Sovetskaya Gavan

The first information about some closed bay, located on the coast of the Tatar Strait south of De-Kastri, was obtained by members of the Amur expedition in the spring of 1852 on Lake Kizi from the local Orochi, who called the bay Hodyo or Hodjo. Subsequently, the distorted name Khadzhi stuck to it in Russian. The bay immediately interested the commander of the Amur expedition G. I. Nevelsky as a potential base of the navy, where the ships could hide from a possible attack by the enemy's fleet. The latter, taking into account the complication of Russian-English relations and the increased activity of the British fleet in the Far East, was quite realistic. At first two ways of searching for Khadzhi were considered - overland (via rivers flowing down from Sikhote-Alin and flowing into the bay) and sea; because of riskiness of the first way Nevelskoy chose the second.

Lieutenant of the Russian Imperial Navy N.K. Boshnyak, who was sent by Nevelsky to search for the sea route to the bay, became the discoverer of Khadzhi Bay. He was accompanied by three companions - two Cossacks and a Yakut interpreter. It happened on May 23 (June 4), 1853. On the shores of the bay, Boshnyak counted about 50 orochs, who lived in 10 dwellings, scattered in 5 places on the shores of the bays of the bay. The discoverer named the bay the Emperor Nicholas I Harbor (the name was later shortened to Imperial Harbor). He named the coves of the bay after members of the imperial family. He deliberately made this decision because many people close to Nicholas I, including Minister of Foreign Affairs K. V. Nesselrode, had a negative attitude to the exploration of new Far-Eastern territories.. On one of the capes, later named after Grand Duchess Anastasia, was installed a wooden cross, on which was mounted a plaque with the inscription: "The harbor of the Emperor Nicholas was discovered and described by Lieutenant Boshnyak May 23, 1853, on a native boat, with companions Cossacks Semyon Parfentiev, Kir Belokhvostov, Amgin peasant Ivan Moseyev.. An official letter in Russian, German, and French was handed to the local Orochi, stating that Imperial Harbor belonged to Russia.

On August 4 (16), 1853 Nevelskoy arrived in the Imperial Harbor on the transport "Baikal" himself, wishing to participate personally in the creation of the first Russian settlement in the newly discovered bay. On his order in one of the bays (Boshnyak called it Konstantinovskaya, later it was named Postovoy) was exhibited "military of His Imperial Highness Admiral-General Grand Duke Konstantin post", headed by the squadron officer D. Khoroshih. On October 7, 1853 N. K. Boshnyak, appointed by Nevelsky as the first chief of the Konstantinovsky post, arrived in the harbor again.

During the winter of 1853-1854 in the bay remained to winter crews transports "Irtysh" and "Nicholas I", a total of about 90 people. The first wintering of Russians in the Imperial Harbor was tragic: from poor nutrition, cold and scurvy in Konstantinovsky post and on the ships 29 people died. Nevelskoy, who, in his turn, ordered this unprepared wintering, later tried to shift the blame for the loss of life onto N.V. Busse (who allegedly did not share food and did not replace the sick crew of the transport "Irtysh" when it was in the Muravyevsky post roadstead). To this end, he personally made changes, accusing the postmaster as if on behalf of Lieutenant Boshnyak, in the memoirs of the latter, published in the Maritime Collection. As it soon became clear, the magazine's editorial board instructed Nevelsky only "to review Mr. Boshnyak's article and give his opinion of it. N.V.Busse in his letter to the editor, printed in No.7 for 1860The first time the commander of the "Irtysh" presented his own version of the events, which fully exonerated him, presenting as evidence the original report of the commander of the "Irtysh". However, many years later Nevelskoy expounded his fabrications in chapter XXIV of the book "Deeds of Russian Naval Officers in the Far East of Russia" (published posthumously in 1878 and, thanks to the authority of the author, is still considered a reliable source of information).

In 1887, a memorial sign was erected to commemorate the victims, and its location was subsequently changed four times. In 2016, a new monument was erected in the village of Zavety Ilyicha to those who died of scurvy, on which they are listed by name.

On May 22, 1854 the frigate "Pallada" and the steam schooner "Vostok", which met the "Pallada" at the entrance to the Tatar Strait, entered the harbor. The commander of the "Vostok" delivered to Vice-Admiral E. Putyatin, who was on the "Pallada". Vostok's commander officially informed Vice-Admiral E. V. Putyatin that England and France had declared war on Russia: from the arrived ships they learned about the beginning of the Crimean War at the Konstantinovsky post. In the vicinity of Postovaya Bay was cut wood, began the construction of two batteries, to reflect the attack of the enemy fleet, which could appear at any time. Putyatin personally supervised the construction of batteries. Lieutenant Colonel K. I. Losev, senior gunner of the Pallada, helped him, and together with the sailors he built parapets with embrasures, equipped the berths for the guns.

