Current Time in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia

Komsomolsk-on-Amur stands in the Russian Far East, in Khabarovsk Krai, on the left bank of the mighty Amur River some three hundred and fifty kilometres north-east of Khabarovsk. Taiga of larch, birch and pine surrounds the city on every side, stretching for hundreds of kilometres towards the Sea of Okhotsk. The climate is severe, with long winters in which temperatures fall far below freezing and the great river lies locked under ice, followed by short, warm and humid summers.

About two hundred and forty thousand people live here, making it the second largest city in the region. Komsomolsk is one of the most important industrial centres east of Lake Baikal. The Yuri Gagarin aircraft plant builds advanced military jets and civil airliners, the Amur shipyard has produced submarines and vessels for the navy and merchant fleet, and there are also an oil refinery, a steelworks and engineering enterprises. The surrounding region supplies timber, gold and fish.

The city was founded in 1932 on the site of the small village of Permskoye. It was built as a showcase of Soviet industrialisation, and its name honours the Komsomol, the communist youth league whose volunteers arrived by river steamer to clear the forest and raise the first factories in appalling conditions. Much of the labour, it is now openly acknowledged, was also provided by prisoners of the camp system. The remote location was chosen deliberately, far from vulnerable borders, and during the Second World War the plants here supplied aircraft and ships to the front. The city grew rapidly through the Soviet decades and, like much of the Far East, has faced population decline since the 1990s while remaining strategically vital.

Komsomolsk is laid out on a generous scale, with broad avenues, monumental apartment blocks and squares in the Stalinist classical style, and it presents an unusually complete picture of a planned Soviet city. The Monument to the Founders on the riverbank, showing the first settlers stepping ashore, is the emblem of the town, and the long Amur embankment offers wide views over water that can be several kilometres across. Museums of local history and fine art, a memorial complex to the war dead, and Silinsky Park with its arboretum and forest trails are the main attractions in town.

The greater interest for many visitors lies in the surrounding wilderness. The Amur is one of the great free-flowing rivers of the world, home to enormous kaluga sturgeon and taimen, and the forests hold brown bears, lynx and, further south, the rare Amur tiger. Indigenous Nanai communities live in villages along the river, and the extraordinary prehistoric petroglyphs at Sikachi-Alyan, carved into basalt boulders thousands of years ago, are among the oldest artworks in the region.

The Baikal-Amur Mainline railway serves the city, along with an airport, river vessels in summer and long-distance roads. A technical university and several institutes train engineers for local industry.

Komsomolsk-on-Amur is remarkable as a city carved from the taiga and as a centre of Russian aviation and shipbuilding.