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Closed Cities
A closed city or closed town is a settlement where travel or residency restrictions are applied so that specific authorization is required to visit or remain overnight. Such places may be sensitive military establishments or secret research installations that require much more space or internal freedom than is available in a conventional military base. There may also be a wider variety of permanent residents, including close family members of workers or trusted traders who are not directly connected with clandestine purposes. Many closed cities existed in the Soviet Union from the mid 1940s until its dissolution in 1991. After 1991, a number of them still existed in the CIS countries, especially in Russia. In modern Russia, such places are officially known as "closed administrative-territorial formations" (, ''zakrytye administrativno-territorial'nye obrazovaniya'', or ''ZATO'' for short). Structure and operations Sometimes closed cities may only be represented on classifi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seversk Checkpoint
Seversk ( rus, Се́верск, p=ˈsʲevʲɪrsk) is a closed city in Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Tomsk on the right bank of the Tom River. Population: It was previously known as ''Pyaty Pochtovy'' (until 1949) and ''Tomsk-7'' (until 1992). Climate Seversk has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification ''Dfb'') with warm summer. The annual average temperature is 0.6 °C (33°F). The average temperature in January is between -21 °C (-6°F) and -13 °C (-9°F). The average temperature in July is 19.2 °C (67°F). The total annual rainfall is 530 millimeters (21"). History Founded in 1949, it was known as Pyaty Pochtovy (, lit. ''the Fifth Postal'') until 1954 and as Tomsk-7 () until 1992. City status was granted to it in 1956. Administrative and municipal status Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with five rural localities, incorporated as Seversk City Under Oblast Jurisdiction—an administrative unit with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watchtower
A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to provide a high, safe place from which a sentinel or guard may observe the surrounding area. In some cases, non-military towers, such as religious towers, may also be used as watchtowers. History Military watchtowers The Romans built numerous towers as part of a system of communications, one example being the towers along Hadrian's Wall in Britain. Romans built many lighthouses, such as the Tower of Hercules in northern Spain, which survives to this day as a working building, and the equally famous lighthouse at Dover Castle, which survives to about half its original height as a ruin. In medieval Europe, many castles and manor houses, or similar fortified buildings, were equipped with watchtowers. In some of the manor houses of wes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saaremaa
Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island is Kuressaare, which in January 2018 had 13,276 inhabitants. The whole island had a recorded population in January 2020 of 31,435. Etymology In old Scandinavian sources, Saaremaa is called ''Eysysla'' and in the Icelandic Sagas ''Eysýsla'' (Old Norse: ), meaning "the district (land) of island". The island is called ''Saaremaa'' in Estonian, and in Finnish ''Saarenmaa''—literally "isle land" or "island land",Toomse, Liine. "10 Estonian Islands You Should Visit." http://www.traveller.ee/blog/tallinn/10-estonian-islands-you-should-visit. Retrieved 8 March 2016. i.e. the same as the Scandinavian name for the island. The old Scandinavian name is also the origin of the island's name in Danish ''Øsel'', German and Swedish ''Ösel'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administrative centre of the province ( oblast) is the city of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg. The port city of Baltiysk is Russia's only port on the Baltic Sea that remains ice-free in winter. Kaliningrad Oblast had a population of roughly 1 million in the Russian Census of 2010. The oblast is bordered by Poland to the south, Lithuania to the north and east and the Baltic Sea to the north-west. The territory was formerly the northern part of the Prussian province of East Prussia; the remaining southern part of the province is today part of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the territory was annexed to the Russian SFSR by the Soviet Union. Following the post-w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Pacific Fleet
, image = Great emblem of the Pacific Fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Russian Pacific Fleet Great emblem , dates = 1731–present , country = , allegiance = (1703–1917) (1922–1991) (1991–present) , branch = Russian Navy , type = , role = At sea nuclear deterrence;Naval warfare; Amphibious military operations;Combat patrols in the Pacific/Arctic;Naval presence/diplomacy missions in the Pacific and elsewhere , size = c. 46 Surface Warships (major surface units, light corvettes, mine warfare, amphibious) plus support ships/auxiliaries c. 23-24 Submarines (of which about 2/3 active as of 2022) , command_structure = Russian Armed Forces , garrison = Fokino (HQ)Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Vilyuchin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area of , with a population of 600,871 residents as of 2021. Vladivostok is the second-largest city in the Far Eastern Federal District, as well as the Russian Far East, after Khabarovsk. Shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Aigun, the city was founded on July 2, 1860 as a Russian military outpost on formerly Chinese land. In 1872, the main Russian naval base on the Pacific Ocean was transferred to the city, stimulating the growth of modern Vladivostok. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Vladivostok was Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, occupied in 1918 by White Russian and Allies_of_World_War_I, Allied forces, the last of whom from Japan were not withdrawn until 1922; by that tim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perm, Russia
