Pevek (English) Певек (Russian)
-  Town[1]  -
View of Pevek from the south
Location of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Russia
Pevek Location of Pevek in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Coordinates: 69°42′00″N 170°17′00″E / 69.7°N 170.2833333°E / 69.7; 170.2833333Coordinates: 69°42′00″N 170°17′00″E / 69.7°N 170.2833333°E / 69.7; 170.2833333
Coat of Arms of Pevek
Administrative status (as of May 2011)
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Chukotka Autonomous Okrug[1]
Administrative district	Chaunsky District[2]
Municipal status (as of October 2010)
Municipal district	Chaunsky Municipal District[3]
Urban settlement	Pevek Urban Settlement[3]
Administrative center of	Pevek Urban Settlement[3]
Head of Administration[4]	Alexander Garnazhenko[4]
Statistics
Population (2010 Census, preliminary)	4,161 inhabitants[5]
Population (2002 Census)	5,206 inhabitants[6]
Time zone	MAGT (UTC+12:00)[7]
Founded	1936[8]
Postal code(s)	689400[4]
Dialing code(s)	+7 42737[4]
Official website

Pevek (Russian: Певек) is an Arctic port town and the administrative center of Chaunsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on Chaunskaya Bay (part of the East Siberian Sea) on a peninsula on the eastern side of the bay facing the Routan Islands, above the Arctic Circle, about 640 kilometers (400 mi) northwest of Anadyr. It is the northernmost town in Russia and in Asia. Population: 4,161 (2010 Census preliminary results);^[5] 5,206 (2002 Census);^[6] 12,915 (1989 Census).^[9]

Municipally, the town is subordinated to Chaunsky Municipal District and together with Apapelgino and Yanranay is incorporated as Pevek Urban Settlement.^[3] The town is a modern settlement established after World War I to provide a port for the export of minerals as part of the expanding Northern Sea Route. During the 1940s and 1950s, the area surrounding Pevek was the site of several GULAGs where prisoners mined uranium. In recent years though many of the mines have been shown to be uneconomic and have closed, causing many residents to move to more central regions in Russia and for the port infrastructure to decay.

History [link]

18th and 19th centuries [link]

The area around Pevek was known to western Russians by the middle of the 18th century as the records of the second Kamchatka Expedition document the discovery of Cape Shelag, with further references to the cape being made in the records of the Billings expedition, with Russian explorers first describing Chaunskaya Bay in the 1760s.^[8]

20th century [link]

The earliest records of the area now known as Pevek being inhabited were made by the writer Tikhon Semushkin, who discovered a Chukchi hunting lodge and yaranga in 1926. By the mid-1930s, Pevek was an important port in the region, due to the natural harbour provided by Chaunskaya Bay, the expansion of the Northern Sea Route and the discovery of tin at the Pyrkakay mine (which would later be renamed Krasnoarmeysky) some 40 miles away.^[8] The discovery of minerals throughout this region meant Pevek had an important part to play in importing the required plant and machinery and exporting the extracted minerals and by 1950, the settlement had nearly 1500 people living in it.

There are two theories for the origin of the town's name. The first is that it is derived from the Chukchi word for fat; it was originally named for the nearby hill Peekin'ey, meaning swollen mountain.^[8] The more macabre theory is that the name is derived from the Chukchi word "Pagytkenay", meaning "smelly mountain". Legend has it that a battle was fought on the site of the town between the local Chukchi and Yukaghir peoples. At the time, there was no tradition of burying the dead among the indigenous people, so the odour of rotting flesh was present for a long time.^[8] This legend suggests a reason why when Russian explorers first discovered the bay, they did not find any settlement, as the Chukchi refused to settle in the region following the battle and only brought their animals to pasture in the summer.^[8]

Gulag [link]

The workforce for the mines that provided the Soviet Union with tin and uranium throughout the large parts of the 20th century were prisoners in the Gulag system. There was a network of camps in the region itself, through which an uncertain number of criminal and political prisoners passed.^[8] There are the remains of two large camps, "North" and "West", which continued to supply uranium during and after World War II. Barracks dot the landscape and have the appearance of being hastily abandoned. Large graveyards on the edge of the various encampments show that a large proportion of those sent to work in the mines did not survive.^[8]

During the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the town's population dropped by more than half as commercial navigation in the Arctic went into decline and people began to gravitate towards the central Russian regions.^[8] More or less regular shipping is presently to be found only from Murmansk to Dudinka in the west and between Vladivostok and Pevek in the east. Ports between Dudinka and Pevek have virtually no shipping.

