Mogocha ( rus, Могоча, p=mɐˈgotɕə) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

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 ...

Mogochinsky District Mogochinsky District (russian: Мого́чинский райо́н) is an administrative''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Units and the Inhabited Localities'' and municipalLaw #316-ZZK district (raion), one of the thirty-one in Zabayk ...

Zabaykalsky Krai Zabaykalsky Krai ( rus, Забайкальский край, r=Zabaikal'skii krai, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲskʲɪj kraj, lit. "Transbaikal krai"; bua, Yбэр Байгалай хизаар, Uber Baigalai Xizaar) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) t ...

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 ...

, located northeast of Chita, the administrative center of the

krai A krai or kray (; russian: край, , ''kraya'') is one of the types of federal subjects of modern Russia, and was a type of geographical administrative division in the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR. Etymologically, the word is relate ...

. Population:

Etymology

The name "Mogocha" is derived from the river on which it stands, whose name comes from the Evenki word ''mongochi''. This meaning of this word is ambiguous; it can be translated as ''golden valley'', but also as ''belonging to the Mongo tribe''.

Geography

Mogocha is located near of the southern slopes of the

Olyokma-Stanovik The Olyokma-Stanovik ( rus, Олёкминский Становик; ''Olyokminsky Stanovik'') is a system of mountain ranges in Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia. The western end of the range reaches into Amur Oblast.

, at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the

Mogocha Mogocha ( rus, Могоча, p=mɐˈgotɕə) is a town and the administrative center of Mogochinsky District in Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located northeast of Chita, the administrative center of the krai. Population: Etymology The name "Mogoch ...

and Amazar rivers.

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

History

It was founded in 1910, with the construction of the local section of the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...

. Rail traffic began in 1914. In addition to its status as a supply point for the railway, from the 1920s and 1930s it became the base for gold mining in the surrounding area. Town status was granted to it in 1950. From 1947 until 1953, Mogocha was site for the ''Klyuchevlag'' prison 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 ...

system. The camp held up to 3,000 prisoners at any one time, mainly used as forced labor for

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...

and gold mining in the villages to the southwest of the town. During the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations in the 1950s, a large airbase was created near Mogocha, which hosted several helicopter regiments until the 1990s. The remoteness of Mogocha combined with the harsh climatic conditions, gave rise to the Soviet military slang expression ''God created

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

, and

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

Mogocha''. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

and subsequent economic crisis, Mogocha lost around one third of its population, a common occurrence for cities in the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

. At the same time, a significant number of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

citizens and companies have moved to the region.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Mogocha serves as the

, to which it is directly subordinated.''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Units and the Inhabited Localities of Zabaykalsky Krai'' As a municipal division, the

of Mogocha, together with four rural localities, is incorporated within Mogochinsky Municipal District as Mogochinskoye Urban Settlement.Law #317-ZZK

Economy

Other than railway-related industries, there is logging and timber milling conducted in the surrounding area.

Transportation

Mogocha has a station on the

. The town's small airport, which had opened in 1937, was closed during the 1990s.

Climate

Mogocha has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...

(

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 ...