without a foundation, on piles (as an option - jacks), which are driven into the ground for several meters, so that the permafrost, and in Chukotka it reaches 10-300 meters deep, firmly embraces them. Theoretically, as experts say, on permafrost, if the soil is rocky, you can build houses of at least 40 floors, but in reality, the bulk has 5 floors. The gap between the house and the ground is left not just like that, but on purpose: in winter it keeps the cold and does not allow the ground to thaw from the heat that comes from the house, and in the summer the ground is always in the shade, plus it is ventilated and, again, thanks to this, does not heat up. All water, heat and other communications are laid on the surface of the earth, due to the same permafrost.

The main Chukchi dwelling is a collapsible tent-yaranga. The tundra Chukchi used reindeer skins to shelter the yaranga, while the coastal Chukchi used walrus skins. Inside, the room was partitioned off with curtains in the form of large deaf fur bags stretched on poles, lit and heated by a stone, clay or wooden fat lamp, on which food was also cooked. The seaside Chukchi drowned the Yaranga in black, the tundra Chukchi made a special hole for the smoke. The camps of the nomadic Chukchi consisted of 2-10 yarangas, stretched from east to west. The first from the west was the yaranga of the head of the community. The settlements of the coastal Chukchi numbered up to 20 or more yarangas, randomly scattered.

The main mode of transport of the tundra Chukchi is reindeer sledges, while the coastal Chukchi ride dogs. For independent movement, various types of skis are used: stepping and sliding, borrowed from the Evenks. On the water they move on canoes - boats made of walrus skins, with oars and a slanting sail, accommodating up to 30 people.

The traditional clothes of the Chukchi are deaf, from the skins of deer and seals. Among the coastal Chukchi, clothes made from walrus intestines were common. Also, before the Chukchi made tattoos on the face: circles along the edges of the mouth - for men, and two stripes along the nose and forehead - for women. Men cut their hair in a circle, shaving the top of their head, women braided their hair in two braids.

Every year, more than 3,000 builders come to Chukotka, both from other regions of Russia and from abroad - mainly from Turkey . The Turks are correcting the demographic situation in the region regularly! For children born to Chukchi women from Turkish subjects, the people even came up with a name - turcha!

Chukchi food is very peculiar. Foods high in protein and fat predominate. The main food is venison or the meat of a sea animal. The meat was consumed raw, boiled and dried. During the mass slaughter of deer, the contents of deer stomachs (rilkeil) were prepared for future use, boiling it with the addition of blood and fat. The Primorsky Chukchi harvested the meat of large animals - whale, walrus, beluga whale, fermenting it in pits (kopalgyn) sewn in skins. Fish was eaten raw, in Anadyr and Kolyma they made yukol from salmon. Dwarf willow leaves, sorrel, roots were harvested for the future - frozen, fermented, mixed with fat, blood, rilkeil. Koloboks were made from crushed roots with meat and walrus fat. From imported flour, they boiled porridge, fried cakes on seal fat.

The Chukchi language is taught in schools, radio and television broadcasts are conducted in it, literature in the Chukchi language (Russian graphics) is published in Magadan.

The Chukchi have preserved pre-Christian beliefs, they revere animals - polar bears, whales, walruses, worship sacred objects, shamanism is well developed.

Chukotka has its own television and radio broadcasting - a radio station with the cheerful name "Purga"!

One of the traditional Chukchi crafts was bird hunting. Until now, hunting has been preserved with the help of a “bol” - a throwing weapon from several ropes with loads that entangled a flying bird. Previously, when hunting birds, they also used darts with a throwing board, traps, and eiders were beaten in the water with sticks.

The Chukchi are skilled carvers and engravers on bone and walrus tusk. In the 20th century, they learned how to create plot carved paintings from bone. The village of Uelen became the center of bone carving art.

Interesting facts about Kamchatka

The name of Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev, is one of the bays of the Bering Sea, a mountain range and a village on the Amur.

Vitus Bering was the first to explore the northern shores of Kamchatka, the eastern part of Asia, the island of St. Lawrence, the island of St. Diomede. He was the first of all European navigators to visit the Kamchatka and Bobrovskoe seas, later called the Bering Sea, and also discovered the chain of the Aleutian Islands, the Shumaginsky Islands, the Misty Islands, the northwestern part of America and the bay of St. Elijah. The name of Bering is the sea, the strait, the cape on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. One of the Commander Islands is also named in his honor.

The Bering Sea connects two oceans - the Pacific and the Arctic, separates two continents - Eurasia and North America and two countries - Russia and USA . The Bering Sea is one of the largest and richest on the planet in terms of bioproductivity - Russian fish catches here account for a third of the industrial catch throughout the country. The Bering Sea is the sea where a new day of the entire planet begins at the 180th parallel. It has global environmental, economic and cultural significance.

Before the invention of airplanes, the way to Kamchatka from Central Russia could take away from travelers up to a year.

The average salinity of the Bering Sea is 28 ‰, in winter the salinity increases to 33 ‰ due to ice formation and a decrease in river flow, and in spring it drops sharply to 20 ‰.

Due to the large extent of the Bering Sea, there are significant climatic differences between individual areas. In the northern part, especially in the coastal zone, the climate is more severe and has an arctic character. The area is covered with ice throughout the winter. In the southern part, the sea never freezes, and the climatic conditions here are much milder. Such a difference in climate is associated with the topography of the bottom. The northern part is shallow (only 40-50 meters deep) and freezes quickly in winter. Once this part of the sea was a wide plain, which sank and covered with water about 25,000 years ago. So the Bering Sea can be considered young. And the southern part is deep, and the deep and warm currents of the Pacific Ocean penetrate here.

According to scientists, Alaska was discovered by Siberian hunters - the progenitors of most of the native American Indians, who migrated north in search of mammoths during the Ice Age. Ancient people migrated to the American continent through the Bering Strait, which at that time was a 1,600 km natural ice bridge between the two continents. When the climate changed and warming came, the ice melted and the water level of the world's oceans rose, flooding this bridge and dividing Siberia and Alaska.

On the territory of Kamchatka could well accommodate France and Belgium .

In the 17th century, the Bering Sea was called the Anadyr or Kamchatka Sea, and sometimes the Beaver Sea.

Under the Bering Sea, the movements of the earth's crust have not yet ended, therefore, the bottom topography has not yet been fully formed. From time to time, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes on the islands of the Aleutian ridge remind of this.

A lover of Antarctic waters, the fin whale comes to the Bering Sea for fattening in May and feeds fat until October. Feeding whales move sideways with open mouths and swallow prey in large portions; when catching fish, they make sharp jerky movements, sometimes they turn over along the axis of the body, belly up. This movement prevents food from slipping out of the mouth and speeds up the closing of the mouth. Sometimes they jump out of the water, turning over in the air, landing on their belly or on their backs with a terrible splash. Under water, the fin whale makes sounds reminiscent of the sounds of a flute. Japanese researchers found 12 different blood groups in fin whales, and the groups did not match in the animals that lived in the western and eastern parts of the sea. These animals live for about 50 years, and reach full physical maturity (height 20 - 22 meters) by the age of 25.