On June 28, 1854 the Pallada left Imperial Harbor, planning to arrive to Nikolaevsk via the Amur estuary. After unsuccessful attempts to do the latter in late September 1854 the Pallada returned to the harbor for wintering, where she was guarded by a crew of 10 men led by bosman V. Sinitsyn. In March 1855 a new chief of Konstantinovsky post, the member of the Amur expedition ensign D.S. Kuznetsov, who took over the post from V. Sinitsyn, arrived in Postovaya Bay.

In the spring of 1856 by order of the chief of the land and sea forces of the Amur region V. С. Zavoyko the frigate "Pallada" was sunk, so that it would not get to the enemy. After that Konstantinovsky post was removed, its chief D. S. Kuznetsov and his subordinates left the Imperial Harbor.

In May 1856, after the end of the Crimean War, a British squadron entered the Imperial Harbor left by the Russians: the steamship "HMS Barracouta", frigates "HMS Pique" and "HMS Sybille". The squadron stayed in the bay for about ten days; before leaving, the British burned down all the structures of the Konstantinovsky post. In mid-July 1856, the British returned again to map the coast of the bay. The bay itself was named "Barracuda Harbor" (Eng. Barracouta Harbour) - in honor of the British steamship. Many other geographic sites were also given English names, mostly in honor of the crew members of the Barracuda.

In 1857 Konstantinovsky post was restored and operated until 1903.

On November 2 (14), 1860 was signed the Treaty of Beijing, which officially assigned the land east of the Amur River, including the territory of the Imperial Harbor, to Russia. Prior to that the Imperial Harbor was formally located on the territory undivided between Russia and China.

At the end of the 19th century, a lighthouse, one of the oldest on the Pacific coast of Russia, was built on a promontory at the entrance to the bay. After the revolution, the Bolsheviks renamed the lighthouse "Krasny Partizan" in memory of the Bolshevik partisans shot here in the Civil War. Not far from the lighthouse there was also a monument.

The territory of the modern city began to be actively developed in the 1900s in connection with the activities of loggers and fishermen. In early October 1906 engineer Pülkkenen won the bidding to sell 2 million logs from the Terney Bay area (including from the Imperial Harbor), signed a 4-year contract with the Office of State Property and began building a timber mill in the Imperial Harbor. However, the larch planks that Pülkkenen tried to sell in Shanghai turned out to be of poor quality, and their sale did not justify the entrepreneur's expenses for the construction of the timber mill. This forced Pülkkenen to abandon the concession, transferring it to the British Oriental Timber Corporation Ltd. In 1907, Harold Crofton Slay, an Australian entrepreneur, was sent by the Oriental Timber Society to Imperial Harbor, where he bought a steam mill and harvested timber from Pülkkenen. In addition, Slay contracted to remove 400,000 more timbers from Imperial Harbor over three years. The company spent more than 300 thousand rubles on the arrangement of the concession: with this money, administrative buildings and residential buildings were built on the shores of Okocha Bay. By 1910 the society's total expenses for the Imperial Harbor enterprise amounted to more than one million rubles, of which 517.5 thousand rubles were spent on workers' wages. The Australians took only about 230,000 logs out of Imperial Harbor, not covering even 33 % of expenses. Because of this, in 1911, Slay petitioned to extend the logging contract to 12 years and fully legalize the production activities of the Oriental Logging Society in Russia. However, the Russian administration did not grant his petition, after which the Australians refused to conduct business on the former conditions.

At the end of August 1908, V.K. Arsenyev visited Imperial Harbour in the framework of the Jubilee Expedition of the Priamursk department of the IRGO. One of the most important tasks of the expedition was to find the shortest summer route from Khabarovsk to the Emperor's Harbour. Also the expedition was charged with describing and determining areas, suitable for resettlement, topographing them, determining soil composition and depth, collecting statistical information about population in the area, finding out availability of roads, paths and other means of communication. An important task was also ethnographic research, primarily the study of the Udegei and Orochi. The members of the expedition stayed in the harbor for about two weeks at rest, after which they left it. The expedition returned to the harbor in the summer of 1909. From August to October 1909 Arsenyev surveyed the basins of the surrounding rivers Khadya, Tutto, Ma, Uy and Zhuanka.

