Kurilsk

Kurilsk (Russian Курильск ) is a small city on the Kurile Islands in the Sakhalin Oblast (Russia) with 2070 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010 ).

Geography

The city is located on the west coast of the largest Kuril island Iturup, about 450 km southeast of the Oblasthauptstadt Yuzhno -Sakhalinsk, on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

The city is the administrative center of the Kurilsk Rajons same name.

Kurilsk has an airport.

History

In the 2nd millennium BC was the place of today's Kurilsk a settlement of the indigenous people of the islands, the Ainu. Original name was Hashanah, which means about large settlement along the lower reaches of a river. Towards the end of the 18th century a settlement of Russian colonists originated. 1800 Japan established a garrison. The Treaty of Shimoda membership of the southern Kuril Islands to Japan was committed. So the place was as Shana (Japanese纱 那 村, -mura ) until the end of the Second World War in 1945 to Nemuro of Japan. 1947, now belonging to the Soviet Union, he received the present name of a town.

Demographics

Note: Census data

Economy

Kurilsk is the center for fishing, farming and processing ( salmon ). There are also companies in the construction industry. In Kurilsk there is a seismic and tsunami - warning station.