Far North (Russia)

• Arkhangelsk (pop. 348,783), • Yakutsk (pop. 311,760), • Murmansk (pop. 270,384), • Severodvinsk (pop. 192,353), • Norilsk (pop. 176,735), • Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (pop. 164,900), • Novy Urengoi (pop. 104,107), • Noyabrsk (pop. 110,620), • Magadan (pop. 92,782) are the largest cities within the Russian Far North by their population, according to the 2021 Russian census. The larger and more southern Surgut (pop. 396,443) is the largest among cities and territories equated to the Far North. ==Legal status==

The Far North is known for its extremely harsh climate. People who work there, other than the inmates of labor camps that constituted the Gulag system of the Soviet Union and the inmates of corrective labor colonies in present-day Russia, receive an extra grade of payment, referred to as the "Northern Bonus" (severnye nadbavki ). Additional benefits include extra vacation, extra disability benefits, extra retirement benefits (a lower retirement age), and housing benefits, in compensation for the difficult working conditions. Such compensation began under the Soviet Union and has been maintained by the Russian Federation. In January 2007, the State Duma Committee for Issues of the North and Far East approved a proposed law defining regions within the Far North that would determine the extent of compensation for workers. The regions were established based on general climate, with harsher regions garnering greater compensation relative to milder regions. In this legal definition, some areas, such as some mountainous areas of Tuva, do not match the intuitive geographical definition of "Extreme North"; in fact they are among the southernmost in Russia. ==See also==