By 1912, a settlement was formed around the timber plant, which was called Znamenskoe. It consisted of three settlements located on the banks of Mayachnaya Bay, Yaponskaya Bay (now Kuriksha Bay) and Kontsesiya (now Okocha Bay).

On October 27, 1914 in Znamenskoe (at that time it was part of the Kkhutsinskaya volost of the Olginsky Uyezd, Primorsky Region) a postal and telegraph office with reception of domestic and international telegrams was opened. A telegraph line was extended from De-Kastri to Imperial Harbor.

In 1919 there were four fisheries operated by Russian entrepreneurs in the Imperial Harbor area - in Lososina Bay, Olga Bay, Alexander Bay (now Severnaya), and near Menshikov Peninsula, as well as the aforementioned Australian concession in Okocha Bay. Two lighthouses with attendants were in operation: the Nikolaev Lighthouse at Cape St. Nicholas and another lighthouse at the entrance to the bay.

On April 5, 1919, a guerrilla unit commanded by Peter Kuriksha entered Imperial Harbor. The guerrillas arrested local policemen, seized an Australian concession, and shot several people from the administration and businessmen. The head of the local post office managed to request help by telegraph, and in May 1919 the steamship "Blaster" arrived from Vladivostok. The White Guards landed from it, which, after a brief battle, knocked out the Reds. Peter Kuriksha and partisans of his detachment (the core group consisted of employees of the Nikolaev Lighthouse) were shot by the White Guards near the lighthouse: in 1926 the lighthouse received the new name "Red Partisan").

On April 6, 1920 the Far Eastern Republic was proclaimed on the territory of the Russian Far East, which included the Primorsky region and with it the Imperial Harbor. However, in fact the harbor continued to remain under the control of the White Guards, who did not recognize the FAR.

In April 1922 the 1st Expeditionary Red partisan detachment under the command of V. S. arrived in the village of Znamenskoye from Olga. С. Kolesnichenko in number of 45 people. The headquarters of the detachment was located in the building of the post and telegraph office. A meeting of the villagers was held, during which the majority of Znamenski residents demanded the departure of the detachment, but Kolesnichenko and the Commissar of the detachment G.P. Kharchuk managed to change the residents' minds. The Soviet power was established in Imperial Harbor, and by the order of the partisan detachment Harbor was renamed Sovetskaya..

Throughout 1922, Kolesnichenko's detachment defended the harbor coast from the White Guards. The first clash occurred with the beginning of navigation, at the end of May: the White ship was forced to leave without engaging in combat. This was followed by clashes with the White units near the villages of Znamenskoye, Grossewichi, and near the Kazimirov barracks. At the end of September 1922 the Whites landed in Soviet Harbor, under the blows of which the detachment Kolesnichenko withdrew from Soviet Harbor to join the main guerrilla forces. Eventually the partisans managed to defeat the White landing force on the Samarga River. It was the last attempt of the Whites to gain control of Soviet Harbor, and after its failure the Soviet regime was finally established in the city.

November 15, 1922 DVR was dissolved. Its constituent territories became part of the RSFSR as the Far Eastern Region. Primorskaya oblast, which included Imperatorskaya Gavan, was transformed into Primorskaya gubernia, centered in Vladivostok.

On February 19, 1923, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree officially naming the harbor Sovetskaya. In the same year of 1923, the Znamensky Village Council was formed. By that time Znamenskoe was quite a large village with about 80 houses.

In 1925, the Sovietsky District was formed as part of Primorsky Province, centered in Znamensky.

In 1926 the Far East underwent an administrative-territorial reform. The Primorsky Province, along with three other provinces, was abolished and became part of the newly formed Far Eastern Territory (FEFK). The region was divided into districts, one of which was the Khabarovsk district - the Soviet district was included in the latter.

In 1927 a complex expedition of the Far Eastern Resettlement Department led by V. K. Arsenyev took the route Sovetskaya Gavan - Khabarovsk, which was engaged in searching for a route for the railroad between these cities.

In the 1930s, the village of Znamenskoye was transformed into the Sovetskaya Gavan workers' settlement. In the same year, Khabarovsk district was abolished, and the Soviet district, renamed Sovetsko-Gavansky, became directly subordinated to the Far Eastern Federal District. By that time in the village were established four fish processing plants, three fishermen's collective farms, Sovetskoye lespromkhoz, Sovsko-Gavanskiy woodworking plant, and the national collective farm "Oroch". In 1932, the first issue of the town newspaper Sovetsko-Orochskaya Zvezda (later called Sovetskaya Zvezda) was published.

