It is located at the Larsemann Hills antarctic oasis on the shore of Prydz Bay.

The station was established by the 33rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition[2] on April 1, 1988, and was moved to another place on February 26, 1989[3] In 2000, work was temporarily halted but it reopened in 2003.

The fire resulted in the complete loss of the new structure, as well as damage to the station's communications and scientific equipment.

It is a residential unit with a sauna and gym, rooms for meteorologists and radio operators, a medical care unit which doubles as a regional hospital, and its own galley.

An additional adjacent airfield, complementing the pre-existing Progress Skiway and called Zenit after the St. Petersburg football club, was built from scratch and features a runway of 3,000 meters length and 100 meters width, which is also able to accommodate larger planes such as the Ilyushin IL-76.