Ust-Karsk

Kara Lower Diggings in 1885
Kara Lower Diggings 1885

Ust-Karsk (Russian: Усть-карск), formerly known as Ust-Kara (Russian: Усть-кара) is an urban-type settlement in the Sretensky District of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia. The settlement is located on the northern bank of the Shilka River, near the mouth of its left tributary, the Kara River.

The name of the town means "Kara mouth".[1]

Climate

Ust-Karsk has a pure continental climate and it is the hottest place in Siberia. On July 12, 2010, Ust-Karsk set the high temperature record for Asian Russia,42.7 °C (108.9 °F). This took place during a massive heatwave felt throughout Russia and China.[2] In the coldest winters, it can be as cold as −50 °C (−58 °F).

History

The history of Ust-Kara is closely connected to that of the Kara katorga, a network of prison settlements that existed in the area in 1838-1893. Prisoners were used to work gold mines. In the early 1850s, the annual gold production on the Kara was around 70 pood (1100 kg).[3]

In the 1850s, during the preparations for the Amur Annexation, Ust-Kara was one of the sites (along with the Shilkinsky Zavod and Bolshaya Kularka) where barges were built for the Russian military expeditions down the Amur.[4]

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ Kennan, George (1891). Siberia and the Exile System. London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. p. 138.
  2. ↑ Masters, Jeff (15 October 2010). "Paula dying; Zambia records its hottest temperature in history". Weather Underground. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  3. ↑ Maack, Richard Karlovich (Ричард Карлович Маак) (1859), Путешествие на Амур, совершенное по распоряжению Сибирскаго Отдѣла Императорскаго Русскаго Географическаго Общества, в 1855 году: Один том, с портретом графа Муравьева-Амурскаго и с отдѣлельным собранием рисунков, карт и планов (The travel to the Amur, carried out on orders of the Siberian Division of the Russian Imperial Georgraphic Society in 1855...), Изд. члена-соревнователя Сибирскаго отдѣла С. Ф. Соловьева, p. 37
  4. ↑ Maack, p. 39


Coordinates: 52°42′47″N 118°49′16″E / 52.713°N 118.821°E / 52.713; 118.821


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