Svobodny (russian: Свобо́дный) 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 ...

Amur Oblast Amur Oblast ( rus, Аму́рская о́бласть, r=Amurskaya oblast, p=ɐˈmurskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in the Russian Far East. The administrat ...

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 on the right bank of the

Zeya River The Zeya (russian: Зе́я; from indigenous Evenki word "djee" (blade); zh, 结雅; mnc, m= , Mölendroff: jingkiri bira) is a northern, left tributary of the Amur in Amur Oblast, Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . The average ...

, north of

Blagoveshchensk Blagoveshchensk ( rus, Благове́щенск, p=bləgɐˈvʲeɕːɪnsk, meaning ''City of the Annunciation'') is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, o ...

, 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 is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

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 ...

. Population: 63,889 ( 2002 Census);

History

It was founded in 1912 in conjunction with the construction of the Amur RailwayPospelov, p. 26 (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 ...

's "bypass" route, which was to provide a railway connection from European Russia to the Pacific entirely over the Russian soil, without crossing the north-eastern China). It was originally named ''Alexeyevsk'' (), in honor of the then crown prince Alexey. In 1917, the town was renamed Svobodny,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

for ''free''. During the

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

era, the ''

BAMLag Baikal Amur Corrective Labor Camp (Bamlag) (russian: Байка́ло-Аму́рский исправи́тельно-трудово́й ла́герь, Бамла́г) was a subdivision of GULAG which existed during 1932-1948. Its administration, ...

'' prison camp was built in Svobodny, with the intention of providing

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

for the planned construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The camp became one of the largest in 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 ca. 190,300 convicts in October 1935. The camp claimed the lives of thousands of political and clerical prisoners.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Svodobny serves as the

of Svobodnensky District,Law #31-OZ even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as Svobodny Urban Okrug—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.Law #127-OZ As a municipal division, this administrative unit also has urban okrug status.Law #402-OZ

Economy

The town is home to factories producing machinery and furniture, as well as the administrative center for mining operations in the region, including the gold mining concern ''Amurzoloto''.

Transportation

The town is an important transportation hub for both rail and river traffic, with two railway stations on the

including rolling-stock repair facilities, and a river port on the Zeya. It is served by the Svobodny Airport and is near the Orlovka interceptor air base and other locations maintained by the Russian Air Force.

Climate

Svobodny has a

warm-summer humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

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 ...

''Dwb'') with bitterly cold, very dry winters and very warm, wet summers.

Notable people

The town is the birthplace of the movie director

Leonid Gaidai Leonid Iovich Gaidai (russian: Леонид Иович Гайдай; 30 January 1923 – 19 November 1993) was a Soviet and Russian comedy film director, screenwriter and actor who enjoyed immense popularity and broad public recognition in the fo ...

, whose memorial was unveiled in September 2006.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * *Е. М. Поспелов (Ye. M. Pospelov). "Имена городов: вчера и сегодня (1917–1992). Топонимический словарь." (''City Names: Yesterday and Today (1917–1992). Toponymic Dictionary.'') Москва, "Русские словари", 1993. {{Authority control Cities and towns in Amur Oblast Populated places established in 1912 1912 establishments in the Russian Empire Monotowns in Russia