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. Primorsky Krai (known in English as the Maritime Province and usually called Primorye in Russia) is the southernmost and most populous region of Russia's far eastern coast. Its name Приморский край literally means "Seaside Edge." This page covers lighthouses in the southern portion of the province including the major port of Vladivostok and the Khasansky District, which extends in a narrow coastal corridor bordering China to the west and North Korea to the south. Russian occupation of this area began with the explorations of Vitus Bering and Alexsei Chirikov between 1728 and 1741 but settlements were few until treaties with China brought the Primorsky Krai under Russian control in the 1850s. 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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![]() Bosfor Vostochnyy Range Front Light, Vladivostok, May 2024 photo copyright Igor Savitskiy; used by permission |
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![]() Skrypleva Light, Ostrov Russkiy, July 2006 photo copyright Вячеслав Вячеслав; used by permission |
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![]() Ostrov Shkota Light, Vladivostok, January 2022 photo copyright Igor Savitskiy; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Eastern Primorsky Krai | South: Eastern North Korea
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted May 19, 2006. Checked and revised September 5, 2024. Lighthouses: 41. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.