Russky Island is located in Peter the Great Bay south of Vladivostok and is separated from the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, where most of the city is situated, by the Eastern Bosphorus Strait.
In the west, the island is bound by the Amur Bay. In the south and the east, it is bound by the Ussuri Bay. In the north, Russky Island is separated from Popov Island by the Stark Strait.
Russky Island has an area of about 100 square kilometers. It is 18 km long and 13 km wide. Its shoreline primarily comprises cliffs and precipices and also features numerous conveniently located harbours, the largest being Novik Harbour. Many hills are located inland. The highest hill towers 291 metres above sea level.
Russky Island was first mentioned in the 18th century. It was mapped on a sea chart in 1723 when the famous French geographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon D'Anville made a description of the Far Eastern seas.
Count Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, gave the island its present-day name. The island was officially made part of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. One story implies that it was named Russky Island in honour of Russia and its people, whose representatives had explored the Far East. Another explanation is that the island was subsequently named after Mountain Russkikh (of the Russians) , which was, in turn, named after a member of the first expedition to explore the island.
The island was surveyed completely in 1862 by an expedition headed by Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Babkin of the Russian Navy's Navigators Corps. The expedition also described the Peter the Great Bay. A map published in 1865 showed the entire island and named it after Rear Admiral Pyotr Kazakevich, the first military Governor-General of the Primorye (Maritime) Region. Before World War II, the island was called either Russky Island or Kazakevich Island, but the present-day name has been adopted since the end of the war.
The island began to be developed in the 1880s when coastal artillery squadrons were deployed in Vladivostok and in the northern sector of Russky Island. The troops guarded advances towards the main base of the Siberian Naval Flotilla. Vladivostok was officially declared a fortress in 1889. A canal was dug across Russky Island's Sapyorny (Sapper) Peninsula, become a new feature of the fortress. Yelena Island was formed as a result of the canal's construction. At the same time, a system of forts (Yuzhny (South), Russkikh and Pospelov) was built on Russky Island in the run-up to the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.
In 1910, a new fortress-expansion plan was drafted. By 1914, Vladivostok had become a first-class coastal fortress, one of the most powerful in the world.
In 1931-1934, the Voroshilov Battery was built in the island's southern sector, that is, near Novik Harbour. Russky Island was considered a top-secret area for a long time. Numerous military units were deployed here. The Bely Lebed (White Swan) rest and recreation complex was established here after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Large-scale construction projects have been launched on the island pending the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Plans are to build a large international business centre, several hotels, an oceanarium, and the Pacific Science and Education Centre here. The latter will comprise several research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences.