ABOUT  KHABAROVSK • Khabarovsk (ha-BAR-uvsk) Portland's Russian Sister City in the Russian Far East. Our city histories have many similarities. Khabarovsk, an inland port city on the confluence of two major rivers, founded in 1858 offering Eastward pioneers abundant natural resources: gold, timber & salmon. Named for the 17th century explorer Yerofei Khabarov, Khabarovsk is a territorial capital, population 700,000, a major center of international culture & commerce. •Khabarovsk, located on three hills overlooking the Amur River, was first established as a military outpost in 1651 during the first wave of Russian colonization. It gained importance in the nineteenth century as a trading outpost and today is one of the most promising cities of the Russian Far East. Warmly pastel-colored Khabarovsk is inviting, with wide, tree-lined boulevards, a popular beach and an interesting museum of ethnography and local history. • Khabarovsk Krai consists of mountain ranges and plateaus. The climate is continental with cold dry winters and warm humid summers with many sunny days. The Amur River flood-lands are formed by multiple river branches, channels and lakes. Permafrost is widely spread in the territory. Luxurious vegetation, a unique mixture of northern and southern floras abounds with fish, birds, animals and the rare Ussuri snow tiger.
• In meetings with Earl Molander, PKSCA President, and other PKSCA representatives Alexander N. Sokolov, Mayor of Khabarovsk has displayed a keen interest in engaging in new initiatives with PKSCA, including energy and natural resource conservation, modeled on the professional-technical exchanges of our SWMI project.
To learn more about Khabarovsk, see these sites/resources: Khabarovsk City Administration Photographs of Khabarovsk Gazeta Molodoi Dalnevostochnik Gazeta TOZ - "Pacific Star" Russian Far East More Russian Far East FarPost Still More Russian Far East Geocities Official Site of the Russian National Tourist Office Russia Today See also Main Street, Siberia: The Surprising Human Capital on the Pacific End of Russia by PKSCA member Dale M. Heckman, PhD. Vantage Press, 1999. therussiangallery.com an art gallery in Portland, which is a branch of the Russian Culture Fund of Khabarovsk