Сахалин облысы Корсаков қаласы

Town in Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Korsakov (Russian: Корсаков) is a town and the administrative center of Korsakovsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. It is located south from Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, at the southern end of Sakhalin Island, on the coast of the Salmon Cove in the Aniva Bay. The town has a population of 33,526 as of the 2010 census.

Little is known of the early history of Korsakov. The site was once home to an Ainu fishing village called Kushunkotan (in Russian sources, Tamari Aniva), which was frequented by traders of the Matsumae clan from as early as 1790. On 22 September 1853, a Russian expedition, commanded by Gennady Nevelskoy, raised the Russian flag at the settlement and renamed it "Fort Muravyovsky", after Governor General of Eastern Siberia Nikolay Muravyov. Nevelskoy left detailed recollections of the landing. He encountered a predominantly Ainu population (at least 600 people; another source mentions only 300 Ainu inhabitants The Russians abandoned the settlement on May 30, 1854, allegedly because their presence there, at the time of the Crimean War, raised the specter of Anglo French attack, but returned in August 1869, now renaming the town "Fort Korsakovsky," in honor of then Governor General of Eastern Siberia Mikhail Korsakov. As a municipal division, the town of Korsakov and seventeen rural localities of Korsakovsky District are incorporated as Korsakovsky Urban Okrug.

Curiously, at the early stage of settlement (late 1890s), men in Korsakovsky outnumbered women almost by a factor of ten. In 1897, for example, 1,510 males and 192 females lived in the town. This imbalance was due to the majority of Korsakov's inhabitants being prisoners and prison keepers; in both males predominated. The ethnic make up, by mother tongue, was 63.2% Russian, 10.5% Ukrainian, 7.3% Tatar, 6.3% Polish, 2.2% Japanese, 2.0% Belarusian, 1.3% German, 0.9% Lithuanian, 0.8% Circassian. The district of Korsakovsky (in 1897 covering 6,6762 square verst) had a population of 4,659 males and 2,194 females. The town's population was at its highest (just over 45,000) in the late 1980s, whereupon it experienced significant decline as inhabitants fled economic downturn by moving to neighboring Yuzhno Sakhalinsk or to continental Russia. Korsakov's population remains in decline, although no longer as sharp as in the 1990s. The demographic make up is primarily ethnic Russian with a large ethnic Korean minority.

Korsakov is the 2016 bandy champions of Sakhalin.

Amenities include a fairly run down and expensive hotel ("Alfa") next to the former park. The beach is easily accessible by car (Okhotsk, about 1 hour and Prigorodnoye, about 30 minutes). The formerly well kept beach at Vtoraya Pad has now deteriorated into a messy junkyard. Winter sights include skating at the city stadium and excellent cross country skiing past the former sea weed plant (Na Agarike). No facilities exist for downhill skiing. The town features a museum with an exhibit describing the local frontier history, and the Japanese possession of the city (1905–1945). Local market on the Sovetskaya Street offers great strawberries in the summer, and nicely prepared Korean delicacies (kimchi and the local hit, the paporotnik, all year around). Foreign tourists from certain countries or transiting via cruise ship or air are now able to visit the town without a visa for 72 hours.

Korsakov is located about from the Yuzhno Sakhalinsk Airport. Regular bus and minibus services connect Korsakov with the capital city of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, though not with the airport. A passenger ferry service between Korsakov and Wakkanai, Hokkaidō, Japan, across the Aniva Gulf, was re established in 2016 and is in operation between June and September of each year. The passenger ferry service is operated by the Commonwealth of Dominica flagged vessel Penguin 33, which is High speed craft owned by Penguin International Limited, a Singaporean owned publicly listed company. The Japan National Rail passenger ferry service previously operated a service from Wakkanai, called "Chihaku Renrakusen (Chihaku Ferry Service)" from 1923 to 1945, which was linked to Japan's national rail network and to Yuzhno Sakhalinsk (then called Toyohara). The old narrow gauge Japanese railroad still runs along the scenic coastline, with sporadic rail service. There are several bus lines servicing the urban area and a number of villages in the proximity. The city has a large seaport.