Vladivostok

   An important Russian city and port in the Far East. Vladivostok occupies a natural basin dominating the tip of the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula on the Sea of Japan. Vladivostok means “ruler of the east” in Russian, a name chosen upon the establishment of a Russian military post there in 1860, shortly after the territory was acquired from Qing China with the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and Conventions of Beijing in 1860. Vladivostok became a port in 1862 and a city in 1880. From 1871, it was also the headquarters of the Russian Far Eastern Fleet. With the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1905, the city was linked with St. Petersburg. This, combined with the Russian loss of Port Arthur to Japan in 1905, soon made Vladivostok the major Russian port in the Far East. From 1905 to 1907, the city was the site of serious uprisings by workers and soldiers that contributed to Russia’s prerevolutionary crisis.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Stephan, John J. The Russian Far East: A History. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.

   DANIEL C. KANE