Billings (russian: Би́ллингс; ckt, Валӄаран, ''Valḳaran'') is a

rural locality In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

(a '' selo'') in

Iultinsky District Iultinsky District (russian: Иу́льтинский райо́н; Chukchi: , ''Ivyltin rajon'') is an administrativeLaw #33-OZ and municipalLaw #149-OZ district (raion), one of the six in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is located in the ...

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka (russian: Чуко́тка), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug,, ''Čukotkakèn avtonomnykèn okrug'', is the easternmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia. It is an autonomous okrug situated in the Russian ...

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 ...

. Population: Municipally, it is incorporated as Billings Rural Settlement in Chaunsky Municipal District.

Etymology

Like the neighbouring village of

Mys Shmidta Mys Shmidta (russian: Мыс Шми́дта, lit. ''Cape Schmidt'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Iultinsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located about southeast of the cape of the same name on the shore of ...

, Billings is named after a nearby cape, which in turn was named after British Captain

Joseph Billings Joseph Billings (17581806) was an English navigator, hydrographer and explorer who spent the most significant part of his life in Russian service. Life Early life Joseph Billings was likely born in Yarmouth, the son of a fisherman of the same nam ...

(1758—1806) who was at the service of the

Russian Imperial Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...

during

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

's reign. The cape itself marks the point of separation between the Chukchi Sea and the

East Siberian Sea The East Siberian Sea ( rus, Восто́чно-Сиби́рское мо́ре, r=Vostochno-Sibirskoye more) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Si ...

. Joseph Billings was an English-born member of the Russian navy who in 1785, together with C. G. Sarychevym, was part of the expedition that mapped and researched the coast of North-Eastern Siberia.Information on Billings
Official Chaunsky District Website Using reindeer, he crossed Chukotka as far as Kolyuchinskaya Guba and mapped the area. The local Chukchi people originally called the place "Valkyran", meaning ''a dugout of whale jaws''. This is in reference to the remains of an ancient Inuit camp consisting of a number of homes dug into the soil and constructed of wood and the bones of the

Greenland whale The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus'') is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and the only living representative of the genus ''Balaena''. They are the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, ...

History

In 1935, a polar station was established on the site of the village for the first time, and two years later the first national council was established in the area named ''Valkyran'' after their traditional name for the area. In 1948, the local Chukchi herders were collectivised and named their new

Sovkhoz A sovkhoz ( rus, совхо́з, p=sɐfˈxos, a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg, abbreviated from ''советское хозяйство'', "sovetskoye khozyaystvo (sovkhoz)"; ) was a form of state-owned farm in the Soviet Union. It is usually contrasted wit ...

after

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

Geography

Billings is located on the coast of the

, part of the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

, just east of

Cape Billings Cape Billings (russian: Мыс Биллингса - ''Mys Billingsa''), is a headland on the northern coast of Chukotka, Russian Federation to the west of Cape Schmidt. Geography The shore in the area around Cape Billings is bounded by narrow lan ...

. Other than the mining settlements of Leningradsky and

, Billings is one of the few populated areas in this part of Russia between

Cape Shelag Cape Shelagsky or Cape Shelag (russian: Мыс Шелагский; ckt, Ытрин, translit=Ytrin), also known as Erri by the Siberian Yupik, is a headland situated in eastern Siberia, Russia on the shores of the East Siberian Sea.Google Earth ...

and

Cape Dezhnyov Cape Dezhnyov or Cape Dezhnev (; ), formerly known as East Cape or Cape Vostochny, is a cape that forms the easternmost mainland point of Asia. It is located on the Chukchi Peninsula in the very sparsely populated Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of ...

. Billings is situated near the former Chukchi settlement of Gytkhelen.

Demographics

The population of the village according to the most recent census data is 211, of whom 109 are male and 102 female, a significant decrease on a 2006 estimate of 324.Strogoff, p. 143

Administrative and municipal jurisdiction

Billings was part of Shmidtovsky Municipal District of Chukotka until that district was merged into Iultinsky Municipal District in 2008. On December 15, 2009, Billings was transferred to Chaunsky Municipal District. Administratively, however, Billings remained under the jurisdiction of Shmidtovsky ''Administrative'' District until the latter was merged into Iultinsky Administrative District in 2011 and ceased to exist.

Climate

Billings has an arctic tundra climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''ET'')McKnight and Hess, pp.235–7 with extremely long, bitterly cold winters and very short, cold summers. Precipitation is low throughout the year, with summers being somewhat wetter than winters.

References

Sources

* * * *M Strogoff, P-C Brochet, and D. Auzia
''Petit Futé: Chukotka''
(2006). "Avant-Garde" Publishing House {{Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Rural localities in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Populated places of Arctic Russia Chukchi Sea