Climate
Thanks to the cold and raw Sea of Okhotsk which surrounds the island, the climate on Sakhalin is generally cool and humid. In the depth of winter the average temperature ranges from a bearable â6°C in the south to a bone chilling â24°C in the north, while temperatures as cold as â54°C have been reported. In the summer temperature rarely exceeds +19°C, often much cooler and floating ice can be observed around the island, even in the height of summer. Generally the north is much colder than the south, in part due to a warm current running along the Tartar strait in the southern end, the winter is a full 2 months longer in the North October-May. The annual precipitation ranges between 600-1200 mm, and snowfall can be heavy â in the mountains accumulation of 5 meter snow or more is not unusual.
Understand
Sakhalin has been inhabited by several indigenous tribes since the stone age, The Ainu people, also present on Hokkaido in Japan, populated the southern half of the island, and while a small group of Sakhalin Ainu is still present on the island, most were repatriated to Japan after the end of WWII. The largest group of the islands original population is the Nivkh tribe of the northern taigas.
Sakhalin has long been the scene of a power struggle between the major Asian powers: Russia, Japan and even the Chinese Qing Empire have put forward claims on the island. In the 17th century both Japan and Russia started colonizing the island, from different ends, dividing the island into a northern Russian part and a southern Japanese part. Aside from a 25 year period at the end of the 19th century, the island remained divided until the waning days of WWII, when Soviet troops broke through the defensive line and invaded the Japanese half. After the end of the war, the Japanese and Ainu people were forcefully repatriated to Japan, while a sizable Korean minority â brought by the Japanese into forced labour camps â remained on the island and were denied repatriation until the last years of Soviet rule, though many still remain on Sakhalin.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sakhalin has experienced an oil boom with Russian and foreign oil companies pouring into the island, bringing with it much needed investment in the islands infrastructure. This comes with a price though, as pipelines and logging pose a significant threat to the island's spectacular nature. There have also been complaints that the many oil dollars pouring in aren't benefiting the island's population.
Geography
At more than 70,000 km2, Sakhalin is Russia's largest island. From the 40 km La Pérouse Strait separating Sakhalin from the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the island stretches nearly 1000 km northwards in a long and narrow shape along the mainland's east coast. It's quite mountainous with two low mountain-ranges running parallel to each other separated by a valley tract. To the north the island flattens into a swampy taiga, while the central part of the island is densely forested.
These central forests are home to more than 2000 Sakhalin brown bears, which are often spotted even on the outskirts of the cities. Otters and sables are also common sightings. Up north there are numerous reindeer, many of them are herded by the indigenous Nivkhi tribe. Whales are also a common sighting along the east coast of the island, and Sakhalin is the only known feeding ground of the west pacific colony of the Gray Whales. Other whales spotted around the island include the Right Whale, the Bowhead Whale and the Beluga Whale, and up on the shores it's possible to spot Northern fur seals and sea lions.
Culture
The Nivkh are the only remaining significant indigenous ethnic group, of a population that previously also included the Ainu and Orok people: around 5000 live on Sakhalin, mainly in the northern taigas, with the village of Nekrasovska near Okha being the largest remaining community. They are traditionally a semi-nomadic people, living near the coasts in the summer and wintering inland along streams and rivers to catch salmon; but in no small part thanks to Soviet centralist policies, and pollution of their natural habitats and food sources, the Nivkhs now live in mixed population villages and faring a fairly modern life style, and only a handful of principally anthropological factors have so far averted their total assimilation. Their unique language, which has not been proven to be related to any other language on Earth, is also under threat, and less than 20% of the Nivkh can speak it fluently.
It's not all doom and gloom â there has been a revival of Nivkh culture in recent years, and many Nivkhs are actively involved in the restoration of their cultural traditions and language, which is largely shamanistic and animist, with ties to Mongolian traditional beliefs. According to Nivkh legends, Sakhalin is a giant beast lying on its belly with the trees of the island as its hair. When the beast is upset, it awakens and trembles the earth causing earthquakes.