Magadan

For other uses, see Magadan (disambiguation).

Magadan (English) Магадан (Russian)
-  Town  -
Magadan seen from the local mountains
Location of Magadan Oblast in Russia
Magadan Location of Magadan in Magadan Oblast
Coordinates:
Coat of arms	Flag
Anthem	none
Town Day	July 14; observed on the third Saturday of July
Administrative status (as of June 2014)
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Magadan Oblast
Administratively subordinated to	town of oblast significance of Magadan
Administrative center of	Magadan Oblast, town of oblast significance of Magadan
Municipal status (as of March 2013)
Urban okrug	Magadan Urban Okrug
Administrative center of	Magadan Urban Okrug
Head/Mayor	Andey Popov (Head), Sergey Abramov (Mayor)
Representative body	Town Duma
Statistics
Area (2004)	295 km2 (114 sq mi)
Population (2010 Census)	95,982 inhabitants
- Rank in 2010	178th
Population (January 2014 est.)	101,045 inhabitants
Density
Time zone	VLAT (UTC+10:00)
Founded	1930
Town status since	July 14, 1939
Postal code(s)	685000–685005, 685007, 685017, 685021, 685024, 685030, 685031, 685098, 685099, 685700, 685960, 685961
Dialing code(s)	+7 4132
Official website
[[:commons:Category:{{#property:Commons category}}|Magadan]] on Wikimedia Commons

Magadan (Russian: Магадан; IPA: [məɡɐˈdan]) is a port town and the administrative center of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Sea of Okhotsk in Nagayevo Bay in the Taui Bay and serving as a gateway to the Kolyma region. Population: 95,982 (2010 Census); 99,399 (2002 Census); 151,652 (1989 Census).

History

Magadan was founded in 1930 in the Magadan River valley, near the settlement of Nagayevo. During the Stalin era, Magadan was a major transit center for prisoners sent to labor camps. From 1932 to 1953, it was the administrative center of the Dalstroy organization—a vast and brutal forced-labor gold-mining operation and forced-labor camp system. The town later served as a port for exporting gold and other metals mined in the Kolyma region. Its size and population grew quickly as facilities were rapidly developed for the expanding mining activities in the area. Town status was granted to it on July 14, 1939.

Magadan was temporarily transformed into a Potemkin village to mark an official visit by U.S. Vice-President Henry Wallace in May 1944. He took an instant liking to his secret policeman host, admired handiwork done by prisoners, and later glowingly called the town a combination of Tennessee Valley Authority and Hudson's Bay Company. Wallace's collaborative stance towards the Soviet Union discouraged the Democratic Party of the United States from renominating him as vice president later in the summer of 1944, helping lead to the selection of Harry Truman in his place.

Administrative and municipal status

Magadan is the administrative center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with the urban-type settlements of Sokol and Uptar, incorporated as the town of oblast significance of Magadan—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of oblast significance of Magadan is incorporated as Magadan Urban Okrug.

Economy

Lenina Street, Magadan

Magadan airport

Ship building and fishing are the major industries. The town has a seaport (fully navigable from May to December) and a small international airport, Sokol Airport. There is also a small airport nearby, Magadan 13. The unpaved Kolyma Highway leads from Magadan to the rich gold-mining region of the upper Kolyma River and then on to Yakutsk.

Magadan is very isolated. The nearest major city available by road is Yakutsk, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) away via an unpaved road which is best used in the winter, especially since there is no bridge over the Lena River at Yakutsk. (The two choices are: ferry from Nizhny Bestyakh during the summer, when the rest of the road may not be passable due to standing water, or over the ice in the dead of winter).

The principal sources of income for the local economy are gold mining and fisheries. Recently, gold production has declined. Fishing production, although improving from year to year, is still well below the allocated quotas, apparently as a result of an aging fleet. Other local industries include pasta and sausage plants and a distillery. Although farming is difficult owing to the harsh climate, there are many public and private farming enterprises.

Culture and religion

Church of the Nativity

The town has a number of cultural institutions including the Regional Museum of Anthropology, a geological museum, a regional library and a university. The town has the new Orthodox Cathedral Church of the Trinity, a recently completed Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity and the Mask of Sorrow memorial, a large sculpture in memory of Stalin's victims, designed by Ernst Neizvestny. The Church of the Nativity is actually a part of the diocese of Anchorage, Alaska and ministers to the survivors of the labor camps. It is staffed by several priests and nuns.

The town figures prominently in the labour camp literature of Varlam Shalamov and in the eponymous song by Mikhail Krug, and was a focal point of the Long Way Round motorcycle journey made by Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman and their team in 2004.

Climate

Magadan beach, July 2011

The climate of Magadan is subarctic (Köppen climate classification Dfc). Winters are prolonged and very cold, with up to six months of sub-zero high temperatures, so that the soil remains permanently frozen. Permafrost and tundra cover most of the region. The growing season is only one hundred days long.

Average temperatures on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk range from −22 °C (−8 °F) in January to +12 °C (54 °F) in July. Average temperatures in the interior range from −38 °C (−36 °F) in January to +16 °C (61 °F) in July.