Geography [link]

Climate [link]

Pevek has a Tundra climate (Köppen ET), with long, very cold winters, and short, cool summers.

Economy and infrastructure [link]

Port [link]

Chaunskaya Bay under ice. Pevek Peninsula is visible on the east side of the Bay. To the northeast is Wrangel Island.

The town is a large port at the Northern Sea Route, the most important northern port in Chukotka, although shipping levels have dropped significantly in recent years. The port is the eastern base of the northern sea route's Marine Operations Headquarters, run by the Far-East Shipping Company from an icebreaker in the harbour,^[11] though the port is still owned by the Russian Ministry of Transport.^[12] The ports authority stretches as far as 125^o east, just west of the Lena River. Past this point the western Marine Operations Headquarters, based in Dikson has control.^[11] The headquarters govern all routes that ships take whilst using the northern sea route, organising convoys and providing up to date information on ice conditions throughout their sphere of influence.^[11] As well as the Far Eastern Shipping Company, the port is also used by the Arctic Shipping Company, based in Tiksi, who take coal from Zheleny Mys to Pevek.^[13]

Despite its prominence as the eastern Marine Operations Headquarters, the level of cargo the port has had to deal with in recent years has been declining rapidly. Although there is still gold mining around Bilibino and Leningradsky, there is little in the way of cargo generation as a result of that industry.^[14] The port is not a significant exporter of goods at all and is mainly responsible for dealing with the import of fuel (coal from Beringovsky and oil from Europe and the United States) for the region, though in the second half of the 1990s, even this activity rarely exceeded a few thousand tons, and in 1997, Mys Shmidta, traditionally the second most important of the northern Chukotkan ports was handling nearly four times as much cargo.^[15] The future does not look good either, although mining for other materials such as tin still occurs in the region, many of the mines have closed, being deemed unprofitable, and a number of settlements, such as Iul'tin, Komsomolsky and Krasnoarmeysky have been officially liquidated, with any remaining economic activity producing only very low cargo volumes at best.^[14]

The result of the closing of the mines in the region is that many people have moved to other areas of Russia. This has caused the almost complete eradication of an export market as well as a corresponding drop in the required level of imports. This causes a lack of demand for the facilities at the port whose precarious profitability leads to a lack of investment. This decaying infrastructure is endemic across the northern sea route and makes the supply route unreliable. For example, winter fuel bound for Pevek did not arrive until the end of November in 1998,^[16] this is for a port whose average sailing season lasts only until 25 October.^[12]

A slight recovery is perhaps indicated by an increase in cargo handled. In 1997, Pevek handled over 200,000 tons of cargo, second only to Dudinka of the true northern sea route ports, with 1,143,000 tons.^[17]

The port has a maximum ship draft of 10.25 m.^[12]

Other industry [link]

There is some mining in the area; tin, mercury, gold and black coal deposits are all located near the town. However, many of the mines that previously produced significant quantities of minerals for export have now been deemed to be uneconomical and have closed. Most mining that takes place in the region is relatively low key. However, this level of activity is still sufficient to provide enough business to keep two processing plants in Pevek.^[8]

Infrastructure [link]

Besides the port as a key transport link with the rest of Russia, the town is also served by Pevek Airport, 17 km to the north west of the town in the village of Apapelgino, a settlement established specifically to house the airport's staff.^[8] The airport provides flights to major regional towns such as Magadan, Anadyr and Bilibino as well as to Moscow.^[8]

Pevek also has the most developed road infrastructure in the Okrug. There is approximately 150 km of year-round, paved roads going to local settlements such as the now abandoned village of Valkumey as well as to the mines at Komsomolsky and Krasnoarmeysky as well as an ice road to Bilibino.^[12]

In literature [link]

Pevek is described as the place of death of Edith Abramovna in Varlam Shalamov's short story Descendant of a Decembrist^[18] At the end of the story, the doctor, Mikhail Sergeyevich Lunin is re-instated in his original job with Dalstroy as a result of assistance from his estranged wife. He moves to Pevek, described as then only being a village, with Edith following him. Despite trying to talk through their differences, they are unsuccessful and Edith is described as committing suicide by throwing herself into the Pevek River.