During Soviet times, Kamchatka was a closed region of the country where foreigners were not allowed. Even the Russians needed to issue a special permit to visit these regions. After the collapse of the USSR, Kamchatka was opened to everyone.

The Bering Sea is inhabited by 450 species of fish, 26 species of marine mammals, 4 species of crabs, 4 species of shrimp, 2 species of cephalopods, 220 species of birds nest on the coast and islands. In recent years, due to the immoderate catching of marine animals, pollution of the marine environment by enterprises, transport and oil production (on the shelf), the reserves of the Bering Sea are rapidly depleted.

The best diver in the Bering Sea is the sperm whale. He can dive to a depth of 3 km and hold his breath for 2 hours and 18 minutes (!).

The largest and most voracious whale that lives in the Bering Sea is blue. It weighs up to 200 tons (!!!), with a length of 34 meters and can eat up to 8 tons of food per day. It produces the loudest underwater sound, with a power of 188 dB, audible at a distance of 2,400 km.

During Soviet times, lunar rovers were tested in Kamchatka.

A popular inhabitant of the waters of the Bering Sea, the gray whale can swim 20,000 km in a year.

More than 240 species of fish live in the south of the Bering Sea, especially a lot of flounder (flounder, halibut) and salmon (pink salmon, chum, chinook and others). Huge flocks of salmon, schools of pollock and entire generations of long-lived halibut thrive in the productive waters of the sea. Numerous mussels, balanuses, polychaete worms, bryozoans, octopuses, crabs, shrimps... Echinoderms are found in the bottom layer: sea urchins, stars, holothurians and sea pods. There are about 100 species of the latter. They live on various soils and depths, some species - at a depth of more than 4,000 meters (Murray's Holothuria). Instead of a hard shell, they have small calcareous bodies of a very intricate shape in the subcutaneous tissue, therefore, the cylindrical body of holothurians can shrink and take on a shape similar to a capsule or cucumber. Some types of sea cucumbers are known as sea cucumbers and are eaten. They are dried, boiled, fried, smoked, and the Japanese even eat them raw.

The settled Koryaks profess Orthodoxy, the nomads are committed to traditional beliefs, primarily shamanism. The worship of sacred places - appapels (hills, capes, cliffs) is widespread. Of the animals, the wolf (the servant of the evil spirit) is especially revered even now, the skin of which plays an important role in shamanic rites.

beam - an amazing and insidious plant of Kamchatka. Its juice tastes sweet, but when it comes into contact with the skin, it leaves blisters and ulcers that do not heal for months! The ancient inhabitants of Kamchatka - the Itelmens - extracted a semblance of sugar from bunches, and the Cossacks drove wine that had a strange effect: after two or three glasses, a person had amazing dreams all night, and in the morning he was so sad as if he had committed some kind of crime.

The only type of settlement among Koryak reindeer herders was a camp, consisting of several yarang dwellings. The yaranga had a frame frame made of poles, which was covered with a tire made of deer skins with sheared fur, with the inside inside. The settled Koryaks were dominated by a semi-dugout with a funnel-shaped structure on the roof and walls made of wooden planks. There was a hearth in the center of the dwelling. They entered the dugout in winter through a smoke hole. From the middle of the 18th century, settled Koryaks began to build log cabins.

Traditional Koryak holidays are seasonal: the spring holiday of the horns of Kilvey, the autumn holiday of deer slaughter by reindeer herders. Before the start of the spring sea fishing, the coastal hunters had a holiday for launching canoes, and at the end of the autumn season, a holiday for the Hololo seal.

Avacha Bay is one of the most convenient harbors in the world and the second largest on the planet. It is capable of accommodating the entire world fleet. Extensive, well protected from natural oceanic phenomena, having good communication with the sea, it seems that nature itself was created for navigation. In Avacha Bay, navigation is year-round, since the bay almost does not freeze, and if it does, the ice is thin and ships can enter with the help of tugboats. The maximum depths in the center of the bay are 25 - 28 meters, at the entrance to the bay - 6 - 14 meters, which allows any type of sea vessels to pass with any landing.

From a bird's eye view, thickets of elfin cedar resemble dense dark green carpets carefully thrown over the ridges. They look like soft growth, harmless undergrowth. However, these are perhaps the most difficult places in Kamchatka. Elf branches are always directed down the slope - towards the rising traveler. But, on the other hand, dry branches of cedar elfin burn like gunpowder in any weather, an infusion of its needles is an excellent remedy against scurvy, and cones that ripen in September bring joy to all lovers of pine nuts. The only question is who will reap the harvest first: a man, a bear or a nutcracker.

At the entrance to Avacha Bay there are three rocks - Three Brothers, which are the official natural monuments and a kind of symbol of Avacha Bay and the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. According to legend, in ancient times, the three rocks were beautiful young men who belonged to one of the local tribes. The inhabitants suffered greatly from the tsunami, and the brothers decided to protect their people from the giant waves. Having stood at the entrance to the bay, they did not allow the tsunami to penetrate into it. That's how they stand to this day.

Avacha Bay is considered a fishery reservoir of the first category. Juveniles of Pacific salmon roll into it from the Avacha and Paratunka rivers for feeding for 2 months. And through it, sexually mature individuals migrate back to spawn.

For many decades, industrial and domestic wastewater from the regional center and other settlements located on its banks were discharged into the Avacha Bay. However, due to the reduction in navigation and the volume of production of urban enterprises, the water area of ​​the bay has recently begun to self-clean.

A huge number of bears live in the Kamchatka forests. In the summer months, when the forest is full of berries, you can see an amazing picture - bears grazing in the meadows like livestock. In fact, the largest individuals of bears living in Kamchatka weigh about 400 kg. The usual weight of a bear is from 200 to 300 kg. Local brown bears prefer fish. At a time when there is no fish in the Kamchatka reservoirs, local clubfoot prefer to eat berries and mushrooms. The meat "diet" of local bears is not held in high esteem.

In addition to the civil port, there are a number of military bases of the Russian Navy in Avacha Bay.

The Commander Islands are the peaks of underwater ridges. The main attraction of the Commander, of course, are northern fur seals. These are mammals of the family of eared seals of the pinnipeds order. By age, black seals are distinguished (newborns up to 3 months), gray (from 3 months to 2 years, with a silver-gray undercoat), half-cutters (6-year-old males) and billhooks (males over 6 years old). Cats feed on fish and cephalopods. The local winters are too severe for them, and then, at this time, they stay at the Japanese coast, and in the spring they return home.

