Ayan
Encyclopedia
Ayano-Maysky District
Ayano-Maysky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the seventeen in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. Its administrative center is the rural locality of Ayan. District's population: Population of Ayan accounts for 40.5% of the district's population.-Geography:The district has...
of Khabarovsk Krai
Khabarovsk Krai
Khabarovsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia , located in the Russian Far East. It lies mostly in the basin of the lower Amur River, but also occupies a vast mountainous area along the coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk, an arm of the Pacific Ocean. The administrative center of the krai is the...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, located on the shore of a well-protected bay of the Sea of Okhotsk
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...
, 1447 kilometres (899.1 mi) from Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk is the largest city and the administrative center of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located some from the Chinese border. It is the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. The city became the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia...
and 631 kilometres (392.1 mi) by sea from Nikolayevsk-on-Amur
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur often romanized as Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, is a town and the administrative center of Nikolayevsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia located on the Amur River close to its liman in the Pacific Ocean...
. Population:
The village is served by Munuk Airport
Munuk Airport
Munuk Airport is a regional airport located in Ayan, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia....
.
About 1840 it was decided to move the main Russian naval center from Okhotsk 270 miles (434.5 km) down the coast to Ayan. The port of Okhotsk is on a river mouth protected by a sand bar. It is subject to flooding and tends to silt up. Ayan is on a circular bay on the south side of a peninsula and is said to be the finest harbor on the sea of Okhotsk. A survey of Ayan was done in 1840 and work started in 1843 under Vasily Zavoyko
Vasily Zavoyko
Vasily Stepanovich Zavoyko was an admiral in the Russian navy.Born to a noble family of Poltava Governorate, in 1827 he took part in the Battle of Navarino, and in 1835-1838 he twice circumnavigated the Earth....
of the Russian-America Company. In 1845 an overland route was established to Yakutsk
Yakutsk
With a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast...
. Several expeditions went south from Ayan to explore the Amur area. In 1849 the naval center was again shifted to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the main city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Population: .-History:It was founded by Danish navigator Vitus Bering, in the service of the Russian Navy...
and Zavoyko became governor there.
During the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
Ayan was still an important harbour. It was used by the United States whaling fleet to a larger extend as well. The harbour was taken by the English fleet on July 9, 1855. Yet harbour and the little village had been vacated prior to that by the inhabitants. The coast batteries had been destroyed by the Russians, the guns were buried. Ayan was not destroyed. The objective of the English fleet was, to destroy all Russian ships they could find. Apart from a small steam tug there were none. The tug had been pulled on shore and was about to be buried at the time of the occupation. The English troops destroyed the tug through an explosion.
With the Amur Annexation
Amur Annexation
The Amur Annexation refers to the annexation of the southeast corner of Siberia by Russia from China in 1858–60. The two areas involved are the Priamurye between the Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north and the Primorye which runs down the coast from the Amur mouth to the Korean border...
in 1860, forces were shifted south to Nikolayevsk-on-Amur
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur often romanized as Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, is a town and the administrative center of Nikolayevsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia located on the Amur River close to its liman in the Pacific Ocean...
and Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
. The Alaska purchase
Alaska purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained of new United States territory...
in 1867 and the end of the Russian-America company further reduced Ayan's importance. Many leading experts of diverse professions joined the exodus of merchants that had discontinued commercial traffic resulting from the trade in the region.
In the last decades of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century, assistance amounted to a few steamships a year dispatched from Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
that brought flour, sugar, and household supplies. The remoteness of Ayan resulted in its steady depopulation.
In 1922, Ayan was one of the centers of the Yakut Revolt
Yakut Revolt
The Yakut Revolt or the Yakut Expedition was the last episode of the Russian Civil War. The hostilities took place between September 1921 and June 1923 and were centred on the Ayano-Maysky District of the Russian Far East.A formidable rising flared up in this part of Yakutia in September 1921...
against Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's government. The Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
besieged Anatoly Pepelyayev
Anatoly Pepelyayev
Anatoly Nikolayevich Pepelyayev was a White Russian general who led the Siberian armies of Admiral Kolchak during the Russian Civil War. His elder brother Viktor Pepelyayev served as Prime Minister in Kolchak's government.-Trans-Siberian march:...
's forces in Ayan in June 1923. The fall of Ayan on June 16 marked the end of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
. The village served as the center of the Okhotsk-Evenk National Okrug until 1934.
Ayan has a subarctic climate
Subarctic climate
The subarctic climate is a climate characterized by long, usually very cold winters, and short, cool to mild summers. It is found on large landmasses, away from the moderating effects of an ocean, generally at latitudes from 50° to 70°N poleward of the humid continental climates...
Köppen
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Dwc. Owing to its maritime location and favourable aspect for moist summer winds, however, it is much wetter than interior Siberia, with an average annual rainfall more than four times that of Yakutsk
Yakutsk
With a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast...
and two-and-a-half times that of Chita.
Literature
- Regel, Dr. E und Tiling, Dr. H. 1858. Florula Ajanensis, Aufzaehlung der in der Umgegend von Ajan wachsenden Phanerogamen und hoeheren Cryptogamen nebst Beschreibung einiger neuer Arten und Beleuchtung verwandter Pflanzen. Universitaets-Buchdruckerei. (Moskau)
- no author (i. e.: Heinrich Sylvester Theodor Tiling) 1854 : Eine Reise um die Welt von Westen nach Osten durch das stille und atlantische Meer. Verlag von C. Krebs, Aschaffenburg
External links
- http://books.google.de/books?id=6QIYAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Florula+Ajanensis,+Aufzaehlung+der+in+der+Umgegend+von+Ajan+wachsenden+Phanerogamen%22&lr=&num=100&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false
- http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/?IDDOC=427554