page_title: Pevek
section_title: Gulag
hierarchical_section_title: Pevek / History / Gulag
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Остатки лагеря близ Певека
context_page_description: Pevek is an Arctic port town and the administrative center of Chaunsky District in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on Chaunskaya Bay on a peninsula on the eastern side of the bay facing the Routan Islands, above the Arctic Circle, about 640 kilometers northwest of Anadyr, the administrative center of the autonomous okrug. Population: 4,162; 5,206; 12,915. with an estimated population as at 1 January 2015 of 4,721.
  Pevek is the northernmost town in Russia and in Asia. It is a modern settlement established after World War I to provide a port for the export of minerals as part of the expanding Northern Sea Route. During the 1940s and 1950s, the area surrounding Pevek was the site of several gulags where prisoners mined uranium. In recent years, many of the mines became unprofitable and have closed, causing many residents to move to more central regions in Russia and the port infrastructure to decay.
  Pevek is the present location of the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant, which carries two marine-type KLT-40S nuclear reactors generating 35 megawatts of electricity each.
context_section_description: The workforce for the mines that provided the Soviet Union with tin and uranium throughout the large parts of the 20th century were prisoners in the Gulag system. There was a network of camps in the region itself, through which an uncertain number of criminal and political prisoners passed. There are the remains of two large camps, "North" and "West", which continued to supply uranium during and after World War II. Barracks dot the landscape and have the appearance of being hastily abandoned. Large graveyards on the edge of the various encampments show that a large proportion of those sent to work in the mines did not survive.
caption: Remains of Chaunlag buildings near Pevek
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