When the sailors of the Bering ship landed on the Commander Islands, the naturalist Georg Steller discovered a unique animal - the monati, or Steller's cow, which was not found anywhere else in the world. A meeting with a man turned out to be fatal for a unique animal: by 1768 it was completely exterminated.

On our planet, there is a sea route with a length of approximately 32,000 km, which is 80% of the length of the equator, along which you can sail without ever changing direction. The line starts on the Kamchatka Peninsula, passes the Aleutian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, then through the Drake Passage in the Atlantic Ocean, then between the east coast of Africa and Madagascar and ends at Pakistan .

One of the bays in the southern part of Bering Island in the Commander Islands is named Bobrovaya. Previously, sea beavers, sea otters, lived carelessly here. But, this amazing animal, like the sea cow, was exterminated.

According to the latest data obtained thanks to modern equipment, the Bering Island of the Commander Islands is moving towards Kamchatka at a speed of 6 - 7 mm per year. But, in order for the island to reach the mainland, another 150 million years must pass.

Until 1867, the Aleutian Islands belonged to Russia, but in that year, under an agreement, they, along with Alaska, with the exception of the Bering and Copper Islands, passed to the United States.

The Aleutian Islands are located in a seismically active zone, here tremors up to 3 points on the Richter scale are recorded daily. The largest earthquakes occurred in 1957 and 2007.

The Kamchatka Territory is one of the least populated in Russia. The population density is very low: per person
accounts for 16 km².

From time to time Kamchatka is shaken by volcanic eruptions. Once, Kamchatka was an island, but as a result of the tectonic movement of the earth's crust, it connected with the northeastern tip of Eurasia. Kamchatka and the Kuriles are the only regions of modern volcanism in Russia and are part of the so-called Pacific ring of fire. Kamchatka has 160 extinct volcanoes and 29 active volcanoes (with varying degrees of activity). Natural satellites of volcanoes are mud volcanoes, hot springs and geysers. About 200 unique mineral springs are located on the territory of Kamchatka; rest houses, children's camps, and sanatoriums have been built on them.

Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the highest volcano in all of Eurasia (4,750 meters). It was formed on a kind of geological "pedestal" - the slope of an ancient volcano - about 8,000 years ago. Its own height is not more than 3,000 meters. The diameter of the cone is 15 km. There are more than 80 side craters on its slopes. The volcano is active and its eruptions are an amazing sight. Volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka erupted 700 times. The total volume of erupted lava is 3,400 km³. The first eruption of the Klyuchevskoy volcano was recorded in 1697 by V.V. Atlases. On average, the eruption of the volcano occurred once every 5 years, in some periods annually, sometimes continuously for several years.

In 1935, at the foot of Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the first volcanological station in the country was created. Now, almost every active volcano has such stations.

The two fused volcanoes Ostry and Plosky Tolbachiki were considered extinct. But, in 1975, the eruption of the Plosky Tolbachik volcano began. It lasted a year and a half (!!!). During this eruption, four more volcanoes appeared.

Shiveluch volcano is the northernmost in Kamchatka and one of the largest. It consists of two volcanoes - Old and Young Shiveluch. Eruptions occur once every 200 years. In 1964, on the Shiveluch volcano, a lateral explosion formed a funnel 700 meters deep and 1.5 x 3 km in area. The torn debris covered an area of ​​100 km².

Volcano Bezymyanny (2,801 meters) is located just south of Klyuchevskaya Sopka. In March 1956, this volcano erupted. A huge cloud rose 40 km up, and the ash spread over several thousand kilometers. In addition, with a directed explosion, larger material was thrown out to a distance of 25 - 30 km and covered an area of ​​500 km² with a powerful cloak.

One of the most famous and visited is the caldera (annular failure) of the Uzon volcano (1,617 meters). A caldera with a diameter of 10 km was formed about 40,000 years ago on the site of a huge volcano, destroyed by a series of explosive eruptions. Over the following centuries of active hydrothermal activity, a unique symbiosis of volcanism and wildlife has formed on Uzon: hot springs are adjacent to cold rivers, poisonous mud pots are adjacent to clean lakes full of fish, berry tundra is adjacent to a birch forest.

The volcanoes of Kamchatka owe their origin to the collision of two lithospheric plates. The "diving" of the Pacific plate under the continental Eurasian one leads to the formation of a deep-water trench along their junction and to the appearance of islands with volcanoes.

The Kamchatka arc is the northern part of the complex Kuril-Kamchatka island arc, stretching for 2,000 km from the Koryak Highlands to the island of Hokkaido (Japan). It is more mature than the southern Kuril. Over time, volcanism in Kamchatka moved eastward, forming two main volcanic belts. The median volcanic belt runs along the modern watershed of the Sredinny Range. Most of the volcanoes here are extinct. The most famous among them are the Ostry, Snezhny, Khuvkhoitun, Khangar, and Ichinsky volcanoes. The latter shows little activity. The eastern volcanic belt stretches from the Ozerny Peninsula to Cape Lopatka. This is a younger belt, therefore, most of the volcanoes are active: Avachinsky, Koryaksky, Karymsky, Zhupanovsky and others. Volcanoes are usually located close to each other and form whole groups.

Volcanic eruptions occur in different ways. From some, the lava slowly squeezes out, like toothpaste from a tube. Others explode suddenly, with almost no warning. Often lava can suddenly become "flying" instead of "sluggish", turning into a disaster for those who live nearby.

The cone of the Karymsky volcano is constantly growing: in the 20th century it grew by 330 meters, and during the eruption that began in 2002, the volcano grew by another 12 meters in just six months.

The Kronotsky Nature Reserve with the Valley of Geysers is unique in Kamchatka. There are 20 large geysers, and each of them has a name given for the properties of the character or for the color of the geyserite: Firstborn, Sugar, Weeping, Giant and others. Each geyser is special, they are not similar to each other. Most of them adhere to the "schedule", and you can know in advance when which geyser will begin to erupt. So, the "performance" of the Giant begins with a powerful splash, then a column of water rises 30 - 35 meters above the ground, and a column of steam reaches a height of 300 - 400 meters.

The slopes of the Valley of Geysers are hot, they are covered with outlandish flowers made of crystalline sulfur, whitish patterns of ammonia, “roses” of the finest work. The whole land is saturated with steam, near some springs it is difficult to breathe due to gases that come out with the water. Near the geysers, the slopes are covered with geyserite - siliceous deposits of salts of mineralized water. These are deposits of a pearl, brown or bright orange hue. In the Valley of Geysers, there are many warm, hot and boiling lakes and just puddles of very different colors (from sky blue and turquoise to brick red), depending on the color of the geyserite. The green lawns of the thermal sites look very picturesque, but the soil on which the emerald grass grows is unsteady soil of very high temperature. And blue-green algae live even in boiling water.

