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. The Gulf of Finland, the eastern arm of the Baltic Sea, extends about 425 km (265 mi) to end at St. Petersburg, Russia's traditional western outlet to the sea. For most of its length the Gulf is 60-120 km (38-75 mi) wide. The eastern quarter of the Gulf's length is surrounded by Russian territory and the western 3/4 separates Finland on the north from Estonia on the south. Finland and Estonia were both parts of the Russian Empire before World War I and Estonia was a member republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 until 1991. The region on the south side of the Gulf between St. Petersburg and the Estonian border is known as Ingria (Inkeri in Finnish, Ingermanland in Swedish). Ingria has been part of Russia since it was conquered by Peter the Great in the early 1700s. Today Ingria represents a large part of Russia's Leningrad Oblast (province), one of the federal subjects. Leningrad Oblast is divided into 17 districts (raions) and one city district (gorodskoy okrug). This page covers the Kingisepp and Lomonosov Districts and the Sosnovy Bor City District. Curly braces {} are used to enclose former Finnish names of some of the light stations in the Gulf of Finland region that were controlled by Finland between the two world wars. 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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Kingisepp District: Gulf of Finland Islands Lighthouses
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![]() Ostrov Rodsher Light, Gulf of Finland, January 2023 Google Maps photo by Plinio Lisboa |
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![]() Bol'shoy Tyuters Light, Bol'shoy Tyuters, August 2021 Google Maps photo |
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Kingisepp District: Mainland Lighthouses
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![]() Morskogo Kanala Porta Range Rear Light, Ust-Luga, June 2013 Google Maps street view |
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Sosnovy Bor City Lighthouse
Lomonosov District Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Southern Finland | East: St. Petersburg | Southwest: Northern Estonia
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted May 22, 2005. Checked and revised September 7, 2024. Lighthouses: 42. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.