Palatka, Russia
Encyclopedia
Palatka is an urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...

 in Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia in the Far Eastern Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Magadan....

, 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...

. It is located on the Kolyma Highway, 87 km north west of Magadan
Magadan
Magadan is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region. It is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast , in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1929 on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the status of town in 1939...

 and around 100 km south of Atka.

History

The exact date of foundation of the settlement is unclear, although it began at some point in the early 1930s as the area's gold reserves were explored, and a labour camp of the gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

 was built here. The first official mention of the town was in June 1932, when the first bridge was built over the Palatka River. In 1937, there were around 3,000 held at the prison settlement. The town's name Palatka is identical with the Russian word for 'tent', which has been suggested as the origin of the town's name as during the early period of the settlement's history is existed largely as a collection of tents and semi-permanent structures. It is also suggested that the name may come from the Evenk
Evenk language
Evenki is the largest member of the northern group of Tungusic languages, a group which also includes Even, Negidal, and Oroqen language...

 words Palja Atken, meaning 'stony river'.

In spite of its somewhat chaotic and unplanned nature, by 1939 the town was one of the largest on the Kolyma Highway, and in August of that year began the construction of permanent dwellings. A narrow-gauge railway was built from Palatka to the harbour at Magadan
Magadan
Magadan is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region. It is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast , in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1929 on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the status of town in 1939...

, which remained in operation until 1950.

In the 1960s a sovkhoz
Sovkhoz
A sovkhoz , typically translated as state farm, is a state-owned farm. The term originated in the Soviet Union, hence the name. The term is still in use in some post-Soviet states, e.g., Russia and Belarus. It is usually contrasted with kolkhoz, which is a collective-owned farm...

 based around farming reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

 was opened in the settlement.

In the 1970s, mining activity began in the nearby town of Karamken and Palatka became a dormitory town for mine workers.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the town lost well over half its population, from 10,496 inhabitants in 1989, to 4,888 inhabitants in 2002. The closure of the reindeer farm left a great number of local people unemployed (mainly Evenks
Evenks
The Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527...

 and Orochs), and the mining industry also saw a general downturn with administration moving to other towns such as Susuman
Susuman
Susuman is a town in Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Berelyokh River some 650 km northwest of Magadan. It is the administrative center of Susumansky District, as well as the only town in the entire oblast excepting the capital Magadan...

.

The town is a sister city of Palatka
Palatka, Florida
Palatka is a city in Putnam County, Florida, United States. The population was 10,033 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 10,796. It is the county seat of Putnam County and includes East Palatka. Palatka is the principal city of the Palatka...

, in the US state of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. The names are only coincidentally identical, the name of Palatka in Florida being of Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 origin.

Palatka lies on the route of the proposed future rail link between the Amur Yakutsk Mainline
Amur Yakutsk Mainline
The Amur-Yakutsk Mainline is a partially complete railway in eastern Russia, linking the Trans-Siberian Railway and Baikal-Amur Mainline with the Sakha Republic....

 and Magadan
Magadan
Magadan is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region. It is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast , in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1929 on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the status of town in 1939...

.
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