"Geyser" - an Icelandic word derived from the verb "gush". A geyser is a source that throws out fountains of hot water and steam up to a height of 20 - 40 meters. It is the rise to the surface of water heated to the boiling point, at the height of its exit, that explains the violent nature of the eruption of geysers. Periods of rest are replaced by minutes of vigorous activity, moreover, each geyser has its own periodicity of action. Large geysers throw out a pillar of water once every few hours. Smaller ones gush more often. A larger volume of water is poured onto the surface by pulsating springs. Geysers are a unique natural phenomenon, they have different life spans, they can be born and, unfortunately, die.

Of all the diverse vegetation in the Valley of Geysers, only sagebrush grows in absolutely safe areas where you can rest without fear of an unexpected release of water or steam.

The grasses of the Kronotsky Biosphere Reserve reach a height of 4 meters; only a bear can make trails in such grass.

On June 3, 2007, as a result of a mudflow from the mountains, most of the Valley of Geysers was destroyed. Scientists suggest that the largest geysers will find new outlets, but the small ones, unfortunately, have been lost forever. As a result of the mud avalanche, the hydrological regime in the valley was disturbed, a new lake was formed in the place where the mudflow dammed the Geysernaya River. A huge layer of mud and stones covered the valley for a kilometer and a half.

In the 60s, the Valley of Geysers was overwhelmed by a wave of "wild" tourism. The nature reserve suffered from this, and tourists were injured. Since 1967, tourism has become planned, and in 1977 tourist visits were banned because they began to threaten the existence of the unique world of geysers. In the early 90s, everything was prepared for tourists to visit the Valley. Now these are only helicopter tours, and their walking part passes along specially equipped paths with wooden decks. The measures taken guarantee the safety of the natural museum, deeply hidden in the mountain tracts of Kamchatka.

In 1779, two English ships "Discovery" and "Resolution" of the Third round-the-world expedition of D. Cook entered the Peter and Paul Harbor. The head of the expedition, who replaced D. Cook after his death, was buried here.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the easternmost border city of the Russian Federation. Stretching out
along the seashore, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky became, in fact, a city of one street. This street has changed its name 15 times, and is 20 km long.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is located in the transition zone of the mainland to the ocean bed. At the bottom of it there are underwater hollows, indicating that even in the Quaternary period, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current sea stood high above the ocean level and two huge rivers flowed through it - the Amur and Penzhina. Then a geological catastrophe occurred, and part of the mainland sank and was flooded with the ocean. This is how the relatively young Sea of ​​Okhotsk was formed. According to geologists, the eastern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is one of the most "turbulent" areas of the globe. Until now, major movements of the earth's crust have been taking place here, causing seaquakes.

In 1737, a monstrous wave, 50 meters high, rose in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and hit the shore with such terrible force that some rocks collapsed. At the same time, in one of the Kuril Straits, new rocky cliffs rose from under the waters.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is distinguished by the largest fluctuations in the height of the tides. Due to the narrowing of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the north, in the Penzhina Bay, the tides grow to an incredible height (12 - 14 meters), while in the open sea they reach only 1 - 2 meters high. During such high tides, a “boron” appears at the mouths of the rivers - a tidal wave that goes into the river. From the meeting of two streams in the river, a “water dam” arises - a high water shaft, rapidly running upstream. Woe to the inexperienced traveler or fisherman who misses the moment of the appearance of the forest and finds himself on a light boat in the midst of raging water.

There are up to 300 species of fish in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Here, pollock, navaga, herring, sardine, zeka, mackerel are fished, but salmon fish are considered the main wealth: chum salmon, pink salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, mackerel, chinook salmon. These are semi-anadromous fish that spawn in rivers. Salmon fry downstream descend into the ocean, where they grow and gain strength. After two years, adult fish return to spawn in the upper reaches of their native river. At this time, “wedding outfits” appear in fish, someone’s coloring will turn bright red, pink salmon males will have a hump, which gave the name to the species. Their path will be difficult: they will have to jump over rapids and barriers, be attacked by poachers and brown bears - lovers of red caviar and the most delicate pink meat. Those lucky ones who manage to rise to the source of the river and lay their eggs will never see the ocean again. Their wedding dress will fade and shed, numerous wounds will hasten death. The banks of the rivers after spawning are littered with the bodies of dead fish, they will become the prey of scavengers or turn into precious silt.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, there are about 300 species of algae belonging to different groups, but brown algae are the most common. In shallow water, these are representatives of the genus Fucus, a little deeper - kelp. The body of brown algae consists of root-like outgrowths and a thallus, the length of which reaches 20 meters.

The life expectancy of crabs is 20 years, and puberty occurs at the age of 10 years. Males and females form separate herds that are found only during the breeding season, usually in April. The female lays up to 300,000 eggs, which are attached to her limbs. Of the eggs laid, only 1 - 3% will survive the larval stages.

Pinnipeds are excellent swimmers that can stay underwater for 5 to 40 minutes and dive to depths of up to 180 meters (some seals to depths of 300 meters). The northern fur seal can spend at sea, without leaving the land, 6 - 8 months a year.

In Kamchatka, there is a Steller's sea eagle, a rare relic bird with a wingspan of up to 2.5 meters. The eagle's favorite food is salmon. Eagles build nests in the tops of trees. The depth of the nest reaches 2 meters, the diameter is 3 meters. Usually there are 2 eggs in a clutch, but usually only 1 chick survives.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, off the coast of Sakhalin, Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, king crab is fished. For catching crabs, special large-mesh nets and traps, bottom trawls are used, which are placed on the migration path. The catch is processed by special floating crab canning plants. Crab meat is considered a delicacy, and crab flour is made from the shell. The color of crabs is pink-brown, the armored shield is heart-shaped with numerous spikes. The claw span of a large male king crab is up to 1.5 meters, body weight is up to 7 kg. These animals move sideways, developing great speed. All year round they live in water, the temperature of which is +2 - +7 ° C, therefore, for the winter, crabs migrate from shallow water to a depth of 250 meters.

Interesting facts about the Magadan region

The Magadan region has the highest tides in Russia.

Permafrost is widespread throughout the Magadan Region. On the sea coast, it reaches 1 meter, in the central regions it penetrates into the earth's thickness by 600 meters. Winter in the Magadan region is very severe and lasts up to 7 months, summer is short and cool. Colder winds blow throughout the year.

The main labor force in Kolyma were the prisoners of the Stalinist camps. Even compared to other Gulag camps, Kolyma was considered hell. It is estimated that from 1932 to 1957 about 1 million prisoners were kept in Kolyma, 150,000 of whom died.

Magadan is located at the same latitude as St. Petersburg. But, unlike the northern Russian capital, this settlement has a more severe climate, the reason for this is the proximity of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk.

