Between its founding in 1860 and closing to foreigners in 1958, Vladivostok was a fairly international city. In the early part of the 20th century, Russians were actually outnumbered by Chinese in Vladivostok, and during the years following the Revolution, there were large Japanese and US populations. The US maintained a consulate in Vladivostok until 1948.

Vladivostok became Russia's main naval base in the East after Port Arthur (located in Chinese territory and ceded to Russia in 1898) fell in January 1905, during the Russo-Japanese war. Modern Vladivostok has been compared to the American West during the Gold Rush years. Businesses from all over the world have flooded in to take advantage of the city's position as a crossroads of Northeast Asia.

The city of 1000,000 is located in a busy harbor surrounded by pre-Revolutionary architecture set among rolling hills. Being the terminus for the Trans-Siberian Railroad, before the break up of Russia, helped make the port the heart of the Soviet fishing fleet and shipping industry.

Because of the port's location near the Sea of Japan, and in close proximity to Korea, Japan and China, it became an important national port, both military and industrial. Because of its importance to the nation, the port was closed to visitors up to January 1, 1991. Barely six months later, the port started the sister port program with the Port of Tacoma ( May 20, 1991). Open trade worldwide began the following January, and since then, the port has done over 7 million tons of cargo each year.

The major exported commodities are fish, timber, and other natural resources, with imports consisting of grain, sugar, coal, cement, minerals fertilizers, technical equipment and automobiles.

These commodities are handled by 1,000 dock workers and over 4,500 port employees, who work on the three mile long pier. There is one direct call liner, FESCO, that handles most of the cargo. The equipment used to handle the TEUs range from yard grantries, front handlers, yard tractors, to various fork lifts. There can be 1,200 TEUs stored at the port at one time. In 1991, 38,928 TEUs passed through the port with a total tonnage for TEUs at 440,596 short tons. 

The port uses computers for vessel management, container tracking and import/export traffic statistics. The port also has 24-hour security and owns 138 new complexes of apartments for its port employees.

Vladivostok News, Primorsky krai's only English-language newspaper.