Provideniya
Provideniya is an urban-type settlement situated in the Provideniya Bay in the northeastern part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is located across the Bering Strait from Alaska, and is very close to the International Date Line. The town is served by Provideniya Bay Airport, the closest Russian airport to the United States. Provideniya is situated at 64°26_N 173°14_W. Population: 2,723 (2002 Census).
It was a former Soviet Union|Soviet military port, sited on a fjord sheltered from the Bering Sea. High-sprung transports connect the town's concrete slabbed main street with outport settlements along the fjord. There is a technical school, one functioning cinema, a post office, a museum of Chukotka history and culture, a bakery complex and (mostly decrepit) port facilities.
Most of the town's current residents are Yup'ik. Despite the religious significance of its name (it is Russian for ''Providence'', as in ''divine providence''), the town's title was never changed during the Soviet era, although a large statue of Vladimir Lenin was erected there, and still stands.
Provideniya Region was formed in 1957, before which the present-day regions of Provideniya and Chukotka, and much of Iul'tin, were united in a single territory (Chukotskii Uezd). Today, 4,505 people live in this region of 26,800 square kilometers (population density 0.16 per square kilometer). The administrative centre is the community of Provideniya, with a population of 2732. Indigenous people are the majority population, comprising 55 percent of the total.
Blessed with rich sea-mammal hunting grounds and the mildest climate in Chukotka, this region has been, since before recorded history, the most densely settled part of what today is the Chukchi Autonomous Okrug (District). This was the home of the most highly developed traditional economies and cultures. Small coastal settlements were located within 20-30 kilometres of each other, covering practically all the rich sea-mammal hunting grounds of the western Bering Strait coast.
The «urban-type» community of Provideniya is the largest population centre in Chukotka east of Anadyr. Provideniya was founded in the 1930s, to serve as the easternmost port on the Northern Sea Route. Located on Komsomolskaya Bay, adjacent to Provideniya Bay, Provideniya's port is perfectly located to service large ocean-going vessels. The waters are deep, the bay is narrow and long in the shape of a fjord, and Provideniya is located at the southern limit of the artic ice pack.
In the 1940s and 50s, Provideniya was the most easterly outpost of Soviet civilization, the only population centre in the eastern extreme of the country with a true seaport, mechanical repair shops, multi-story buildings, centralized heating and power-generation, and telephone services.
Today, Provideniya is a bridge between Russia and North America, and Chukotka's main point of international contact, often visited by airplanes from Alaska (mostly flying from Nome). Provideniya's airport is located in the settlement of Ureliki, on the far shore of the bay from the community of Provideniya.
Provideniya Region's economy is based on traditional indigenous hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry - in early 2002, there were 1,202 head of reindeer in the region. There is a food processing plant in Provideniya, oriented to handle reindeer products.
Transport infrastructure is limited to the airport, with intra-regional scheduled flights, and the seaport. The port handles vessels of all sizes and displacements, and there is the potential for increasing its capacity. There is also a ship-repairing facility connected to the port, a heat and power-generating plant and a series of smaller local enterprises. There is a strong tradition of craft-making in the region.
Provideniya Region's future economic prospects lie with the development of sea-mammal hunting and reindeer husbandry. Without the complete reconstruction of Provideniya's food-processing plant and a major restoration of domestic reindeer numbers, these sectors will continue to be loss-making and underproductive.
Source: courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org, http://www.chukotka.org
