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121-749: Magadan, founded in 1929, was a major transit centre for political prisoners during the Stalin era and the administrative centre of the Dalstroy forced-labor gold-mining operation. The town later served as a port for exporting gold and other metals and was visited by U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944. Magadan plays a significant role in transportation with the Port of Magadan and Sokol Airport . The local economy relies on gold mining and fisheries, although gold production has declined. The town has various cultural institutions and religious establishments, such as

242-674: A 192 km long river flowing to the Sea of Okhotsk , passes the city. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the Nagaev Bay . Ecologically situated in the Northeast Siberian taiga , the town's arboreal flora is made up of conifer trees, such as firs and larches , and silver birches . The city is surrounded by mountains to the west and northeast. Permafrost and tundra cover most of

363-656: A base for the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. It has a number of cultural institutions, including the Regional Museum of Anthropology, a geological museum, a regional library and a university. Magadanskaya Pravda is the main newspaper. The town figures prominently in the gulag literature of Varlam Shalamov and in the eponymous song by Mikhail Krug . Actor of film and stage Georgiy Zhzhonov worked at Magadan Theatre for two years after being released from

484-772: A bulwark of traditionalism that stood in the way of the Soviet state's goals. Given the goals of the first Five Year Plan, the state sought increased political control of agriculture in order to feed the rapidly growing urban population and to obtain a source of foreign currency through increased cereal exports. Given its late start, the USSR needed to import a substantial number of the expensive technologies necessary for heavy industrialization. By 1936, about 90% of Soviet agriculture had been collectivized. In many cases, peasants bitterly opposed this process and often slaughtered their animals rather than give them to collective farms, even though

605-585: A capitalist world. In 1936, the country adopted its first formal constitution , which only on paper granted freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. Scholars estimate the total death toll for the Great Purge (1936–1938), including fatalities attributed to prison conditions, to be roughly 700,000-1.2 million. In March 1939, the 18th congress of the Communist Party was held in Moscow. Most of

726-628: A continuing Soviet interest in patching up relations with Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union supplied military aid to the Republican faction of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War , including munitions and soldiers, and helped far-left activists come to Spain as volunteers. The Spanish government let the USSR have the government treasury. Soviet units systematically liquidated anarchist supporters of

847-593: A gulag in May 1945. Magadan was home to Eastern Syndrome  [ ru ] a famous Soviet and Russian rock group founded there in 1986. The town was a focal point of the Long Way Round TV series of a motorcycle journey made by Ewan McGregor , Charley Boorman and their team in 2004. The town features the recent Orthodox Cathedral of the Life-Giving Trinity (completed in 2008), and

968-703: A large stream of foreigners entered Chukotka, lured to the region by the Yukon gold rush in 1898. In 1909, in order to keep the region within Russian control, two districts were created within the Anadyr Region: the districts of Anadyr and Chukotka. The Russian government granted concessions to foreign companies such as the Hudson's Bay Company and the US Northeast Siberia Company , which

1089-455: A million Soviets were executed, and more than a million others were sentenced to lengthy terms in harsh labour camps. Stalin's Great Terror ravaged the ranks of factory directors and engineers, and removed most of the senior officers in the Army. The pretext was the 1934 assassination of Sergei Kirov (which many suspect Stalin of having planned, although there is no evidence for this). Nearly all

1210-476: A result, especially in the Central Asian republics . The Soviet people also benefited from a type of social liberalization. Women were to be given the same education as men and, at least legally speaking, obtained the same rights as men in the workplace. Although in practice these goals were not reached, the efforts to achieve them and the statement of theoretical equality led to a general improvement in

1331-669: A snowpack is built up early, which then lasts throughout the winter even while the influence from the Siberian High lowers precipitation throughout those months. Magadan is twinned with: Stalin era The history of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953 , commonly referred to as the Stalin Era or Stalinist Era , covers the period in Soviet history from the establishment of Stalinism through victory in

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1452-656: A year later, the Soviets permanently conquered the island, removing the remaining inhabitants, and thereby ending all foreign influence. Chukotka was subject to collectivization and resettlement of the indigenous people, but this process started later and was less extreme than in other parts of the Soviet Union. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, everything was done to start tin production as quickly as possible in Chukotka. Mining rapidly developed, and this industry would become its economic base. Also during

1573-453: Is Vladislav Kuznetsov, who replaced Roman Kopin on 15 March 2023. Kuznetsov previously served as deputy prime minister of the unrecognized Luhansk People's Republic . The governor is elected by universal suffrage for a term of 5 years. Roman Abramovich was governor of Chukotka from 2000 to 2008. Abramovich had spent over US$ 1 billion in the region (partly as normal tax payments) on developing infrastructure and providing direct aid to

1694-648: Is an autonomous okrug situated in the Russian Far East , and shares a border with the Sakha Republic to the west, Magadan Oblast to the south-west, and Kamchatka Krai to the south, as well as a maritime border on the Bering Strait with the U.S. state of Alaska to the east. Anadyr is the largest town and the capital , and the easternmost settlement to have town status in Russia. It

1815-402: Is one of the very few places in Russia where there are more men than women. Source: As of June 2022, Chukotka had the lowest life expectancy in Russia. This statistic varies greatly from year to year due to the region's relatively small population. According to the 2021 Census , the ethnic composition was: Historical figures are given below: There are 86 recognized ethnic groups in

1936-461: 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. The Central Intelligence Agency wrote a report on Ship Repair Yard No. 2 near Magadan in June 1965. Magadan was repeatedly reported as

