Born by lack of freedom. Sakhalin - a convict colony of Russia

Sakhalin colony- an economic strategy, the goal of which is to survive. The player is given a typical or randomly generated playing field, divided into cells.

Each cell represents a certain resource, or an open field. At the beginning of the game, the player is given an administration building and 2 plots of land on which he can build resource-extracting structures. All buildings are destroyed over time and require repair - for the money received from the sale of resources. The administration building is the main one - the impossibility of repairing it leads to the end of the game.
It is not easy to gain profit in terms of income, and the rare but expensive renovation of the administration often breaks beautifully built plans.





Once upon a time, I really liked the economic strategy "Sakhalin Colony" by Grigory Zhmulevsky. Now it was with her that I decided to write my first completed game, and at the same time study various aspects of C #. Having received from the author a laconic "Of course" to the question of copying his game, I got down to work.
Sources in C are available on the author's website, and I turned to them to copy these objects - the cost, how long the object lives, in what situations it is destroyed more or less, etc. For the rest, I tried to rely only on myself.
Together with chrome, the size of the original is 640x480. I chose the same app sizes, but without chrome. Due to this, as well as more optimal use of space, it was possible to increase the size of the map cell by 2 pixels. A bit, but good too.
The internal logic of the game is almost completely preserved. Added brief help.

Brief information about the development progress.

General
It was decided to make the game in XNA, in particular, because I already had some gui work for it.
A fairly simple architecture was chosen for implementation:
Game classes without using specific XNA classes, for simplicity of a possible port to another engine in the future:

• Game class with map reference
• Map class with reference to an array of cells
• Cell with its own data and a link to the building
• Building with its own data and cell index
• A static class containing all immutable data, incl. transfers.

• In update () - opening / closing dialog forms, calling update controls.
• In draw () - drawing game elements, calling draw controls.

• An interlayer class between Game and game classes. Game methods are called only through it. Again, for simplicity, a possible port to another engine. It also contains work with streams.

• Work on saving, reading data.

Sakhalin colony- an economic strategy, the goal of which is to survive. The player is given a typical or randomly generated playing field, divided into cells.
Each cell represents a certain resource, or an open field. At the beginning of the game, the player is given an administration building and 2 plots of land on which he can build resource-extracting structures. All buildings are destroyed over time and require repair - for the money received from the sale of resources. The administration building is the main one - the impossibility of repairing it leads to the end of the game.
It is not easy to gain profit in terms of income, and the rare but expensive renovation of the administration often breaks beautifully built plans.

Once upon a time, I really liked the economic strategy "Sakhalin Colony" by Grigory Zhmulevsky. Now it was with her that I decided to write my first completed game, and at the same time study various aspects of C #. Having received from the author a laconic "Of course" to the question of copying his game, I got down to work.
The C ++ sources are available on the author's website, and I turned to them to copy these objects - the cost, how long the object lives, in which situations it is destroyed more or less, etc. For the rest, I tried to rely only on myself.
Together with chrome, the size of the original is 640x480. I chose the same app sizes, but without chrome. Due to this, as well as more optimal use of space, it was possible to increase the size of the map cell by 2 pixels. A bit, but good too.
The internal logic of the game is almost completely preserved. Added brief help.

Brief information about the development progress.

General
It was decided to make the game in XNA, in particular, because I already had some gui work for it.
A fairly simple architecture was chosen for implementation:
Game classes without using specific XNA classes, for simplicity of a possible port to another engine in the future:

• Game class with map reference
• Map class with reference to an array of cells
• Cell with its own data and a link to the building
• Building with its own data and cell index
• A static class containing all immutable data, incl. transfers.

• In update () - opening / closing dialog forms, calling update controls.
• In draw () - drawing game elements, calling draw controls.

• An interlayer class between Game and game classes. Game methods are called only through it. Again, for simplicity, a possible port to another engine. It also contains work with streams.

• Work on saving, reading data.

