Nikolayevsk-on-Amur

In the late Middle Ages, the people living along the lower course of the Amur (Nivkh, Oroch, Evenki) were collectively known in China as the "wild Jurchen". The Yuan dynasty Mongols sent expeditions to this area with an eye toward using the region as a base for attack on Japan, or for defending against the Sakhalin Ainus. According to the History of Yuan, in 1264 the Nivkhs recognized the Mongol sovereignty. In 1263, the Mongols set up the "Command Post of the Marshal of the Eastern Campaign" near the modern settlement of Tyr, some {{convert|100|km|sp=us}} upstream from today's Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. At roughly the same time, a shrine was built on the Tyr Rock.В. Ц. Головачёв (V. Ts. Golovachеv), [http://www.ethnonet.ru/ru/pub/14-11-08.html "Тырские стелы и храм «Юн Нин» в свете китайско-чжурчжэньских отношений XIV-XV вв."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223115421/http://www.ethnonet.ru/ru/pub/14-11-08.html |date=February 23, 2009 }} (ййThe Tyr stelae and the Yongning Temple viewed in as an aspect of Sino-Jurchen relationsйй), Etno-zhurnal, November 14, 2008.[http://www.adm.khv.ru/invest2.nsf/Tourism/ArchaeologicalRus/A1BC40C4DD0B1605CA25730E00193997 Объекты туризма — Археологические. Тырские храмы] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903021101/http://www.adm.khv.ru/invest2.nsf/Tourism/ArchaeologicalRus/A1BC40C4DD0B1605CA25730E00193997 |date=September 3, 2009 }} (Regional government site explaining the location of the Tyr (Telin) temples: just south of the Tyr village)

From 1411 to 1433, the Ming eunuch Yishiha, a man of Haixi Jurchen origin, led four large missions to win over the allegiance of the "Jurchen" tribes along the Sunggari and Amur Rivers. During this time, the Yongning Temple was constructed at Tyr, and stelae with inscriptions erected.

File:Nikolaevsk-na-amure old00.jpg

The Russian settlement, likely preceded by the Manchu village of Fuyori,{{Cite web|url=http://www.karafuto.com/mamiya.html|title = Adventure of Mamiya Rinzo}} was founded as Nikolayevsky Post by Gennady Nevelskoy on 13 August 1850{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} and named for Tsar Nicholas I.

{{cite book

|last1 = Mote

|first1 = Victor L.

|title = Siberia: Worlds Apart

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qEAjAQAAIAAJ

|series = Westview series on the post-Soviet republics

|date = June 4, 1998

|volume = 5

|publisher = Westview Press

|publication-date = 1998

|page = 46

|isbn = 9780813312989

|access-date = 2015-06-20

|quote = When they unfurled a Russian flag at the mouth of the Amur and christened the site Nikolayevsk in the tsar's honor, Nevel'skoy and Murav'yev aroused a storm of protest [...]

}}

The settlement quickly became one of the main economic centres on the Pacific coast of the Russian Empire. It became Russia's main Pacific harbour (replacing Petropavlovsk) in 1855 after the Siege of Petropavlovsk of 1854. It was granted town status and renamed Nikolayevsk-on-Amur in 1856, when Primorskaya Oblast was established.{{citation needed|date=June 2010}} Admiral Vasily Zavoyko supervised the construction of a naval base in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur.

The town emerged as an important commercial harbour; however, due to navigational difficulties caused by the sandbanks in the Amur estuary and because sea ice made the harbour unusable for five months each year, the main Russian shipping activities in the Pacific transferred to the better situated Vladivostok in the early 1870s. The town remained the administrative centre of this region until 1880, when the governor relocated to Khabarovsk. Anton Chekhov, visiting the town on his journey to Sakhalin in 1890, noted its rapid depopulation, although this trend slowed somewhat in the late 1890s with the discovery of gold and the establishment of salmon fisheries.

During the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922 the town's population plummeted from 15,000 to 2,000, as a local Soviet partisan leader, Yakov Tryapitsyn, later executed by the same Bolsheviks he was supposed to be aligned with, razed the entire town to the ground and massacred the minority Japanese population along with most of the Russian population. In response to this event, Northern Sakhalin was briefly occupied by Japan between 1920 and 1925. During this time, the town was called {{Nihongo|Nikō|尼港町|Nikō-chō}}.

