VLADIVOSTOK (vlah-de-vos-t6I'), a port of Asiatic Rus sia, in 43° I I' N., 13I° 53' E. It stretches along the northern shore of the Golden Horn, on the slope of a ridge of hills extending westwards to the shore of Amur bay. It is the most important town in the Far Eastern Area, though not the administrative centre, and its easily accessible harbour 4 m. long by 1 m. broad, kept open all the winter by ice breakers, has made it the most important naval and commercial centre on the Russian Pacific coast. Pop. (1933) 190,000. The commercial port occupies the western part of the Golden Horn and there is a stone mole about 5,200 ft. long for berthing and unloading ships ; the pontoon stages are 6,30o ft. long; there is storage capacity for 340,000 tons. The docks include two dry and a floating one and there are nine floating cranes (3o to 15o tons), one bridge crane and engineering and repairing yards for ships. Soya bean oil is an important export, and a tank oil storehouse (capacity 1,900 tons), with four con veyers, each having a capacity of 5o tons per hour, has been constructed. The cargo turnover of the port is between 2,000,000 and 3,000,00o tons; the exports are mainly soya beans, soya bean oil, bean cake, seeds, timber and fish. Much of both import and
export trade is of a transit character to and from Manchuria, notably soya beans, tea and salt. Efforts are being made to develop the fishing industry and a hydrobiological station was established at Basargin peninsula in 1925. On some islands near Vladi vostok breeding grounds for reindeer, elk, roebuck and other animals have been established recently.
Muraviev selected the site after the Treaty of Aigun (1858) by which the district was ceded to Russia : a railway via Man churia and the Trans-Baikal district reached the town in 1897, though the final link with the trans-Siberian was not completed till 1917. The full effects of this link have not yet been felt owing to the destruction consequent on the prolonged post-1917 fighting along the railway. Wireless stations have been established and there is cable connection to Japan. The opening of the Odessa to Vladivostok sea route gave a marked impetus to colonisation, which still goes on via this route to the eastern parts of Siberia.