PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY

also spelled Petropavlovsk-kamcatskij, port and administrative centre of Kamchatka oblast (province), far eastern Russia. It lies along the landlocked Avachinskaya Gulf, on the Pacific coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The city was founded in 1740 during V.J. Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition. In 1854, during the Crimean War, an Anglo-French attack on Petropavlovsk was repulsed. The modern city is a fishing centre and has fish-processing, can-making, net-making, and ship-repairing industries. Pop. (1991 est.) 272,900.