Svetly (, lit ''light'', ''clear''; , ''Sibietley'') 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 ...

) in Mirninsky District of the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

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 from Mirny, 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 ...

of the district,''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic'' on the southern edge of the

Vilyuy Plateau The Vilyuy Plateau () is a mountain plateau in Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Siberia, Russia. It is a part of the Central Siberian Plateau and it is made up mainly of the upper course section of the Vilyuy River. Permafrost ...

(a part of the

Central Siberian Plateau The Central Siberian Plateau (; ) is a vast mountainous area in Siberia, one of the Great Russian Regions. Geography The plateau occupies a great part of central Siberia between the Yenisei and Lena rivers. It is located in the Siberian Plat ...

), not far from the right bank of the Vilyuy River. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 3,137.

History

It was founded in the late 1970s as a works base for construction of a dam and hydroelectric plant, downstream of the larger Vilyuy Dam. With the economic difficulties in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during the 1980s and in Russia during the 1990s, completion of the project was greatly delayed with the hydroelectric plant only beginning power generation between 2004 and 2008, with three of the four planned turbines in operation.

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 ...

status was granted to Svetly in 1984.''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, the

of SvetlyAccording to Article 7 of the Law #77-I, lower-level administrative divisions with the status of a settlement have their administrative centers in an inhabited locality with the status of an urban-type settlement. According to the ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic'', Svetly is the administrative center of the Settlement of Svetly. is incorporated within Mirninsky District as the Settlement of Svetly. As a municipal division, the Settlement of Svetly is incorporated within Mirninsky Municipal District as Svetly Urban Settlement.Law #173-Z 353-III

Economy

Vilyuyskaya GES-3 hydroelectric plant, with a capacity of 270 MW, is the principal employer. The power plant is managed by a daughter company of diamond mining corporation

ALROSA Alrosa () is a Russian group of diamond mining companies that specialize in exploration, mining, manufacture, and sale of diamonds. The company leads the world in diamond mining by volume. Mining takes place in Western Yakutia, the Arkhangels ...

. Many of the settlement's inhabitants also commute for week-by-week shift work in remote diamond mines or in construction projects throughout the western region of the Sakha Republic, including the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. Svetly is connected by a road with the Anabar Highway between Mirny and Chernyshevsky. The Evenk village of Syuldyukar lies downstream along the Vilyuy and can be reached by boat in summer or via

winter road A winter road is a seasonal road only usable during the winter, i.e. it has to be re-built every year. This road typically runs over land and over frozen lakes, rivers, swamps, and sea ice. Segments of a winter road that cross an expanse of flo ...

s when the river is frozen.

References

Notes

Sources

*Official website of the Sakha Republic. ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''
Mirninsky District
* {{Use mdy dates, date=April 2015 Urban-type settlements in the Sakha Republic Mirninsky District