Bechevinka () was a naval base of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and Russian Navies in a remote portion of

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and we ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It was established in the 1960s for use by submarines of the

Soviet Pacific Fleet , image = Great emblem of the Pacific Fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Russian Pacific Fleet Great emblem , dates = 1731–present , country ...

. The site was abandoned in 1996 and is currently a tourist destination as a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

. In May 2020

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proposed to develop the site into a transhipment hub for

liquified natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

Naval base

Bechevinka is situated on an inlet of the in

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and wes ...

. The local area is known as the "land of fire and ice" due to the presence of volcanoes and glaciers. The base was constructed in the 1960s for submarines of the

Soviet Pacific Fleet , image = Great emblem of the Pacific Fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Russian Pacific Fleet Great emblem , dates = 1731–present , country ...

. It was codenamed

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ( rus, Петропавловск-Камчатский, a=Петропавловск-Камчатский.ogg, p=pʲɪtrɐˈpavləfsk kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj) is a city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultur ...

-54, after the nearest town and the last two digits of the base's post code. The site was remote and in the winter could only be reached by boat, helicopter and sledge. It was serviced by a weekly supply ship from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The site had eight three- to five-storey accommodation blocks, a headquarters building, a school, supermarket, post office, leisure centre (with space for orchestral performances), boilerhouse, stores warehouses and a refuelling facility. The site suffered a severe fire in 1987. The naval base was abandoned in 1996 and the submarines transferred to a nearby facility.

Abandonment and future use

After its abandonment the site became a

. One of the former supply ships remains as a beached and rusted wreck. Despite its remoteness it had become a tourist destination. Bechevinka was featured in Robert Grenville's 2019 book ''Abandoned Cold War Places''. In May 2020 the former naval base was selected as a site for a new

transhipment hub for

. It is intended to handle of product per year, largely for the Asian export market. The work is forecast to cost $1.5 billion.

References

{{Reflist Kamchatka Peninsula Russian and Soviet Navy bases Populated places disestablished in 1996