Salekhard (Russian: Салеха́рд [səlʲɪˈxart]; Khanty: Пуӆңават, Pułñawat; Nenets: Саляʼ харад, Saljaꜧ harad, formerly Obdorsk) is a town and the administrative centre of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia.

Among notable people who spent time here were the Doukhobor spiritual leader Pyotr Verigin and Leon Trotsky.

The town and nearby area contained three Soviet camps where approximately 6,500 prisoners were held, arrested for their belief in God.

[citation needed] The nearest railway station is at Labytnangi on the opposite side of the river Ob.

From 1949 to 1953, the Salekhard-Igarka Railway project made an unsuccessful attempt to extend the line to Igarka, claiming the lives of thousands of Gulag prisoners.

[9] The section of railway from Salekhard to Nadym was completed and remained in use for some time in the Soviet era, although it was later abandoned.

[11] In the Summer of 2016, temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) thawed anthrax-infected corpses that had been frozen since the soviet era near Salekhard, causing anthrax spores to infect reindeer herds and herders.