Top Things to do in Magadan Oblast
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What to do and see in Magadan Oblast, Far Eastern District: The Best Things to do
Discover the best top things to do in Magadan Oblast, Russia including Dneprovsky Mine, Magadan Regional Museum of Local Lore, Mammoth Sculpture, Vremya, Mask of Sorrow, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Nagayev Bay, Market Urozhai, Magadan State Drama Theater, Memorial to Vladimir Vysotsky, Seymchan Museum of Local Lore.
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1. Dneprovsky Mine
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 5 reviews
Reviewed By andrewmU2655XD
The visit to Dneprovsky was the main reason for our trip to Magadan. Geological expeditions were first done in the Magadan area in the 1920's.In the early 1930's, gold deposits were found, and this led to the creation of the Dalstroy company which was authorised to mine the area. Settlements known as Gulag camps, were built around the mine sites, and the workers were mainly the prisoners of the camps.The area around Magadan Oblast is also referred to as Kolyma. At the beginning of the Gulag system, the workers were actually paid a small stipend but this was soon ceased. The prisoners of the camps were mainly political, religious and ethnic persecuted. Most of the prisoners were transferred to the camps, as a result of Stalin's Great Purge (Great Terror) during the 1930's. During the war years, many prisoners of war were added to the camp population. It is documented that over 1 million workers died in the Soviet Gulag system. The Dneprovsky Camp started mining tin in 1941. It is one of the best preserved Gulag camps remaining in Russia. In 1941, the camps in the Magadan had a peak inmate population of 80,000 , whilst operating a maximum of 45 camps. This may be compared with the entire Kolyma region, which had a peak inmate population of 176,000 in 1941, and the Soviet Union which had a peak inmates of 1.5 million. The conditions at the camps were brutal, and particularly in the early days the chance of surviving was very low. The main tools used by the camp inmates were digging bars, pick axes, shovels, buckets and wheelbarrows. The camp was supplied with electricity from the Hita Power station. The ruins of which may be visited, as it is a short drive off the road of bones (Kolyma Highway) to Magadan. The camp also used huge generators , pumps, trucks and other equipment which was mainly provided via the "land lease" program with the USA. The land lease program was an effort by the USA to supply equipment, including planes, to assist in the war against Nazi Germany. All the generators, pumps and other equipment were removed when the camp closed in 1953, but the buildings remain. A heating system was used to aid in the excavation of the tunnels due to the cold and icy conditions. We visited in summer, and there were visible ice patches at the entrance to the tunnels, most of which have collapsed over time. A heating tank, with pipes that led into the mines, and away from the mines is still on site. It gives an idea of the difficult working conditions in the mines. When the tin was extracted in clumps of rock, they were placed in huge carts which were run on iron tracks out of the mines and then dumped down shafts into processing areas. The inmates would sort the rocks on the manual conveyor system, which was made of wooden rollers. There were deposit chutes along the walls of these sorting buildings where the poor quality rocks were manually deposited. The items of good quality were pushed along the conveyor, and these loaded a truck parked below the building. The trucks then transported the load to a processing facility approx. 8 km away in the direction of the main road. This facility was burnt to the ground in recent years, but parts of the factory structure remain, and this area may also be visited in addition to the camp itself. We camped overnight, and walked the entire camp area, which took quite a few hours. The best preserved buildings can not be seen from the camp entrance. These buildings were in an unbelievably good state of preservation. We walked into the buildings, and viewed the different conveyor systems and dump chutes.Although the camp had been closed for almost 65 years, the doors and windows were still in working condition, and the structure was sound enough to explore.It felt as if we had stepped back in time, and were able to find samples of tin stones which we kept as a souvenir. The camp had a reputation of not having any escapees due to the barbed wire perimeter fences, and the many lookout towers posted on the hills surrounding the camp. Many of the lookout towers remain and we were able to climb a few and take photos. The most touching area of the camp is the graveyard, which is located near to the river which flows through the camp. A local church has placed an orthodox cross monument in memory of the inmates who died here. There are many graves on which rough wooden crosses have been placed. Each wooden cross has a tin marker, which probably had the inmates camp number. These numbers have disappeared over time as the tin has rusted. Other graves were covered with piles of stone sand did not have any crosses. Vegetation is growing amongst the graves, so it was difficult to view all the markers. The Deneprovsky camp turnoff is at km post 265 from Magadan, just after passing over a bridge with a river bebeath. It is a further 10-12km drive up into the hills on roads which require a 4WD. A local guide is a must, as once off the main road there are no signs.
2. Magadan Regional Museum of Local Lore
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 41 reviews
3. Mammoth Sculpture, Vremya
4. Mask of Sorrow
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 123 reviews
Reviewed By andrewmU2655XD
This monument is located approx. 3 km outside of Magadan. It is a 2 km drive from the city center, a left turn on Popova street, and a further 1 km to the top of Krutaya hill, which is approx. 200 meters high. It was dedicated in 1996, and sculpted by Ernst Neizvestny. The year of dedication and other relevant information, is found on a plaque at the rear of the statue. A model of the monument site and of the mask is in the local museum Gulag exhibit. The location of the site was specially selected, as a transit camp for Gulag prisoners was located at the bottom of the hill. We had visited transit camp locations in Vladivostok and Komsomolsk on Amur during our vacation.The car park below the statue offers beautiful views of Magadan City and Bay area, but we were unable to enjoy this view because of the fog, which is quite usual Magadan weather. The walk to the monument will take a few minutes, as it is necessary to climb 100 steps, after passing through a small arch in the car park. On the right side of the steps are memorial stones and concrete models of the names of Gulag camps in the Magadan area. On each of the stones there was a symbol. The symbols were difficult to see due to the overgrowth of the shrubbery and grass where they were placed, but we got a good photo of a soviet star and hammer and sickle insignia which was on a stone near to the path. The concrete names related to eleven of the Gulag camps, one of which was Dneprovsky, where we had camped overnight on the previous day. The monument itself is approx. 19 meters tall. It is a concrete mask design which has tears in the shape of human heads falling from it's left eye, and a prisoners number UU937 under it's right eye. There are steps leading to a door, up the right cheek of the mask. The door is behind the nose of the mask and was closed.The back of the mask is hollow, and depicts a bronze sculpture of a woman sitting on her haunches and weeping in a prison cell. Above the weeping lady is a cross on which a headless figure is positioned, above which is a skylight. In the upper car park, which is on a path behind the monument, there is another cross on a hill. This cross was not a part of the memorial, but it didn't seem to be out of place either in this solemn area. We had driven more than half of the 2,000 km Kolyma highway (road of bones), and visited the many monuments and memorials along the way. The visit to the Dneprovsky camp and the local museum gave us a better understanding of the suffering of the Gulag prisoners. We had also visited a mass grave site in Vladivostok which was related to the time of Stalin;s purges.The Gulag was a very sad part of Russia's history, and there is a saying in Russia that every family was affected by Stalin's Great purge. This monument is a must see when visiting Magadan.
5. Holy Trinity Cathedral
6. Nagayev Bay
7. Market Urozhai
8. Magadan State Drama Theater
9. Memorial to Vladimir Vysotsky
10. Seymchan Museum of Local Lore
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1 reviews