Perm (russian: Пермь, p=pʲermʲ), previously known as Yagoshikha (Ягошиха) (1723–1781), and Molotov (Молотов) (1940–1957), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Perm Krai, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Kama River, near the Ural Mountains, covering an area of , with a population of over one million residents. Perm is the fifteenth-largest city in Russia, and the fifth-largest city in the Volga Federal District. In 1723, a copper-smelting works was founded at the village of ''Yagoshikha''. In 1781 the settlement of Yagoshikha became the town of ''Perm''. Perm's position on the navigable Kama River, leading to the Volga, and on the Siberian Route across the Ural Mountains, helped it become an important trade and manufacturing centre. It also lay along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Perm grew considerably as industrialization proceeded in the Urals during the Soviet period, and in 1940 was named ''Molotov'' in honour of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uranium Enrichment
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238U with 99.2739–99.2752% natural abundance), uranium-235 (235U, 0.7198–0.7202%), and uranium-234 (234U, 0.0050–0.0059%). 235U is the only nuclide existing in nature (in any appreciable amount) that is fissile with thermal neutrons. Enriched uranium is a critical component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency attempts to monitor and control enriched uranium supplies and processes in its efforts to ensure nuclear power generation safety and curb nuclear weapons proliferation. There are about 2,000 tonnes of highly enriched uranium in the world, produced mostly for nuclear power, nuclear weapons, naval propulsion, and smaller quantities for research reac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sillamäe
Sillamäe (Estonian for 'Bridge Hill'; also known by the Germanised names of ''Sillamäggi'' or ''Sillamägi'') is a town in Ida-Viru County in the northern part of Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. It has a population of 13,666 (as of 1 January 2017) and covers an area of 10.54 km2. Sillamäe is located at the mouth of Sõtke River. History The locality of Sillamäggi was first mentioned in 1502 when the area was under the control of the Livonian Order. The bridge across Sõtke and a mill in Sillamäggi were documented in 1700. In the 1800s, Sillamäggi developed into a resort village offering a more tranquil experience than the nearby resort town of Hungerburg. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov owned a dacha in Sillamäggi and vacationed there during summer breaks in 1891–1917. Among other famous vacationers of Sillamäggi were poet Konstantin Balmont (1905), painter Albert Benois (1898 and 1899), physicist Paul Ehrenfest (1908–1912), botanist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states. It reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon, and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume, which in turn flake off as a powder that is pyrophoric. It is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first synthetically produced and isolated in late 1940 and early 1941, by a deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. First, neptunium-238 ( half-life 2.1 days) was synthesized, which subsequently beta-decayed to form the new element with atomic number 94 and atomic weight 238 (half-life 88 years). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a population of over 1.1 million people, and the second-largest city in the Ural Federal District, after Yekaterinburg. Chelyabinsk runs along the Miass River, and is just east of the Ural Mountains. The area of Chelyabinsk contained the ancient settlement of Arkaim, which belonged to the Sintashta culture. In 1736, a fortress by the name of Chelyaba was founded on the site of a Bashkir village. Chelyabinsk was granted town status by 1787. Chelyabinsk began to grow rapidly by the early 20th century as a result of the construction of railway links from the Russian core to Siberia, including the Trans-Siberian Railway. Its population reached 70,000 by 1917. Under the Soviet Union, Chelyabinsk became a major industrial centre durin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk or Ozersk (russian: Озёрск) is a closed city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. The population was: Law #287-ZO specifies that the borders of Ozyorsky Urban Okrug match the borders of the closed administrative-territorial formation of the town of Ozyorsk. History The town was founded on the shores of Lake Irtyash in 1947. Until 1994, it was known as Chelyabinsk-65, and even earlier, as Chelyabinsk-40 (the digits are the last digits of the postal code, and the name is that of the nearest big city, which was a common practice of giving names to closed towns). Codenamed City 40, Ozersk was the birthplace of the Soviet nuclear weapons program after the Second World War. In 1994, it was granted town status and renamed Ozyorsk. Administrative and municipal status Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with six rural localities, incorporated as the Town of Ozyorsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.Resoluti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
