Vorkuta.

History

Coal was found here in 1930, a geologists' settlement appeared the following year, and the official founding date is 4 January 1936. The town was built by prisoners of Vorkutlag, one of the most notorious Gulag camps, and that memory is inseparable from its history. Vorkuta became a town on 26 November 1943. In the post-Soviet years many mines closed and the population fell considerably.

Culture & traditions

Vorkuta's culture is above all its mining history and the memory of the camps. The town has a geological monument: outcrops of Lower Permian rock where coking coal was first discovered. The speed skater Pavel Kulizhnikov and the ice hockey player Andrei Nikolishin were born here.

Sport

Vorkuta has produced well-known athletes: the speed skater Pavel Kulizhnikov and the ice hockey player Andrei Nikolishin were born here. The sources used here give no details of local clubs.

Practical information

The airport lies 3 km west of the town and has scheduled flights. The railway arrived in 1941, and there is no permanent road to the south. The town is on Moscow time. The climate is subarctic: February averages about −20 °C and July about +13 °C, with a record low of −52 °C. The midnight sun lasts from 30 May to 14 July and the polar night from 17 to 27 December; summer is the best time to come.

What to see

• Vorkuta Geological Monument — the outcrops where coking coal was first found
• Vorkuta River — the northern river that gave the town its name
• Polar Urals — the mountains around the town
• Midnight sun — about six weeks without a sunset