2057-535: Is the closest point from Russia to the United States, measuring at 88.51 kilometres or 55 miles. Chukotka is primarily populated by ethnic Russians , Chukchi , and other indigenous peoples . It is the only autonomous okrug in Russia that is not included in, or subordinate to, another federal subject, having separated from Magadan Oblast in 1992. It is home to Lake Elgygytgyn , an impact crater lake, and Anyuyskiy , an extinct volcano. The village of Uelen

2178-438: Is the easternmost settlement in Russia and the closest substantial settlement to the United States ( Alaska ). The autonomous okrug covers an area of over 737,700 square kilometers (284,800 sq mi), and is the seventh-largest federal subject in Russia, although it has a population of only 50,526. Chukotka is the second-least-populated federal subject, and the least densely populated federal subject in Russia. The region

2299-808: Is the northeasternmost region of Russia, and since the sale of Alaska in 1867, it has been the only part of Russia lying partially in the Western Hemisphere . Chukotka is bordered in the north by the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea , which are part of the Arctic Ocean ; in the east by the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea , part of the Pacific Ocean ; in the south by Kamchatka Krai and Magadan Oblast ; and in

2420-528: The British unions never forgave. By 1930, the Stalinists started suggesting the value of alliance with other parties, and by 1934 the idea to form a Popular Front had emerged. Comintern agent Willi Münzenberg was especially effective in organizing intellectuals, antiwar and pacifist elements to join the anti-Nazi coalition. Communists would form coalitions with any party to fight fascism. For Stalinists,

2541-694: The Chukchi Peninsula , the west coast of Alaska , and the Aleutian Islands . Then from 1821 to 1825, Ferdinand von Wrangel and Fyodor Matyushkin led expeditions along the coast of the East Siberian Sea and explored the Kolyma , Great Anyuy , and Little Anyuy Rivers. Chukotka remained mostly outside the control of the Russian Empire and consequently other foreign powers (American, British, Norwegian) began to hunt and trade in

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2662-518: The RSFSR labor law code enabled firing workers who had been absent without a reason from the workplace for just one day. Being fired accordingly meant losing "the right to use ration and commodity cards" as well as the "loss of the right to use an apartment″ and even blacklisted for new employment which altogether meant a threat of starving. Those measures, however, were not fully enforced, as managers were hard-pressed to replace these workers. In contrast,

2783-687: The Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity (completed in 2002), among others. The Mask of Sorrow memorial, a large sculpture in memory of Stalin's victims, was designed by Ernst Neizvestny . The Church of the Nativity Archived February 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine ministers to survivors of the labor camps. It is staffed by several priests and nuns. The Magadanka River  [ ru ] ,

2904-793: The Russian Orthodox Church began as soon as the Bolsheviks took power in 1917. In the 1930s, Stalin intensified his war on organized religion. Nearly all churches and monasteries were closed and tens of thousands of clergymen were imprisoned or executed. Historian Dimitry Pospielovski has estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 Orthodox clergy died by execution or in prison 1918–1929, plus an additional 45,000 in 1930–1939. Monks, nuns, and related personnel added an additional 40,000 dead. The state propaganda machine vigorously promoted atheism and denounced religion as being an artifact of capitalist society. In 1937, Pope Pius XI decried

3025-487: The Second World War and down to the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Stalin sought to destroy his enemies while transforming Soviet society with central planning , in particular through the forced collectivization of agriculture and rapid development of heavy industry . Stalin consolidated his power within the party and the state and fostered an extensive cult of personality . Soviet secret-police and

3146-953: The USSR , with about one out of every three World War II deaths representing a citizen of the Soviet Union . In the course of World War II, the Soviet Union's armies occupied Eastern Europe , where they established or supported Communist puppet governments . By 1949, the Cold War had started between the Western Bloc and the Eastern (Soviet) Bloc , with the Warsaw Pact (created 1955) pitched against NATO (created 1949) in Europe. After 1945, Stalin did not directly engage in any wars, continuing his totalitarian rule until his death in 1953. The mobilization of resources by state planning expanded

3267-610: The heavy industry parts were fulfilled by 108%. Stalin in December 1932 declared the plan success to the Central Committee since increases in the output of coal and iron would fuel future development. During the Second Five-Year Plan (1933–1937), on the basis of the huge investment during the first plan, the industry expanded extremely rapidly and nearly reached the plan's targets. By 1937, coal output

3388-639: The mass-mobilization of the Communist Party served as Stalin's major tools in molding Soviet society. Stalin's methods in achieving his goals, which included party purges , ethnic cleansings , political repression of the general population , and forced collectivization , led to millions of deaths : in Gulag labor camps and during famine . World War II, known as "the Great Patriotic War " by Soviet historians, devastated much of

3509-525: The police state operated at high intensity, seeking out anyone accused of sabotaging the system. The estimated numbers vary greatly. Perhaps, 3.7 million people were sentenced for alleged counter-revolutionary crimes, including 600,000 sentenced to death, 2.4 million sentenced to labor camps, and 700,000 sentenced to expatriation . Stalinist repression reached its peak during the Great Purge of 1937–1938, which removed many skilled managers and experts and considerably slowed industrial production in 1937. Under

3630-531: The soil remains permanently frozen; although they are still much milder than those of interior eastern Siberia. 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. Due to the wet nature of October and November,

3751-772: The taiga in the south. About half of its area is above the Arctic Circle . This area is very mountainous, containing the Chukotsky Mountains (highest point Iskhodnaya ) and the Anadyr Highlands . Chukotka's rivers spring from its northern and central mountains. The major rivers are: The largest lakes are Lake Krasnoye , west of Anadyr, Lake Pekulney and Lake Elgygytgyn in central Chukotka. Other important lakes are Koolen , Lake Ioni , Pychgynmygytgyn , Medvezhye , Achchyon and Maynits . The okrug's extensive coastline has several peninsulas,