Serialization
Serialization, in theory, could help to get rid of the cumbersome class for saving / reading data using XmlDocument.
However, in practice, when implementing the serialization functionality, I encountered a number of tasks without which it could not work.
In particular, most of the static classes had to be made public. The result is a static top-level class containing a link to the game's public class. This approach made it possible, on the one hand, to preserve the simplicity of accessing the necessary data, and on the other, to use serialization. During programming and intermediate tests, I encountered a strange program behavior when opening and saving data - everything worked on the development computer, but on the other, the game crashed all the time on serialization. By adding try catch constructs to the game, we managed to get and output information about errors to the file. It turned out that the serializer (only!) On the client computer could not parse some static classes. It turned out that the problem is in the fields - enumerations, which are declared in the auxiliary static class. After a lot of searching, I was advised to exclude them from attribute serialization. Nevertheless, these fields are necessary in logic, so it was decided to duplicate them into string fields, and after reading the xml, immediately parse the string representation into the corresponding enumeration. It worked.

Content
At first, I planned to fill the game with images marked free from the Internet, because I myself have never been able to draw, but the search for suitable pictures
turned out to be surprisingly difficult. As a result, having tried to draw icons on my own, I saw that it turns out fine (in my opinion), and faster in time than looking for them on the Internet. At the moment, there are only three pictures from the Internet in the game - money, food, gold. The rest are painted in paint. There is quite a bit of post-processing in a more serious editor. In fact, all the icons of the land and buildings are twice as large as they are displayed in the game - it was easier to draw them this way. In addition, icons of this size will be easier to use in the future. Decreasing is easier than increasing.

Texture maps
Initially, all graphic content was split - one file for each button. Moreover, the built-in XNA content mechanism was not used - all textures were loaded into the game in a standard C # way and then converted to Texture2d via Stream. The textures were stored in a named array. A large number of files and difficulties with publishing made me think about texture maps. Collecting (almost) everything
textures into maps, we managed to reduce the application's memory consumption by almost 10 megabytes (the value of the "allocated memory" column in the manager decreased from 69 to 60 mb). The named array was also replaced with n separate variables.

Interface
Unfortunately, XNA does not have its own graphical interface. Connecting win form or wpf imposes its own limitations. Because one of the goals of the project is to teach programming in C # in general and specifically in the gaming environment, it was decided to remember a relatively old bike - gooies for XNA.
Initially, this gooey was conceived as a very powerful mechanism - an interface constructor. Its power was turned into huge blocks of code with hard-to-find bugs and slow performance. I had to cut a lot of code, simplify work, reduce the number of calls to auxiliary functions in update.
The edit control was also written - it accepts only numbers, a decimal point, plus and minus signs (excluding plus and minus on the additional keyboard - I did not find them in the list of XNA keys). By means of the gooie, if necessary, additional textures are created - pressing, hovering, inaccessible state. It turned out to be a small, but quite working gui.

Streams
The application uses windows, incl. modal. Question windows, messages, as well as a trading form, must send some information to the program that will be processed.
In the course of the work, the following solution was found: when the window is activated in a separate thread, the target method is called, for example, the repair of a building. The cost of repairs is being calculated, the window activation flag and the text of the question itself are passed to the static question class.
The structure repair method (called thread) enters the loop by the flag - the sign of receiving the user's response. In parallel with the execution of this cycle, in the Update method (main thread) a window is opened - a dialog, gui is executed, when the user presses the yes or no key, the corresponding flags are set in the static question class. The child thread exits the cycle and continues the execution of the structure repair method, focusing on the user's response already received.
In order not to generate many parallel streams and to screen other possible problems, all game buttons are blocked when the question is activated. System buttons are not blocked, in particular because they use standard windows dialogs, which already completely block the application.

Application
Written under win 7, requires XNA components installed, framework.net 4.0 - everything you need is downloaded automatically during the installation process.
XNA components can be downloaded separately

Description

First version. Economic turn-based strategy. Your colony begins living on March 1, 1890. Purpose of the game: to live up to the present time. The game is played on a field of 18x12 cells. One structure can be built on each square. The game will end in loss if all your buildings are destroyed.

At the beginning of the game, you are given 50,000 money and 1 warehouse (the most important building in the game). During the game, you need to earn money in order to keep the warehouse up to date, because with each new day, the condition of any building is deteriorating.

You can create 10 types of buildings. Buildings can only be built on purchased land. In some cells of the earth there are certain resources (forest, water, coal, etc.). Buildings consume resources and generate profits every day. Some buildings may only operate at certain times of the year.

