APEC 2012 → Vladivostok Guide → DEVELOPMENT

The first civilians came to Vladivostok on rafts along the Ussury River. Normally it took pioneers about two years of difficult travel from European Russia to the new lands. They had to drive oxcarts through thick forests and across rivers, as well as suffer through harsh cold and stifling heat.  These adventurous settlers stayed in Siberian settlements or in earth huts dug in the taiga during winter, bearing children and burying their dead along their way.   

The Russian government granted numerous privileges and benefits to the settlers, including free use of land up to 100 hectares per household, exemption from the capitation tax, a 10-year recruiting exemption and free trade. These privileges, together with the abolition of serfdom in 1861, promoted the influx of enterprising people of all classes to the territory.     

There were three distinct stages in territorial development. First, the settlers came by land and river overcoming great hardships. Then when the Dobroflot shipping company was established in 1880, they sailed from Odessa to Vladivostok.   Over the period of 1883 – 1906 about 90,000 settlers arrived in the region. About 80% of the newcomers emigrated from the present-day Ukraine.

The true development of the territory started only after the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed. Regular rail service between Russia’s former capital of St. Petersburg and Vladivostok began in 1903. However, it took thousands of hired laborers from Russia, China and Japan, as well as convicts, to construct this engineering wonder from 1891 to 1916. It cost 1,455,413 rubles to finish. 

The composition of Vladivostok’s population has always been heterogeneous.  Russians live side by side with Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Germans, Poles and other immigrants from Europe and Asia.  This adds to the city’s economic success and cultural diversity.

After Vladivostok was officially re-opened to foreign visitors in 1991, the city put much effort into restoring its former ties with neighboring countries. Sister City agreements were signed between Vladivostok and Dalian (China), Akita, Niigata, Hakodate (Japan), Pusan (Republic of Korea), Juneau, San Diego, Tacoma (USA).