Russia (Россия, Rossiya in Russian) is by far the world's largest country, spanning a little over 150° in longitude. It is organized as the Russian Federation (Российская Федерация, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) with members known as federal subjects (sub'yekty federatsii). Russia is primarily a continental nation but it has important coastlines on the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas and very long coastlines on the Arctic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean. To guard these coasts it operates hundreds of lighthouses, many of them historic. Primorsky Krai (known in English as the Maritime Province and usually called Primorye in Russia) is the southernmost and most populous region of Russia's far eastern coast. Its name Приморский край literally means "Seaside Edge." This page describes the lighthouses of the eastern part of the province, including the port of Nakhodka and the long coast of the Sea of Japan to the northeast. Lighthouses of the Vladivostok area and the Khasan district are on a separate page. Russian occupation of this area began with the explorations of Vitus Bering and Alexsei Chirikov between 1728 and 1741 but settlements were few until treaties with China brought the Primorsky Krai under Russian control in the 1850s. The Russian coast of the Sea of Japan is rugged and scenic; settlements are limited to a handful of small harbors, mostly at the mouths of rivers flowing down from the interior. With the fall of the Soviet Union and the decline of fisheries the population of the coast has dwindled. The Russian word for a lighthouse is mayak (маяк); ostrov is an island, poluostrov is a peninsula, kosa is a sandy spit, rif is a reef, mys is a cape, bukhta is a bay, zaliv is a larger bay or gulf, proliv is a strait, reka is a river, and gavan' is a harbor. Russian lighthouses are owned by the Russian Navy and maintained by the Office of Navigation and Oceanography (Управление навигации и океанографии). A note on the Sea of Japan/East Sea controversy: The sea between Japan, Korea, Sakhalin, and the southern Russian mainland is called the Sea of Japan in Japan and in most western countries. However, Koreans object to the name "Sea of Japan" and call the sea the East Sea or Korea East Sea. The Directory uses the name East Sea on its pages for Korea. The Russian name Японское море (Yaponskoye More) means "Japanese Sea." ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume M of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Southern Khabarovsk | South: Vladivostok Area
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted May 19, 2006. Checked and revised August 28, 2024. Lighthouses: 35. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.