The first gold in the Magadan region was found in Kolyma in 1915 by a lone prospector Shafigulin, nicknamed Boriska. The Kolyma in its upper reaches is a gold-bearing river, but there are even more placers of gold in its tributaries. In almost every valley you can see a mine or a mining area.

The Magadan region boasts an abundance of mineral springs and therapeutic mud. Only a few of them are exploited, for example, the Tal spring. Most of the same, so far, man is not used.

The most significant finds of mammoth remains were made in Kolyma. In 1901, a huge male mammoth was found on the tributary of the Kolyma, Berezovka, who died 44,000 years ago. They even had to build a hut over the mammoth's body to warm the permafrost. In 1977, the corpse of a mammoth cub was found on the Kirgilyakh stream, which scientists named Dima. About 40,000 years ago, a mammoth strayed from the herd and drowned in a small lake.

Magadan - one of the few cities with three-phase traffic lights - the third phase is for pedestrians only, while pedestrian traffic is available in any direction of the intersection.

Jack London Lake is considered to be the most beautiful natural monument in the Magadan region. The lake got its name at the request of the geologist Bilibin, who read the works of the American author and dreamed of naming some object in his honor. Lake Jack London is connected by a channel with Lake Dancing Graylings. Its name speaks for itself. But there are a lot of fish in Jack London Lake, and graylings also jump out of the water - they hunt for midges and mosquitoes, of which there are an incredible amount.

The name of the city of Magadan comes from the Even "mongodan" (sea pumps).

More than 10 lost ships "wander" in the Nagaev Bay. This not only hinders navigation, but also negatively affects the ecology of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Near Magadan is the island of Misunderstanding. The hydrographic expedition, which worked in the late 1910s in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk near Magadan, did not notice and did not reflect on the map a small island three kilometers from the coast. The mistake was corrected, and the island was given a name - the island of Misunderstanding.

The population of Magadan, due to the decline in gold mining, the loss of relevance of the "northern" wage supplements and the reduction of military institutions, has been constantly decreasing since the early 1990s.

Interesting facts about the Khabarovsk Territory

In the Khabarovsk Territory, in the area of ​​​​Lake Evoron, archaeologists in 2007 discovered the site of an ancient man of the Paleolithic era, which is 15,000 years old. In total, four sites dating back to the Stone Age have been found on the territory of the region, but the last one is the largest camp of hunters in terms of area.

Distance from the center of the Khabarovsk Territory to Moscow by rail - 8,533 km, by air - 6,075 km.

The famous Amur tiger is the true owner of the Khabarovsk Territory. This is a large, exotically colored cat, unparalleled in strength and power in the entire world fauna. The tiger is one of the largest land predators on our planet. Contrary to popular belief, the Amur tiger is an easily vulnerable animal, despite its large size and great physical strength. On snow, it is able to reach speeds of up to 80 km / h, second only to the cheetah in speed. But, a tiger rarely attacks a person.

Khabarovsk is among the record holders for the number of sunny days per year among the major cities of Russia. A cloudless sky over the Far Eastern capital happens 300 days a year.

As an object of global value, the Amur wetland complex has been recognized as one of the highest priority freshwater ecoregions of the planet.

In order to see from Khabarovsk China You don't have to climb even the tallest building. To do this, it is enough to climb the high bank of the Amur. In the city, you can receive not only Russian TV channels, but also several Chinese ones. And if you wish, you will be able to “catch” some networks of mobile operators from China.

In terms of basin area, the Amur ranks fourth among the rivers of Russia (after the Yenisei, Ob and Lena) and
tenth place among the rivers of the world.

The Amur is of transboundary and international importance - about 3,000 km the state border of Russia runs along the great river. In the Amur basin there are settlements of China and Mongolia . The Mongols call the Amur the "black river", the Chinese - the "river of the Black Dragon". About 100,000,000 people (!) live in China along the tributaries of the Amur, the Sungari and the Ssuri.

The Amur ranks first among Russian rivers in terms of the diversity of ichthyofauna. It is inhabited by 139 species and subspecies of fish.

The banknote of 5,000 Russian rubles depicts several Khabarovsk sights: a bridge, a cliff, and also a monument dedicated to Count Muravyov-Amursky.

The Shantar archipelago lies at the latitude of Moscow. Previously, people lived on the Shantar Islands. Now only a few people live here - employees of the weather station.

The area of ​​the Shantar archipelago is the coldest in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. This is explained by the fact that the predominant winds here are northeasterly, and ice from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is driven to the western part and clogs the straits between the islands. Because of the cold water, there are constantly fogs that do not dissipate even with a strong wind.

The Shantar Islands have a complex system of wind and tidal currents. The tides on the islands reach 5 - 8 meters, and the tidal currents are among the fastest in the entire world ocean: they can reach 8 knots in the Dangerous and Northern straits and near the mainland.

According to the monitoring of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Khabarovsk in 2012 was recognized as the most expensive city in Russia. Also, Khabarovsk 4 times won the Rosstroy competition for the most comfortable city in Russia.

Storms near the Shantar Islands begin suddenly, breaking ships into pieces. Sometimes ships caught in a storm disappear here without a trace. Such a fate befell the Assol yacht in 2003. Subsequently, on the shore of one of the islands, a small monument "In memory of those who did not return from Shantar" was erected.

The hatchet lays a single egg in a hole, which it digs in soft ground, or under stones.

The city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur is the largest industrial center in the Far East and Transbaikalia in terms of output. More than 40 enterprises producing products at the level of world standards work here.

Second President North Korea Kim Jong Il was born in the village of Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Territory. He spent his childhood in the same village.

Aircraft building plant Komsomolsk-on-Amur supplies its products to more than 50 countries of the world.

Khabarovsk is the leading transport hub of the Far East region. The city's river port is one of the largest on the Amur, and its railway junction is the largest in the region. In terms of rail and air transportation, Khabarovsk ranks first in the Far East.

From the very first day of its foundation, Khabarovka has become the center of the postal service of the Far East.

The day in Khabarovsk starts 7 hours earlier than in Moscow.

Interesting facts about the Jewish Autonomous Region

After extensive emigration to Israel in the 1970s - 1990s, Jews - immigrants of the first two decades of Soviet power, generally found themselves in an absolute minority here. Despite this, the status of an autonomous region, as well as the cultural flavor, remains behind this piece of the Amur region.

The governor of the Jewish Autonomous Region does not steal at all. The rarest case is an honest person. Through this all power is. The mayor tried to cheat something, he was immediately sentenced to three years. The police in the cities do not take bribes. Banditry is long gone. Street crime is also practically non-existent. There is no addiction at all. I don't believe it, but it's true. From the fact that the authorities do not steal and do not take bribes, very interesting phenomena are formed. All Siberia is filled with Chinese. There are a lot of them. In the Jewish Autonomous Region, there are practically none. All Siberia is filled with migrants from the southern republics. There are none in Birobidzhan at all. That is, there is not a single illegal immigrant in the city. They are quickly caught, and they understand that nothing shines for them here and they don’t even try to come here anymore ....