Advice

· Before constructing any building or performing an action on it, select the required cell on the territory.
· To start a new day, press the N key or click the arrow button (in the upper right corner of the screen).
· Land can be bought and sold. The land you own is outlined in green.
· On improved land, buildings are built faster and last longer. To upgrade the land, press G or the blue blob button.

· The amount of your money and resources is displayed on the screen on the left, and messages - on the bottom.
· You can control the game using the keyboard. The arrow keys move the selection around the cells.
· Resources can be bought and sold on the market (prices vary).
· To repair a building, press R or the wrench button.
· If the building does not work in the current season or there are not enough resources for its work, then it can be temporarily blocked. A locked building will not work, but will last longer.

Distribution size: 350K Windows-95.98, ME, 2000, XP, NT

Download game Sakhalin Colony

Hard labor as a means of developing remote territories was not a Russian invention. You can recall the experience of England in the development of the New World in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Or the equally dramatic history of the settlement of Australia, which began in 1788. Then the flotilla of Captain Philip brought a group of exiles to New Wales, who founded the first European settlement on the coast of Port Jackson Bay - the future Sydney. For almost eight decades, "good old England" colonized the whole continent, creating military convict settlements. Until 1868, 155 thousand people were exiled there.

The first convict appeared on Sakhalin back in 1858. Historians even know his name - Ivan Lapshin. He served with one of the mining engineers who studied coal deposits. Later, convicts were brought to Douai in small consignments. After working at the mine for one or two years, they returned to the mainland.

Alexander II approved the "Statute of the Committee on the arrangement of hard labor". The document officially identified Sakhalin as a place of hard labor and exile. It is this date that is considered to be the official beginning of hard labor, which "glorified" the island in Russia and abroad for many years.

Sakhalin seemed to the authorities of the Empire an ideal place for hard labor - the remoteness and inaccessibility of the territory nullified all attempts to escape. The undeveloped island provided enormous scope for activity after the release of the prisoners. And the appearance of a large number of Russians here strengthened the influence of the Russian Empire in the Far East, which was also an indisputable plus. In addition, the hands of workers made it possible to finally gain access to the wealth of the island.

In terms of the scale of exile, Sakhalin was undoubtedly inferior to Australia. The first years of convicts were brought here in small stages: in 1870 - 250, in 1871 - 165 people. The purpose of the exile was not so much punishment as the extraction of coal for the Siberian flotilla. Douai's post became a kind of convict "capital" of Sakhalin. Here was the office of a special official - the head of the exiles of the Primorsky region, and in 1875 the first prison was built.

Along with the establishment of hard labor, there were attempts to resettle free peasants to Sakhalin. In the same 1869, more than 20 families from the Tobolsk and Irkutsk provinces were brought here. In the south of the island, they founded three villages: Voskresenskoye, Station (Takoye) and Novoaleksandrovskoye. In 1871, they were visited by the scientist-agronomist M.S. Mitsul, who described the experience of peasants in farming.

The settlers belonged to the poor stratum of the Siberian countryside. Their arrangement required a lot of worries, but the administration was unable to create conditions for their consolidation on the island. In 1886, they fled from Sakhalin to the South Ussuri region.

Anton Chekhov, writer, public figure

“So, the free colonization in the south of Sakhalin should be admitted as a failure. It is difficult to decide whether the natural conditions, which at first met the peasants so harshly and unfriendly, were to blame for this, or whether the whole business was spoiled by the ineptitude and sloppiness of officials, it is difficult to decide, since the experience was not long ... "

At first, penal servitude also did not have a noticeable effect on the settlement of the island. From 1868 to 1878 The exiles founded only two villages: Malo-Aleksandrovka (1869) and Novo-Mikhailovka (1872). This was due to the difficulties of delivering the exiles, who went in stages from Siberia for one and a half to two years. Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs came up with an idea to send convicts to Sakhalin by semicircular sea route. The Volunteer Fleet Society took over their delivery. The first voyage, or, as they said, “rafting”, to the Far East was made by the steamer “Nizhniy Novgorod”. He left Odessa on June 7, 1879, having on board 500 convicts and state cargo for the prison department.

