Komsomolsk-na-Amure is a major industrial city built in the wilderness since 1932, and closed and secret until the end of the Soviet era. It is an attractive town on the beautiful Amur River, the gateway to the Russian Far East, to Nikolaevsk-na-Amure, the ancient capital of the region, to the local towns of Solnechny, Amursk, and Pivan, and of course to the BAM railway. Situated on the Amur River, 500 km up from its mouth, it is the end-point of the BAM route, which connects north Baikal with the Amur.

Young communists as part of the 1930s nation-wide industrialisation campaign built Komsomolsk-na-Amure in the unpopulated Russian Far East with the closest settlements being a small Nanai indigenous village and the small Russian village of Permskoe. The full name, Komsomolsk-na-Amure, means "Komsomolsk on the Amur River", which distinguishes the city from the other Komsomolsks scattered all over Russia.

Komsomolsk-na-Amure became the GULAG-capital of the Russian Far East in the 30s during Stalin's purges. An estimated 900,000 prisoners tramped through Komsomolsk-na-Amure's camps. As the Great Patriotic War progressed, Komsomolsk-na-Amure's GULAG population of Soviet citizens decreased from 67,742 in 1942 to 28,073 in 1944. However this decline was more than offset by the Japanese, and to a much smaller extent German, POWs.

In 1990 Komsomolsk-na-Amure became the first Russian town to allow Japanese ex-POWs to return to honor their dead. Over the next few years, the Japanese built 16 memorials around Komsomolsk-na-Amure Today Komsomolsk-na-Amure has a sister city relationship with the Japanese city of Kamo.

RED STAR TRAVEL invites you to visit the Russian Far East's fourth biggest city, the gateway to the wild-forested coasts of the Far East and haunt of the Amur tiger.

VOSKHOD HOTEL

Located in the city center. 40 km to the airport, 2 km to the railway station. Built in 1972. 8 floors. All floors accessible by elevator. 199 rooms: 98 singles, 89 twins, 6 junior suites, 6 suites. All rooms feature private bathroom, color TV, international direct-dial telephone, radio, refrigerator. Room service. Restaurant for 200 seats. Bar for 30 seats. Banquet hall for 40 seats. Business center: facsimile and photocopying facilities, computer services, interpreters. Service bureau. Hair salon. Safety deposit box. Laundry. Luggage storage. Towncar service. On-site parking. Security service. Room rates - from $65.

Komsomolsk-na-Amure Museums

The Regional Museum. Operating hours: 10am to 5pm, closed on Mondays. It is one of the best museums in the Russian Far East It is unusually modern in its use of dioramas, models, and displays. There are displays of the local Nanai indigenous people, rural life in the late 1800s, the building of Komsomolsk-na-Amure, the wartime factories, the GULAGs in the region, and the natural history of the Amur. Of interest are photos and documents of two Americans, Ann Stanley and Lloyd Patterson, who ran the English language propaganda radio during the Great Patriotic War which broadcast into Japan, China, and much of Asia.

The Art Museum. Operating hours: 10am to 5pm, closed on Mondays. The museum consists of two floors of art. The ground floor has one room of western art and another room housing short-term exhibitions. Upstairs is indigenous and peasant art.

The Museum of the Tank. This open-air museum consists of about 30 armoured fighting vehicles. It is located in the park next door to the Regional Museum. As it does not have a fence around it, it can be visited anytime.

The Yuri Gagarin Aircraft Factory Museum. The museum has numerous displays of the factory's aircraft, including the Il-2, Mig-17, SU-27, and BE-103. It is open by appointment, as most of its customers are Russian military personnel on organised tours.