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3872-419: The 17th century, the fort regained some importance when the sea route from Anadyrsk to Kamchatka was discovered. It was used as the staging base for expeditions to Kamchatka and all other forts and settlements were made subject to Anadyrsk. When the wealth of Kamchatka's natural resources was discovered, the Russian government started to give the far north-eastern region more serious attention. In 1725, Tsar Peter

3993-791: The 1938 legislation, which introduced labor books, followed by major revisions of the labor law, was enforced. For example, being absent or even 20 minutes late were grounds for becoming fired; managers who failed to enforce these laws faced criminal prosecution. Later, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, 26 June 1940 "On the Transfer to the Eight-Hour Working Day, the Seven-day Work Week, and on

4114-483: The 1950s. In 1937, as a part of the Great Purge , repressive “national operations” were conducted. Representatives of “Western” minorities were targeted because of their possible connections to countries hostile to the USSR and fear of disloyalty in case of an invasion. As this process unfolded, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power by destroying the potential opposition. In 1936–1938, about three quarters of

4235-648: The Anadyr River and destroyed the Chukchi garrison on the Arctic Ocean. His ruthless methods had some limited success in forcing tribute from some Chukchi. But in 1747, the Chukchi defeated the Russian regiment and killed Pavlutsky. Realizing that the Chukchi could not easily be subjugated by military means, the Russians changed tactics and offered the Chukchi citizenship in the Russian Empire. A peace treaty

4356-553: The Central Committee were purged, along with foreign communists who were living in the Soviet Union, and numerous intellectuals, bureaucrats, and factory managers. The total of people imprisoned or executed during the Yezhovschina numbered about two million. By 1938, the mass purges were starting to disrupt the country's infrastructure, and Stalin began winding them down. Yezhov was gradually relieved of power. Yezhov

4477-497: The Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Chukotka has large reserves of oil , natural gas , coal , gold , and tungsten , which are slowly being mined, but much of the rural population survives on subsistence reindeer herding, whale hunting , and fishing . The urban population is employed in mining , administration, construction, cultural work, education, medicine, and other occupations. The largest companies in

4598-541: The Chukotka economy by developing its infrastructure, schools, and housing. This has helped to double the GDP of the region and to more than triple the income of its residents. In 2004, Abramovich tried to resign from this position but was reappointed governor for another term by Vladimir Putin . In early July 2008, it was announced that President Dmitry Medvedev had accepted Abramovich's latest request to resign as governor of Chukotka, although his various charitable activities in

4719-669: The Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on 11 July 2008 by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in connection with the early resignation of Abramovich. On 8 September 2013, Kopin was elected governor. On 15 March 2023, Vladislav Kuznetsov replaced Kopin as the governor of Chukotka. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is administratively divided into the following districts : Along the Arctic coast (from west to east): Bilibinsky District (northwest), Chaunsky District around Chaunskaya Bay, then Iultinsky District , and finally Chukotsky District at

4840-477: The Great ordered Vitus Bering to explore Kamchatka and Afanasy Shestakov to lead a military expedition to subjugate the Chukchi. This expedition failed when the fleet suffered shipwreck and the survivors, including Shestakov, were killed by the Chukchi. In 1731, Dmitry Pavlutsky tried again, aided by Cossacks, Yukaghirs , and Koryaks (indigenous Siberian tribes that were subjugated earlier). Pavlutsky sailed up

4961-574: The Gulf of Anadyr and in the river valleys grow small larch, pine, birch, poplar, and willow trees. More than 900 species of plants grow in Chukotka, including 400 species of moss and lichen. It is home to 220 bird species and 30 fresh water fish species. Chukotka's climate is influenced by its location on the three neighboring seas: the Bering Sea , the East Siberian Sea , and the Chukchi Sea with its weather characterized by cold northerly winds that can quickly change to wet southern winds. Cape Navarin has

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5082-840: The Magadan-Palatka line was operational between 1941 and 1956. Russian Railways are considering the possibility of building a railway from the Nizhny Bestyakh of the Amur-Yakutsk railway to Magadan by 2035, which will contribute to the development of an area with huge mineral deposits. Magadan is the final destination of the federal highway R504 Kolyma Highway , which connects the region with Yakutia and other parts of Russia. Anadyr Highway , currently under construction, will provide access to Chukotka Autonomous Okrug . Sokol Airport and Magadan-13 airport provide access to air transport for numerous destinations in Russia with

5203-470: The Moscow and Gorky automobile plants, the Ural Mountains and Kramatorsk heavy machinery plants, and Kharkiv, Stalingrad and Chelyabinsk tractor plants had been built or were under construction. In real terms, the workers' standards of living tended to drop, rather than rise during industrialization. Stalin's laws to "tighten work discipline" made the situation worse: e.g., a 1932 change to

5324-407: The NEP (New Economic Policy), Lenin had to tolerate the continued existence of privately owned agriculture. He decided to wait at least 20 years before attempting to place it under state control and in the meantime concentrate on industrial development. However, after Stalin's rise to power , the timetable for collectivization was shortened to just five years. Demand for food intensified, especially in

5445-416: The New Soviet Woman was also a working woman. Furthermore, department store staff had a low status in the Soviet Union and many men did not want to work as sales staff, leading to the jobs as sales staff going to poorly educated working-class women and from women newly arrived in the cities from the countryside. However, many rights were rolled back by the authorities during this era, such as abortion, which

5566-416: The Orthodox Holy Trinity Cathedral  [ ru ] and the Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity . The Mask of Sorrow memorial commemorates Stalin's victims. Magadan experiences a subarctic climate with prolonged and cold winters, causing the soil to remain permanently frozen. Magadan was founded in 1930 in the Ola (river) valley, near the settlement of Nagayevo . During the Stalin era, Magadan

