Providence Bay. Providence Bay in Chukotka Ascension Bay Chukotka

In the southeast of Chukotka, in the waters of the Gulf of Anadyr, there is a beautiful corner of the peninsula, bounded by the rocky capes named after Lesovsky and Lysaya Gora, the sea port bay of Provideniya. The harsh but infinitely beautiful Provideniya Bay has its own unique northern beauty. A magnificent corner under the bright northern sky and the wonderful Providence Museum of Local Lore is a worthy reason to visit these fabulous places, to touch the ancient, riddles and secrets that attract like a magnet.

The toponym of Providence Bay, which appeared in 1848 with the light hand of English captain Thomas Moore, in memory of “God's happy providence”, which allowed his ship to spend the winter in a secluded natural bay, excites the imagination of history experts. It was here that sea merchant and whaling ships often stopped for the winter, fearing raging storms.

The ships received reliable protection in a calm harbor, thanks to the favorable geographical location of Providence Bay. At the very beginning, the width of the bay is up to 8 km, with a length of the bay of 34 km; the further inland, the narrower it becomes. Down from Emma Harbor the width of the bay is 4 km, and above it is 2.5 km. On any map, the bay looks like a giant plant curved to the north and northeast with separate branch bays.

Steep rocky shores and high hills up to 800 meters protect it from cold storm winds. In summer, the bay is free of ice, and then there are daily tides. Depths range from 35 meters at the entrance to the bay to 150 meters. Along the shores of the bay there are small bays and quiet harbors: Komsomolskaya Bay, Slavyanka, Head, Emma Harbor, Horseman Bay, Vladimir Bay, Cache Bay.

On the eastern shore of Komsomolskaya Bay there are large settlements of the urban-type settlement of Provideniya and the ethnic village “Ureliki”, an airport of the same name “Provideniya Bay”, which accepts international flights and charters. In Slavyanka Bay, behind the natural breakwater of the sea spit of Plover and Cape Gaydamak, there is an anchorage known to sailors.

For the first time on the shores of the bay in 1660, sailors from a ship under the command of Kurbat Ivanov appeared, but they did not name it or put it on the map, and for another two hundred years it remained nameless for geographers and researchers until the wintering of Thomas Moore’s ship. In the summer of 1876, the clipper “Vsadnik” arrived here under the command of Captain Novoselsky, who made the first hydrographic survey in Providence Bay.

After the Chelyuskin events in 1937, O.Yu. Schmidt, the head of the Northern Sea Route, approved the construction of the Provedensky port in the Bering Sea; its appearance gave a powerful impetus to the development of the territory. For many centuries there was an Eskimo village on the Plover sea spit; it, like many small villages of the Chukchi and Evenks, was evacuated to accommodate coastal defense batteries in 1941.

Today, tourists, travelers and lovers of rare and exotic northern sports come to the shores of Provideniya Bay. Every year, winter snowmobile and dog sled races take place here; in the summer, water tourists come here with pleasure to take an exciting boat trip in kayaks and other watercraft along the routes of seafarers.

Providence Bay in the photo

Address: Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Bering Sea, Anadyr Bay

GPS coordinates: 64.404094, -173.319303

Provideniya Bay on the map

Providence Bay on video

Chukotka. Providence Bay.

To be honest, I even doubted whether it was worth posting this. But there are photos, maybe someone will find it interesting.
36 photos + some text.

What kind of village is this, and where did it even come from? Here's what Vicky says.
After the discovery of Providence Bay in 1660 by the Russian expedition of Kurbat Ivanov, fishing and wintering for whaling and merchant ships began to take place here regularly. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the beginning of the development of the Northern Sea Route, a coal warehouse was organized on the coast of the bay to replenish the fuel reserves of ships heading to the Arctic, and by 1934 the first buildings of the future seaport appeared here, which became the city-forming one for the village of Provideniya.

In 1937, with the arrival of a caravan of ships with building materials, the Providenstroy enterprise began active construction of a port and a village, and at the end of 1945, the Kamchatka Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution on the creation “in the Chukotka region of the working village of Provideniya on the basis of the settlement of the Main Northern Sea Route in Provideniya Bay.” .

On May 10, 1946, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR was issued on the formation of the village of Provideniya, which is considered the official date of foundation of the settlement.

The village continued to quickly deteriorate, which was facilitated by the redeployment of military units here. In 1947, the first public building was built - a canteen.