Komsomolsk-na-Amure City Tour

Despite its young age, Komsomolsk-na-Amure has a number of historical and cultural sights. The first central district is built in brick and stucco with turrets and cupolas on tree-lined avenues - Peace Avenue, formerly Stalin Avenue, from the river to Metallurgists Square and Lenin Avenue from Metallurgists Square to Railway Park. North of this section is the first industrial site, the steel mill Amurstal. Eastward, across a park in the meadows of the Silinka River, is the Lenin district with the aircraft factories and shipyards, the Gagarin Park and sports complex. On the west side of the city is Pervostroitelei ("First Builders") Avenue, 80m wide and lined with 1970s and 1980s blocks with Soviet store fronts with parks and playgrounds hidden behind.

The Great Patriotic War Memorial. The War Memorial is the finest sculpture on the BAM. On a wide marble-paved plaza three narrow obelisks stand above an eternal flame; seven giant granite heads face the flame; behind them are carved thousands of names of the war dead. N. S. Ivleva who got the idea from reading a German officer's war diary sculptured the memorial. Although the diary did not mention seven "stone rock" Russians, the number was chosen because it is a lucky one in Russia, according to Ivleva.

River Station and Memorials to the First Builders. The River Station was built to look like a ship when seen from the Amur River, and hydrofoils and riverboats travel from here up and down the Amur. From the station you will see Pivan on the opposite side of the river, the Amur Bridge and the never completed Pivan BAM tunnel. On the south side is the First Builders Monument at the foot of the 3 km First Builders Avenue. It portrays a party of young people heading inland with equipment, including gun, guitar, and surveyors' transit. The leader is digging with one foot and beckoning with one hand, giving rise to the local name for this statue - "Let's go and dig fishing worms". Further south is the new Orthodox Church. On the north side of the station is a memorial stone at the landing site of the first builders who arrived on 10 May 1932.

The Yuri Gagarin Aircraft Factory. It is located in the Lenin district east from the city center. On 25 February 1932, Moscow announced that an aircraft factory would be built in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, even though the first builders were yet to arrive. In 1936 the first plane, a Tupolev R6, rolled off the production lines. With the help of gulag inmates, the factory expanded and in 1941 started producing the famous IL-2 Shturmovik two-seater ground attack/light bomber Komsomolsk-na-Amure's factory produced a total of 2,732 Il-2s. The factory started producing jets in 1949 with the Mig-15. In 1976, it produced its first Mig-17 fighter and one of these sits on a plinth at the front of the plant. In 1981, the SU-27 fighter rolled off the production line and is still being produced today, along with the Be-103 and S-80. Like most military complexes, the factory also produces consumer goods that use the same materials or equipment that their principal products do. The Aircraft Factory was renamed Gagarin Aircraft Factory to honor his three visits to the complex, although he never worked there.

The Yuri Gagarin Memorial sits in front of the Gagarin Aircraft Factory. The pink granite memorial depicts Gagarin holding a stylized book containing the Laws of the Cosmos with a cosmic train trailing behind him.

The Japanese POW Memorial. There are 16 memorial stones in and around Komsomolsk-na-Amure, marking cemeteries or camps of Japanese POWs. The central memorial is a large stone beside the Amur Hotel. This site was chosen because the POWs built the hotel.

Stalin's Repression Memorial Stone. This stone is a memorial to those that suffered and died during Stalin's repression. The stone was taken from the Mount Novaya quarry on the outskirts of Komsomolsk-na-Amure, which was worked by prisoners.

Walking Tour of the City Center with Visits to Souvenir Shops, 3 hours

Walk around downtown: River Station, Memorial to the First Builders, The Great Patriotic War Memorial, Lenin Square.

Souvenir shopping: CUM (Central Department Store), Souvenirnaya Lavka and the Art Salon offering handicrafts, art carvings, ceramics, jewelry, traditional Russian souvenirs and paintings by local artists.

Red Star Travel can arrange other tours in Komsomolsk-na-Amure:

Visit to the Yuri Gagarin Aircraft Factory, including museum;

Visit to the Amur Shipbuilding Factory;

Visit to Amurstal.