Even from those who left for Israel, there are people who come back. Because there they shoot and live, most often, they have to do with benefits, but here there may be no benefits at all, but you can let the child go to school alone, and not be afraid.

The local climate is not just unpleasant, it is really hazardous to health. In the Jewish Autonomous Okrug, the climate is cold and there are a lot of swamps. Very high infant mortality, infants simply suffocate. Tuberculosis and asthma patients do not live here. That is, they do not live at all, because they immediately die.

The Jewish Autonomous Region was created by the Soviet government specifically for Jewish settlers. Never
earlier, before the government decree, the region was not a place of compact residence of people of Jewish nationality. Since the end of the 1920s, the resettlement of the Jewish population began here. Ukraine ,Belarus and the central region of Russia.

The flag of the Jewish Autonomous Region is a white rectangular panel, on the horizontal axis of which there is a colored strip symbolizing the rainbow. The number of rainbow colors is equal to the number of candles in the menorah - the Jewish national and religious symbol.

In 2009, the Central Bank of Russia issued 10 million ten-ruble coins dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the formation of the Jewish Autonomous Region. On the reverse of the disk there is the coat of arms of the Jewish Autonomous Okrug, on the ring around the circumference there are inscriptions: in the upper part - "Russian Federation", in the lower part - "Jewish Autonomous Region".

Signboards in Birobidzhan are duplicated in Hebrew. Around Jewish symbols. Even vodka in a store called "Jewish Happiness".

The name of the city of Birobidzhan comes from the confluence of the names of two rivers: Bira (Evenki "river" and Bidzhan (Evenki "permanent camp"). Birobidzhan itself stands on the banks of the Bira. Bidzhan flows parallel to Bira 100 km west of the city and flows into the Amur, like Bira.

In the early 1930s, about 1,400 Jewish immigrants arrived in Birobidzhan from the United States, South America, Europe, Israel, and other countries and regions. In total, 19,635 Jews arrived in the Birobidzhan region during the first 6 years of colonization, and 11,450 left, that is, 8,185 people remained.

Interesting facts about the Amur region

The Amur Region is located in the southeast of the Russian Federation and has a common border along the Amur River with the People's Republic of China, with a length of 1,250 km.

Novaya Street in Blagoveshchensk, which today houses a dermatovenerological dispensary, was called Bespardonnaya. So, at the beginning of the 20th century, the inhabitants themselves called it because of the large number of brothels.

According to recent studies, it was in the "Amur Triangle" that people "dressed in fish skin" lived. Settled tribes of "fish-skins" left numerous monuments of culture and architecture. In the fine arts of the Far Eastern tribes - Nanais and Nivkhs, Ulchis and Udeges, Oroks and Orochs - even now there is surprisingly much from that legendary culture of the Amur.

The legendary Baikal-Amur Mainline has a length of 1,242 km in the Amur Region. And although this highway is considered the Soviet "construction of the century", the first projects appeared in Tsarist Russia. The capital of BAM - the city of Tynda at one time amazed the residents and guests of the settlement with modern urban architecture and infrastructure - literally in the middle of the taiga! The railway line to Tynda was completed in 1975.

Until the end of the 1980s, the border city of Blagoveshchensk was a closed city, and entry into it for residents of the USSR was limited, and for foreigners it was completely prohibited. To visit Blagoveshchensk, a special pass was required or an invitation from relatives or friends who lived there.

For 300 years, you can see the Burning Mountains on the banks of the Amur - smoke literally comes out of the ground, thanks to the age-old burning of brown coal lying at a depth of 10 meters and does not stop until now. Coal burns year after year - the shore is constantly washed by the waters of the river and new loose coals light up under the sunlight, fed by underground gases. The constant renewal of the surface leads to the fact that the Burning Mountains will not go out soon. Unfortunately, few tourists know about this unique place, and the coast does not have the status of a natural monument of regional significance. Meanwhile, those who have seen this section of the Amur coast at least once (they are especially beautiful at night, when an open flame occasionally bursts out of the ground), claim that the Burning Mountains are one of the most beautiful places on the Amur.

On July 31, 2011, a devastating tornado swept across Blagoveshchensk - there has never been anything like it in history. The elements tormented the city for a little less than an hour, leaving behind destruction: wires torn to shreds, mangled cars and overturned trucks, torn roofs of houses and fallen trees. Two people died. Authorities estimated the preliminary damage from the tornado at more than 90 million rubles.

The first hydroelectric power station in the Far East was built in the Amur Region in 1980 on the Zeya River (Zeyskaya HPP).

In June 1891, Blagoveshchensk was visited by the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich (future Emperor Nicholas II). In honor of this event, a triumphal arch was built on the Amur embankment near the pier.

From the shore of Blagoveshchensk, you can see Chinese territory with towering high-rise buildings. Without a visa, any citizen of the Russian Federation with a valid passport can get there for 24 hours.

In the 60s, the Chinese bought sparrows from local children in Blagoveshchensk. They completely destroyed their birds during the pest control campaign. A sparrow cannot stay in the air for more than a certain amount of time, about 15 minutes. All peasants, as well as schoolchildren and townspeople involved in the campaign, had to shout, beat basins, drums, brandish poles and rags, standing on the roofs of houses - to scare the sparrows and not give them shelter. Tired birds fell to the ground dead - as a result, in China, according to incomplete statistics, 1.96 billion sparrows were exterminated. A year after the campaign, the harvest really became noticeably better, but, at the same time, caterpillars and locusts eating shoots bred. A year later, thanks to the previously accumulated population of pests, crops decreased sharply and famine set in the country, as a result of which 10 to 30 million people died.

In 1958, Blagoveshchensk solemnly prepared to celebrate its centenary. Unexpectedly powerful downpours caused a sharp rise in the level of the Amur - the city was threatened with flooding. Blagoveshchensk was surrounded by an earth embankment that blocked access to water.

264 kg - the weight of the kaluga, which was caught in the Amur in May 1951 by the fishing brigade of the Blagoveshchensk Ors of the Amur River Shipping Company. The length of the fish was 3 meters 30 cm.

Interesting facts about Primorsky Krai

During the Civil War, Japanese, British, American, French, and Italian troops landed on the territory of Primorye. After the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps, power here passed to the Provisional Siberian Government, and then to Admiral A.V. Kolchak.

After the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan in August 1945, the territory of Primorye turned into a bridgehead from which the Red Army launched an offensive against the positions of the Japanese troops.

Primorye is located at the Crimean latitude. In the south there is even a village called Crimea. “The latitude is Crimean, but the longitude is Kolyma,” the local population jokes about this.