Climate data for Magadan
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	2.4 (36.3)	3.2 (37.8)	5.5 (41.9)	9.7 (49.5)	22.3 (72.1)	24.5 (76.1)	26.0 (78.8)	25.5 (77.9)	20.2 (68.4)	13.8 (56.8)	6.6 (43.9)	3.3 (37.9)	26.0 (78.8)
Average high °C (°F)	−14.2 (6.4)	−12.5 (9.5)	−8 (18)	−1.6 (29.1)	4.9 (40.8)	11.3 (52.3)	14.8 (58.6)	15.0 (59)	10.4 (50.7)	1.7 (35.1)	−7.3 (18.9)	−12.8 (9)	0.0 (32)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−16.4 (2.5)	−15.4 (4.3)	−11.4 (11.5)	−4.6 (23.7)	1.8 (35.2)	7.8 (46)	11.8 (53.2)	12.0 (53.6)	7.5 (45.5)	−0.9 (30.4)	−9.8 (14.4)	−14.9 (5.2)	−2.71 (27.12)
Average low °C (°F)	−18.5 (−1.3)	−17.8 (0)	−14.4 (6.1)	−7.5 (18.5)	−0.5 (31.1)	5.2 (41.4)	9.6 (49.3)	9.7 (49.5)	5.1 (41.2)	−3.1 (26.4)	−12 (10)	−17 (1)	−5.1 (22.8)
Record low °C (°F)	−34.6 (−30.3)	−33.3 (−27.9)	−30.8 (−23.4)	−23.5 (−10.3)	−10.8 (12.6)	−3 (27)	2.0 (35.6)	−1 (30)	−6.3 (20.7)	−21.6 (−6.9)	−26.9 (−16.4)	−30.7 (−23.3)	−34.6 (−30.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	14 (0.55)	13 (0.51)	17 (0.67)	33 (1.3)	37 (1.46)	47 (1.85)	64 (2.52)	93 (3.66)	77 (3.03)	80 (3.15)	60 (2.36)	26 (1.02)	561 (22.09)
Average rainy days (≥ 0.1 mm)	0.1	0.3	0.3	2.1	11	16	21	20	18	10	2	0.1	100.9
Average snowy days	16	14	15	15	6	0	0	0	0.2	8	17	16	107.2
Average relative humidity (%)	65	64	65	71	78	82	86	83	78	69	66	64	72.6
Mean monthly sunshine hours	74.4	127.1	226.3	228.0	198.4	216.0	182.9	170.5	147.0	130.2	81.0	40.3	1,822.1
Source #1: Погода и Климат
Source #2: Hong Kong Observatory (sunshine)

Notable people

• Nikolai Getman (1917–2004), artist
• Vadim Kozin (1903–1994), tenor
• Nina Lugovskaya (1918–1993), artist
• Jascha Nemtsov (* 1963), pianist and musicologist
• Yelena Välbe (b. 1968), Olympic cross-country skier
• Pavel Vinogradov, cosmonaut
• Dimitry Ipatov, skijumper
• Sasha Luss (b. 1992), fashion model
• Viktor Rybakov (b. 1956), former European amateur boxing champion

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Russia

Twin towns and sister cities

Magadan is twinned with:

• Anchorage, United States (1991)
• Tonghua, Jilin, China (1992)
• Jelgava, Latvia (2006)
• Zlatitsa, Bulgaria (2012)
• Shuangyashan, China (2013)

References

Sources

• Магаданская городская Дума. Решение №96-Д от 26 августа 2005 г. «Устав муниципального образования "Город Магадан"», в ред. Решения №2-Д от 3 марта 2015 г. «О внесении изменений в Устав муниципального образования "Город Магадан"». Вступил в силу 1 января 2006 г. (за исключением отдельных положений). Опубликован: "Вечерний Магадан", №3(861), 19 января 2006 г. (Magadan Town Duma. Decision #96-D of August 26, 2005 Charter of the Municipal Formation of the "Town of Magadan", as amended by the Decision #2-D of March 3, 2015 On Amending the Charter of the Municipal Formation of the "Town of Magadan". Effective as of January 1, 2006 (with the exception of certain clauses).).
• Магаданская городская Дума. Решение №49-Д от 1 июля 1999 г. «О установлении общегородского праздника "День города Магадана"». (Magadan Town Duma. Decision #49-D of July 1, 1999 On Establishing Town Holiday "Day of the Town of Magadan". ).
• Template:RussiaAdmMunRef/mag/admlaw
• Магаданская областная Дума. №218-ОЗ 28 декабря 2001 г. «Устав Магаданской области», в ред. Закона №1853-ОЗ от 20 февраля 2015 г. «О принятии поправки к Уставу Магаданской области». Вступил в силу по истечении десяти дней со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Магаданская правда", №201 (18919), 29 декабря 2001 г. (Magadan Oblast Duma. Law #218-OZ of December 28, 2001 Charter of Magadan Oblast, as amended by the Law #1853-OZ of February 20, 2015 On Adopting the Amendment to the Charter of Magadan Oblast. Effective as of the day ten days after the official publication date.).
• Магаданская областная Дума. Закон №489-ОЗ от 6 декабря 2004 г. «О муниципальном образовании "город Магадан"», в ред. Закона №1578-ОЗ от 6 марта 2013 г. «О внесении изменения в статью 3 Закона Магаданской области "О муниципальном образовании "город Магадан"». Вступил в силу 31 декабря 2004 г.. Опубликован: "Магаданская правда", №140 (19364), 15 декабря 2004 г. (Magadan Oblast Duma. Law #489-OZ of December 6, 2004 On the Municipal Formation of the "Town of Magadan", as amended by the Law #1578-OZ of March 6, 2013 On Amending Article 3 of the Law of Magadan Oblast "On the Municipal Formation of the "Town of Magadan". Effective as of December 31, 2004.).
• McGregor, E & Boorman, C: Long Way Round. Time Warner Books, 2004. ISBN 0-7515-3680-6
• David J. Nordlander: Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s, Slavic Review, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791–812

External links

• Б. П. Важенин (B. P. Vazhenin). "Магадан: к историческим истокам названия" (Magadan: The Historical Sources of Its Name). Российская академия наук, Дальневосточное отделение. Магадан, 2003.
• Map of Magadan (Russian)
• The road up to the Kolyma river. Documentary: repressed in Magadan recall. To watch video.