Head of the State Prison Administration M.N. Galkin-Vraskoy issued an order prohibiting the transfer to the mainland of people who had completed their term of hard labor. The link to Sakhalin became almost irrevocable. Convicts, having served their sentences in prison, passed into the category of exiled settlers. They also constituted the main "colonization element" of the settlement of the island.

In the future, "volunteers" brought future Sakhalin colonists regularly - in spring and autumn. Steamships Nizhniy Novgorod, Kostroma, Petersburg, and Vladivostok cruised on the Odessa-Sakhalin line. In 1893, the steamer Yaroslavl was built in England, specially equipped for the transport of large consignments of prisoners. It was a real floating prison, adapted for sea voyages around the world.

Forced development

The output of convicts for settlement in the 80-90s of the XIX century was about 800 people a year, and villages on Sakhalin began to appear one after another. So, if in twelve years (1874 - 1885) 21 villages were founded, then over the next similar period (1886 - 1897) - exactly 100. By 1898 there were more than 130 Russian villages on the island, including in the Alexandrovsky district - 37, Tymovsk - 28, Korsakovsk - 68 villages. After that, the "passion for colonization" ended, and new settlements almost did not appear.

Life in the Sakhalin settlements, which arose among the untouched taiga, largely depended on roads and communications. In 1881, the first telegraph cable connected Douai to the mainland. Three years later, the line was drawn from the Alexandrovsky post to the village of Rykovsky, and in 1892 - to the Korsakov post. But in general, communications within the island were poorly developed. By 1900, only 80 out of more than 130 villages were connected by roadways - their total length was only about 600 versts.

Without normal roads, except for narrow forest clearings, 52 villages remained. They were cut off from civilization almost all year round. The lack of roads slowed down the settlement of Sakhalin and put the administration in a stalemate - it was almost impossible to supply the settlers.

According to the "Regulations on the management of. Sakhalin "dated May 15, 1884, the main management of all Sakhalin affairs belonged to the governor-general, and the local was entrusted to the head of the island, appointed from among the military generals. Administratively, the island was divided into three districts: Aleksandrovsky, Tymovsky and Korsakovsky. Settlements and prisons were under the jurisdiction of the district chiefs and district police departments.

According to the First General Census of the Russian Empire in 1897, 28.1 thousand people lived on Sakhalin. Including in the Alexandrovsky district - 11.1 thousand, Tymovsky - 8.4 thousand, Korsakovsky - 8.6 thousand. The impact of hard labor was reflected in the demographic characteristics of the population, 72.8% of whom were men and only 27.2% were women. This fact had an unfavorable effect on the “settling-in” of the population and its way of life.

On a national basis, the population of Sakhalin was represented by almost all the peoples of the empire. The majority were Russians - 56.3%, then Ukrainians - 8.4%, Poles - 5.8%. In total, representatives of 20 nationalities lived on the island. About 15% of the population were small indigenous peoples: Nivkhs - 7.1%, Ainu - 5.1%, Uilta - 2.5%.

Convict playlist:

• Oh you share - Sergei Sadovnikov
• Last word - Sergey Sadovnikov
• Why am I, boy, was I born - Sergei Sadovnikov
• He walks tired - Sergey Sadovnikov
• Convict song - Nikolay Shevelev
• Tell me comrade how you got into the mine - Dmitry Ershov
• It is not the wind that tends the branch - Choir of convicts of the Tobolsk penal servitude

The steel shackle economy

The main activity of the convicts was coal cutting. At the beginning of the 20th century, 45-47 thousand tons of coal were exported from Sakhalin, which amounted to a quarter of its annual consumption in the Amur Territory. The development of the industry was held back by a lack of manpower and a lack of ports. The government did not allow the import of foreign workers. The same hard labor was used to expand the labor force.

Although there were enough other concerns - the prisoners worked on the construction of roads, bridges and logging. Hard labor almost never rested - work began at dawn and could continue until late at night. The prisoners were given one day off - Sunday, but in the presence of urgent work, they could well be neglected. They even worked on Easter - the Orthodox on this day, of course, received a day off - but there were enough representatives of other confessions on Sakhalin.