5687-402: The Popular Front was simply an expedient, but to rightists, it represented the desirable form of transition to socialism. Franco-Soviet relations were initially hostile because the USSR officially opposed the World War I peace settlement of 1919 that France emphatically championed. While the Soviet Union was interested in conquering territories in Eastern Europe, France was determined to protect

5808-478: The Prohibition of Unauthorized Departure by Laborers and Office Workers from Factories and Offices" replaced the 1938 revisions with obligatory criminal penalties for quitting a job (2–4 months imprisonment), for being late 20 minutes (6 months of probation and pay confiscation of 25 per cent), etc. Based on these figures, the Soviet government declared that the Five Year Industrial Production Plan had been fulfilled by 93.7% in only four years, while parts devoted to

5929-419: The Red Army because he seriously misperceived a serious security threat”; thus “Stalin seems to have genuinely believed that foreign‐backed enemies had infiltrated the ranks and managed to organize a conspiracy at the very heart of the Red Army.” The purge hit deeply from June 1937 and November 1938, removing 35,000; many were executed. Experience in carrying out the purge facilitated purging other key elements in

6050-409: The Red Army, which was ill-equipped for the winter weather and lacking competent commanders since the purge of the Soviet high command . The Finns resisted fiercely, and received some support and considerable sympathy from the Allies. On 29 January 1940, the Soviets put an end to their puppet Terijoki Government that they had intended on inserting into Helsinki, and informed the Finnish government that

6171-418: The Soviet Union often called on to attack traditional enemies. The Komsomol played an important role as a mechanism for teaching Party values to the younger generation. The Komsomol also served as a mobile pool of labor and political activism, with the ability to relocate to areas of high-priority at short notice. In the 1920s the Kremlin assigned Komsomol major responsibilities for promoting industrialization at

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6292-428: The Soviet Union was willing to negotiate peace. The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed on 12 March 1940, with the war ending the following day. By the terms of the treaty, Finland relinquished the Karelian Isthmus and some smaller territories. London, Washington—and especially Berlin—calculated that the poor showing of the Soviet army indicated it was incompetent to defend the USSR against a German invasion. In 1940,

6413-439: The Soviet Union, were used as a method of gaining international influence and encouraging fellow travelers and pacifists to build popular fronts. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September; the USSR followed on 17 September. The Soviets quelled opposition by executing and arresting thousands. They relocated suspect ethnic groups to Siberia in four waves, 1939–1941. Estimates varying from the figure over 1.5 million. After Poland

6534-649: The Soviet government. The United States was the last major polity to recognise the USSR in 1933. In 1934, the French government proposed an alliance and led 30 governments to invite the USSR to join the League of Nations. The USSR had achieved legitimacy but was expelled in December 1939 for aggression against Finland. In 1928, Stalin pushed a leftist policy based on his belief in an imminent great crisis for capitalism. Various European communist parties were ordered not to form coalitions and instead to denounce moderate socialists as social fascists . Activists were sent into labour unions to take control away from socialists–a move

6655-478: The Spanish government. Moscow's support of the government gave the Republicans a Communist taint in the eyes of anti-Bolsheviks in Britain and France, weakening the calls for Anglo-French intervention in the war. Nazi Germany promulgated an Anti-Comintern Pact with Imperialist Japan and Fascist Italy, along with various Central and Eastern European states (such as Hungary ), ostensibly to suppress Communist activity but more realistically to forge an alliance against

6776-420: The USSR occupied and illegally annexed Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. On 14 June 1941, the USSR performed first mass deportations from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka ( / tʃ ʊ ˈ k ɒ t k ə / chuu-KOT-kə ; Russian : Чукотка [tɕʊˈkotkə] ), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , is the easternmost federal subject of Russia . It

6897-425: The USSR concluded pacts of mutual assistance with France and Czechoslovakia. Stalin-ordered the Comintern to form a popular front with leftist and centrist parties against the forces of Fascism . The pact was undermined, however, by strong ideological hostility to the Soviet Union and the Comintern's new front in France, Poland's refusal to permit the Red Army on its soil, France's defensive military strategy, and

7018-508: The USSR's primary grain producing regions, with new, forced approaches implemented . Upon joining kolkhozes (collective farms), peasants had to give up their private plots of land and property. Every harvest, Kolkhoz production was sold to the state for a low price set by the state itself. However, the natural progress of collectivization was slow, and the November 1929 Plenum of the Central Committee decided to accelerate collectivization through force. In any case, Russian peasant culture formed

7139-419: The USSR. Stalin arranged the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany on 23 August along with the German-Soviet Commercial Agreement to open economic relations. A secret appendix to the pact gave Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia and Finland to the USSR, and Western Poland and Lithuania to Nazi Germany. This reflected the Soviet desire of territorial gains. Following

7260-472: The allocation of resources for the industry along with decreasing productivity since collectivization, a famine occurred. In the construction of the industrial complexes, inmates of Gulag camps were used as expendable resources. But conditions improved rapidly during the second plan. Throughout the 1930s, industrialization was combined with a rapid expansion of technical and engineering education as well as increasing emphasis on munitions. From 1921 until 1954,

7381-432: The area from about 1820 onwards. After the sale of Alaska to the United States, American whalers and traders especially extended their activities into Chukotka and foreign influence reached its peak. By 1880, the Russians reacted by setting up coastal patrols to stop American ships and confiscate their property. And in 1888, the administrative region of Anadyr was created. Yet Russian control diminished again and around 1900,

