Foundation of Sovetskaya Gavan

On the 4th of August in 1853, in one of the world’s best natural harbors, Admiral Nevelskoi discovered Konstantinovsky Post.  He appointed Nikolay Boshnjak as the first Head of the post. It was the first Russian settlement in the Gulf of Imperatorskaya Gavan.

In 1859, by Imperial Decree, a very experienced forest management lieutenant, A.F. Budishev arrived at the post with his team.

Budishev and his team studied the Tatar Strait and took the first ever samples from the forest and made a test transport along Imperatorskaya Gavan. The team of sailors consisted of ten.

By 1863, export of timber was allowed from the area.  It continued until 1908, when a researcher began studying a more efficient route to Khabarovsk.  He completed his work in 1910.  His name was V. K. Arseniev.  At this time, the facility was renamed from Imperatorskaya to Narodnoe. 

In 1922, the government of the USSR established itself on the Strait of Tatar.  Imperatorskaya Gavan was renamed, Sovetskaya Gavan. Based on the Soviet census data from 1926, Sovetskaya Gavan of that time included 169 people (25 private houses), 146 of them worked in public offices : in the management of the port – 4: port team – 3: merchant navy - 2,: fish industry -2 ; customs - 10. After the reorganization of the Primorskaya province into the Primorsky region in 1938,  the Sovetsky Region was established with the district center being named Sovetskaya Gavan.

By 1941, the settlement was granted city status. In 1945 trains began running from  Komsomolsk-on-Amur through Sovetskaya Gavan and on to Sortirovochnaya.  The first civilian aircraft landed in 1948. 

On September 15, 1948, the city of Sovetskaya Gavan, with a coastal zone, two settlements and five town councils, was transferred from the Primorsky Region to the Khabarovsk Region.

From January 1st, 2006, the municipal city Sovetskaya Gavan is the administrative center of Sovetskaya Gavan municipal district of Khabarovsk Krai - a city of regional importance. The city is a leading industrial and transportation center of the Okhotsk Sea Region in the Far East in Russia.

The distance from the regional center is 600 km. The area of ​​the city within the city limits is 6900 hectares.  The population of the city has stabilized during the period of 1980-1990 and remains approximately 30,000.   The primary economic activities in the city are fishing, forestry and wood processing, construction industries.  Additionally, Sovetskaya Gavan is commercial sea port, ship repair destination and transport hub.

Of particular importance is that Sovetskaya Gavan is part of the Federal Target Program "Economic and social development in the Far East and Transbaikalia for the period to 2013."  The city is planning to build a thermal power station, which is necessary for the development of sea port in Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan, supply of heat and hot water, the construction of cargo complex iron-ore concentrates to the port of Sovetskaya Gavan on Cape Maria to seven million tons.