Many consider the coast of the Lazovsky Reserve to be the most beautiful corner in Primorye. Its main pearl and attraction is Petrov Island. Here is a relic yew grove, the age of which trees is more than a thousand years old. There are many legends about this place. The view of the grove from above resembles hieroglyphic writing, but linguists have not yet been able to decipher its meaning. The mystery of the island is also a freshwater spring. Where fresh water comes from in a rock in the middle of the sea is a puzzle, even for scientists.

In summer, during the monsoon rains, the rivers of Primorsky Krai overflow and become catastrophic.

The first Korean settlements in the Russian Far East appeared in the 1860s, after the territories of the South Ussuri Territory were ceded to Russia. Then thousands of Koreans immigrated here. Due to the annexation of new territories, Russia had a border with Korea, which at that time was in vassal dependence on the Chinese emperors. Then, through this practically unguarded border, the first Korean settlers moved, mostly landless peasants from the northern provinces. The Koreans were attracted by the fertile lands of the Russian Primorye. In 1864, the first Korean village of Tizinhe appeared in these new territories, in which 14 Korean families lived. With them, in fact, the history of Russian Koreans began. The Russian authorities welcomed Korean immigration, as hard-working, skillful and law-abiding settlers provided significant assistance in the development of a vast deserted region.

After Korea was officially proclaimed a Japanese colony in 1910, the authorities practically banned book publishing and education in Korean. The Russian Far East became one of the few places where Koreans could, relatively freely, receive education and publish literature in their native language, conduct educational activities, and even engage in politics.

A distinctive feature of the Vladivostok confectionery factory is that since 1932, Primorsky agar-agar (an extract from seaweed - anfeltia) has been used in its recipes.

On August 21, 1937, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party issued a resolution "On the eviction of the Korean population from the border regions of the Far Eastern Territory." For 6 months from Primorye to Central Asia and Kazakhstan over 100,000 Koreans were forcibly transported.

Since the mid-1950s, Korean youth en masse went to study at universities, including those in Moscow and Leningrad, and by the end of the 1970s, Koreans became one of the most educated peoples of the USSR. An important role in this process was played by the traditional cult of education and books for the peoples of the Far East. As a result, in 1989 the proportion of people with higher education among Koreans was 2 times higher than, on average, in the USSR.

Lake Khanka is the largest lake in Primorsky Krai, located in the center of the Khanka lowland, on the border with the People's Republic of China. Previously, the lake was called Beitsin-hai, and now Khanka, Khinkai or Xingkai-hu, which means "lake of prosperity and prosperity." The word "hanhai" means "depression" in Chinese. The shape of Lake Khanka, indeed, is a depression.

In 1986, an unidentified flying object crashed on Mount Izvestkovaya in Dalnegorsk. Place
was named Height 611. At the site of the fall, alloys were found that are not found in nature and are not manufactured by man. Subsequently, phenomena inexplicable by science began to be observed at Hill 611.

The water level in Lake Khanka periodically changes, with an average cycle duration of 26 years: the difference between the maximum and minimum levels can reach 210 cm. At the same time, the difference in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe water area is 17%, and the volume of water is 39%.

The type of lotus that blooms every summer on Lake Khanka is named after V.L. Komarov, who compiled a detailed description of this plant. All parts of the lotus contain vitamin C and rubber, petioles and sprouts contain the poisonous substance nelumbin. Seeds and rhizomes are used as food and feed for domestic animals and birds.

On February 12, 1947, at 10:38, an iron meteorite fell in the Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains, the total mass of fragments of which is estimated at 60-100 tons. It was crushed in the atmosphere and fell like iron rain over an area of ​​35 km².

The Russian Bridge in Vladivostok is the largest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

The mountainous country of Sikhote-Alin is the last large integral territory in the world inhabited by the Amur tiger. There are less than 500 left here. Another endemic species lives here - the Far Eastern leopard. This species is currently on the verge of extinction.

Not far from Ussuriysk is the Solar Service of the Far Eastern District of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the easternmost astronomical observatory in Russia.

Vladivostok is the last point of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which opened a direct railway connection with Moscow in 1903.

Once the coast near the current location of Vladivostok was densely populated by the Chinese, but because of the wars between China and Korea, they were depopulated. The territory was ceded to Russia only after the signing of the Aigun Treaty in 1858.

In 1879, an underwater telegraph cable was laid from Vladivostok to Japan and China.

Vladivostok is located to the east of Moscow, at a distance of 9,288 km. It is possible to overcome such a distance in 6 days by rail or in 9 hours by plane.

In 1959, after visiting America and China, N.S. Khrushchev and put forward the slogan to make Vladivostok better than San Francisco. The result of this visit was the rapid housing construction of the 60s, popularly known as "Big Vladivostok".

Having become the naval base of the Soviet fleet in 1958, Vladivostok was closed to foreigners until 1992.

Nakhodka is Russia's largest seaport on the Pacific coast. Navigation here continues all year round. Every day ships depart from the berths of Nakhodka to America, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong , India .

Initially, Nakhodka Bay was called America - in honor of the Russian corvette, whose sailors discovered the bay. Prior to the settlement of the bay by Russians, Korean fishers caught crabs here. During the day, up to 600 crabs came across in one net, and the catch of the largest net reached a thousand pieces.

In the USSR, Nakhodka was the only port in the Far East that was open to foreign ships.

Near Nakhodka, in the village of Wrangel, there is a deep-sea non-freezing port - Vostochny.

The Sea of ​​Japan is one of the largest and deepest seas in the world. Approximately 65,000km³ of water and the same amount leaves. About 4% of all water reserves of the sea are replaced per year.

The climate of the Sea of ​​Japan, located at the same latitudes as the Black and Caspian Seas, is much warmer than the climate of other Far Eastern seas. It favors the flowering of lush vegetation on the coasts, the development of marine fishing and navigation. Separate winter days with cold and ice brought in from the north, strong short-term storms (typhoons) sometimes interfere, but much less than in other seas of the Far East. It is not for nothing that non-freezing permanently operating ports arose here, and the richest sea fishing is carried out all year round. Typhoons pass over the sea from May to October.

Throughout its geological history, the young Sea of ​​Japan has changed its shape and size. The mobility of the coastline and water level is primarily due to the fact that the sea is located in the transition zone from the Eurasian continent to the Pacific Ocean, in the area of ​​active tectonic movements of the earth's crust, which continue at the present time. Until now, the seabed and coastal areas shudder from seismic activity and volcanism.

Numerous islands lying near the coast of South Primorye, 7 - 11 thousand years ago were
part of the mainland, and the position of their coastline stabilized only 3 - 4 thousand years ago. The fact that land existed on the site of a significant territory of the Sea of ​​Japan is proved by the shape of the bottom topography.