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7502-470: The attacks on religion in the Soviet Union. By 1940, only a small number of churches remained open. The early anti-religious campaigns under Lenin were mostly directed at the Russian Orthodox Church, as it was a symbol of the czarist government. In the 1930s however, all faiths were targeted: minority Christian denominations, Islam , Judaism , and Buddhism . During World War II state authorities eased pressures on Religion in Russia and stopped prosecuting

7623-422: The church. The Orthodox Church was, therefore, able to help the Soviet Army to defend Russia. Religions in former USSR republics revived and once again flourished after the fall of communism in the 1990s. As Paul Froese explains: According to 2012 official statistics, nearly 15% of ethnic Russians identify as atheist, and nearly 27% identify as unaffiliated. The Soviet Union authorities systematically promoted

7744-461: The country's industrial base. From 1928 to 1932, pig iron output, necessary for further development of the industrial infrastructure rose from 3.3 million to 6.2 million tons per year. Coal production , a basic fuel of modern economies and Stalinist industrialization , rose from 35.4 million to 64 million tons, and the output of iron ore rose from 5.7 million to 19 million tons. A number of industrial complexes such as Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk ,

7865-472: The delegates present at the 17th congress in 1934 were gone, and Stalin was heavily praised by Litvinov and the western democracies criticized for failing to adopt the principles of "collective security" against Nazi Germany. Two major lines of interpretation have emerged among historians. One argues that the purges reflected Stalin's ambitions, his paranoia, and his inner drive to increase his power and eliminate potential rivals. Revisionist historians explain

7986-527: The eastern cape. Along the Pacific coast (from north to south): Providensky District south of Chukotsky, southern Iultinsky District around Kresta Bay, and finally eastern Anadyrsky District at the Anadyr Estuary. Interior: The western quarter of the Okrug is Bilibinsky District, and the rest of the interior is Anadyrsky District. Population : 47,490 ( 2021 Census ) ; 50,526 ( 2010 Census ) ; 53,824 ( 2002 Census ) ; 157,528 ( 1989 Soviet census ) . The Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

8107-574: The end of 1937. The ghastly price paid by the peasantry has yet to be established with precision, but probably up to 5 million people died of persecution or starvation in these years. Ukrainians and Kazakhs suffered worse than most nations. In Ukraine alone, the number of people who died in the famines is now estimated to be 3.5 million. The USSR took over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940, which were lost to Germany in 1941, and then recovered in 1944. The collectivization of their farms began in 1948. Using terror, mass killings and deportations, most of

8228-453: The end of the Great Purge . 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 visited by U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace in May 1944. He took an instant liking to his NKVD host, admired handiwork done by

8349-418: The enslaved political prisoners, and later glowingly called the town a combination of Tennessee Valley Authority and Hudson's Bay Company . Magadan is the administrative centre 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

8470-451: The expectations, collectivization led to a catastrophic drop in farm productivity, which did not return to the levels achieved under the NEP until 1940. The upheaval associated with collectivization was particularly severe in Ukraine and the heavily Ukrainian Volga region . Peasants slaughtered their livestock en masse rather than give them up. In 1930 alone, 25% of the nation's cattle, sheep, and goats, and one-third of all pigs were killed. It

8591-463: The factory level. In 1929 7,000 Komsomol cadets were building the tractor factory in Stalingrad, 56,000 others built factories in the Urals, and 36,000 were assigned work underground in the coal mines. The goal was to provide an energetic hard-core of Bolshevik activists to influence their coworkers the factories and mines that were at the center of communist ideology. Komsomol adopted meritocratic, supposedly class-blind membership policies in 1935, but

8712-459: The far north-eastern coast and established winter quarters on the upstream portion of the Anadyr River that became the fortified settlement of Anadyrsk . Dezhnyov tried to subjugate the Chukchi and exact tribute during the next ten years, but was mostly unsuccessful. Eventually, the fort was abandoned, because of the harsh northern conditions and lack of game animals for food. At the end of

8833-469: The first generation free from the fear of typhus and cholera . The occurrences of these diseases dropped to record-low numbers and infant mortality rates were substantially reduced, resulting in the life expectancy for both men and women to increase by over 20 years by the mid-to-late 1950s. The Komsomol or Youth Communist League, was an entirely new youth organization designed by Lenin became an enthusiastic strike force that organized communism across

8954-651: The fledgling states there. However, Adolf Hitler 's foreign policy centered on a massive seizure of Central European, Eastern European, and Russian lands for Germany's own ends, and when Hitler pulled out of the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva in 1933, the threat hit home. Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov reversed Soviet policy regarding the Paris Peace Settlement, leading to a Franco-Soviet rapprochement. In May 1935,

9075-697: The former being for big aircraft and the latter is mainly for small aircraft. Magadan is also the home of the Magadan/Sokol Flight Information Region (FIR) and Magadan Oceanic FIR, which controls the Northeastern part of the Russia and its Arctic airspace. Most of the westbound transpacific flights from North America to Asia will use those FIRs. 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,

9196-400: The frozen rivers to connect regional settlements in a uniform network. The Anadyr Highway is under construction to link Chukotka to Magadan , and to connect the settlements of Anadyr, Bilibino , Komsomolsky and Egvekinot within Chukotka. In 2009, replacement of the emergency bridge through Loren River on the busy local road from Lavrentiya to Lorino (40 km (25 mi)) became

9317-561: The government only wanted the grain. Kulaks , prosperous peasants, were forcibly resettled to Kazakhstan , Siberia and the Russian Far North (a large portion of the kulaks served at forced labor camps). However, just about anyone opposing collectivization was deemed a "kulak". The policy of liquidation of kulaks as a class—formulated by Stalin at the end of 1929—meant some executions, and even more deportation to special settlements and, sometimes, to forced labor camps. Despite