On October 20, 1932 as part of the DVK was formed Primorskaya oblast with its center in Vladivostok. Sovetsko-Gavansky district was included in it.

In 1933, on the shore of Lososina Bay was founded fish factory "Sovgavan", later reorganized in Sovgavan oceanic fishing base (SBOR). SBOR was one of the largest fishing enterprises of the USSR - it employed up to 3 thousand people. Since 1969, after the allocation of the settlement of Lososina from the city limits, the SBOR is located on its territory.

In 1934, the construction of plant No. 263, later called the Northern Ship Repair Plant (SSRZ), began. In 1937, the construction was completed, and the first steamship was repaired at the plant. The construction of the mill, the Far East special-purpose power plant, and the seaport began.

In 1934, in Sovetskaya Gavan, then a frontier town (on the other side of the Tatar Strait was the Japanese part of Sakhalin), began to create a fortified area. In that year the first two coastal batteries - No. 908, No. 909 - were put into operation. They were erected urgently, of lightweight type, armed with four 152-mm Kane guns each. These batteries could not be sufficiently effective against artillery ships of heavy cruiser class and above, so in 1938 on Cape Vesely started to build coastal battery № 925 caliber 180-mm..

On October 20, 1938 the DVK was divided into Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais. Sovetskaya Gavan, as part of the Primorsky Region, became part of Primorsky Krai. Already in 1939 the Primorskaya oblast was abolished, and Sovetsko-Gavansky district became directly subordinated to the krai authorities.

In 1940, the Soviet-Gavan fortified area was transformed into the Soviet-Gavan naval base of the Northern Pacific Flotilla.

January 18, 1941 the village of Sovetskaya Gavan received the status of a city.

On May 21, 1943 the USSR State Defense Committee issued a decree on the construction of the railway line Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Pivan) - Soviet Harbor and a seaport in Vanin Bay, which was still to be built. Thousands of prisoners of Stalin's penal labor camps were thrown into the construction of the railroad along the Khungari River in the foothills of the Sikhote Alin.. On October 8, 1943 the Far Eastern Shipping Company approved the staff schedule of the "Vanino port point", the actual work of Vanino port began a year later, in 1944. In 1945, the Komsomolsk-Sovetskaya Gavan road was completed. The first passenger train came to Sovetskaya Gavan in 1947.

In August 1945 during the military campaign against Japan a landing was made from Soviet Harbor in the port of Maoka on South Sakhalin. After South Sakhalin was annexed to the Soviet Union, Coastal Battery No. 925 was no longer needed: first it was mothballed, and in 1972 it was closed down.

In 1946, a construction organization was formed in the city, began construction of the first stone buildings: houses on the main street of the city - Seaside (now Lenin), the school № 1 (now - building interschool educational complex) and city hospitals (now - building health services). Japanese prisoners of war worked on many construction sites in the city.

The importance of Soviet Harbor has increased dramatically since the summer of 1946, after the port facilities in Nakhodka were destroyed by the explosion of the steamer "Dalstroy". On February 17th, 1947 the USSR Council of Ministers issued a decree that made Vanino port the main civilian port of the Soviet Far East. By the same decree, the port was transferred from the Ministry of the Navy to the Dalstroy.

In May 1948, the first civilian aircraft - an aircraft PO-2 with mail and one passenger on board - landed at the airfield of the 42nd Aviation Regiment. From that time regular flights between Sovetskaya Gavan and other cities of the Far East began.

September 15, 1948 issued a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR "On the transfer of the city of Sovetskaya Gavan from Primorsky Krai to the Khabarovsk Krai..

In 1950-1953 in the city was the Construction Department 508, and in 1953-1954 - Ulminlag. By 1953 the Sovetskaya Gavan-Sortirovochnaya - Sovetskaya Gavan-city railroad line was built by prisoners.

In 1954-1956 in Sovetskaya Gavan the House of Culture was built in the style of Soviet neoclassicism.

On June, 5 1958 the Khabarovsk Regional Executive Committee passed a resolution: "About Vanino township separation from the Soviet Gavan town limits and its relegation to the category of workers settlements". Thus the settlement Vanino (which included a housing estate of the timber plant, which in 1985 became a separate village) became an independent settlement.

