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 Oceans. To guard these coasts it operates hundreds of lighthouses, many of them historic. The Gulf of Finland, the eastern arm of the Baltic Sea, extends about 425 km (265 mi) to end at St. Petersburg, Russia's traditional western outlet to the sea. For most of its length the Gulf is 60-120 km (38-75 mi) wide. The eastern quarter of the Gulf's length is surrounded by Russian territory and the western 3/4 separates Finland on the north from Estonia on the south. This page includes lighthouses of the Vyborgsky District on the north side of the Gulf. The district is part of Leningrad Oblast (province), one of the members of the Russian Federation. After being captured by Russia from Sweden in the Eighteenth Century, this area was part of the Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. In 1917 Finland declared its independence from Russia, placing this area in Finland. Vyborg, known then as Viipuri, was the second largest city of Finland until World War II. During that war Soviet troops occupied the area and under the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 it remained under Soviet, and now Russian, control. The Russian word for a lighthouse is mayak (маяк); ostrov is an island, 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. Curly braces {} are used to enclose former Finnish names of the lighthouses, where known. 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. Russian light list (RU) numbers are from Russian Navy Publication 2201, as reported by the Admiralty. Admiralty numbers are from volume C of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 116.
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![]() Mys Flotskiy Light, Zelenaya Roshcha, February 2011 ex-Panoramio Creative Commons photo by GES-RU |
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![]() Ostrov Patteri Range Front Light, Vyborg Bay, June 2010 ex-Panoramio Creative Commons photo by Dimitriy Rusanov |
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![]() Ostrov Kozlinyy West Light,Gulf of Finland, July 2010 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Aleksey Krasovsky permission requested |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Lake Ladoga | South: St. Petersburg Area | West: Gulf of Finland Islands, Southern Finland: Kymenlaakso
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Posted May 22, 2005. Checked and revised August 19, 2023. Lighthouses: 47. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.