Vladivostok was founded as a naval post in 1859 by Nikolai Muraviev-Amursky, who was General Governor of the Eastern Siberia. It was thanks to his diplomatic efforts that the Amur, Khabarovsk and Primorye regions became part of the Russian Empire. For this diplomatic victory the Russian czar awarded Muravyev with the title of the count of Amur.
The territory on which modern Vladivostok is located had been part of many nations before Russia acquired the entire Maritime Province and the island of Sakhalin by the Treaty of Aigun (1858) from China, which had just lost the Opium War with Britain, and was unable to act to maintain the region. A French whaler visiting the Zolotoy Rog in 1852 discovered Chinese village fishermen on the shore of the bay.
Because of the heavy naval presence Vladivostok was a closed city from 1958 until after the fall of Communism in 1991.
Vladivostok’s future as a swashbuckling frontier city facing onto the Pacific was secured when General Governor Muraviev noticed a well hidden bay while sailing along the coast of the Peter the Great Gulf. This was the Golden Horn and he ordered a fort to be built there. Two years later the outpost was transformed into a duty free port. The port was called Vladivostok (loosely translated means "possess the East", a name similar to Vladikavkaz which means "possess the Kavkaz").
An elaborate system of fortifications was built. A telegraph line connecting Vladivostok with Shanghai and Nagasaki was opened in 1871. The same year a commercial port was relocated to the town from Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. Town status was granted in 1880 and the municipal coat of arms, representing the Siberian tiger, was adopted in 1883.
The city's economy was given a boost in 1903, with the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway which connected Vladivostok to Moscow and Europe.
After the Bolshevik Revolution, of 1917, changed the government in St Petersburg, Vladivostok was of great military importance and the anti-Bolshevik Provisional Priamurye Government, supported by an allied expeditionary force of troops from Japan, the United States, and others, held out until the Red Army took the city on 25 October 1922, marking the end of the Russian Civil War.
Gradually the port grew into the center of the Russian culture in the far East region.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union the city gained a reputation for lawlessness. Organised crime ruled the docks, the region’s lucrative fishing industry and corruption was rife in regional government. The city’s mayor was in open dispute with the regional governor and municipal services across the region descended into chaos. At the turn of the century Vladivostok was considered a basket case.
Today cautious optimism rules the city business circles. Despite a falling population with a net 5,000 people leaving for parts west every year, new terraces of town houses are rising behind the broad crumbling boulevards of the city centre. The Trans Siberian Railway rolls into the baroque terminus daily while ferries at the nearby sea terminus disgorge their loads of camera happy oriental tourists.
Vladivostok is Russia's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky region. It is an industrial, scientific and cultural center. The quay sides are filled with cut timber from Siberian forests bound for Asian markets and yellow painted construction equipment from Japanese and Korean manufacturers awaiting customs processing before going to work on construction sites in Vladivostok and beyond.
The traditional city centre is sorely in need of renovation and when the city was proposed as the venue for the 2012 annual summit of the leaders from the Asian Pacific Economic Communities it was decide to start from scratch, creating a completely self contained venue on largely undeveloped Russkiy Island in the Kara Sea, in Peter the Great Gulf s eparated by the Eastern Bosphorus from the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula..
A four lane highway over a suspension bridge will carry the delegations to new hotels, conference centre and VIP re3sidences in late 2012. After the delegations have gone the venue will be dusted off and a large part of it including the conference centre will be incorporated into the new Federal University of the Far East while the remainder will form the nucleus of a new integrated tourism resort. With Vladivsotok designated to be one of the four Russian centres for legalized gambling it is hoped that this will spur the inflow of Asian tourists.
Meanwhile investment in oil and gas export terminals is progressing, new ports at Vladivostok, Bolshoi Kamen and Nakhodka are being developed in partnership with the Republic of Korea.
The Vice-rector of the Far East state university Valery Dikarev says: "Fortunately both the president and the government noticed that our country is huge and the eagle on the Russian coat of arms has two heads - one tuned to the West and the other to the East, which means that our interests are not only in Europe but also in the Asian Pacific region.”
On his Far East tour last weekend which took in Birobidzhan, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk as well as Vladivostok President Dmitry Medvedev told regional leaders that cooperation with the their Far Eastern neighbours should focus on joint endeavours in the high-technology fields (particularly in energy, aircraft manufacturing, and the space sector), thereby strengthening Russia’s position in the Asia-Pacific region’s international organizations.
Mr Medvedev noted that integration with APEC countries offers great potential for developing the economy of the Far East and Russia in general. Such integration should be supplemented with relocation of goods, works and services from one part of the country to another while promoting closer cooperation within the Asia-Pacific region to the benefit of the eastern areas of Russia.
Among the biggest problems of the Far Eastern Federal District, the President named the population outflow, which it has not yet been possible to stem. This is the most worrying trend and major threat in the region and it requires constant attention. To change the situation the region must improve its general competitiveness and quality of life. The success of these efforts will depend in large part on competent state social policy, and economic progress, including broader cooperation with neighbouring countries, where he pointed out demand for raw materials and energy resources, and where consumer demand is on the rise.
Vladivostok is well placed to reap the fruits of a renewed drive to integrate Russia’s Far Eastern regions into Asian Pacific economic growth. The Far East University’s school of languages turns out graduates fluent in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. While Moscow intellectuals agonise over Chinese ambitions for Siberia and Primorye regional officials are on frequent trade promotion visits to China, Korea and Japan,
A revitalized armed forces is bringing modern ships into service in the Pacific as well as other fleets, an expanding network of destinations served from Vladivostok Airport and a steady but not flamboyant campaign against corruption and malfeasance in local corridors of power all auger well for the region’s potential development beyond commercial fishing, fur farming and market trading.
