Where is it? Magadan Oblast, or region, is located in the Russian Far East north of Primorye Krai and Khabarovsk Krai along the Sea of Okhotsk. Prior to Stalin's death the region was known as Kolyma. It is in the same time zone as Vladivostok. You can find the current local time here.

What's the biggest city? Magadan, population 99,399 as of the 2002 census, out of 182,726 total inhabitants in the region.

Who lives here? Mostly ethnic Russians, many the descendants of those brought to this region as forced laborers during the reign of Joseph Stalin. The laborers included both criminals and political and religious dissidents. In the 1930s and 1940s, Stalin's Soviet government built dozens of gulags, or labor camps, in the region to develop mining for gold, iron and tungsten. Magadan was the main transit point for laborers going into these camps, thousands of whom died. Many of them were buried in the so-called Road of Bones that connects Magadan and Yakutsk. The Mask of Sorrow, a monument on a hilltop outside Magadan, commemorates those who died in the area under Stalin. But there are also a variety of ethnic group whose ancestors have long lived in the region: Evens, Koryaks, Yupiks, Chukchis, Orochs, Shors, Chuvans and Itelmens. (There's a link to the language and music of many of these groups in a post that I did on Russia's ethnic minorities.

What do they do here? Gold mining remains a key industry, along with the mining of silver, tin, tungsten, and coal; commercial fishing and shipping in May through December when the Nagaevo Bay port area is free of ice.

Does it have any English-language news sources? None that I have found. However, Susan and Wayne (see below) have set up a Babelfish translation link to the Web site of Magadan newspaper Kolyma.

How do I see what it looks like? You can see pictures of Magadan on Flickr. They make me think of the Rockies.

How do I get here? By air--Sokol Airport is served by Aeroflot and S7 from Moscow, Dalavia from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok Avia from Vladivostok. Roads in the area are very poor, although they are more passable in winter than other times of the year.

Which adoption agencies work here? Alaska International Adoption Agency. A private group, Assistance to Russian Orphans, runs a program in the area on preventing child abandonment.

Which Russian adoption bloggers have been here? Brandie and Steve at Our Adoption Journey", Susan and Wayne at "Our Forever Family", Nancy and Scott at "Looking For Grace". There is also a Yahoo! group Magadan_Russia.

Truly trivia: The Magadan region includes the Chukotka Autonomous Area, whose governor is Russia's richest man, Roman Abramovich.

Need more information? Try Kommersant's guide to Magadan, or the Russian-language Web sites of the region or the city. Here's the current weather in Magadan, which is one of the coldest places in Russia.