Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ( rus, Петропавловск-Камчатский, a=Петропавловск-Камчатский.ogg, p=pʲɪtrɐˈpavləfsk kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj) is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and the

administrative Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. As of the 2021 Census its population is 164,900. The city is widely known simply as ''Petropavlovsk'' (literally "city of

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

and

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

"). The adjective ''Kamchatsky'' ("Kamchatkan") was added to the official name in 1924.

Geography

The city is situated on high hills and surrounded by

volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

. The surrounding terrain is mountainous enough that the horizon cannot be seen clearly from any point in town. Across

Avacha Bay Avacha Bay (russian: Авачинская губа, Авачинская бухта) is a Pacific Ocean bay on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is long and wide (at the mouth), with a maximum depth of . The Avacha River flo ...

from the city in

Vilyuchinsk Vilyuchinsk (russian: Вилючинск) is a closed town in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, located on the Kamchatka Peninsula about across Avacha Bay from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Population: History It was founded as Sovetsky () on October ...

is Russia's largest submarine base, the Rybachiy Nuclear Submarine Base, established during the Soviet period and still used by the Russian Navy. The city is located from

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

and about from

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...

History

Cossack units visited the area from 1697. The explorer and navigator Captain

Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...

(a Dane in the service of the

Imperial Russian 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 ...

) is considered to have founded the city in 1740, although navigator had laid the foundation a few months earlier. Bering reached Avacha Bay in late 1740 and in his capacity as the superior officer, named the new settlement "Petropavlovsk" (Peter and Paul) after his two ships, the ''

Saint Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupat ...

'' and the ''

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

'', which had been built in

Okhotsk Okhotsk ( rus, Охотск, p=ɐˈxotsk) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Okhotsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located at the mouth of the Okhota River on the Sea of Okhotsk. Population: ...

for his second expedition (1733–42). The town's location on the eastern coast of the

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and w ...

, on the sheltered Avacha Bay and at the mouth of the

Avacha River Avacha () is a river in the southern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. It flows southeast into Avacha Bay, near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The river is long with a watershed of . Nineteenth-century travelers like George Kennan ascended t ...

, saw it develop to become the most important settlement in Kamchatka. It gained town status on 9 April 1812. During the 1853–55

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

, Anglo-French forces put the city under

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

(August–September 1854), but it never fell. The city had been fortified under the overall command of Nikolay Muravyov ( Governor-General of the from 1847 to 1861) in the preceding years, but possessed only a small garrison of a few hundred soldiers and sixty-seven cannon. After much exchange of fire, six hundred Anglo-French troops landed south of the city; two hundred and thirty Russian troops forced them to retreat after heavy fighting (1 September 1854). Four days later, a larger force of nine hundred Anglo-French troops landed east of the town, but again the Russians repelled the allies (5 September 1854). The allied ships then retreated from Russian Pacific waters (7 September 1854). The total Russian losses were reported at around a hundred men; the Anglo-French were said to have lost 209 men, over twice that number. At the time of the surrender of Japan in

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 opposing ...

(August/September 1945), United States Naval Construction Battalion 114 was in the

Aleutians The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large vo ...

. In September 1945 the battalion received orders to send a detachment to the

USSR 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 nationa ...

to build a Naval Advance Base (a Fleet Weather Central) – located ten miles outside Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and code-named TAMA."Yanks in Siberia: U.S. Navy Weather Stations in Soviet East Asia, 1945", G. Patrick March, ''Pacific Historical Review'', Vol. 57, No. 3 (August 1988), pp. 327–342, Published by: University of California Press. The original agreement gave the Seabees three weeks to complete the camp. Upon arrival the Soviets told the Seabees they had ten days, and were amazed that the Seabees achieved the task. It was one of two to which

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 ...

agreed. The other was near Khabarovsk, in buildings provided by the Russians. For mail Petropavlovsk was assigned Navy number 1169, FPO San Francisco. The American use of these two bases proved short-lived. Petropavlovsk was a great source of fish, particularly

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

, and crab meat for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in the 20th century. Following the end of the Soviet era in December 1991, fishing rights have also been granted to foreign interests.

Poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

of salmon for their

caviar Caviar (also known as caviare; from fa, خاویار, khâvyâr, egg-bearing) is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread. Traditionally, the te ...

at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy remains a problem amid lax law-enforcement and widespread corruption.

Administrative and municipal status

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is 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

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 relat ...

.Law #46 Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Under Krai Jurisdiction — an administrative unit with status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Under Krai Jurisdiction is incorporated as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Urban Okrug.Law #220

Culture

Sports

The main

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

stadium in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy is the 5,000-capacity Spartak Stadium. The former club FC Volcano played at the stadium.

Tourism

The city has developed a tourist infrastructure. About twenty large tourism companies offer a wide range of services from bear hunting to paragliding.

Transport

The city is served by Elizovo Airport, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Elizovo) Airport, which is linked to the town and its port via the Russian federal highways, A-401 road. During the warmer months cruise ships regularly stop there for the day.

Demographics

Ethnic Russians make up the majority of the population; the city on its own has more inhabitants than the entire neighboring Chukotka Autonomous Okrug or Magadan Oblast. The population numbered 179,780 in 2010; 179,800 in 2011; 179,784 in 2012; and 181,618 in 2013. Ethnic composition (2010): * Russians – 89.7% * Ukrainians – 4.1% * Tatars – 0.8% * Belarusians – 0.7% * Others – 4.7%

Climate

The climate at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy reasonably qualifies as cool-summer continental boreal climate (Köppen climate classification, Köppen ''Dfc''). However, this area's climate has strong oceanic influences due its proximity to the Pacific ocean. Average annual precipitation is , or about times as much as most of Siberia averages, mostly falling as frozen precipitation, primarily snow, from November to April. Average monthly precipitation is highest in autumn, with October the wettest month on average, closely followed by November. May through July are markedly the driest months on average; June is the single driest month. Winter temperatures are much milder than in Siberia. Here, average January daytime high temperatures are around , while average daytime high temperature in August, the warmest month, is . Thus, resulting from oceanic cooling, summer daytime high temperatures in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy are markedly cooler than in interior Siberia. In warmer-summer years, monthly high averages in July–August can reach and higher. Days of above can be expected an average of 19.6 days per summer. Despite the generally high precipitation, the weather is less cloudy than in the adjacent Kuril Islands that are one of the least sunny places in the world, since the city is located behind a peninsula to the north that blocks some of the fog from the cold Oyashio Current offshore of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Oceanic water in Avacha Bay and adjacent bays is also warmer than coastal waters of Kuril Islands and Okhotsk sea coast (except Southern Kuriles and Southern Sakhalin). In the spring (February to April), seawater may freeze. Highest Temperature: on July 2, 2012 Lowest Temperature: on February 14, 1917 Highest Daily Precipitation: on November 10, 2002 Wettest Year: in 1971 Driest Year: in 1947

Politics

Results of the Russian legislative elections

Twin towns – sister cities

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy is Sister city, twinned with: * Kushiro, Hokkaido, Kushiro, Japan (since 1998) *Unalaska, Alaska (since 1990)

Notable residents

*Pavlo Ishchenko, History of the Jews in Ukraine, Ukrainian-Israeli Olympic boxer *Anatolii Mohyliov, Ukrainian politician *Sergei Ursuliak, Russian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor, and TV presenter *Elena Yakovishina, Russian Olympic skier *Igor Smirnov, 1st president of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and Transnistria *Regina Sych, Russian swimmer *Innokenty Omulevsky, Russian writer *Aleksandra Frantseva, Russian alpine skier *Viktor Borel, a Belarusian football coach and former player *Artem Ansheles, a Hong Kong actor

References

Sources

* *

External links

Official website of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy

New photos of the city

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy Internet portal

History of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy