Nagaev Bay or Nagayev Bay (), also known as Nagayeva Bay, is a bay within Taui Bay in the northern part of the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

Magadan Oblast Magadan Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East, Far East region of the country, and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Magadan ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Geography

It is 6.4 km (4 mi) wide at its entrance and 14.5 km (9 mi) long.United States. (1918). ''Asiatic Pilot, Volume 1: East coast of Siberia, Sakhalin Island and Chosen''. Washington: Hydrographic Office. The city of

Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...

with its port (formerly Nagaevo port) is located at the head of the bay on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula. Ice occurs in the bay from the end of November to the middle of June. It was named after Russian hydrographer, admiral Alexey Nagaev.''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

''
Entry on Nagayeva Bay
It has been described as the best mooring place in the Sea of Okhotsk. Freezing the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk

History

Between 1852 and 1869, American whaleships anchored in Nagayeva Bay to obtain

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

and water and boil

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

. They called it Jeannette Harbor, after the ship ''Jeannette'' (), of

New Bedford New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...

, which frequented Taui Bay in the early 1850s. During the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

era, the bay was used as a transit point for Gulag inmates coming by sea and further directed to camps of Magadan and

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

to man the

Dalstroy Dalstroy (, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka, parts of Yakutia and parts ...

works. Since 1937 the headquarters of

Sevvostlag Sevvostlag (, North-Eastern Corrective Labor Camps) was a system of forced labor camps set up to satisfy the workforce requirements of the '' Dalstroy'' construction trust in the Kolyma region in April 1932. Organizationally being part of ''Dal ...

were situated by Nagaev Bay.

Cultural references

Varlam Shalamov Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (; 18 June 1907 – 17 January 1982), baptized as Varlaam, was a Russian writer, journalist, poet and Gulag survivor. He spent much of the period from 1937 to 1951 imprisoned in forced-labor camps in the Arctic reg ...

mentioned the bay as part of the Gulag industry in his memoirs ''About Kolyma'' Nagaev Bay is part of the refrain of

Vladimir Vysotsky Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (25 January 193825 July 1980) was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor who had an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which ...

's song ''I Went to Magadan'' (Я уехал в Магадан) The arrival of prison ships is the subject of Smokey Bastard's single 'Archipelago'.

References

{{Russian Far East Bays of the Sea of Okhotsk Bays of Magadan Oblast Pacific Coast of Russia Gulag industry Magadan