Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy is a city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. The city is situated on high hills and surrounded by volcanoes. Across Avacha Bay from the city in Vilyuchinsk is Russia’s largest submarine base, the Rybachiy Nuclear Submarine Base.

About Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in brief

Summary Petropavlovsk-KamchatskyPetropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy is a city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. The adjective Kamchatsky was added to the official name in 1924. The city is situated on high hills and surrounded by volcanoes. 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 main stadium is the 5,000-capacity Spartak Stadium – used mostly for association football matches. Former association-football club FC Volcano were tenants of the stadium. About twenty large tourism companies offer a wide range of services from hunting to paragliding.

The town’s location on the eastern coast of the KamchatKA Peninsula, on the sheltered AvachaBay and at the mouth of the Avacha River, saw it develop to become the most important settlement in Kamchatki. It gained town status on April 9, 1812. During the 1853–1855 Crimean War, Anglo-French forces put the city under siege, but it never fell. Petropav Lovsk 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 remains a problem amid lax law-enforcement and widespread corruption.