And Vicky also tells us that..
Until the end of the 1980s, about 6,000 people lived in the village, but in the 1990s, due to the massive movement of residents to the mainland, the administrative unification of two villages took place - Ureliki and Provideniya. The initiator of such consolidations was the then governor Roman Abramovich.
Well, well, I’ll show you Ureliki too.

Actually, we were there not for photos, but for work. Sounding in the bay, topographical and geodetic work. So there are no normal, tourist photographs at all. There was simply no time.

They also rarely went to the village itself. To the store, if only, but their prices are different... Well, to the bathhouse on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The village, if anything, is also Providence. The most interesting thing they have there is a museum. The museum is small, but people who work there love it, you can see it right away. Naturally, prices for souvenirs are in dollars, since Alaska is very close, and American cruise ships often come.

Yes, Russians and Chukchi and Evenks live there... But this is not Pevek, all the local representatives of small nationalities are drunken alcoholics for the most part. No deer, no national clothes, no color. Everything that exists is only in the museum.

Whaling gun. They even let us hold him. Damn heavy, more than 11 kilos. Previously, they say, whales came into the bay and celebrated. We didn't see anything of this.

The photograph truly reflects what is happening in Providence. On the top and bottom of the newspaper there is the same ship.

Well, yes, it was worth going to Chukotka to see the plague in the museum..

Okay, let's go back to the village. At the exit from the port we are met by an American SUV. Ours can do no worse, and even better. UAZ proves this. The guy with the level is one of ours.

In general, you can actually get used to it if you want. The administration, as almost everywhere in small villages, is trying to work. They built a small sports complex and a swimming pool. There is a bus to the airport and around the village. More precisely, a shift shift, but in the absence of a stamp, as they say...

They even have something like a holiday village. It's actually quite cozy there and a lot of fun. Although there is a problem with building materials.

Oh! I didn’t show you the port itself from the sea. It's like night. Polar day.

As you can see, there are very few people living here. There used to be more.

And the port itself is quite large.

Looks better during the day. True, such sunny days are rarely there. Very rarely. And it's still cold. Although we were there in July.

Ureliki, as promised. Sorry, but there are not enough photos. I don't like such "landscapes" in reality. Abramovich's leadership, yes. Once upon a time there were military people here (don't forget about Alaska).

Please, it happened by accident. I'll go cut off my hands

Another one. By the way, people work there. They even brought Uzbeks and Tajiks. They destroy everything there, demolish houses. And they tear it down pretty quickly.

Well, these Abarmovichs, here are a few photos from the hill. It’s really very beautiful there, very clean air, beautiful sea. Well, it’s cold, yes, it happens. This is Provideniya Bay from an altitude of approximately 430 meters above sea level.

The fog makes it difficult to take photos. Especially Provideniya Bay itself. In Komsomolskaya (a bay within a bay) the fogs come later and you can have time to photograph something. For example, the long-suffering Ureliks.

You can climb even higher on the downhill ski. I didn't want to go down, to be honest. Komsomolskaya Bay 1.

2. The village of Provideniya itself is just up to me.

3. Ureliki. The huge Istijed Lake is visible. The water in it is fresh and coho salmon live in it. Some kind of species listed in the Red Book. The lake is on the very right side of the photo, separated by a relatively narrow spit from the bay.

The fogs, what beautiful fogs there are. True, they got sick of them within a month, since they are endless.

Hills and fogs.. View from the pier.

The whales came into the bay. They're really unsociable. They didn’t want to be photographed, they refused to introduce themselves... I only managed to take a photo of my back.

It happens that they die there. Well, there are local whalers somewhere in smaller villages. Those Eskimos, Chukchi and others who live according to their old traditions. After them, this is what remains (not for the faint of heart).

And then this happens. There's a pool in the background, by the way.

Be satisfied.

I don't know if the inscription is visible. When the hills turn green, you can definitely see it. But we didn't wait.

Sometimes I miss communication, I just want to talk to someone. There are generally very few people in Chukotka. You can ride a motorcycle all day and not meet anyone. In principle, this suits me; I’m used to traveling alone. Sometimes for several days on a trip you don’t say a word, and I don’t like talking to myself.

I have lived in Chukotka since I was two years old, one might say, my whole life, and I was born in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, on the Taimyr Peninsula. This is also the Far North. In general, I have lived in the Arctic all my life. Perhaps that is why my place of residence seems ideal to me. For example, when I’m on vacation, in big cities I feel uncomfortable with all the fuss around. I want to quickly return home to Chukotka.

