Far North (Russia)

The Far North, also called the Extreme North, is a vast region of Russia covering roughly 5.5 million square kilometers, about one third of the country's territory, located mainly north of the Arctic Circle and holding significant mineral and natural resource deposits. It lies predominantly within Siberia and takes in all of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Kamchatka Krai, Magadan Oblast, Murmansk Oblast, and the Sakha Republic, along with parts of several other federal subjects and every island of the Arctic Ocean, its seas, the Bering Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk. Its formal boundaries are set by the Russian government for administrative purposes; in 2007 a State Duma committee established legal definitions used to determine eligibility for compensation, and these legal boundaries do not always match intuitive geography, since some southern mountainous areas of Tuva are classified as Far North on the basis of climate severity rather than latitude. Because of the harsh conditions and remoteness, workers in the region have historically received enhanced compensation, including higher wages, extended vacation time, disability benefits, earlier retirement eligibility, and housing assistance, benefits that originated in the Soviet era and continue today. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/