[1] It is located on Cape Lazarev, on the mainland Russian coast of Nevelskoy Strait, 729 km north east of Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

It is known for being the closest settlement on the Russian mainland to the island of Sakhalin, which is only 7.3 km across the strait from Cape Lazarev.

It was also one of the end points for an unfinished tunnel to Sakhalin, constructed between the years 1950-53 by the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.

The settlement had its beginnings in 1849 with the expedition of Gennady Nevelskoy, who founded the village of Mys Lazareva ("Cape Lazarev").

[5] The village received urban-type settlement status in 1952, at which point its name was shortened to simply "Lazarev".