You hardly see any non-locals at home. There are tourists, of course, but mostly foreigners come on cruise ships: they wander around the village in crowds for several hours and then sail on. I think it is very difficult for an ordinary tourist to enter the territory of Chukotka. Firstly, this is a border zone, and secondly, it is very expensive. An airplane is not the cheapest form of transport. They fly here from Anadyr: once a month in winter and once a week in summer.

My main hobby is motorcycle riding. I love to climb mountains, walk alone on the tundra and visit abandoned, dead towns, which we have had plenty of since the days of the Iron Curtain. On our side of the bay is the village of Provideniya, and on the opposite side is Ureliki, a dead and abandoned military town. I go there often, just wandering along the empty streets, looking at the gaping, broken windows of the buildings.

This fall I inspected the local school, the building is in a very depressing condition, it would be like making a horror movie: broken glass everywhere, water dripping from the ceiling, wind blowing through the corridors. I know some graduates of this school, they are already adults, sometimes they come to their school, but cannot even gather in their own classroom. They sit in the courtyard, barbecue and complain that the alumni meeting now has to be held on the street, since only the walls remain from their home school.

I used to not be afraid to wander through abandoned buildings, but now I feel afraid. It seems as if there is something alive in these houses, so I completely stopped going into dark rooms: basements, long corridors and rooms without windows. But I am drawn to these houses, I love to wander through places that have no future: to visit old hunting and fishing lodges.

It’s always interesting for me when traveling to suddenly find an old geologists’ house in the tundra. I love reading inscriptions on walls. For example: “Andrey Smirnov. Chukotka. Summer 1973." Questions immediately arise in my head: “Who was this Andrei? What was he doing in Chukotka in 1973? What was his future fate, where is he now?” And so on. This all excites and interests me madly.

“Active construction of the village began in 1937. A caravan of ships from the Providenstroy enterprise arrived here. First of all, it was necessary to build a port. At the end of 1945, the Kamchatka Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution on the creation of the workers' village of Provideniya in the Chukotka region. The village continued to develop rapidly, and military units were relocated here. The first public building, the canteen, was built only in 1947.

From the memoirs of Lyudmila Adiatullina, Perm:

— My father, Vasily Andreevich Borodin, reached Prague during the war. Then his unit was loaded onto trains and sent across all of Russia to the Far East to Providence Bay, where he served for another five years.

It was very difficult; for two years they lived in six-panel tents, among rocky stone hills. The bunks were made of stones, with reindeer moss placed on top. Four were sleeping, and the fifth was heating the stove. In the morning, sometimes my hair froze to the tent. This tent city was covered with snow, people dug each other out, made catering units, officer houses, defensive structures and even roads out of logs.

In the second year, little fuel was delivered, and in order not to freeze, the military looked for dwarf birch trees and tore them out by the roots; they split bricks and soaked stones in barrels of kerosene. The stoves were already lit with this. It’s good that the Chukchi suggested that not far from the unit’s location there were coal mines developed by the Americans. When they were asked to leave there in 1925, they blew everything up and covered it with earth. The soldiers re-developed these mines in a primitive way, carrying coal 30 km in backpacks and on skis. And yet they survived.

Then we rode dogs and reindeer, renting them from the Chukchi. The snow was cut with saws, carried on sleighs and made into water. Only in the third year did they begin to build soldiers’ barracks from wooden blocks. The barracks were large, the size of a division. There were no builders among the soldiers, but life taught us everything. In September 1950, everyone was demobilized. They were not at home for seven years: two years in the war and five years in Chukotka.”

The village of Provideniya itself is an ordinary northern port town with monuments to the devastation of the nineties, bad roads and kind, sympathetic people. Some come here simply to earn a “northern” pension and leave. They don’t understand the beauty of the North; it’s for visitors - cold, snow and stones. Some people, on the contrary, are crazy about mountains, northern lights, whales, and other romance. I am one of those people.

All the most interesting things are located outside our village: a base for sea hunters, a whale cemetery, the remains of military installations, ancient Eskimo sites, underground hot springs. In the summer I go to the ocean on a motorcycle all the time, I like to walk everywhere, climb hills, wander through unknown places.

And what animals can you stumble upon! I saw: whales, seals, wolves, brown and polar bears, foxes, arctic foxes, wolverines, hares, eurasians, ermine, lemmings and a bunch of different birds. Only bears and wolves are dangerous to humans. A gun, I think, of course, is not a superfluous thing in the tundra, and simply in the wild, but it just so happened that I spent my entire life without it. Maybe I was lucky, but if I came across bears, I was always on a vehicle, on a snowmobile or motorcycle. But if you travel on foot, then it is better to take a gun or at least a flare gun: some kind of firecrackers to scare away predators.

