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The Kolyma ( rus, Колыма, p=kəlɨˈma; sah, Халыма, translit=Khalyma) is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the
Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the Federal subjects of Russia#List, largest republics of Russia, republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sak ...
,
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka (russian: Чуко́тка), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug,, ''Čukotkakèn avtonomnykèn okrug'', is the easternmost federal subject of Russia. It is an autonomous okrug situated in the Russian Far East, and shares a bord ...
, and Magadan Oblast of
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...
. The Kolyma is frozen to depths of several metres for about 250 days each year, becoming free of ice only in early June, until October.


Course

The Kolyma begins at the confluence of the Kulu and the Ayan-Yuryakh, originating in the Khalkan Range and flows across the
Upper Kolyma Highlands The Upper Kolyma Highlands ( rus, Верхнеколымское нагорье) is a highland area in Magadan Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The biggest town in the highlands is Susuman. There are large deposits of gold, tin an ...
in its upper course. Leaving the mountainous areas it flows roughly northwards across the
Kolyma Lowland The Kolyma Lowland (russian: Колымская низменность) is a lowland plain in the northeastern parts of Sakha Republic in the basin of the Alazeya, Bolshaya Chukoch'ya and lower reaches of the Kolyma rivers. The lowland is formed ...
, a vast plain dotted with thousands of lakes, part of the greater
East Siberian Lowland The East Siberian Lowland ( rus, Восточно-Сибирская низменность), also known as Yana-Kolyma Lowland,Oleg Leonidovič Kryžanovskij, ''A Checklist of the Ground-beetles of Russia and Adjacent Lands.'' p. 16 is a vast plai ...
. The river empties into the
Kolyma Gulf The Kolyma Gulf ( Yakut: Халыма хомото, ''Xalıma xomoto''; Russian: Колымский залив, ''Kolymskiy Zaliv'') is the largest gulf of the East Siberian Sea. Geography The gulf is more than 300 km wide. Its limits are th ...
of the East Siberian Sea, a division of the
Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
. The Kolyma is long. The area of its basin is . The average discharge at Kolymskoye is , with a high of reported in June 1985, and a low of in April 1979.


Tributaries

The main
tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of the Kolyma are, from source to mouth: * Ayan-Yuryakh (left) * Kulu (right) * Tenka (right) *
Buyunda The Buyunda (russian: Буюнда) is a river in Magadan Oblast, Russian Far East. It is a right tributary of the Kolyma, with a length of and a drainage basin of .Google Earth Together with the Seymchan that flows roughly southwards on the f ...
(right) *
Bakhapcha The Bakhapcha (russian: Бахапча; also ''"Бохапча"'') is a river in Magadan Oblast, Russia. It has a length of and a drainage basin of . The Bakhapcha is a right tributary of the upper course of the Kolyma. The nearest village is Si ...
(right) * Seymchan (left) * Balygychan (right) * Sugoy (right) *
Korkodon The Korkodon (russian: Коркодон; ykg, Коркигэ) is a river in Magadan Oblast, Russian Far East. It is a right tributary of the Kolyma, with a length of a drainage basin of . The upper reaches of the river are in Omsukchansky Distri ...
(right) ** Bulun * Popovka (left) *
Yasachnaya The Yasachnaya (russian: Ясачная; sah, Дьаһаак, ''Cahaak'') is a river in the Russian Far East. It rises in the Chersky Range and meets the Kolyma near the settlement of Zyryanka. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . Its main t ...
(left) *
Zyryanka Zyryanka (russian: Зыря́нка; sah, Зырянка) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Verkhnekolymsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, on the left bank of the Kolyma River. As of the ...
(left) * Debin (left) *
Taskan The Taskan ( rus, Таскан) is a river in the Susuman and Yagodninsky districts of Magadan Oblast, Russia. It is a left hand tributary of the Kolyma. Its length is , with a drainage basin of . The Taskan was first mapped in the 19th century ...
(left) * Ozhogina (left) * Sededema (left) * Beryozovka (right) *
Omolon The Omolon (russian: Омолон; sah, Омолоон) is the principal tributary of the Kolyma in northeast Siberia. The length of the river is . The area of its basin is . The Omolon freezes up in October and stays under ice until late May t ...
(right) **
Oloy The Oloy (russian: Олой) is a river in Magadan Oblast in Russia, a right tributary of the Omolon ( Kolyma's basin). The length of the river is . The area of its drainage basin is . The river flows through sparsely populated areas of Chukot ...
* Anyuy (right) **
Bolshoy Anyuy The Bolshoy Anyuy (russian: Большой Анюй; "Great Anyuy") is a river in the Kolyma basin in Far East Siberia. Administratively most of the basin of the Bolshoy Anyuy and its tributaries belong to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia. ...
**
Maly Anyuy The Maly Anyuy (russian: Ма́лый Аню́й; ''maly'' meaning "little") is a river in the Kolyma basin in the Russian Far East. Most of the basin of the Maly Anyuy and its tributaries belongs to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug administrative reg ...


