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 Oceans. To guard these coasts it operates hundreds of lighthouses, many of them historic. Russia's traditional western outlet to the sea is the city of Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg, Санкт-Петербург). One of the members of the Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg has the status of a "federal city," gorod federalnogo znacheniya. The city was called Petrograd from 1914 to 1924 and Leningrad from 1924 to 1991. Metropolitan Saint Petersburg surrounds Neva Bay, a shallow basin that is the easternmost extension of the Gulf of Finland. A large number of lighthouses, many historic but some quite modern, have been built to guide vessels in this narrow and crowded waterway. The Russian word for a lighthouse is mayak (маяк); ostrov is an island, 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. Admiralty numbers are from volume C of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 116.
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![]() Lesnoy Mole Range Front Light, St. Petersburg, September 2023 Lightphotos.net photo Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Vyborg Area | East: Lake Ladoga | Southwest: Eastern Estonia | West: Ingria
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Posted May 22, 2005. Checked and revised September 15, 2024. Lighthouses: 48. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.