A recording of very pleasurable early morning landing at Magadan Airport (UHMM) in Far East Russia.
Magadan is a city located in Far East Russia and administrative centre of Magadan Oblast (region). It is located at the shores of Nagaev Bay and it is considered a gateway to whole Kolyma region. Magadan is inhabited by nearly 100 000 people and is the largest sea port in north-eastern Siberia. As it often happens with this part of Russia, Magadan was (simplifying history) erected on gulags between 1932 and 1954. It was this region of gulags, that inspired Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago to write it in the first place.
Discovery of gold in Kolyma and death of J.Stalin (which many welcomed with great relief despite widespread propaganda) led to rapid changes in soviet politics and by 1960 most workforce was based on people moving into the region voluntarily. Nevertheless, a good chunk of workforce was still based on prisoners, but majority of these were common criminals, not political opponents, referred to by soviets as "element". But it wasn't until '90s when Yeltsin made changes to political structure, that some of the political prisoners were released from labour camps.
The estimates regarding the number of victims of stalinism in Kolyma region vary. A local lawyer documented 11 000 deaths. Matthew White who wrote article titled Death Tolls for the Man-made Megadeaths of the 20th Century estimates death toll around 500 000 people. Earlier estimates of death toll reaching 3 million at this moment are considered to be overestimated numbers done as part of political games between CIA and Soviet Union.
Fun fact about Kolyma Krai (State) is that it's borders were never officially defined and in time it divided into smaller administrative regions, consisting of Magadan Oblast, north-eastern areas of Yakutia, and the Bilibinsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. It is quite cold region. Average summer temperatures do not exceed 16C (as you can see on this recording made mid September, the outside temp. is just 2-3C.
Currently, local economy relies on gold mining and fishing industries. To name few others, large part of economy is also taken by sausage production, pasta production and distillery.
Aircraft: Fenix A319
Airline: Aurora Airlines
Airport: Magadan Sokol (payware by DV scenarios) with enhancement mod which can be found at flightsim.to
Weather: Live
Enjoy!
1 окт 2024