Around 1940 a prison camp of the gulag system was located in the town.{{Cite web |url=http://www.gulag.memorial.de/lager.php5?lag=335 |title=Nikolayevsky-ITL on the website of Memorial (German) |access-date=January 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927011838/http://www.gulag.memorial.de/lager.php5?lag=335 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |url-status=dead }}

Like many other places in the Russian Far East, the town has seen a drop in population since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dropping from 36,296 inhabitants recorded in the 1989 Census, to 22,772 in 2010.

The town is situated on the left bank of the Amur River, {{convert|80|km|sp=us}} from where it flows into the Amur estuary, {{convert|977|km|sp=us}} north of Khabarovsk and {{convert|582|km|sp=us}} from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur railway station. It is the closest significant settlement to the Strait of Tartary separating the mainland from Sakhalin.

Nikolayevsk-on-Amur has a borderline humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), almost cold enough to be a subarctic climate (Dfc). Precipitation is not as low in the winter as over most of Siberia since the coast in on the fringe of influence from the Aleutian Low. The near-maritime location only marginally—by {{convert|5|C-change}}—moderates the winters compared to interior Siberia, but makes the summers noticeably cool (especially in May and June) though the Oyashio fogs are less prevalent than on Sakhalin itself and sunshine hours therefore rather longer.

{{Weather box

|location=Nikolayevsk-on-Amur (1991–2020, extremes 1881–present)