Yacht Tour along the Amur River with a picnic, 5 hours

Yacht excursion starts from the River Station. You will see the panoramic view of the city, the Amur Bridge, the never completed Pivan BAM tunnel and numerous sandy islands, beaches and channels. Enjoy fishing (fishing gear is included) and a delicious picnic lunch.

Evening Dinner Entertainment at the Rodnic Restaurant

You will spend a romantic evening enjoying delicious food, champagne and live music. We recommend to try the local beer made at a local brewery.

TOURS AROUND KOMSOMOLSK-NA-AMURE

Excursions around Komsomolsk-na-Amure include the Pivan BAM tunnel, rafting, the Komsomolsk Nature Reserve and indigenous villages, skiing, the nearby mining towns, and Amursk.

Tour of Pivan BAM Tunnel, 4 hours In 1939 work started on an 800m railway tunnel through a mountain that is opposite Komsomolsk-na-Amure and to the north of Pivan. The tunnel was to link a planned 2.5- km bridge across the Amur River and the railway line from Pivan to Sovetskaya Gavan. The start of the Great Patriotic War stopped the bridge although the tunnel was finished. Consequently the tunnel, which was built at the cost of hundreds of gulag prisoners' lives, was never used.

Rafting and Floating. Close to Komsomolsk-na-Amure there are wilderness river stretches that offer river rafting and floating in moderate class 1-water. Our experienced boatmen know the rivers, their history, fauna and entertain geology. They pilot the katamarans, set up camps, prepare gourmet camp meals, and provide entertainment at the campfire.

The Gur river tour takes 3-4 days, 90 km. The tour cost starts at $ 48 per person per day. You will take the railway west toward Vysokogorny, then go down the Gur River, arriving at the Amur River above Amursk.

The trip from Lake Evoron along the Gorin river takes 3-4 days, 130 km. The tour cost starts at $ 56 per person per day. The tour offers unique access to nature and to the indigenous lifestyle and culture. You will take the BAM railway west to Evoron, get on the rafts at the lake, and go down the Gorin River through the Komsomolsk Nature Reserve, arriving at the Amur River below Komsomolsk-na-Amure.

Tour of the Komsomolsk Nature Reserve and Indigenous Villages · The Komsomolsk Nature Reserve is an excellent place for bird watching and over 240 species have been seen here. An old forestry railway line runs 20 km to the north east of Komsomolsk-na-Amure, terminating at the logging town of Galichny. Galichny is on the southern border of the Komsomolsk Nature Reserve, which is centered on the Gorin River with its eastern boundary the Amur River. Where the Gorin flows into the Amur is the Nanai village of Bichi, which can only be reached by boat. Nearby are other Nanai settlements of Dzemgi and Negigaltsy · On the far side of the reserve is the Nanai village of Nizhnie Khalby. This settlement is famous for its dance ensemble. There is a boarding school in the town for Nanai and Russian primary school children with classes taught in both languages. Nearby are spectacular cliffs that have spiritual significance for the Nanai. The village welcomes travelers and home stay can be organized there. · Tour cost starts at $ 44 per person per day.

Tour of Stalin Camps. The victims of Stalin's purges throughout the Soviet Union created a vast pool of labor and as Komsomolsk-na-Amure was in need of labor, it became the gulag capital of the Russian Far East. An estimated 900,000 prisoners tramped through Komsomolsk-na-Amure's camps. Thousands died and unmarked mass graves litter the city. As the Great Patriotic War progressed, Komsomolsk-na-Amure's gulag population of Soviet citizens decreased from 67,742 in 1942 to 28,073 in 1944. However this decline was more than offset by the flood of Japanese, and to a much smaller extent German, POWs. At its peak, the prison complex had 49,500 Japanese POWs, which included 16,000 in 18 city camps and the rest working on the BAM and other projects in the region. In Komsomolsk-na-Amure, the Japanese worked at the steel plant, aircraft factory, brick plant, and repair plant. They also constructed most of the city's stone buildings.