Islands

In the last stretch, the Kolyma divides into two large branches. There are many islands at the mouth of the Kolyma before it meets the East Siberian sea. The main ones are: *Mikhalkino is the largest island, it lies to the west of the Kolyma's eastern branch, the Prot. Kammennaya Kolyma. This island breaks up into smaller islands on its northern end. It is long and wide. Mikhalkino is also known as "Glavsevmorput Island" after the
Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route The Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (russian: Главное Управление Северного Морского Пути , translit=Glavnoe upravlenie Severnogo morskogo puti), also known as Glavsevmorput or GUSMP (russian: ГУ� ...
. *Sukharnyy, or Sukhornyy, is 3 kilometres from the northeastern shores of Mikhalkino. It is long and about wide. Northeast of Sukhornyy lies a cluster of small islands known as the Morskiye Sotki Islands. *Piat' Pal'tsev lies 5 kilometres to the southeast of Sukhornyy's southern end. It is 5 kilometres long and has a maximum width of 1.8 kilometres. *Nazarovsky Island lies on the western side of the Kolyma's western branch, the Prot. Pokhodskaya Kolyma, in an area where there are many small islands. It is 4.5 kilometres long and 1.3 kilometres wide. *Shtormovoy Island lies offshore, about to the north of Nazarovsky Island. Shtormovoy is the northernmost island off the Mouths of the Kolyma. It is 4.3 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide.


History

In 1640 Dimitry Zyryan (also called Yarilo or Yerilo) went overland to the Indigirka. In 1641 he sailed down the Indigirka, went east and up the
Alazeya The Alazeya ( rus, Алазея, r=; sah, Алаһыай, translit=Alahıay) is a river in the northeastern part of Yakutia, Russia which flows into the Arctic between the basins of the larger Indigirka to the west and the Kolyma to the east. Mo ...
. Here they heard of the Kolyma and met
Chukchis The Chukchi, or Chukchee ( ckt, Ԓыгъоравэтԓьэт, О'равэтԓьэт, ''Ḷygʺoravètḷʹèt, O'ravètḷʹèt''), are a Indigenous peoples of Siberia, Siberian indigenous people native to the Chukchi Peninsula, the shores of ...
for the first time. In 1643 he returned to the Indigirka, sent his ''yasak'' (tribute) to
Yakutsk Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one o ...
and went back to the Alazeya. In 1645 he returned to the
Lena Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in ...
where he met a party and learned that he had been appointed ''prikazchik'' (land administrator) of the Kolyma. He returned east and died in early 1646. In the winter of 1641–42
Mikhail Stadukhin Mikhail Vasilyevich Stadukhin (russian: Михаил Васильевич Стадухин) (died 1666) was a Russian explorer of far northeast Siberia, one of the first to reach the Kolyma, Anadyr, Penzhina and Gizhiga Rivers and the northern Se ...
, accompanied by Semyon Dezhnyov, went overland to the upper Indigirka. He spent the next winter there, built boats and sailed down the Indigirka and east to the Alazeya where he met Zyryan. Zyryan and Dezhnyov stayed at the Alazeya, while Stadukhin went east, reaching the Kolyma in the summer of 1644. They built a ''zimovye'' (winter cabin), probably at Srednekolymsk, and returned to Yakutsk in late 1645. In 1892–94
Baron Eduard Von Toll Eduard Gustav Freiherr von Toll (russian: Эдуа́рд Васи́льевич Толль, translit=Eduárd Vasíl'evič Toll'; 1902), better known in Russia as Eduard Vasilyevich Toll and often referred to as Baron von Toll, was a Russian ge ...
carried out geological surveys in the basin of the Kolyma (among other Far-eastern Siberian rivers) on behalf of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Barr, 1980). During one year and two days the expedition covered , of which were up rivers, carrying out geodesic surveys en route. The Kolyma is known for its
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (espe ...
s and gold mining, both of which have been extensively documented since Joseph Stalin–era Soviet archives opened. The river gives its title to a famous anthology about life in Gulag camps by Varlam Shalamov, '' The Kolyma Tales''. After the camps were closed, state
subsidies A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...
, local industries and communication dwindled to almost nothing. Many people have migrated, but those who remain in the area make a living by fishing and hunting. In small fishing settlements, fish are sometimes stored in caves carved from permafrost. The last Americans to visit the Kolyma during the Soviet era, before ''
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
'', were the crew of the sailing schooner ''Nanuk'' in August 1929, whose visit was captured in a film taken by the ''Nanuk'' owner's 18-year-old daughter, Marion Swenson. The first two Americans to visit the Kolyma after the ''Nanuks visit were writer Wallace Kaufman and journalist Rebecca Clay, who traveled by cutter from Ziryanka to Green Cape in August 1991. Kaufman and his daughter Sylvan and CPA Letty Collins Magdanz also travelled part of the Kolyma in August 1992, the first American visitors since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both trips were arranged by North-East Scientific and Industrial Center: Ecocenter to try out an ecotourism route which was found to be impractical. In February 2012, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that scientists had grown plants from 30,000-year-old ''
Silene stenophylla ''Silene stenophylla'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. Commonly called narrow-leafed campion, it is a species in the genus ''Silene''. It grows in the Arctic tundra of far eastern Siberia and the mountains of north ...
'' fruit, which was stored in squirrel burrows near the banks of the Kolyma river and preserved in permafrost.


