Dmitrii Ivanov
Research topic: Urban and industrial heritage of Vladivostok
Vladivostok is a unique city with a short but rich history. Vladivostok was
founded as a military base and later the city became a commercial port. The
development of the city was focused around these functions, which affected
architectural and historical heritage of Vladivostok, especially its architectural
landscape. Those events left a deep print on history and created a lot of topics to
discuss. Nowadays Vladivostok has dozens of cultural heritage sites which
express the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from
generation to generation.
In my research, I decided to study how the industrial heritage and urban
landscape of Vladivostok have been changing in the past and what were the main
factors that influenced that change. In particular, I would like to find out about
industrial and urban heritage connection with the social, political and economic
image of Vladivostok.
Today, I would like to give a short introduction of how urban landscape of
Vladivostok has been changing throughout time.
Foundation of the city. Vladivostok was founded in 1860 as a military post
and a commercial port. Therefore, the city had three main functions - of a
transportation hub, a naval base and an industrial factory - all of which are related
to the functioning and maintenance of the fleet. Some of the historical heritages of
the city still remind about those times. Vladivostok fortress is one of those
examples (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Vladivostok Fortress today
In 1880, Vladivostok officially received the status of a city. As a result, active
settlement of the city begins. Immigrants of many nationalities arrive in
Vladivostok: Germans, British, Americans, French, Italians, Japanese, Koreans
and Chinese. The expansion of foreign trade relations and the active settlement of
the city by foreign citizens required a large number of translators. That was one of
the reasons for the foundation of the Eastern University (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Eastern University before and now
Soviet Period. After the revolution, most of the foreign residents of
Vladivostok had to flee the city. A melting pot of cultures that once characterized
Vladivostok was no longer there. In the Soviet period, Vladivostok became
scientific and industrial center of the Far East. Its landscape was mainly dominated
by industrial heritage (Figure 3). Machinery manufacturing, shipbuilding and repair,
production of construction materials and fishing equipment, food, consumer goods
manufacturing and woodworking industries flourished here.
Figure 3. Commercial Port of Vladivostok
Nowadays. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was followed by
economic and political turbulence. Starting from the 1990 th until late 2000th
Vladivostok struggled to find its role in the region. This impacted urban landscape
of the city. The development of Vladivostok was not consistent and well-planned,
with new buildings sporadically arising in the historic center of the city. The
situation slowly changed in 2013 when several new structures were built in
preparation for APEC forum (Figure 4). Today Vladivostok is slowly adjusting to a
role of administrative, economic, political and cultural center of Russia in the Far
East, but urban landscape with industrial and naval facilities along the coast largely
kept industrial heritage of the city untouched.
List of Sources
1. Newspaper “Zolotoy rog”. Available at:
https://www.zrpress.ru/business/vladivostok_15.01.2019_92709_port-vladivostok-pobilrekord.html (accessed 25 April 2021).
2. Newspaper “Primgazeta” https://primgazeta.ru/news/razgovor-po-delu-uchastniki-vefpredlozhat-prakticheskie-resheniya-raznyh-problem-11-08-2019-11-01-34 (accessed 25
April 2021).