|metric first=yes

|single line=yes

| width = auto

| Jan record high C = 0.3

| Feb record high C = 5.7

| Mar record high C = 12.7

| Apr record high C = 19.6

| May record high C = 31.7

| Jun record high C = 34.3

| Jul record high C = 34.6

| Aug record high C = 35.3

| Sep record high C = 28.9

| Oct record high C = 22.5

| Nov record high C = 11.4

| Dec record high C = 2.8

| year record high C = 35.3

| Jan avg record high C = -5.0

| Feb avg record high C = -5.2

| Mar avg record high C = 3.4

| Apr avg record high C = 10.2

| May avg record high C = 21.8

| Jun avg record high C = 27.9

| Jul avg record high C = 28.8

| Aug avg record high C = 28.6

| Sep avg record high C = 24.4

| Oct avg record high C = 16.1

| Nov avg record high C = 4.7

| Dec avg record high C = -3.1

| year avg record high C = 30.6

| Jan high C = -16.6

| Feb high C = -13.6

| Mar high C = -5.2

| Apr high C = 2.7

| May high C = 10.8

| Jun high C = 18.4

| Jul high C = 21.6

| Aug high C = 21.6

| Sep high C = 16.6

| Oct high C = 7.0

| Nov high C = -5.5

| Dec high C = -15.1

| year high C =

| Jan mean C = -21.0

| Feb mean C = -19.1

| Mar mean C = -11.4

| Apr mean C = -2.3

| May mean C = 5.3

| Jun mean C = 12.7

| Jul mean C = 16.6

| Aug mean C = 16.3

| Sep mean C = 10.8

| Oct mean C = 2.3

| Nov mean C = -9.7

| Dec mean C = -19.2

| year mean C =

| Jan low C = -24.8

| Feb low C = -23.8

| Mar low C = -16.8

| Apr low C = -6.5

| May low C = 1.1

| Jun low C = 7.9

| Jul low C = 12.5

| Aug low C = 12.0

| Sep low C = 6.3

| Oct low C = -1.4

| Nov low C = -13.5

| Dec low C = -22.9

| year low C =

| Jan avg record low C = -34.1

| Feb avg record low C = -32.6

| Mar avg record low C = -27.0

| Apr avg record low C = -17.2

| May avg record low C = -4.3

| Jun avg record low C = 1.7

| Jul avg record low C = 6.0

| Aug avg record low C = 5.6

| Sep avg record low C = -1.6

| Oct avg record low C = -9.9

| Nov avg record low C = -25.7

| Dec avg record low C = -32.5

| year avg record low C = -35.6

| Jan record low C = -47.2

| Feb record low C = -45.9

| Mar record low C = -37.6

| Apr record low C = -28.8

| May record low C = -11.9

| Jun record low C = -3.8

| Jul record low C = 1.3

| Aug record low C = 0.6

| Sep record low C = -6.0

| Oct record low C = -25.1

| Nov record low C = -34.0

| Dec record low C = -44.2

| year record low C = -47.2

| precipitation colour = green

| Jan precipitation mm = 47.1

| Feb precipitation mm = 27.7

| Mar precipitation mm = 36.8

| Apr precipitation mm = 36.6

| May precipitation mm = 52.0

| Jun precipitation mm = 53.1

| Jul precipitation mm = 56.8

| Aug precipitation mm = 84.3

| Sep precipitation mm = 79.8

| Oct precipitation mm = 79.1

| Nov precipitation mm = 61.1

| Dec precipitation mm = 57.1

| Jan rain days = 0

| Feb rain days = 0

| Mar rain days = 0.5

| Apr rain days = 5

| May rain days = 15

| Jun rain days = 14

| Jul rain days = 15

| Aug rain days = 18

| Sep rain days = 19

| Oct rain days = 15

| Nov rain days = 2

| Dec rain days = 0

| year rain days = 104

| Jan snow days = 17

| Feb snow days = 17

| Mar snow days = 18

| Apr snow days = 16

| May snow days = 9

| Jun snow days = 0.1

| Jul snow days = 0

| Aug snow days = 0

| Sep snow days = 0

| Oct snow days = 12

| Nov snow days = 21

| Dec snow days = 19

| year snow days = 129

| Jan humidity = 76

| Feb humidity = 76

| Mar humidity = 74

| Apr humidity = 76

| May humidity = 77

| Jun humidity = 77

| Jul humidity = 81

| Aug humidity = 83

| Sep humidity = 82

| Oct humidity = 79

| Nov humidity = 79

| Dec humidity = 79

|year humidity = 79

| Jan sun = 129

| Feb sun = 160

| Mar sun = 232

| Apr sun = 209

| May sun = 233

| Jun sun = 234

| Jul sun = 238

| Aug sun = 204

| Sep sun = 184

| Oct sun = 143

| Nov sun = 132

| Dec sun = 94

|year sun = 2192

|source 1 = pogoda.ru.net{{cite web

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191203144750/http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/climate/31369.htm

| archive-date = 3 December 2019

| url = http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/climate/31369.htm

| publisher = Погода и климат

| access-date = 3 December 2019

| title = Климат Николаевска-на-Амуре}}

|source 2 = NOAA (sun 1961–1990){{Cite FTP | url = ftp://ftp.atdd.noaa.gov/pub/GCOS/WMO-Normals/TABLES/REG_II/RA/31369.TXT

| server = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

| title = Nikolaevsk-on-Amur Climate Normals 1961–1990

| access-date = 3 December 2019}} Infoclimat{{cite web

| url = https://www.infoclimat.fr/climatologie/annee/1991/nikolaevsk-na-amure/valeurs/31369.html

| title = Climatologie de l'année à Nikolaevsk-Na-Amure

| publisher = Infoclimat

| language = fr

| access-date = 11 October 2023}}

}}

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Nikolayevsk-on-Amur serves as the administrative center of Nikolayevsky District,{{OKATO reference|08 414}} even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the town of krai significance of Nikolayevsk-na-Amure—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of krai significance of Nikolayevsk-na-Amure is incorporated within Nikolayevsky Municipal District as Nikolayevsk-na-Amure Urban Settlement.

Fishing and fish processing are the main industries of the town, along with ship maintenance and some agricultural production in the surrounding area.

Nikolayevsk-on-Amur has no land transport connections. Traffic to and from the town enters via the port on the Amur, or the small airport, namely Nikolayevsk-on-Amur Airport {{airport codes|NLI}}, which is home to Nikolaevsk-Na-Amure Air Enterprise.

{{Reflist}}

• {{RussiaAdmMunRef|kha|adm|list}}
• {{RussiaAdmMunRef|kha|mun|list1}}
• {{RussiaAdmMunRef|kha|mun|list3}}

{{Khabarovsk Krai}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Chinese historical placenames in Outer Manchuria}}

Category:Cities and towns in Khabarovsk Krai

Category:Amur River

Category:Ports and harbours of the Russian Pacific Coast

Category:Port cities and towns in Russia

Category:Primorskaya Oblast

Category:Populated places established in 1850

Category:1850 establishments in the Russian Empire

Category:Road-inaccessible communities of Russia