Ten Russian the smallest towns

Most of these cities have appeared a long time ago, but for various reasons have remained quite small. By comparison, the legendary capital of the world looks Bobruisk.

Yet this is not the settlements, but very real Russian cities. Even in the smallest of them less than a thousand inhabitants.

Chekalin - 964 people.

The city was founded in 1565 and named Lihvina. At the end of the XIX century Lihvina was very advanced town: 266 houses, four churches, 25 retail shops, seven restaurants, a wholesale wine warehouse, 80 craft schools and three colleges - male county, parish male and female two-year.

In 1944 the town was renamed Lihvina Chekalin in honor of the deceased is 16-year-old guerrilla Alexander Chekalin.

Three years ago, the district authorities came was to change the status of the city and make it a village, but the initiative has met with strong protests of local residents.

Verkhoyansk - 1150 people.

The city was founded in 1638 as a Cossack winter quarters in the Verkhoyansk ulus of Yakutia. Officially recognized as the coolest city in Russia: Temperature -67, 8 ° C was recorded here in February 1892. In the XIX century in the Verkhoyansk sent political exiles.

Vysotsk - 1152 human.

City in the Vyborg district of the Leningrad region. The first mention of it relates to 1532. Until 1940, the Finnish city in the spring of 1940 is included in the USSR.

Kurilsk - 1670 people.

The settlement on the island of Iturup in the smoking mouth of the river on the banks of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk Kuril Bay was founded at the end of the XVIII century Russian explorers. In 1800, the island was occupied by Japanese troops, and the settlement called Xiang. In 1945, the city became part of the Soviet Union and two years later it was renamed.

Artemovsk - 1837 people.

City 380 km from Krasnoyarsk was not always so small - at the end of the 50s more than 13 thousand people lived here. The nearest train station - 12 km. The economy is based Artemovsk - production of gold, silver and copper.

Primorsk - 1943 human.

City on the current territory of the Kaliningrad Region was founded in 1268 as the city Fishhauzen. The castle Fishhauzena in 1618 died imbecile Duke Albert Frederick. After the war, the town became part of the Soviet Union and was renamed.

Ples - 1984 human.

A city in the north of the Ivanovo region. The exact date of foundation Plosskoy fortress, which was destroyed in February 1238 during the invasion of Batu, is unknown. Ples was once famous for fish, which was delivered to the royal table, and was one of the main ports on the Volga. Built in 1871, the railroad bypassed the city party and Ples gradually emptied.

Gorbatov - 2049 people.

Located sixty kilometers from Nizhny Novgorod. Once there was a village, which was called by the name of who owned her Prince Alexander Borisovich Hunchback-Shumsky, the bravest magistrates of Ivan the Terrible. The city became in 1779.

Island - 2065 people.

Located on the coast of the Barents Sea, 360 kilometers from Murmansk. In the 90 years the Island's population decreased eight times: people have thrown the apartment by leaving closer to civilization. Neither the car nor the train to the city is not, and can only get here by ship from Murmansk.

Cedar - 2129 people.

One of the youngest cities of Russia was founded in 1982 as a village of oil in the Tomsk region. To get from Cedar Tomsk can winter driving to highway Yarovoye - Tomsk a winter about 150 kilometers, or in a helicopter.