Nikolayevsk-on-Amur.

History

In the summer of 1850 Captain Gennady Nevelskoy founded the Nikolayevsky Post here, named after Emperor Nicholas I. It became a town in 1856, having already become Russia's main Pacific harbour in 1855. The port moved to Vladivostok in 1870, but gold mining and fishing revived the town in the 1880s and 1890s. In 1920, during the Civil War, it was almost completely destroyed; in Soviet times it grew into a fishing centre, and in the 1920s the area supplied a third of the entire Far Eastern catch.

Culture & traditions

The V. E. Rozov Museum of local history occupies the former Illuzion Modern cinema, built in 1915. The town also has a cultural centre for the indigenous peoples of the North. The founder is remembered by an obelisk to Nevelskoy unveiled in 1915 and a monument from 1950. Anton Chekhov stopped here in 1890 on his way to Sakhalin.

Food & drink

Fishing and fish processing are the town's main industries, so Amur fish is the backbone of the local table.

Practical information

The town is reached by air via the local airport and, in summer, along the Amur; there is also a road from Komsomolsk-on-Amur via Selikhino. Local time is Moscow plus 7 hours. The area is officially equated with the Far North: winters are harsh, with a record low of −47.2 °C. Summer, when river navigation is open, is the best time to visit.

What to see

• Rozov Museum — the town's story told inside a 1915 cinema building
• Nevelskoy obelisk and monument — tributes to the man who founded the post in 1850
• Early 20th-century buildings — the 1904 craft school and the 1912–1914 gymnasium
• Amur riverside — views of the river shortly before it meets the estuary