The abundance of cheap and disenfranchised labor led to the fact that on Sakhalin most of the mines used exclusively manual labor - mechanization was either completely absent or was minimal. This gave rise to monstrous working conditions - cutting and lifting of coal in the mines were carried out manually. During the shift, the convict produced 10-15 poods of solid fuel. The main place of coal mining on Sakhalin was the Duisk mine - 400 convicts worked here. The workforce of the mine was provided by two nearby prisons - Voevodskaya and Duiskaya. Contemporaries note the extremely cruel attitude towards the convicts and the appalling working conditions - for the slightest violation of discipline, prisoners were punished - sent to solitary confinement or beaten.

The next most important branch of the Sakhalin economy was fishing and seafood. In the second half of the 19th century, the Sakhalin fishing region was formed, which was actively involved in the all-Russian market. But in comparison with other regions of the Amur Territory, the share of its supplies to the domestic market was lower. The reason is simple - the dominance of Japanese capital, which exported the products of the Sakhalin marine industries to Japan.

They tried to develop their own agricultural production on the island. Despite the huge costs during the period of hard labor, a solid base on Sakhalin did not work out. Local farms provided only 30% of the required amount of grain, and the population was almost completely dependent on the delivery of food. Despite this, the experience of farming in Sakhalin was very important for subsequent generations.

The labor of tens of thousands of exiles, peasants, soldiers, sailors, representatives of the intelligentsia became the material prerequisite for securing the island for Russia. But Sakhalin never became a Russian "Australia", that is, a thriving colony of a mighty empire. Sad, first of all, is the result of the settlement of Sakhalin with the help of hard labor. This was explained not so much by the geographical location and natural and climatic conditions as by the poor organization of the resettlement business and the unfavorable influence of foreign policy factors.

Around the sea, and in the middle - grief

The exiled colony left an inevitable imprint on all aspects of the island's life. Her gloomy fame was reflected in the fate of several generations of Sakhalin residents, who wrote bitter proverbs about that time: "The sea is all around, and in the middle there is grief"; "There is water all around, and in the middle there is trouble."

But it would be wrong to perceive Sakhalin at that time as a continuous "dark kingdom". The rudiments of cultural life were noted here as well. The first school on the island appeared in 1875 at the Korsakovsky post (a year earlier than the first prison appeared here). Its students were children of soldiers and exiles, and its teachers were officers of the local garrison and priest Simeon Kazansky.

Even in hard labor there were people who tried to alleviate the plight of the exiles. So, for example, in 1888, at the post of Alexandrovsky, a production of Gogol's play "The Marriage" took place. The performance was charitable - the proceeds were distributed equally to three schools: in Aleksandrovsk, Douai and Rykovsky, where the children of exiles studied.

In the mid-90s of the 19th century, there were 39 schools on the island, of which 23 were rural (5 two-class and 18 one-class). Only about half of the children had the opportunity to attend school on a regular basis. Nevertheless, the literacy level of Sakhalin residents was higher than in other regions of the empire. This is evidenced by the census of 1897. According to the documents, 26.8% of Sakhalin residents were literate. While in Siberia, only 11 percent were literate.

The exiled revolutionaries left a deep mark on the history of Sakhalin. They taught in local schools, were engaged in education and medicine. The settlers' leisure was brightened up by evenings, gatherings, and even church holidays. Christmas dressing up, seeing off Maslenitsa and other traditions dating back centuries were a kind of folk theater. Sometimes, on holidays in the district centers, festivities with swings and booths of puppet theaters were held, attracting spectators from all walks of life.

For example, at the end of the 1890s, a theater booth in the village of Rykovskoye was maintained by the shopkeeper Sophia Bluestein, better known as "Sonya the Golden Hand".

Not our Kuriles

In the second half of the 19th century, the Kuril Islands completely fell out of the sphere of influence of the Russian Empire. Russia gave up part of the Kuril Islands back in 1855 - then the Simod Treaty on the borders in the Far East was signed.

Treaty of Shimoda, 1855

“From now on, the borders between Russia and Japan will pass between the islands of Iturup and Urup. The entire Iturup Island belongs to Japan, and the entire Urup Island and the other Kuril Islands to the north are the possession of Russia. As for Karafuto (Sakhalin), it remains undivided between Russia and Japan. "

In 1875, another border treaty was signed - St. Petersburg. Now Russia completely abandoned the Kuriles - more important for the empire was consolidation on Sakhalin.

