Lavrentiya

Lavrentiya (, Yupik: Ӄышы; Chukchi: Ӄытрын, Ḳytryn; Naukan: Qerre; Inupiaq: Kesrreq or Kisrriq) is a rural locality (a selo) and the administrative center of Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on Lavrentiya Bay, close to the Bering Strait. Population: Lavrentiya is the only district administrative center in the whole autonomous okrug that does not have urban status; it accounts for 30.2% of the district's total population. Located in Lavrentiya is the easternmost airport on the world map, the Lavrentiya Airport, UHML.

==History== It is situated on Lavrentiya Bay, named by Captain James Cook who arrived in the bay on the feast day of Saint Lawrence in 1778. The village itself was founded in 1928 (although some sources suggest 1927). By 1928 a Kultbaza (a semi-permanent cultural base established by the Soviet Union in rural areas to ensure the ideological education of local indigenous inhabitants) had been established in the area and by 1930 the settlement was sufficient that it was appointed as the administrative centre of Chukotsky District. This appointment was later transferred to Uelen but administrative responsibilities returned to Lavrentiya in 1942.,