Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It is located in the far east of the country and lies along the coast of Avacha Bay by the Pacific Ocean. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 164,900.
The city is widely known simply as Petropavlovsk (literally "city of Peter and Paul"). The adjective Kamchatsky ("Kamchatkan") was added to the official name in 1924.
History
Cossack units visited the area from 1697. The explorer and navigator Captain Vitus Bering (a Dane in the service of the Imperial Russian Navy) is considered to have founded the city in 1740, although navigator had laid the foundation a few months earlier. Bering reached Avacha Bay in late 1740 and in his capacity as the superior officer, named the new settlement "Petropavlovsk" (Peter and Paul) after his two ships, the Saint Peter and the Saint Paul, which had been built in Okhotsk for his second expedition (1733–42). The town's location on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the sheltered Avacha Bay and at the mouth of the Avacha River, saw it develop to become the most important settlement in Kamchatka. It gained town status on 9 April 1812.
During the 1853–55 Crimean War, Anglo-French forces put the city under siege (August–September 1854), but it never fell. The city had been fortified under the overall command of Nikolay Muravyov (Governor-General of the from 1847 to 1861) in the preceding years, but possessed only a small garrison of a few hundred soldiers and sixty-seven cannon. After much exchange of fire, six hundred Anglo-French troops landed south of the city; two hundred and thirty Russian troops forced them to retreat after heavy fighting (1 September 1854). Four days later, a larger force of nine hundred Anglo-French troops landed east of the town, but again the Russians repelled the allies (5 September 1854). The allied ships then retreated from Russian Pacific waters (7 September 1854). The total Russian losses were reported at around a hundred men; the Anglo-French were said to have lost 209 men, over twice that number.
At the time of the surrender of Japan in World War II (August/September 1945), United States Naval Construction Battalion 114 was in the Aleutians. In September 1945 the battalion received orders to send a detachment to the USSR to build a Naval Advance Base (a Fleet Weather Central) – located ten miles outside Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and code-named TAMA. The original agreement gave the Seabees three weeks to complete the camp. Upon arrival the Soviets told the Seabees they had ten days, and were amazed that the Seabees achieved the task. It was one of two to which Stalin agreed. The other was near Khabarovsk, in buildings provided by the Russians. For mail Petropavlovsk was assigned Navy number 1169, FPO San Francisco. The American use of these two bases proved short-lived.
Petropavlovsk was a great source of fish, particularly salmon, and crab meat for the Soviet Union in the 20th century. Following the end of the Soviet era in December 1991, fishing rights have also been granted to foreign interests. Poaching of salmon for their caviar at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy remains a problem amid lax law-enforcement and widespread corruption.
Administrative and municipal status
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the administrative center of the krai. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Under Krai Jurisdiction — an administrative unit with status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Under Krai Jurisdiction is incorporated as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Urban Okrug.
Geography
The city is situated at sea level and surrounded by volcanoes. The surrounding terrain is mountainous enough that the horizon cannot be seen clearly from any point in town. Across Avacha Bay from the city in Vilyuchinsk is Russia's largest submarine base, the Rybachiy Nuclear Submarine Base, established during the Soviet period and still used by the Russian Navy. The city is located from Moscow and about from Vladivostok. It is geographically closer to San Francisco, California than to Moscow.