LAVRENTIYA BAY (ST. LAWRENCE BAY), CHUKOTSK PENINSULA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00926A001200020026-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: June 9, 1949
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/15: CIA-RDP80-00926A001200020026-O -HUM
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y+ tEPORT
CENTRAL IN ENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY USSR (Siberia)
SUBJECT Lavrentiya Bay (St. Lawrence Bay), Chukotsk
Peninsula.
ACQUIRED
DATE
ACQUIRED
ETHISDOC.UMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
ED STATES WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE ESPIONAGE ACT S0
ND S2. AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE REVELATION
ENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO-
AW. REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM IS PROHIBITED.
- DATE DISTR. ? Jun 1949
NO. OF PAGES 3
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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1. Lavrentiya Bay (St... Lawrence Bay) is supposed to be the administrative capital
of the Chukotsk Pezlnsula, It is on the Bering Sea, between Uelen and Chaplina.
Approximate coordinatest 65?324N, 1?0?501W, 50 Chart 5819;7 It is Peninsula
headquarters for the District Executive Committee, The Committee's headquarters
are on a so-called culture base which has a court house. This court house is
the seat of justice for the whole Peninsula. The settlement has no docking
facilities. Cargo is put ashore by lighters. (At leatbt.that was the situation
in 1945.)
2. The settlement consists of a Chukchi village (Yfigai), a North Sea Route 0X1-HUM
station (including a weather station, a hydrographic station, and a radio station),
and a culture base of the District Executive Committee. This culture base is
really the District Executive Committee's headquarters for the Peninsula. Its
mission is to inculcate the population of the Chukotsk region with the Soviet
doctrine. The DEC people at the culture base also direct the teachers and
schools of the entire Peninsula. Thus, Lavrentiya might be regarded as the
political headquarters of Chukotek. In practice, however, such was not the
case up to 1945.
CLASSIFICATIO raMIUS OPTICIALS ONLY
STATE 1XI NAVY
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/15: CIA-RDP80-00926AO01200020026-0
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/15: CIA-RDP80-00926AO01200020026-0
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3. The Chukchi village (Yandagai) is on Cape Krigugon, the southwestern entrance
point of Lavrentiya Bay, which goes 20 miles inland, in a northwesterly direction.
Then northwest of the village, a.re the North
The village is generally
haphazard in layout like a.ll Chukchi villages , but it does have a semblance
of a boardwalk main street, and there may be a few cross thoroughfares. Chukchi
huts are the same construction as at Uelen and elsewhere on the Peninsula, (wooden
frames covered with canvas or with seal and walrus fur). The buildings at-the
polar base (North Sea Route) and the culture base are the usual standard log
structures. The settlement has a physical culture field (or playground?), with
parallel bars, climbing ladders, rings, etc. 50X1 -HU M
DUA 1-ri u ivi
the culture base to dwindle until it became small and unimportant.
interior. But the natives either died off or moved elsewhere. In 1945, there were
only A, comparative handful. The Soviets were keenly disappointed, and allowed
people in Lavrentiya in 1945 - employes of the North Sea Route station and the
culture base, party committee personnel [District Executive Committee personnel ,
school teachers, warehouse employees the cooperative storeas employees, courthouse
people, and military personnel. the natives are decreasing in number.,
the DEC selected Lavrentiya as the site for the Peninsula,0 a cr1lt50X1I-HUM
headquarters because there were many Chukchi on the bay?a shore and nearby
Lavrentiyaus Chukchi population might have been in 1945
about 200, the same As Venkarenas. There were some 400 white
there are only a few thousand Chukchis left on the entire Chukotak
Peninsula. They used to be a friendly people. The Soviets, however, have broken
their spirit -- especially of the "fishing Chukchi," - and they all are now surly.
(There are two kinds of Chukchi sa the fishing Chukchi on the coast, and the50X1-H U M
reindeer Chukchi in the interior -- who are nomads. The reindeer Chukchi are far
better off than the coastal tribes, who are very poor.) Chukchis are Mong?-'-?a-
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there are no foreigners in Lavrentiya. Bay.
seen only one foreign ship in harbor. This was in 1935. The
ship was a US craft of about 3,000 tons. it had some armament. It could
have been a Coast Guard cutter.
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6. The most important personality in Lavrentiya) as the
secretary of the party committee (DEC). His duties were solely political -- to
teach and spread the Soviet gospel. He had some five under-.secretaries to do the
administrative work of the culture base, and everything was under his supervision.
7, Administrative buildings are scattered throughout the settlement but most are at
the polar station and the culture base. In 1945, they were All single-story
structures, about 40 meters long by 12 meters wide. The Air Force has guards at the
Airfield, which is on the north side of the bay, across from the culture base.
This Airfield (airdrome) was under construction in 1945.
8. Lavrentiya is a good harbor if you, know your way around. Most ships anchor three
or four miles offshore, about off the polar station (between the village and the
culture base). Water there is fairly deep. There Are no docks,, and cargo is put
ashore by lighters. There are no barriers between this anchorage and the shore.
Prior to 1935, foreign ships called fairly often; after 1935, very rarely, if at
all. 50X1-HUM
9. The airdrome is Across the bay -- on the north shore.
it is a natural field. there is a tundra road from Uelen
to Lavrentiya, and it ends at the Lavrentiya airfield. The road will
take trucks in the summer and tractor-drawn sled traffic in winter. In 1945, the
airfield was not regarded as of much military importance.
10. The economy of Lavrentiya, Bay is based on the administrative activity of the
village, the polar station, And the culture base, and on hunting, fishing and
trading by the natives. It is a very limited economy. The settlement gets
its water from springs in the summer And from melted snow in winter. There is A.
small electric station that gives irregular service. Electric lights are scattered.
Important administrative buildings have electric lights. The others use oil.
11. Lavrentiya Bay has the usual Soviet party-type newspaper. It is edited and printed
by the District Executive Committee At the culture base. It appears only
irregularly. 50X1-HUM
/ US OFFICIALS ONLY
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/15: CIA-RDP80-00926AO01200020026-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/15: CIA-RDP80-00926A001200020026-0
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,-IIS OFFICIALS ONLY
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12. Lavr'entiya lacks private ,radio receiving facilities -- like all other -settlement.
on the?Chukatsk Peninsula. ,Living,gi rters of whites have loud speakers connected
with. the 'radio station for dissemination, of the usual so-called party and culture
programs put out by the Politburo,people..
13. Lavrentiya. By ha,s:a hospital of 20 to 30 beds located in the village.,
SECRET / US OFFICIALS ONLY
SECRET';
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/15: CIA-RDP80-00926AO01200020026-0