Head of the Golden Horn Bay, Russian SFSR
Mayor city, "closed city"
Vladivostok is the Soviet Union's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean. It is located in Primorsky Krai, in the far eastern region of the Russian SFSR, near the border with China and Korea. It is the home of the Soviet Pacific Fleet and the terminus for the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Soviet Union declared it as a "closed city".
The region had been part of many states, such as the Mohe, Balhae, Jīn Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, and various other Chinese dynasties, before Russia acquired the entire Maritime Province and the island of Sakhalin by the Treaty of Beijing (1860). Qing China, which had just lost the Opium War with Britain, was unable to defend the region. The Pacific coast near Vladivostok was settled mainly by the Chinese and Manchus during the Qing Dynasty period. On June 20 (July 2 Gregorian style), 1860, the military supply ship Manchur, under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Alexey K. Shefner, called at the Golden Horn Bay to found an outpost called Vladivostok. Warrant officer Nikolay Komarov with 28 soldiers and two non-commissioned officers under his command were brought from Nikolayevsk-on-Amur by ship to construct the first buildings of the future city. The Manza War in 1868 was the first attempt by Russia to expel Chinese from territory it controlled. Hostilities broke out around Vladivostok when the Russians tried to shut off gold mining operations and expel Chinese workers there. The Chinese resisted a Russian attempt to take Ashold Island and in response, two Russian military stations and three Russian towns were attacked by the Chinese, and the Russians failed to oust the Chinese.
An elaborate system of fortifications was erected between the 1870s and 1890s. A telegraph line from Vladivostok to Shanghai and Nagasaki was opened in 1871, the year when a commercial port was relocated here from Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. Town status was granted on April 22, 1880. A coat of arms, representing the Siberian tiger, was adopted in March 1883. The city's economy was given a boost in 1916, with the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which connected Vladivostok to Moscow and Europe.
In the wake of the October Revolution, Vladivostok was of great military importance for the Far Eastern Republic, the Provisional Priamurye Government, and the Allied intervention, consisting of foreign troops from Czechoslovakia, Japan, the United States, British, Canada, and other nations. The Czechoslovak Legion conquered the city in 1918 and waited for foreign reinforcements. The Japanese forces arrived in April 1918, followed by British soldiers in May, Americans in June, and later other French and Canadian soldiers. They found in Siberia an open warfare going on between the Bolsheviks on one side and the Czechoslovak Legions and White Russians on the other. Czechoslovak Legion (around 67,000 soldiers), exhausted by their long trek across Siberia and eager to return to their new nation, returned via port of Vladivostok to Czechoslovakia. All allied forces were evacuated by 1920, apart from the Japanese who stayed until 1922. 1,600 Chinese troops also intervened in response to a request by the Chinese community in the area for aid. The taking of the city by Ieronim Uborevich's Red Army on October 25, 1922 marked the end of the Russian Civil War.
As the main naval base of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, Vladivostok was officially closed to foreigners.
Role in the War
Due to its strategic importance, Vladivostok was attacked many times in its history.
Great World War III
|The following is based on the Soviet campaign for Red Alert 2 and some details might contradict canon.|
War of the Three Powers
|The following is based on the Soviet campaign of Red Alert 3 and contradicts canon sources.|
During the War of the Three Powers, Vladivostok was conquered by the forces of the Empire of the Rising Sun led by Prince Tatsu, who ruled his newly conquered territories from a palace overlooking the city. Vladivostok was fortunately recaptured by a Soviet amphibious force (operation Taking back Ice-Harbor).
|The following is based on the Imperial campaign of Red Alert 3: Uprising and has not been confirmed by canon sources.|
The port city came under assault once more during the Imperial campaign of the Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising. Despite the Allies' attempt to crush the Empire's uprising, the city as well as military bases of commanders Oleg and Moskvin fell to Tatsu's rebuilt military and newest Imperial weapon, the Giga-Fortresses, and the Empire of the Rising Sun rose once more.