Gallery [link]

• 

  View from East side of Pevek

• 

  Pevek seen from the sea

• 

  Pevek seen from the air

See also [link]

• List of inhabited localities in Chaunsky District
• Extreme points of Russia
• Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route

References [link]

Notes [link]

Sources [link]

• Дума Чукотского автономного округа. Закон №33-ОЗ от 30 июня 1998 г. «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Чукотского автономного округа», в ред. Закона №44-ОЗ от 26 мая 2011 г «О преобразовании некоторых административно-территориальных образований в Чукотском автономном округе и внесении изменений в Закон Чукотского автономного округа "Об административно-территориальном устройстве Чукотского автономного округа"». Вступил в силу по истечении десяти дней со дня его официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Ведомости", №7 (28), 14 мая 1999 г. (Duma of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Law #33-OZ of June 30, 1998 On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, as amended by the Law #44-OZ of May 26, 2011 On the Transformation of Several Administrative-Territorial Formations of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and on Amending the Law of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug "On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug". Effective as of after ten days from the day of the official publication.).
• Правительство Чукотского автономного округа. Распоряжение №517-рп от 30 декабря 2008 г. «Об утверждении реестра административно-территориальных и территориальных образований Чукотского автономного округа», в ред. Распоряжения №323-рп от 27 июня 2011 г. «О внесении изменений в Распоряжение Правительства Чукотского автономного округа от 30 декабря 2008 года №517-рп». Опубликован: База данных "Консультант-плюс". (Government of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Directive #517-rp of December 30, 2008 On the Adoption of the Registry of the Administrative-Territorial and Territorial Formations of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, as amended by the Directive #323-rp of June 27, 2011 On Amending the Government of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Directive No. 517-rp of December 30, 2008. ).
• Дума Чукотского автономного округа. Закон №46-ОЗ от 29 ноября 2004 г. «О статусе, границах и административных центрах муниципальных образований на территории Чаунского района Чукотского автономного округа», в ред. Закона №87-ОЗ от 20 октября 2010 г «О преобразовании путём объединения поселений на территории Чаунского муниципального района и внесении изменений в Закон Чукотского автономного округа "О статусе, границах и административных центрах муниципальных образований на территории Чаунского района Чукотского автономного округа"». Вступил в силу через десять дней со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Ведомости", №31/1 (178/1), 10 декабря 2004 г. (Duma of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Law #46-OZ of November 29, 2004 On the Status, Borders, and Administrative Centers of the Municipal Formations on the Territory of Chaunsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, as amended by the Law #87-OZ of October 20, 2010 On the Transformation via Merger of the Settlements on the Territory of Chaunsky Municipal District and on Amending the Law of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug "On the Status, Borders, and Administrative Centers of the Municipal Formations on the Territory of Chaunsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug". Effective as of the day which is ten days after the official publication date.).

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pevek

• Pevek city info from Vostok Travel.
• Pevek photo gallery
• Panoramas of Pevek
• Large photo gallery of Pevek

v t e Administrative divisions of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Administrative center: Anadyr Cities and towns Bilibino Pevek Urban-type settlements Aliskerovo Baranikha Beringovsky Bystry Dalny Egvekinot Komsomolsky Krasnoarmeysky Leningradsky Mys Shmidta Otrozhny Provideniya Shakhtyorsky Ugolnye Kopi Valkumey Vesenny Vstrechny Yuzhny Administrative districts (raions) Anadyrsky Bilibinsky Chaunsky Chukotsky Iultinsky Providensky