Provideniya, Arctic seaport in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia

Provideniya is an Arctic seaport of federal importance on the Bering Sea coast of the Chukotka Peninsula, in Provideniya Bay between Cape Puzino and Cape Likhacheva. Its berths take vessels with a draft of up to 9 metres, and the port's boundaries also include the waters of the Uelen and Lavrentiya terminals. It is a formation point for convoys sailing the Northern Sea Route under icebreaker escort.

The port's founding date is 1937; construction was carried out from 1938 by Providenstroy, with military involvement in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1980s the berths were rebuilt on a large scale, a bunker base and a lighter-receiving point were added, and warehouses were modernised. In the 1990s the port was turned into a joint-stock company, and in 2005 it became OOO Providensky Morskoy Port, founded by the state enterprise Chukotsnab.

The port sits in a region where Yupik communities have lived for centuries, and their presence shapes daily life in the town around the harbor. You can see this in the way people move through the waterfront and in the mix of Russian and indigenous customs that coexist here.

The port opens for summer navigation from the first ten days of May until early January, about 225 days a year, 45 of them with icebreaker escort. Vessels drawing up to 9 m can enter. The harbour lies between Cape Puzino and Cape Likhaichev, and its waters also take in the terminals of Uelen and Lavrentiya.

Provideniya has a local airport that has historically offered direct flights to Nome, Alaska, making this small Russian town one of the rare direct crossing points between Russia and the United States. This link puts the town within a short flight of North America, which is unusual for a settlement of its size.