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 ...
of
Susumansky District
Susumansky District (russian: Сусума́нский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the eight in Magadan Oblast, Russia.Law #1292-OZ As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Susumansky Urban Okrug.Law #1886-OZ ...
in
Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast ( rus, Магаданская область, r=Magadanskaya oblast, p=məgɐˈdanskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Far East region of the country, and is adminis ...
,
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 ...
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 ...
, the administrative center of the
oblast
An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom of ...
M56 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 ...
, an unsealed track often known as the "Road of Bones", which connects
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 ...
with
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 ...
.
History
It was founded in 1936 as a settlement of a
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 ...
called ''Susuman'', named after the nearby river of the same name. In 1938, the settlement was greatly expanded to become a center of
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
mining in the western part of what is now Magadan Oblast under the control of
Dalstroy
Dalstroy (russian: Дальстро́й, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka ...
.
Gold mining and other industrial operations in the region were largely reliant on corrective labor camps 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, with a large number operating in Susuman's vicinity. From 1949 until 1956, Susuman was the base for one of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's largest corrective labor camps, the ''Zaplag'' of the Dalstroy program. During this time, up to 16,500 prisoners were kept in the camps.
Susuman was granted town status in 1964. In the post-Soviet period, the population dropped significantly, from a high of around 18,000 inhabitants in 1991, down to 5,855 as of the 2010 Census.
Climate
Susuman has an extreme dry-winter
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 Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
climate classification ''Dwd/Dwc'') with extremely cold, dry winters and short, very mild summers. It is one of the coldest permanently inhabited settlements in the world, with yearly mean temperature of
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 ...
of
Susumansky District
Susumansky District (russian: Сусума́нский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the eight in Magadan Oblast, Russia.Law #1292-OZ As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Susumansky Urban Okrug.Law #1886-OZ ...
, to which it is directly subordinated.Law #1292-OZ As a municipal division, the
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 ...
of Susuman is incorporated within Susumansky Municipal District as Susuman Urban Settlement.Law #512-OZ
Economy
The town's economy relies mainly on its status as one of the centers of gold mining in the Kolyma region.
Transportation
The town is served by the
Susuman Airport
Susuman Airport is a minor airport built south of Susuman in Magadan Oblast, Russia
History
It was built during World War II for the Alaska-Siberian (ALSIB) air route used to ferry American Lend-Lease aircraft to the Eastern Front. The airpo ...
, with four flights a week from
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 ...
.
Documentary
Susuman and its nearby
Dalstroy
Dalstroy (russian: Дальстро́й, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka ...
goldmine is portrayed in the prizewinning documentary on the Gulag in the far east of Siberia ''GOLD Lost in Siberia'' (VPRO/The Netherlands 1994) YouTube: www.imdb.co by a Dutch filmteam, led by author Gerard Jacobs and filmmaker
Theo Uittenbogaard
Theo Uittenbogaard (born Amstelveen, Nieuwer-Amstel, Netherlands, 1946 – 2022) was a Dutch radio & TV-producer, who worked for almost all nationwide public networks in The Netherlands since 1965. His training was on-the-job, since no school or a ...
Theo Uittenbogaard
Theo Uittenbogaard (born Amstelveen, Nieuwer-Amstel, Netherlands, 1946 – 2022) was a Dutch radio & TV-producer, who worked for almost all nationwide public networks in The Netherlands since 1965. His training was on-the-job, since no school or a ...