The Sea of ​​Japan is a young sea. It has the shape of a deep bowl with high walls, through the edges of which ocean water flows in places. It was formed as a result of the failure of a large area of ​​land. The dip line passed in the area of ​​Peter the Great Bay. The magnitude of the sinking of the land was not the same everywhere. Along the line of islands and straits, relatively high ridges under water have been preserved. At the bottom there are volcanic hills, up to 2 km high. The depressions are covered with a thick cover of sedimentary rocks.

In Korea, the Sea of ​​Japan is called the East Sea.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, a combined Anglo-French squadron wanted to capture Russian ships that had gone to the Sea of ​​Japan. But, she missed them, since the ships in front of her nose safely passed through the Nevelskoy Strait, which was not yet known to the commander of the French squadron.

In terms of the total amount of products collected by all countries combined in different seas, the Sea of ​​​​Japan is in first place.

On the shelf of the Sea of ​​Japan, oil, gas, sea placers of gold and cassiterite are being extracted.

Peter the Great Bay in the Sea of ​​Japan is located on the border of two natural zones: temperate and subtropical. Hence the diversity of flora and fauna in the area. There are more than 225 species of multicellular algae in Peter the Great Bay alone. Laminaria (seaweed) is used in raw and canned form for regular and therapeutic nutrition. Sodium alginate is obtained from it - a substance widely used in the food, chemical and textile industries. In Primorye, its yields are among the highest in the world. Other algae - gracilaria and ahnfeltia - are the source of agar-agar, which is necessary for confectioners and pharmacists. The fauna of the bay is also given a tropical shade by some heat-loving algae, especially sargassum, which grows in small bushes near the coast.

Phyllospadix sea grass grows on rocky soils under the water of the Sea of ​​Japan. Expensive grades of paper were previously made from it, and the dried leaves were used for stuffing furniture. Phyllospadix cannot be called algae, it is a higher plant: under water it blooms with small nondescript flowers and is pollinated.

In the first year of life, an inhabitant of the Sea of ​​​​Japan, a grass shrimp develops like a male, and then becomes a female.

In the Sea of ​​Japan, in slightly desalinated bays, the giant or Pacific oyster lives. The size of its shell reaches 70 cm. This type of oyster was introduced and successfully took root in North America, in the waters australia , England, France and many other countries.

In especially warm years, clusters of jellyfish rush to the sea shores of the Sea of ​​​​Japan, among which there are dangerous ones for humans. For example, a tiny (with a marigold) hydroid cross jellyfish that lives in thickets of zooster seagrass affects the nervous system, and upon repeated contact, its poison can be fatal.

The most valuable commercial and very popular herring among the Russian population, which loves the coastal waters of the Sea of ​​Japan, feeds on small plankton here. The fat content of adult fish can reach 25%.

The fauna of the Sea of ​​Japan is very diverse and includes more than 3,500 species of animals.

Primorye is famous for its stocks of trepangs, especially the Golden Horn Bay, which is called Trepang Bay by the locals. Trepang relatives are starfish and hedgehogs. The Amur star in the range of rays reaches 32 cm. The stars can be seen after storms along the coastline.

The largest mussels in the world are found in the deep places of the Sea of ​​Japan, reaching a length of 20 cm.

Interesting facts about the Sakhalin region

The Sakhalin Region is the only region in Russia that is completely located on the islands. It includes the island of Sakhalin with the adjacent small islands of Moneron and Tyuleniy, as well as the Kuril Islands.

On May 7, 1875, an agreement was signed in St. Petersburg, according to which Japan ceded all its rights to Sakhalin to Russia in exchange for the Kuril Islands. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Japanese troops occupied the island. According to the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, Russia gave Japan the southern lands of Sakhalin. I.V. Stalin, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill signed an agreement in February 1945, according to which the territory of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands ceded to the USSR.

60,000 years ago, Sakhalin Island was connected to the mainland and to the island of Hokkaido. Mammoths and other animals penetrated the land bridge to the Sakhalin-Hokkaid Peninsula. However, approximately 40,000 years ago, land bridges were under water.

In 1935, the first air flight took place on the route Moscow - Sakhalin.

In 1950, construction began on an underground railway tunnel between Sakhalin and the mainland of Cape Pogibi to Cape Lazarev. The construction was interrupted after the death of I.V. Stalin.

If you look at satellite images of Sakhalin Island, then its outlines will resemble a big fish swimming from the Japanese islands into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Sakhalin rivers, lakes, and seas are rich in fish. Great variety of salmon; there are Sakhalin sturgeon, pike, crucian carp, carp, the largest freshwater fish - kaluga. It reaches a length of 5 meters and a mass of up to 1 ton.

The settlement of Sakhalin by Russian people proceeded mainly at the expense of convicts and exiled settlers, since the tsarist government failed to organize a free colonization of the island. At the end of the term of hard labor, the exiled settlers were given the opportunity to acquire a house, land, engage in fishing and other crafts, it was only impossible to leave the island.

In 1890, A.P. was on Sakhalin. Chekhov. He was engaged in the population census, communicated with convicts, he described his observations in the book "Sakhalin Island".

The Kuril Islands are the peaks of the grandiose "underwater Himalayas" barely protruding above the sea. The origin of the islands is volcanic. Each of the islands is a volcano, a fragment of a volcano or a chain of volcanoes that have merged with their soles. In total, there are 160 volcanoes on the Kuril Islands, of which 39 are active. The prevailing heights are 500 - 1,000 meters. On many islands, hot springs spring from underground with water temperatures ranging from +35°C to +70°C. Some of the springs have healing properties. The ongoing movements of the earth's crust are evidenced by frequent earthquakes and seaquakes, causing tidal waves of destructive force - tsunamis.

The very name "Kuril Islands" is of Russian-Ainu origin. It is associated with the word "kur", which means "man". Any assumptions that the name of the archipelago was given by "smoking" volcanoes are incorrect. The Russians and the Japanese tried to name the islands in their own way. Most often, they used serial numbers - the First Island, the Second and so on. Only the Russians counted from the north, and the Japanese counted from the south...

In 1737, a monstrous wave rose in the sea, about 50 meters high and hit the shore with such force that some rocks collapsed. At the same time, in one of the Kuril Straits, new rocky cliffs rose from under the water.

One of the waves of the tsunami, the ship "Natalia" in 1780 was abandoned deep into the Kuril Island Urup 300 meters from the coast. The ship remained ashore.

As a result of an earthquake on the Kuril Island of Simushir in 1849, water suddenly disappeared from springs and wells. This forced the inhabitants to leave the island.

During the eruption of the Sarychev volcano on the island of Matua in 1946, lava flows reached the sea. The glow was visible for 150 km, and the ashes fell even in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The thickness of the ash on the island reached 4 meters (!).