Khandyga (russian: Хандыга; sah, Хаандыга) is an urban locality (an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

) and the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...

Tomponsky District Tomponsky District (russian: Томпонский улу́с; sah, Томпо улууһа, ''Tompo uluuha'') is an administrativeConstitution of the Sakha Republic and municipalLaw #172-Z #351-III district (raion, or ''ulus''), one of the thirty- ...

in the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eas ...

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 ...

, northeast of

Yakutsk Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of ...

, the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

of the republic. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 6,638.

Geography

Khandyga is located on the northeast corner of the

Aldan River The Aldan (russian: Алдан) is the second-longest, right tributary of the Lena in the Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia.R504 Kolyma Highway The R504 Kolyma Highway (russian: Федеральная автомобильная дорога «Колыма», ''Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma»,'' "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road throu ...

passes through the town and the

Ulakhan-Bom The Ulakhan-Bom (russian: Улахан-Бом; sah, Улахан Бом, meaning "Big Obstacle") is a range of mountains in far North-eastern Russia, a southern prolongation of the Verkhoyansk Range, part of the East Siberian System. Administra ...

and

Sette-Daban The Sette-Daban (russian: Сетте-Дабан, sah, Сэттэ Дабаан) is a range of mountains in far North-eastern Russia. Administratively the range belongs partly to the Sakha Republic and partly to the Khabarovsk Krai of the Russia ...

mountain ranges rise to the east.

History

It was founded in 1938 as a base for the construction of the

Kolyma Highway The R504 Kolyma Highway (russian: Федеральная автомобильная дорога «Колыма», ''Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma»,'' "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road throu ...

towards

Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a port town and the administrative center of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Sea of Okhotsk in Nagayev Bay (within Taui Bay) and serving as a gateway to the Kolyma region. History Maga ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, an airfield was built here for the Alaska-Siberian air route used to ferry American

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

aircraft to the Eastern Front.Lebedev, pp. 44–49 From 1951 until 1954, it served as a base for Yanstroy forced-labor camp of the

gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

network.Yanstroy at Memorial Deutschland (German)
/ref> In 1954, Khandyga became the

of Tomponsky District. It was granted

status in 1957.''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, the

of KhandygaAccording to Article 7 of the Law #77-I, lower-level administrative divisions with the status of a settlement have their administrative centers in an inhabited locality with the status of an urban-type settlement. According to the ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic'', Khandyga is the administrative center of the Settlement of Khandyga. serves as the

. As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Tomponsky District as the

Settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

of Khandyga. As a municipal division, the Settlement of Khandyga is incorporated within Tomponsky Municipal District as Khandyga Urban Settlement.Law #173-Z #353-III

Transportation

There is a summer

hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...

service to

(The hydrofoil service was cancelled in 1998). Khandyga is also served by the Teply Klyuch Airport .

References

Notes

Sources

*Igor Lebedev. ''Aviation Lend-Lease to Russia''. Nova Publishers, 1997. *Official website of the Sakha Republic. ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''
Tomponsky District
* * {{Use mdy dates, date=March 2013 Urban-type settlements in the Sakha Republic