Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii

Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii 

a city, the center of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii Raion, Sakhalin Oblast, RSFSR. A port on the Tatar Strait on the western shore of the northern part of Sakhalin Island, at the foothills of the Western Range, it is a roadstead mooring place for ships. There is navigation between the city and the port of Vani-no. The nearest railroad station is Tymovskoe, 60 km east of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii. Population in 1968, 21,000.

Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii is the center of the coal industry on Sakhalin Island; coal is mined near the city. There are enterprises of the forestry and fishing industries, a mining technicum, medical and pedagogical schools, and a theater. The city was founded in 1881 as a post, which until the October Revolution was the administrative center of the forced labor camps, the exile settlements, and the whole island of Sakhalin. In 1890, A. P. Chekhov lived there to collect material for the book Sakhalin Island. In 1968 a people’s regional study museum was opened in the house where he had lived. Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii was the center of Sakhalin Oblast from 1932 to 1947.