Vladivostok: Lord Of The East

"Lord of the East " or Vladivostok is the administrative centre of Russia’s far eastern region and the capital of Primorsky Kray, the maritime territory also known as Ussuriland.  

Russia’s Far East stretches along the Pacific Ocean from the icy waters of the Arctic to the Sea of Japan. This port-city lies just  100km short of the Chinese border and across the sea from the Japanese island of Honshu. It was established as a frontier outpost in 1860, an integral part of the grand design of Imperial Russia’s expansion plans. Its deep natural harbour proved to be perfect as a port, trading post and link between the eastern extremes of the empire to the western reaches of Russia.

Interestingly enough, an international community of sailors, labourers, hoteliers, financiers and merchants from Russia, China, Japan, Korea and from Europe and America made up its highly cosmopolitan   population. The city developed into a thriving tradepost and a multicultural commercial centre. When Tsar Nicholas II arrived in Vladivostok to inaugurate the new Trans-Siberian railway line in 1891, he actually laid the foundations to connect Vladivostok to Moscow, 9000 km and 7 time zones away. Vladivostok became journeys end for this mammoth train journey from the heart of European Russia to the farthest shores in northeast Asia.

The fall of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War made it imperative for the Russians to develop Vladivostok as their main naval base in the Pacific. Vladivostok’s distance fromthe rest of Russia kept it insulated from the upheavals in the early years of the 20th century. Unaffected by the communist ideology sweeping Russia, the city served as base for the counter-revolutionary forces in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the fall of Moscow and St. Petersburg; Vladivostok continued to be the rallying point for monarchists before it finally fell to the Bolsheviks in 1922. Under the Soviets, Vladivostok was fortified with bunkers, gun emplacements and embankments strong enough to withstand the most ferocious of attacks - some of them are very much in evidence even today. As the home base of Russian Pacific Fleet, Vladivostok was closed to Russians and foreigners from 1958 till the end of the communism in 1991.

In the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Vladivostok  has  been steadily transformed into a commercial, moneymaking, fast-spending, high living centre often compared to San Francisco because of its picturesque hillside locale and beautiful waterfront. Foreign businesses are returning to Vladivostok - cashing in on the new boomtown situated most strategically on the junction of northern Asia, the Far East and Europe.

 Museums and churches - renovated and back in business are amongst the main attractions in Vladivostok. The Russian Orthodox Church "Our Lady Grieving" built in 1908, was dedicated to the dead in the Russo-Japanese war.

The church has recently been restored to its former glory, after nearly a century of disrepair and disuse. The Arsenev Regional Museum, the Border Guards' Museum, the Museum of the Pacific Fleet, the Sukhanov Museum and the Primorsky Art Gallery  to name just a few. The Border Guards' Museum is dedicated to the soldiers who manned the frontiers of the Soviet Union in the Russian Far East. The exhibits at the museum include weapons and other military equipment, photo archives etc. A far more interesting location for a museum is onboard the famous C-56 Soviet Submarine that sent 11 German ships to their watery graves during World War II. Decommissioned and converted into a museum, the C-56 offers an insight into the tough life onboard a submarine.

The city’s main square and the waterfront are the hub around which the city and its life revolve. Apart from a monument to Soviet war heroes, the square is the site of a bustling market on Mondays and Fridays. The terminus of the Trans-Siberian RR has to be one of the most fascinating railway stations anywhere -the Vladivostok Central Station built in 1912 is an architectural gem, an amalgamation of styles that somehow manage to hold their own.  

The Okeanarium on the waterfront is a large aquarium with marine animals including a pen of Beluga whales. The Far East Maritime Reserve and the Ussuri Nature Reserve surround the city and are home to black and brown bears, Siberian boars, Ussuri tigers, the rare Amur leopard and hundreds of local and migratory birds.