Settlements

Settlements at the Kolyma river include (listed downstream)
Sinegorye Sinegorye (russian: Синего́рье; lit. ''region of blue mountains'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Yagodninsky District of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Kolyma River, from Kolyma Hydroelectric Station. Po ...
, Debin,
Ust-Srednekan Ust-Srednekan (russian: Усть-Среднекан) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Srednekansky District of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kolyma River, where it is joined by its tributary the Srednekan, from ...
, Seymchan,
Zyryanka Zyryanka (russian: Зыря́нка; sah, Зырянка) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Verkhnekolymsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, on the left bank of the Kolyma River. As of the ...
, Srednekolymsk and Chersky.


Constructions

The Kolyma Hydroelectric Station is a hydropower plant at
Sinegorye Sinegorye (russian: Синего́рье; lit. ''region of blue mountains'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Yagodninsky District of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Kolyma River, from Kolyma Hydroelectric Station. Po ...
, downstream from the Kolyma Reservoir in the upper part of the river. The plant was started in the 1980s by Kolyma Gestroi and both the plant and the town of Sinegorye were built under the supervision of chief engineer Oleg Kogadovski. The town included an olympic sized swimming pool, an underground rifle range, and many amenities absent in most other small Russian towns. Kogadovski said that in order to attract and employ good talent in such a remote place, the town had to be exceptional. Personal observation in 1991, journals kept by Wallace Kaufman The dam provides most of the electricity to the region including Magadan. the Kolyma dam is an earthen dam some 150 ft high. Air circulation tubes carry frigid winter air into the core of the dam where frozen earth stabilizes the structure. Kolyma Ges. said it was the largest dam ever built in a permafrost region. In 1992 a new hydropower plant was under construction at Ust-Srednekan, the Ust-Srednekan Hydroelectric Plant. Larch forests cleared for the reservoir were cut in winter when the trunks were frozen and easily snapped. The wood was sold for pulp. There are only a few bridges over the river, including at
Ust-Srednekan Ust-Srednekan (russian: Усть-Среднекан) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Srednekansky District of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kolyma River, where it is joined by its tributary the Srednekan, from ...
, at Sinegorye and at Debin (which carries the Kolyma Highway).


See also

* Kolyma (greater region) *
East Siberian Mountains The East Siberian Mountains or East Siberian Highlands ( rus, Восточно-Сибирское нагорье) are one of the largest mountain systems of the Russian Federation. They are located between the Central Yakutian Lowland and the Be ...
*
List of rivers of Russia Russia can be divided into a European and an Asian part. The dividing line is generally considered to be the Ural Mountains. The European part is drained into the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. The Asian part is drained in ...


References


Further reading

*
William Barr William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as the 77th and 85th United States attorney general in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump. Born and raised in New York City, Barr ...
, ''Baron Eduard von Toll’s Last Expedition: The Russian Polar Expedition, 1900-1903'' (1980)

* Shalamov, Varlam Tikhonovich (1994) ''Kolyma tales'' olymskie rasskazy Glad, John (transl.), Penguin twentieth-century classics, Harmondsworth : Penguin, * Once-cursed Gulag river now Siberian lifeline


Position and names of islands


External links

*
Information and a map of the Kolyma's watershed

Picture of Mikhalkino Island
{{Authority control Rivers of the Sakha Republic Rivers of Magadan Oblast Rivers of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug East Siberian Lowland