Saint Petersburg Treaty, 1875

“His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, for himself and his heirs, concedes to His Majesty the Emperor of the All-Russian part of the territory of Sakhalin Island (Karafuto) ... from now on, the designated Sakhalin Island (Karafuto) will completely belong to the Russian Empire and the border line will pass in these waters through Laperuz strait ...

In return ... the All-Russian Emperor, for himself and his heirs, concedes to his Majesty the Japanese Emperor a group of islands called the Kuril Islands ... the border line between the Russian and Japanese empires in these waters will pass through the strait located between Cape Lopatka of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Shumshu Island ... "

After that, convict expansion began with a vengeance on Sakhalin. At first, the Kurils were mastered by Japan with difficulty - the settlement of the central and northern islands was especially difficult. Nevertheless, by the end of the 19th century, many settlements arose on the Kuriles - there were both small villages and ghost villages that came to life only during the fishing season. Over time, a powerful fish processing and whaling industry arose on the islands, the colonists were engaged in breeding fur animals. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first similarities of cities appeared in the south of the ridge - Syana (Kurilsk) and Tomari (Golovino). With the growing activity of the United States and Russia in the Pacific, the Kuril Islands became an important strategic outpost of Japan.

The Land of the Rising Sun used them as a base of aggression in World War II - the islands became a base for attacks on American military bases in the Pacific Ocean.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Sakhalin exceeded 40 thousand people. At the same time, the proportion of exiles decreased and the number of free peasants and bourgeoisie from the exiles, which became former convicts, increased. In 1904, the prisons at Douai and Honora had to be closed. Hard labor as a means of developing the island had clearly outlived its usefulness, and the government was preparing to abolish it. On August 18, 1904, the governor in the Far East E.I. Alekseev instructed the Amur Governor-General to prepare the question of opening Sakhalin "for a wave of colonization." The development of measures to abolish hard labor was entrusted to the Governor of Sakhalin M.N. Lyapunov with the participation of representatives of the Ministries of Justice, Internal Affairs, and Finance. However, the events of the Russo-Japanese War were ahead of the plans of the bureaucratic machine of tsarism - in the summer of 1905, the Japanese army occupied Sakhalin.

The exposition introduces the history of Sakhalin in 1869-1906. By the Tsar's decree of 1869, Sakhalin Island was declared a place of hard labor and exile, turned into one of the darkest corners of Russia.

The plasma display shows two routes by which the convicts got to Sakhalin by stage: the land route through Siberia and the sea route from Odessa through the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean.
The exposition includes a model of the steamer "Nizhny Novgorod", photographs of convicts on board.
The colonization of the island lasted for about forty years. The prison administration had unlimited power over both the exiles and the few free Sakhalin residents.

Authentic items: hand and foot shackles, a lock and a key to the punishment cell of one of the largest prisons on the island - Aleksandrovskaya - are symbols of that era. The miner's sleighs for the export of coal and a pick give an idea of ​​the work of Sakhalin convicts in the coal mines.
Also on display is a shirt for a newborn made of rough canvas. This was the first clothing in the life of the children of prisoners, which was issued in the prison hospital.

Nevertheless, it was during this time period that the foundations of the modern economy of the region were laid. Hard labor became an important stage in the formation of the basic industries of Sakhalin: coal, oil, fish, forestry and agriculture. The exposition presents materials on the study of natural resources, the organization of the first production enterprises, a complex of household items of the late 19th century.
The household complex of objects of the population of the island at the turn of two centuries introduces the tools of labor, household utensils, home decoration.

Sakhalin, being the largest criminal penal servitude in Russia, was also a political penal servitude. Members of the most significant Russian political parties and organizations ("Proletariat", "Narodnaya Volya") were serving their sentences on the island: B.O. Yellinsky and other activists. Working in schools, libraries, hospitals, workshops, the office of the island administration, they provided practical assistance in alleviating the plight of convicts and their families, made a great contribution to the spiritual and cultural life of society.

In 1890, the famous Russian writer A.P. Chekhov visited Sakhalin. The result of the trip, a three-month stay on the island and the study of Sakhalin reality were the books "From Siberia" and "Sakhalin Island", which literally shook the whole reading Russia.
After a loud public outcry, the government was forced to reform the legislation on the maintenance of convicts and exiles. On April 10, 1906, the Law on the abolition of the Sakhalin penal servitude was issued. In 1908, the island was declared free for free settlement.