9438-482: The highest number of hurricanes and storms in Russia. The coastal areas are windy with little precipitation, between 200 and 400 mm (7.9 and 15.7 in) per year. Temperature varies between −35 and −15 °C (−31 and 5 °F) in January, and between +5 and +14 °C (41 and 57 °F) in July. Growing season is short, lasting only 80 to 100 days per year. The first inhabitants were Paleo-Siberian hunters who came to Chukotka from Central and East Asia. The area

9559-401: The inhabitants during his time as governor from 2000 until 2008. In 2004, there were also reports, however, that Chukotka gave Abramovich's company Sibneft tax breaks in excess of US$ 450 million. On 13 July 2008, the deputies of the Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, during a secret ballot, unanimously approved Roman Kopin as governor, whose candidacy was submitted for consideration to

9680-513: The main event in transport in Chukotka. The main airport is Ugolny Airport near Anadyr . Coastal shipping also takes place, but ice prevents this for at least half the year. The legislative (representative) body of state power is the Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug . It consists of 15 deputies elected for a term of 5 years. As of 2016, it is represented by three factions: United Russia , LDPR , and CPRF . The current governor of Chukotka

9801-988: The main ones being the Kyttyk Peninsula , Cape Shelagsky , the Aachim Peninsula , the Chukchi Peninsula and Russkaya Koshka . There are also several islands belonging to Chukotka, from west to east the main ones being Ayon Island , Ryyanranot Island, Chengkuul Island, Mosey Island, the Routan Islands , Shalaurov Island , Wrangel Island , Herald Island , Kosa Dvukh Pilotov Island , Karkarpko Island , Kolyuchin Island , Serykh Gusey Islands , Idlidlya Island , Big Diomede Island , Ilir Island , Arakamchechen Island , Yttygran Island , Merokinkan Island, Achinkinkan Island and Kosa Meechkyn Island. Large parts of Chukotka are covered with moss, lichen, and arctic plants, similar to western Alaska. Surrounding

9922-504: The most enthusiastic and skilled membership. Under Stalin, the death penalty was also extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935. Urban women under Stalin, paralleling the modernization of western countries, were also the first generation of women able to give birth in a hospital with access to prenatal care. Education was another area in which there was improvement after economic development, also paralleling other western countries. The generation born during Stalin's rule

10043-407: The national consciousness of indigenous peoples and established institutional forms characteristic of a modern nation for them. In Central Asia the liberation of women was approached in the same revolutionary way as the assault on the religion. In 1927 the campaign against paranja (veil) started, called " hujum " (assault). However, it produced a massive backlash and paranja did not disappear until

10164-414: The national newspapers Pravda and Izvestia , there were numerous regional publications as well as newspapers and magazines and all the important languages. Ironclad uniformity of opinion was the norm during the Soviet era. Typewriters and printing presses were closely controlled until the late 1980s to prevent unauthorized publications. Samizdat illegal circulation of subversive fiction and nonfiction

10285-633: The northern parts of Khabarovsk Krai in 1953, Chukotka was administratively subordinated to the region. In 1991, Chukotka declared its separation to become a subject of the Russian Federation in its own right, a move that was confirmed by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in 1993. From 2001 to 2008, Roman Abramovich was the Governor of Chukotka. He invested billions of rubles , including his own money, into

10406-408: The old pre-1918 Bolsheviks were purged. Trotsky was expelled from the party in 1927, exiled to Kazakhstan in 1928, expelled from the USSR in 1929, and assassinated in 1940. Stalin used the purges to politically and physically destroy his other formal rivals (and former allies) accusing Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev of being behind Kirov's assassination and planning to overthrow Stalin. Ultimately,

10527-580: The pact with Hitler, Stalin in 1939–1940 annexed half of Poland, the three Baltic States, and Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia in Romania. They no longer were buffers separating the USSR from German areas, argues Louis Fischer. Rather they facilitated Hitler's rapid advance to the gates of Moscow. Propaganda was also considered an important foreign relations tool. International exhibitions, the distribution of media such as films, e.g.: Alexander Nevski , as well as inviting prominent foreign individuals to tour

10648-504: The peasantry was collectivized by 1952. Agricultural production fell dramatically in all the other Soviet Republics. In the period of rapid industrialization and mass collectivization preceding World War II, Soviet employment figures experienced exponential growth. 3.9 million jobs per annum were expected by 1923, but the number actually climbed to an astounding 6.4 million. By 1937, the number rose yet again, to about 7.9 million. Finally, in 1940 it reached 8.3 million. Between 1926 and 1930,

10769-663: The peasants did everything they could in the way of sabotage. They cultivated far smaller portions of their land and worked much less. The scale of the Ukrainian famine has led many Ukrainian scholars to argue that there was a deliberate policy of genocide against the Ukrainian people. Other scholars argue that the massive death totals were an inevitable result of a very poorly planned operation against all peasants, who had given little support to Lenin or Stalin. Almost 99% of all cultivated land had been pulled into collective farms by

10890-593: The people arrested were tortured and forced to confess to being spies and saboteurs, and quickly convicted and executed. Several show trials were held in Moscow, to serve as examples for the trials that local courts were expected to carry out elsewhere in the country. There were four key trials from 1936 to 1938, The Trial of the Sixteen was the first (December 1936); then the Trial of the Seventeen (January 1937); then

11011-483: The prosecutors were tried and executed. The secret police were renamed the NKVD and control given to Nikolai Yezhov , known as the "Bloody Dwarf". The "Great Purge" swept the Soviet Union in 1937. It was widely known as the "Yezhovschina", the "Reign of Yezhov". The rate of arrests was staggering. In the armed forces alone, 34,000 officers were purged, including many at the higher ranks. The entire Politburo and most of

