Russia (Россия, Rossiya in Russian) is by far the world's largest country, spanning a little over 150° in longitude. It is organized as the Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) with members known as federal subjects (sub'yekty federatsii). Russia is primarily a continental nation but it has important coastlines on the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas and very long coastlines on the Arctic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean. To guard these coasts it operates hundreds of lighthouses, many of them historic. This page covers lighthouses of the southern half of Khabarovsk Krai, a huge province on Russia's far eastern coast. The northern coastline of the province faces the Sea of Okhotsk. This page includes lighthouses of the Ulchsky, Vaninsky, and Sovetsko-Gavansky Districts, all of which face the Tartar Gulf, the northern arm of the Sea of Japan. The gulf separates the mainland from the large island of Sakhalin. The major ports in this area are Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan' (Soviet Harbor), the terminus of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railroad. The region is named for Yerofey Khabarov, who explored the area for Russia in 1649-50. However, the region was also claimed by China and in the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk Russia gave up its claim to the heart of the territory, the Amur Basin. The situation was reversed in the 19th century as Russians occupied the area, and in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun Russian sovereignty was established. The Krasnyy Partizan (St. Nicholas Point) lighthouse shown at right dates from the very late 1800s but nearly all the other lighthouses in the region were built by the Soviet Union (1917-1991). The Russian word for a lighthouse is mayak (маяк); ostrov is an island, poluostrov is a peninsula, kosa is a sandy spit, rif is a reef, mys is a cape, bukhta is a bay, zaliv is a larger bay or gulf, proliv is a strait, reka is a river, and gavan' is a harbor. Russian lighthouses are owned by the Russian Navy and maintained by the Office of Navigation and Oceanography (Управление навигации и океанографии). ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume M of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Krasnyy Partizan Light, Sovetskaya Gavan', February 2012 Google Maps (ex-Panoramio) photo by Dmitry Semenov |
Ulchsky District Lighthouses
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![]() Mys Orlova Light, De Kastri, 2006 photo copyright Alex Bambizo; used by permission |
Vaninsky District Lighthouses
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Sovetsko-Gavansky District Lighthouses
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![]() Sovgavanskiy Light, Sovetskaya Gavan', February 2015 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Uriy Sergeev; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
Adjoining pages: North: Northern Khabarovsk Krai | East: Southern Sakhalin | South: Eastern Primorsky Krai
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Posted May 19, 2006. Checked and revised August 20, 2024. Lighthouses: 38. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.