Central street at Douai post

Natural History of Sakhalin

Ammonite. This fossilized shell is about 70 mln. years old.

Desmostylus hesperus.

Fossilized skeleton (copy) of an extinct mammal inhabiting Northern Pacific shores in the mid Miocene (12-15.8 mln. Years ago). The animal was described for the first time by O. Ch. Marsh - famous discoverer of dinosaurs - who was able to describe it having only one tooth at his disposal. Teeth in Desmostylus hesperus resemble a bunch of columns. The animal's name is based on its teeth structure. Desmos means bunch or stack, and stylus means pillar or column in Greek.
Desmostylus hesperus skeleton, the copy of which is displayed in the museum, was found by chance. In July of 1933 Nagao Takumi, Hokkaido University professor, was visited by a man who was engaged in shipping timber from Sakhalin island. He brought in a strange looking fossil - a skull of an unknown animal - which had been found by chance to the north-west of contemporary town of Smirnykh. Professor Nagao identified the skull as belonging to the Desmostylus species based on the teeth shape. Without delay he got together a group of scientists and left for Sakhalin. Unfortunately, that year the bones from the fore part of the body only were collected, but in 1934, in the second expedition, the remaining bones were found. The fossilized bones were shipped to Japan and processed in the University of Hokkaido. It was for the first time in the world that the whole skeleton of the animal was found. Paleontological community as a whole was taken by big surprise. It became clear that Desmostylus hesperus had well developed fore and hind limbs and also hands and feet well suited for rowing. (before then the Desmostylus hesperus were thought to have flippers). The animals apparently used long shovel-like tusks for ploughing bottom sediments in search of benthic organisms, such as: shell-bearing mollusks, crabs and echinoderms.
Desmostylus hesperus reached 3 m in length and were as heavy as 1200 kg. The animals led coastal life and were good swimmers and divers, taking rest on coastal cliffs. During their reproductory period they stayed on the coast, however moving on land in a rather clumsy way.
Warm shallow water areas of the Sea of ​​Japan and those of the Western Sakhalin islands with their shallow water shelf and numerous inland and coastal water bodies of the other parts of the Paleo-Sakhalin were favorable habitat for Desmostylus hesperus in the Neogene Period.
Reconstruction of the skeleton was performed by the professor Nagao Takumi together with taxidermist Sinoda Syudziro. It was the first reconstruction of the Desmostylus skeleton ever. Based on the teeth size, Nagao described the animal above-mentioned as a new species - Desmostylus mirabilis. Today it is accepted that the attribution to a different species was caused only by the individual features and now the skeleton in question is attributed to the Desmostylus hesperus species.
During the World War II in the Pacific the skeleton was taken to pieces and buried in the ground to be preserved. The skeleton was reassembled after the war by the professor Kamei Setsuo.
The copy of the Desmostylus hesperus skeleton was presented to the Sakhalin Regional Museum as a gift by the Association for Bilateral Relationships of Museums of the Northern Regions and Hokkaido on July 26, 2006.

Mine sea pier of the Sakhalin Society

Duya single-altar church in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Opened in 1856

Coal warehouses at the mines of the Sakhalin Society

Coal mining at the mine of the Sakhalin Society

Jonkier's lighthouse. Built in 1886

Sonya - Golden Handle

Chained to cars in the courtyard of the Provincial Prison

The ship "Atlas", wrecked in May 1890

Nikolaevskaya street in Alexandrovsky post

House of the military governor of Sakhalin Island

The building of the postal and telegraph department at the Alexandrovsky post

Aleksandrovskoe District Police Department and the Office of the Aleksandrovskaya Prison

Pedestrian bridge on the Duika river at Aleksandrovsky post

The central part of the village of Rykovsky

Church of the Kazan Mother of God in the village of Rykovskoye. Opened in 1888

Korsakov prison

Street in the post Korsakovsky

Post Korsakovsky

Korsakov District Police Department

Settlement Third Pad

Settlement Maloe Tako

The village of Bereznyaki

Village Vladimirovka

Village Listvinichnoe