One day I came across the wreckage of an airplane. Once I was driving along the shore of a lake and saw something on the side of a hill. I climbed in and it turned out that it was a LI-2 plane. He crashed here in the seventies. Below I saw a memorial plaque and sign. Many more aircraft wrecks can be found on the territory of military installations. All this remains from the times of the Soviet army.

Mobile phone reception here. The Internet, however, is expensive and very slow. That’s why everyone here is sitting in WhatsApp chats. A megabyte of mobile traffic costs nine rubles.

There is also some kind of work. Power plant, boiler house, border services, police, seaport and airport.

There are about fifteen shops here. Everything in them is very expensive, because goods are imported by ship. What was thrown by plane is even more expensive. Fruits and vegetables can cost 800-1000 rubles per kilogram, and those unloaded from ships are half the price. Things are mostly Chinese rubbish from Vladivostok. I don’t buy them here at all, I order everything through online stores or buy them on the mainland. Many people do this.

For children there is a garden, a school, a ski section, and a sports complex. In general, you can live. Fans of northern Providence will love it.

Provideniya Bay is a bay in the Anadyr Bay of the Bering Sea, off the southeastern coast of the Chukotka Peninsula. The entrance to Provideniya Bay is limited by Cape Bald Head in the east and Cape Lesovsky in the west. The width of Provideniya Bay is about 8 km at the beginning. Length - 34 km (measured along the center line).

The width of the bay in the part below Emma Harbor is about 4 km, and above Emma Harbor it is about 2.5 km. The steep banks and hills of the bay have an average height of about 600-800 meters. From May to October it is completely or partially ice-free. At the entrance to the bay the depth is about 35 m. The maximum depth is about 150 meters. Inside Provideniya Bay there are several smaller bays: Komsomolskaya Bay (Emma Harbor), Slavyanka Bay, Head Bay, Horseman and Cache Bays. An ancient legend says: in August 1660, the boyar's son Kurbat Ivanov, successor of Semyon Dezhnev, undertook a fishing expedition to the north and reached the modern Cape Chukotsky. This is evidenced by the sailor’s reply to the Yakut governor Ladynezhsky. The legend says that it was Kurbat Ivanov and his comrades who were one of the strangers who visited Providence Bay. Occupying a convenient geographical location, the deep-sea bay has long attracted sailors. But for almost 200 years it was nameless. The bay received its romantic name from the sailors of the English sailing ship Plover, commanded by Thomas Moore. In 1848 - 1849, during a severe winter, Plover's team suffered disaster and was forced to spend the winter here. To commemorate a successful winter, Captain Moore named the happy place Holy Providence Bay. Subsequently, the bay was visited by American, Norwegian, Japanese whalers, Russian and American merchants, Russian military hydrographic vessels and fishing expeditions. The bay becomes a convenient base in the far northeast for refueling ships with fuel and water. The history of the Chelyuskinsky epic and the development of the northern sea route showed the need to build a seaport in the bay. In February 1937, the head of the main northern sea route, Otto Yulievich Schmit, approved the port construction project. And in the summer of 1940, the ships were already unloading at the wall of the first berth. With the creation of a seaport in Provideniya, the settlements of Ureliki (Plover) are intensively developing. By 1941, in Provideniya there were construction offices “Providenstroy”, industrial martel “Polar Star”, post office, bank, hydrography, airport, Plover machine-industrial station. There was also a radio station, a hospital and a primary school. The number of inhabitants by that time had reached seven hundred people. The workers' settlement of Provideniya was formed in the Chukotka region according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dated May 10, 1946. As time passed, the number of enterprises in the village increased, and the number of its residents grew. On April 25, 1957, the Providensky district was formed. It included the villages of Enmelen, Nunlingran, Sireniki, Chaplino, Yanrakinot. Provideniya Bay is one of the most beautiful places in Chukotka. Over the past three to four years, tourists and fans of rare sports have been increasingly attracted here. Every year, residents of the village witness and even take part in winter dog sled races. In the summer, the providences invite lovers of water tourism from all over the world to take an exciting kayaking trip along the ancient routes of the pioneers.

Photographic materials were used from the sites: www.esosedi.ru; pckd.ru; ic.pics.livejournal.com; cont.ws; mediasubs.ru