Vorkuta
from Wikinfo, an internet encyclopediaVorkuta, population, about 116,000, is a coal mining community in the Komi Republic of Russia just north of the Arctic circle in the Pechora coal basin. It had its origin in a complex of concentration camps of the Gulag which were established in 1932. 13 of the 30 camps were katorga, hard labor death camps.
Vorkuta became a city in 1942. Many of the concentration camps were disbanded in the 1950s, but it is reported that some in the Vorkuta area continued to operate into the 1980s; by the early part of the 21st century many of the mines have been closed as problems with high costs of operations have plagued the mine operators. At one time during the 1990s there were labor actions in the area by miners who had not been paid for a year. [1].
Vorkuta is in a roadless area of the tundra although a loop road runs north to the mine locations, many of them abandoned today. Especially notable is Mine 29 which was the scene of a determined labor protest in 1953 following the death of Stalin.
During the Cold War a Arctic Control Group forward staging base for stragegic bombers was located at Vorkuta [2]