11132-529: The public—despite few Soviet citizens being able to afford a car—and the expansion of steel production and other industrial materials made the manufacture of a greater number of cars possible. Car and truck production, for example, reached 200,000 in 1931. A minimum wage of 110–115 rubles was established in 1937; private gardens were allowed for one million workers to farm in their private plots. Even so, most Soviet workers lived in crowded communal housings and dormitories and suffered from extreme poverty. Most of

11253-502: The purges by theorizing that rival factions exploited Stalin's paranoia and used terror to enhance their own position. Peter Whitewood examines the first purge, directed at the Army, and comes up with a third interpretation that: Stalin and other top leaders, assuming that they were always surrounded by enemies, always worried about the vulnerability and loyalty of the Red Army. It was not a ploy – Stalin truly believed it. “Stalin attacked

11374-623: The region include Chukotka Mining and Geological Company ( Kinross Gold ), Severnoye zoloto, Mayskoye Gold Mining Company ( Polymetal ), FSUE Chukotsnab. In April 2022, Kinross announced that it was selling 100% of its Russian assets following other international companies obliged to exit the Russian economy. Chukotka is mostly roadless and air travel is the main mode of passenger transport. There are local permanent roads between some settlements (e.g. Egvekinot - Iultin (200 km (124 mi))). When cold enough, winter roads are constructed on

11495-420: The region would continue. In the period 2000–2006 the average salaries in Chukotka increased from about US$ 165 (€117/£100) per month in 2000 to US$ 826 (€588/£500) per month in 2006. On 11 July 2008, Dmitry Medvedev nominated Roman Kopin to be the governor. On 13 July, the local legislators unanimously confirmed Kopin as the next governor of Chukotka. As of 2023, Vladislav Kuznetsov is the current governor of

11616-531: The region. The growing season is only one hundred days long. The city of Magadan is on the same longitude as the suburbs of Greater Western Sydney , Australia , which lie on the eastern end of the 150th meridian east line, bordering the 151st meridian and is on the same latitude as Southern Scandinavia , and the far north of Scotland . 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

11737-406: The result was a decline in working class youth members, and a dominance by the better educated youth. A new social hierarchy emerged as young professionals and students joined the Soviet elite, displacing proletarians. Komsomol's membership policies in the 1930s reflected the broader nature of Stalinism, combining Leninist rhetoric about class-free progress with Stalinist pragmatism focused on getting

11858-476: The secret police of opposing Stalin's regime became commonplace. By the NKVD's own count, 681,692 people were shot during 1937–1938 alone, and hundreds of thousands of political prisoners were transported to Gulag work camps. The mass terror and purges were little known to the outside world, and some western intellectuals and fellow travellers continued to believe that the Soviets had created a successful alternative to

11979-432: The sharp decrease in unemployment, which dropped in real terms by 50% from 1928 to 1940. With wages artificially depressed, the state could afford to employ far more workers than would be financially viable in a market economy. Several ambitious extraction projects were begun that endeavored to supply raw materials for both military hardware and consumer goods. The Moscow and Gorky automobile plants produced automobiles for

12100-426: The socio-economic status of women. Women were notably recruited as clerks for the expanding department stores , resulting in a "feminization" of department stores as the number of female sales staff rose from 45 percent of the total sales staff in 1935 to 62 percent of the total sales staff in 1938. This was in part due to a propaganda campaign launched in 1931 which linked femininity with "culture" and asserted that

12221-551: 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 . The Port of Magadan is the second largest seaport in the North-East of Russia after Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky located on Nagaev Bay and Sea of Okhotsk . It operates all year round with the help of icebreakers. There is currently no operating railway in Magadan. However,

12342-442: The top communist leaders in the 1920s and 1930s had been propagandists or editors before 1917, and were keenly aware of the importance of propaganda. As soon as they gained power in 1917 they seized the monopoly of all communication media, and greatly expanded their propaganda apparatus in terms of newspapers, magazines and pamphlets. Radio became a powerful tool in the 1930s. Stalin, for example, has been an editor of Pravda . Besides

12463-584: The trade routes to the Urals, Siberia, and Central Asia opened for travel and traders and Cossacks moved eastwards. The Cossacks built forts in strategic locations and subjected the indigenous people to the Tsar. During the first half of the 17th century, Russians reached the far north-east. In 1641, the first reference to Chukchi people was made by the Cossacks. In 1649, Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnyov explored

12584-644: The trial of Red Army generals, including Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky (June 1937); and finally the Trial of the Twenty One (including Bukharin ) in March 1938. During these, the defendants typically confessed to sabotage, spying, counter-revolution, and conspiring with Germany and Japan to invade and partition the Soviet Union. The initial trials in 1935–1936 were carried out by the OGPU under Genrikh Yagoda . In turn

12705-506: The urban population increased by 30 million. Unemployment had been a problem in late Imperial Russia and even under the NEP, but it ceased being a major factor after the implementation of Stalin's massive industrialization program. The sharp mobilization of resources used in order to industrialize the heretofore agrarian society created a massive need for labor; unemployment virtually dropped to zero. Wage setting by Soviet planners also contributed to

12826-485: The war, geologists discovered large reserves of gold that would be mined in the 1950s. The Chukotka National Okrug (later Autonomous Okrug) was created in 1930 and was originally subordinated to Far Eastern Krai . In 1932, Kamchatka Oblast was created within the Far Eastern Krai (later Khabarovsk Krai ) and was given jurisdiction over Chukotka from 1932 to 1953. Since the formation of Magadan Oblast from