In 1959, the settlements of Maisky and Oktyabrsky were removed from Sovetskaya Gavan, and in 1960 - the urban-type settlement Zavety Ilyicha.

In 1966, a museum of local history appeared in the city (now the district museum of local history named after N. K. Boshnyak)..

In 1969, the village of Lososina was removed from the city.

In 1973, the Vanino District was established with its center in the village of Vanino, which absorbed most of the territory of the Sovetsko-Gavansky District. Since then the boundaries of the city and the district have not changed.

In the 1980s, a number of ambitious projects were launched to build new large shipbuilding enterprises in the city, mainly for military purposes. In particular, there were plans to build the largest shipyard in the USSR, the Pallada (named after the sailing frigate sunk in Sovetskaya Gavan Bay), focused on building nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, as well as a number of auxiliary productions (the Priboy plant). In this regard, it was planned to expand the city to increase its population to 220 thousand people, which would make Sovetskaya Gavan the third city in the region in terms of population after Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. To carry out these works in 1981, the Construction Department № 106 was created in the city. In 10 years, global landscaping works were performed and construction of residential and industrial buildings began, but due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing economic crisis, the project was minimized.

In the early 1990s, the first joint Russian-Japanese timber-processing venture, Vanino-Tayriku, was established in Sovetskaya Gavan..

In 1993, the first foreign-flagged vessel entered the Soviet-Gavan port; before that, the port had the status of a closed.

In 1997, the first product that received an international quality certificate, released the fish processing enterprise LLC "Vostokryba".

In 1999, construction of the Lidoga-Vanino freeway began, which should connect the city and other settlements of the bay area with the all-Russian motor transport network. In 2001, through traffic was opened along the route. Construction completed on October 30, 2017.

In 2000, Sovetskaya Gavan port received international status. In the same year the ship repair enterprises started fulfilling orders for modernization of the equipment used in the development of the Sakhalin Island oil shelf..

On July 22, 2002, one of the two city-forming enterprises, the Northern Ship Repair Plant, was finally declared bankrupt..

From 2003 to 2005 in the city opened a branch of Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard - the plant "Pallada", was repaired oil rig "Orlan". Production of building materials was resumed, production of building stone was started on the basis of the quarry "Sovetskiy"..

Prior to 2004, the entire district constituted a single municipality, the City of Sovetskaya Gavan with the Sovetskaya Gavan District.. Under the Khabarovsk Krai Law No.208 of July 28, 2004 "On conferring the status of urban and rural settlement and demarcation of boundaries" a separate municipal entity was established in each of the settlements in the region. The town became the administrative center and the only inhabited locality of the Urban Settlement "Sovetskaya Gavan"..

In November 2007, the city opened the first private fish breeding plant in Khabarovsk Krai with a capacity of 15 million salmon fry per year..

On December 31, 2009 the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on creation of a port special economic zone (SEPZ) in the port of Sovetskaya Gavan was signed.. The SEPZ existed for seven years, during which time not a single resident was registered on its territory. As a result, according to Decree No. 978 of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 28, 2016, the Sovetsko-Gavanskaya SEPZ ceased to exist.

In 2012, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree that provided for the construction of several new power plants in the Far East, including the Sovgavanskaya CHPP, designed to replace the obsolete Mayskaya TPP and inefficient city boilers, as well as solve the problem of lack of hot water in the homes of citizens during the summer.. In June 2013, PJSC RusHydro established JSC CHPP in Sovetskaya Gavan, and in December 2014 concreting of foundations for the framework of the main building of the CHPP under construction began. Subsequently, the construction of the cogeneration plant was significantly behind schedule, in particular due to the change in the general designer at the end of 2015.. At present, the construction of the CHPP is almost completely completed - commissioning work is being carried out at the plant, and the laying of the heating pipeline from the CHPP to Sovetskaya Gavan is nearing completion. The power plant is scheduled to be launched in September 2020. City officials pin hopes of attracting new investors to Sovetskaya Gavan on completion of the power plant.

On July 4, 2018, President Putin signed a bill extending the Free Port of Vladivostok regime to the Sovetsko-Gavansky District. In August of the same year the first application for the status of a free port resident in Sovgavan was submitted by Bunker Port LLC, which intended to reconstruct the infrastructure of Sovetskaya Gavan port..

In October 2019, the last dock of the "Yakor" ship repair plant in Primorye was sold. Thus, ship repair in Sovetskaya Gavan has completely ceased to exist.