Gizhiga is a village at the head of Gizhigin Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk. It is located on the right bank of the Gizhiga River just upstream from its mouth where there is a poor but usable harbor. Politically it is part of the Severo-Evensky District of Magadan Oblast. In 2010 its population was 360.

Gizhiga was an important place in the first half of the nineteenth century. It was founded in 1752 along with Tigilsk in Kamchatka to protect the land route from Okhotsk to the Kamchatka Peninsula from the rebellious Koryaks whose hostility had blocked the route since 1743. Gizhiga and Tigilsk were the only two places on the Sea of Okhotsk to have the title of 'Krepost' or fortress. No grain was grown but there were a few vegetable gardens. People ate mostly fish. Sled dogs were used and a team of dogs ate as much fish as 20 men. About 63-108 tons of grain were imported from Okhotsk annually. Prices were about twice as high as at Okhotsk. The ships returned with mostly furs. When Kennan^[1] was there in 1866 it dominated the trade in the area between Okhotsk and Anadyrsk. There were 50 or 60 log houses, a Russian governor and four or five merchants. It was visited annually by a government supply steamer and by American merchant vessels.

Some population figures: 1755: 69, 1766: 189, 1776: 500-600, 1803: 770-773, 1813: 900, 1816: 696.

• George Kennan, "Tent Life in Siberia", 1870 and numerous reprints.
• James R Gibson, "Feeding the Russian Fur Trade", 1969