12947-601: The west by the Sakha Republic . The Chukchi Peninsula projects eastward forming the Bering Strait between Siberia and the Alaska Peninsula , and encloses the north side of the Gulf of Anadyr . The peninsula's easternmost point, Cape Dezhnev , is also the easternmost point of mainland Russia. Ecologically, Chukotka can be divided into three distinct areas: the northern Arctic desert, the central tundra , and

13068-529: The wider Soviet polity. Historians often cite the disruption as factors in its disastrous military performance during the German invasion. The Soviet government had forfeited foreign-owned private companies during the creation of the RSFSR and the USSR. Foreign investors did not receive any monetary or material compensation. The USSR also refused to pay tsarist-era debts to foreign debtors. The young Soviet polity

13189-515: Was 127 million tons, pig iron 14.5 million tons, and there had been very rapid development of the armaments industry. While making a massive leap in industrial capacity, the First Five Year Plan was extremely harsh on industrial workers; quotas were difficult to fulfill, requiring that miners put in 16- to 18-hour workdays. Failure to fulfill quotas could result in treason charges. Working conditions were poor, even hazardous. Due to

13310-437: Was a major transit centre for political prisoners sent to forced labour camps. From 1932 to 1953, it was the administrative centre of the Dalstroy organisation—a vast forced-labour gold-mining operation and forced-labour camp system. The first director of Dalstroy was Eduard Berzin , who between 1932 and 1937 established the infrastructure of the forced labour camps in Magadan. Berzin was executed in 1938 by Stalin, towards

13431-515: Was a pariah because of its openly stated goal of supporting the overthrow of capitalistic governments. It sponsored workers' revolts to overthrow numerous capitalistic European states, but they all failed. Lenin reversed radical experiments and restored a sort of capitalism with the NEC. The Comintern was ordered to stop organizing revolts. Starting in 1921 Lenin sought trade, loans and recognition. One by one, foreign states reopened trade lines and recognized

13552-496: Was brutally suppressed. The rare exceptions to 100% uniformity in the official media were indicators of high-level battles. The Soviet draft constitution of 1936 was an instance. Pravda and Trud (the paper for manual workers) praised the draft constitution. However Izvestiia was controlled by Nikolai Bukharin and it published negative letters and reports. Bukharin won out and the party line changed and started to attack "Trotskyite" oppositionists and traitors. Bukharin's success

13673-476: Was concluded in 1778 in which the Chukchi were exempted from paying yasak . That same year, British Captain James Cook made an exploration of Cape North (now Cape Schmidt ) and Providence Bay . Anxious that other European powers would occupy the area, Tsaritsa Catherine II ordered the exploration and mapping of the area. Starting in 1785, an expedition led by Joseph Billings and Gavril Sarychev mapped

13794-513: Was divided up with Germany, Stalin made territorial demands to Finland, claiming security needs regarding the protection of Leningrad. After the Finns refused the demands, the Soviets invaded Finland on 30 November 1939, launching the Winter War , with the goal of annexing Finland into the Soviet Union. Despite outnumbering Finnish troops by over 2.5:1, the war proved embarrassingly difficult for

13915-430: Was granted gold, iron, and graphite mining rights in the entire Chukotka between 1902 and 1912. Wrangel Island in particular was subject to claims by the United States and Canada. In 1916, the Russians officially claimed the uninhabited island. But in 1921, Canadian Vilhjalmur Stefansson made a serious attempt to claim it for Canada by populating it and building a small settlement. Another contingent arrived in 1923 but

14036-483: Was legalized before Stalin came to power, was banned in 1936 after controversial debate among citizens. Women's issues were also largely ignored by the government. Stalinist development also contributed to advances in health care, which marked a massive improvement over the Imperial era. Stalin's policies granted the Soviet people access to free health care and education . Widespread immunization programs created

14157-427: Was not until the 1980s that the Soviet livestock numbers would return to their 1928 level. Government bureaucrats, who had been given a rudimentary education on farming techniques, were dispatched to the countryside to "teach" peasants the new ways of socialist agriculture, relying largely on theoretical ideas that had little basis in reality. Even after the state inevitably won and succeeded in imposing collectivization,

14278-419: Was relieved of all powers in 1939, then tried and executed in 1940. His successor as head of the NKVD (from 1938 to 1945) was Lavrentiy Beria , a Georgian friend of Stalin's. Arrests and executions continued into 1952, although nothing on the scale of the Yezhovschina ever happened again. During this period, the practice of mass arrest, torture, and imprisonment or execution without trial, of anyone suspected by

14399-564: Was short-lived; he was arrested in 1937, given a show trial and executed. Industrial workers needed to be educated in order to be competitive and so embarked on a program contemporaneous with industrialization to greatly increase the number of schools and the general quality of education. In 1927, 7.9 million students attended 118,558 schools. By 1933, the number rose to 9.7 million students in 166,275 schools. In addition, 900 specialist departments and 566 institutions were built and fully operational by 1933. Literacy rates increased substantially as

14520-592: Was the first near-universally literate generation. Some engineers were sent abroad to learn industrial technology, and hundreds of foreign engineers were brought to Russia on contract. Transport links were also improved, as many new railways were built, although with forced labour, costing thousands of lives. Workers who exceeded their quotas, Stakhanovites , received many incentives for their work, although many such workers were in fact "arranged" to succeed by receiving extreme help in their work, and then their achievements were used for propaganda. The systematic attacks on

14641-570: Was then part of the Beringia land bridge that is thought to have enabled human migration to the Americas. Traditionally, Chukotka was the home of the native Chukchi people , Siberian Yupiks , Koryaks , Chuvans , Evens / Lamuts , Yukaghirs , and Inuit . As of 1930, the population was primarily Chukchi. After the Russians conquered the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates in the 16th century,

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