Okha is a town and the administrative center of Okhinsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the east coast of the far north of Sakhalin island, approximately 850 kilometers (530 mi) north of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, near the shoreline of the Sea of Okhotsk. Population: 23,008 (2010 Census); 27,963 (2002 Census); 36,104 (1989 Census).
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a city in Sakhalin island, and the administrative center of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. It is located in the Far East part of Russia, situated north of Japan. Gas and oil extraction as well as processing are amongst the main industrial manufactures on the island. It is also a place of working of major US oil companies such as ExxonMobile. It was called Vladimirovka (Влади́мировка) from 1882 to 1905, then Toyohara from 1905 to 1946. Population: 181,728 (2010 Census); 175,085 (2002 Census); 159,299 (1989 Census).
Severo-Kurilsk is a town and the administrative center of Severo-Kurilsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located in the northern part of the Kuril Islands, on the island of Paramushir. Population: 2,536 (2010 Census); 2,592 (2002 Census); 5,180 (1989 Census).
Kholmsk, known until 1946 as Maoka, is a port town and the administrative center of Kholmsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. It is located on the southwest coast of the Sakhalin Island, on coast of the gulf of Nevelsky in the Strait of Tartary of the Sea of Japan, 83 kilometers (52 mi) west of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Population: 30,937 (2010 Census); 35,141 (2002 Census); 51,381 (1989 Census).
Oroks, sometimes called Uilta, are a people in the Sakhalin Oblast in Russia. The Orok language belongs to the Southern group of the Tungusic language family. According to the 2002 Russian census, there were 346 Oroks living in Northern Sakhalin by the Okhotsk Sea and Southern Sakhalin in the district by the city of Poronaysk. According to the 2010 census there were 295 Oroks in Russia.
Yuzhno-Kurilsky District is an administrative district (raion) of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia; one of the seventeen in the oblast. Municipally, it is incorporated as Yuzhno-Kurilsky Urban Okrug. It is located on the southern Kuril Islands southeast of the Island of Sakhalin, comprising the islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, and the Habomai. The area of the district is 1,856.1 square kilometers (716.6 sq mi). Its administrative center is the urban locality of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, located on the Kunashir Island. Population: 9,501 (2010 Census); 9,727 (2002 Census); 13,597 (1989 Census). The population of Yuzhno-Kurilsk accounts for 61.4% of the district's total population.
Shakhtyorsk is a town in Uglegorsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the western coast of the Sakhalin Island, 376 kilometers (234 mi) northwest of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 8,382 (2010 Census); 10,643 (2002 Census); 12,945 (1989 Census).
Nevelsk is a port town and the administrative center of Nevelsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the southwest coast of the Sakhalin Island, 123 kilometers (76 mi) from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 11,682 (2010 Census); 18,639 (2002 Census); 24,236 (1989 Census).
Uglegorsk is a coastal port town and the administrative center of Uglegorsky District in Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the west coast of Sakhalin Island, 277 kilometers (172 mi) northwest of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 10,381 (2010 Census); 13,396 (2002 Census); 18,402 (1989 Census).
Aniva is a coastal town and the administrative center of Anivsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the coast of Aniva Bay in southern Sakhalin Island on the Lyutoga River, 37 kilometers (23 mi) south of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Population: 9,115 (2010 Census); 8,084 (2002 Census); 8,905 (1989 Census).
Makarov is a coastal town and the administrative center of Makarovsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern coast of the Sakhalin Island, 235 kilometers (146 mi) north of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Population: 6,705 (2010 Census); 7,271 (2002 Census); 11,351 (1989 Census).
Sakhalin Koreans are Russian citizens and residents of Korean descent living on Sakhalin Island, who trace their roots to the immigrants from the Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces of Korea during the late 1930s and early 1940s, the latter half of the Japanese colonial era. At the time, the southern half of Sakhalin Island, then known as Karafuto Prefecture, was under the control of the Empire of Japan; the Japanese government both recruited and forced Korean labourers into service and shipped them to Karafuto to fill labour shortages resulting from World War II. The Red Army invaded Karafuto days before Japan's surrender; while all but a few Japanese there repatriated successfully, almost one-third of the Koreans could not secure permission to depart either to Japan or their home towns in South Korea. For the next forty years, they lived in exile. In 1985, the Japanese government offered transit rights and funding for the repatriation of the original group of Sakhalin Koreans; however, only 1,500 of them returned to South Korea in the next two decades. The vast majority of Koreans of all generations chose instead to stay on Sakhalin.
Tyuleny Island is a small island in the Sea of Okhotsk, just east of Russia's Sakhalin island, Northeast Asia.
Ush Island is an island in the northern coast of Sakhalin. Ush Island is located between a shallow bay and the Sea of Okhotsk, at the mouth of the Sakhalin Gulf.
Tymovskoye is an urban locality and the administrative center of Tymovsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located in the central part of the Sakhalin Island on the right bank of the Tym River, about 450 kilometers (280 mi) north of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Population: 7,855 (2010 Census); 8,532 (2002 Census); 10,869 (1989 Census).
Sakhalin Ainu was a dialect of Ainu language spoken on the island of Sakhalin, now part of Russia.
Kurils Nature Reserve is a Russian 'zapovednik' covering the north and south portions of Kunashir Island, the largest and most southernmost of the Kuril Islands, which stretch between Hokkaido Island in Japan to the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russia Far East. It also covers two smaller islands nearby to the southeast. The area is one of the largest wintering sites for coastal seabirds. The reserve sits on a tectonically unstable location, and is one of two Russian national reserves that protects territory of active volcanoes. The reserve is situated in the Yuzhno-Kurilsky District of Sakhalin Oblast. The reserve was created in 1984, and covers an area of 65,364 ha (252.37 sq mi).
