Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky Russian: Алекса́ндровск-Сахали́нский, ah-leek-SAHND-ruhf suh-khah-LEEN-skee (http://aleksandrovsk.tfd.ru/) is a port town on the northwest coast of Sakhalin, on the shores of the Tatar Strait. It was known as Akō 亜港 during Japanese occupation between 1918-1925. It was the first settlement on the island, and for its first 30 or so years was the administrative center of Russian Sakhalin. But it is most famous for once being the short-term home of Anton Chekhov, where he wrote The Sakhalin Island. The penal colony that so horrified the famous author no longer exists, but it retains its other two roles as a coal mining center and an important port on the island, home to about 12,000.
