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 (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. Through its outlet to the Mediterranean the Black Sea has long provided a southern maritime connection for Russia. However, the history of Russia's control of the Black Sea coast is complex. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Russian Federation's control of the Black Sea coast was limited to the area east of the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the much smaller basin of the Sea of Azov. This page includes lighthouses of the eastern Black Sea coast, between the Abkhazian border and the Kerch Strait. The largest city and principal port on this coast is Novorossiysk but the best known location is Sochi, the beach resort town that was the site of the Olympic Winter Games in 2014. Administratively this coast is part of Krasnodar Krai (often called Kuban), a large member of the Russian Federation including the western end of the Caucasus Mountains. This area was added to Russia in a long series of conflicts ending in 1864. Historically the coastal region was known as Circassia; Sochi was the traditional capital of Circassia. 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). ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. RU numbers, where available, are from the Russian Black Sea light list (publication 2217). Admiralty numbers are from volume N of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals and U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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![]() Doobskiy Light, Novorossiysk, January 2018 Google Maps photo by Ahadxon Ibragimov |
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
![]() Anapa Light, Anapa, September 2023 Instagram photo by Anastasia Konushkina |
Adjoining pages: North: Sea of Azov | East: Abkhazia | West: Eastern Crimea
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Posted February 26, 2007. Checked and revised September 12, 2024. Lighthouses: 44. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.