Yavas (; , ''Javaz'') is an urban locality (a work settlement) in the Zubovo-Polyansky District of the

Republic of Mordovia Mordovia ( ),; Moksha and officially the Republic of Mordovia,; ; is a republic of Russia, situated in Eastern Europe. Its capital is the city of Saransk. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the republic was 834,755. Ethnic Russians ( ...

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 ...

. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 7,941. It is the location of women's prison corrective colony No. 2, Mordovia.

History

It was founded in 1931 as the headquarters of the fast-paced camp system for prisoners, dubbed ''

Temlag Temlag (Темла́г), Temnikovsky Corrective Labor Camp (Темниковский исправи́тельно-трудово́й ла́герь), or Temnikovsky ITL (Темниковский ИТЛ) was a camp of the Gulag labor camp system of t ...

'' (named after the town of

Temnikov Temnikov (; , ''Temnikav''; , ''Čopolt oš'') is a town and the administrative center of Temnikovsky District in the Republic of Mordovia, Russia. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 7,243. History The oldest town in the Republic ...

) of 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 ...

system, later transferred to

Dubravlag The Dubravny Camp, Special Camp No.3 (), commonly known as the Dubravlag (), was a Gulag labor camp of the Soviet Union located in Yavas, Mordovia from 1948 to 2005. The Dubravlag was founded as one of several Gulag special camps in the Mordov ...

(Asherah camp). The settlement retains its value as one of the centers of the Russian penitentiary system. There are these penal institutions: *LC-385/2 (for women) *LC-385/11 (for men) *LC-385/8 (for males and females, the colony-settlement). The status of urban-type settlement was assigned to the settlement by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Mordovia on April 9, 1959. Located on Yavas River, north from the district center Zubova Polyana and from the railway station

Potma Potma () is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities * Potma, Zubovo-Polyansky District, Republic of Mordovia, a work settlement in Zubovo-Polyansky District of the Republic of Mordovia; ;Rural localities * Potma, ...

. Founded in 1930 on the railway line Potma – Barashevo, it served as an area for harvesting industrial wood and firewood for

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. At the beginning of the 1930s, the village became the center of the CTI network opened here ("Dubravlag"). A factory for wood processing was built in 1941–1945. By the mid-1950s, a school, hotel, bath, residential buildings and a stadium were built, and the House of Culture was renovated.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, the work settlement of Yavas, together with three rural localities, is incorporated within Zubovo-Polyansky District as Yavas Work Settlement (an administrative division of the district).Law #7-Z As a municipal division, Yavas Work Settlement is incorporated within Zubovo-Polyansky Municipal District as Yavasskoye Urban Settlement.Law #12-Z

Notable people

It is the birthplace of the Soviet/Russian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Vladimir Dezhurov (1962).

Brittney Griner Brittney Yvette Griner (; born October 18, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women's natio ...

, a US basketball player, was imprisoned at Female Penal Colony IK-2 in Yavas, in 2022.

References

Notes

Sources

* * {{Use mdy dates, date=October 2012 __NOTOC__ Urban-type settlements in Mordovia Zubovo-Polyansky District