About where Vorkuta is located on the map of Russia, many have the most vague idea. Everyone knows for certain that this is somewhere in the north. And it’s typical to go there of your own free will and get acquainted with this city in more detail, in the area who want to have a little bit.
From the history
The polar Urals, where Vorkuta is located, is characterized by severe climatic conditions. This is the land of permafrost, low temperatures and strong winds. The need to build a city here was due to the development of the Pechora coal basin that had begun . Modern Vorkuta is a little over eighty years old. It appeared on the map in 1931 in the form of a working village and got its name by the name of the river flowing here. The meaning of this toponym in translation from the Nenets language indicates the abundance of bears in the area. To go find out where Vorkuta is located on the map of Russia and whether its number corresponds to its name with a few bears who wanted to. But no one was going to ask their desires in the Soviet Union of the thirties. They built the city and mined coal at the Vorkuta mines, mainly prisoners. Both criminal and political.
Vorkuta in Soviet History
Until the beginning of the fifties of the last century, one of the largest islands described by the "Gulag Archipelago" described by Alexander Solzhenitsyn was located here . Vorkutlag entered Soviet history along with Norilsk, Magadan and Karaganda. Tens of thousands of prisoners had to find out where Vorkuta is located on a map of Russia. At the beginning of the fifties, their number in Vorkuta exceeded seventy thousand people. It is difficult to say how many of them were fortunate enough to return home. Work in coal mines has always been one of the most difficult, and Vorkutlag is justifiably considered one of the most disastrous places in the camp system. The Vorkutin uprising of 1953 entered the history of the Gulag, it was one of the largest. After the fifties, workers at Vorkuta mines were attracted mainly by high wages. But in parallel with the free men, the prisoners of the correctional system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs worked. Therefore, the city’s reputation was very stable, and there were still few people willing to find out where Vorkuta was on the map of Russia.
Vorkuta today
The heyday of the city can be considered the seventies. Its population exceeded one hundred thousand people. A considerable amount of work has been done aimed at changing the negative image of the city, improving it and providing quality housing for its residents. In the center there were several streets lined with classical architecture in the style of the thirties. Several expressive administrative and public buildings were erected. But the heyday on this and ended. This is due to the depletion of the coal seams of the Pechora basin, which make its extraction a little profitable. The population of the city halved. No one else is interested in where the city of Vorkuta is located. People tend to get out of it to the "mainland" at the first opportunity. This process also accelerates the deeply unsafe ecological state in the Vorkuta region.