Palatka (, lit. ''tent'') is an urban locality (an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

) and the

administrative center An administrative centre 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 the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

Khasynsky District Khasynsky District () is an administrative district (raion), one of the eight in Magadan Oblast, Russia.Law #1292-OZ As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Khasynsky Urban Okrug.Law #1885-OZ Its administrative center is the urban locali ...

Magadan Oblast Magadan Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East, Far East region of the country, and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Magadan ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, located on the

Kolyma Highway The R504 Kolyma Highway (, ''Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma»,'' "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road through the Russian Far East. It connects Magadan with the town of Nizhny Bestyakh, located ...

, northwest of

Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...

and about south of Atka. Population:

Geography

The settlement is located by the bank of the

Khasyn The Khasyn () is a river in Magadan Oblast, Russian Far East, a tributary of the Arman. It is long, with a drainage basin of . The R504 Kolyma Highway runs by the riverside along a long stretch.Google Earth The name of the river originated in t ...

, flowing from the

Kolyma Mountains The Kolyma Mountains or Kolyma Upland (), is a system of mountain ranges in northeastern Siberia, lying mostly within the Magadan Oblast, along the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk in the Kolyma region. It constitutes the watershed between the ba ...

History

The exact date of foundation of the settlement is unclear, although it began at some point in the early 1930s as the area's gold reserves were explored, and a labor camp of the

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

was built here. The first official mention was in June 1932, when the first bridge was built over the Palatka River. In 1937, there were around 3,000 held at the prison settlement. The name ''Palatka'' is identical with the Russian word for 'tent', which has been suggested as the origin of the town's name as during the early period of the settlement's history it existed largely as a collection of tents and semi-permanent structures. It is also suggested that the name may come from the Evenk words ''Palja Atken'', meaning 'stony river'. In spite of its somewhat chaotic and unplanned nature, by 1939 Palatka was one of the largest settlements on the Kolyma Highway, and in August of that year began the construction of permanent dwellings. A

narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter cur ...

was built from Palatka to the harbor at Magadan, which remained in operation until 1950. In the 1960s, a

sovkhoz A sovkhoz ( rus, совхо́з, p=sɐfˈxos, a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg, syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated from , ''sovetskoye khozyaystvo''; ) was a form of state-owned farm or agricultural enterprise in the Soviet Union. It is usually contrasted w ...

based around farming

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

was opened in the settlement. In the 1970s, mining activity began in nearby Karamken, and Palatka became a dormitory town for mine workers. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, the closure of the reindeer farm left a great number of local people unemployed (mainly

Evenks The Evenki, also known as the Evenks and formerly as the Tungus, are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Evenki are recognised as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, indigenous peoples of the Russi ...

and Orochs), and the mining industry also saw a general downturn with administration moving to other localities such as

Susuman Susuman () is a town and the administrative center of Susumansky District in Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Byoryolyokh River, northwest of Magadan, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: Geography The town lies in the ...

. The settlement maintains sister relations with Palatka in the US state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The names are only coincidentally identical, with the name of Palatka in Florida being of Native American origin. Palatka lies on the route of the proposed future rail link between the Amur Yakutsk Mainline and

Sister city

* Palatka,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

References

{{Use mdy dates, date=March 2013 Urban-type settlements in Magadan Oblast