Russky Island (Kara Sea)

Russkyy Island and nearby islands in the northern end of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago.

Location of Russkyy Island in the Kara Sea.

Russky Island (Russian: Ру́сский о́стров), also spelt Russkyy and Russkiy, meaning "Russian Island", is an island in the Kara Sea. It is located in the Litke Islands subgroup of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago. With and area of 309 km², Russky is the biggest island in the whole archipelago. At a latitude of 77° 03' N, it is also the northernmost island of the group.

Administratively Russky Island belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai, of the Russian Federation. It is also part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest nature reserve of Russia.

History

In 1935, during Soviet times, a weather station was established in Russky Island. This outpost was part of the building of a modern polar station network undertaken by the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (GUSMP) between 1932 and 1940. Besides taking meteorological measurements, the purpose of Russky Island's station was to monitor Arctic navigation along the Northern Sea Route route. One of the route's branches coming from the Vilkitsky Strait passed right off Russky Island's NW shores. For many years this lonely Arctic station was the only permanently inhabited place in the whole Nordenskiöld Archipelago.

In 1939 the workers of the Russky Island station made the measuring of the ice layer and the height of embacles on the perpendicular to the bank section as a present to the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.^[1]

On 25 August 1942, during Operation Wunderland, Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer fell upon the Russian icebreaker Sibiryakov (under the command of Captain Kacharev) right off the northwest coast of Russky Island while prowling the waters off the northern end of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago. The Sibiryakov was sunk in an unequal battle. Then Admiral Scheer headed southwest in order to attack the Soviet military installations at Dikson.

Scientific research on Russky Island, like the monitoring of animal species on the island (lemming, purple sandpiper, turnstone, sanderling, and little stint) was conducted after the breakup of the Soviet Union, but the Arctic station was closed in 1999.^[2]

References

Further reading

• Valerian Albanov, In the Land of the White Death, 2001. Contains pictures of Fridjof Nansen's early Arctic maps.
• William Barr, Baron Eduard Von Toll's Last Expedition. Arctic, Sept 1980.
• Fast ice conditions near the Nordenskjold Archipelago
• Nature Reserve

Islands of the Kara Sea (Russian Arctic) Arkticheskiy Institut Islands Belukha and Prodolgovatyy Bely Island Bera Island Bolshoi Korsakovsky Islands Bonevi Dzhekman Islands Dikson Island Eastern Islands Firnley Islands Gavrilova Graham Bell Island Heiberg Islands Helland-Hansen Island Izvestiy TSIK Islands Kamennyye Islands Khalyango Kirov Islands Kolchak Island Kolomeytseva Islands Kolosovykh Komsomolets Krasnoflotskiye Krestovsky Island Krusenstern Islands Labyrintovyye Levdiyev Island Levinson-Lessing Island Lishniy Litke Island Litke Islands Markgama Mestnyy Minina Skerries Mona Islands Moristyy Myachina Islands Nablyudeniy Nansen Island Neupokoyeva Nordenskiöld Archipelago Nosok Novaya Zemlya October Revolution Oleniy Pakhtusov Islands Pilota Makhotkina Pioneer Island Plavnikovyye Proklyatyye Rastorguyev Island Russky Island Schmidt Island Scott Hansen Islands Sedov Archipelago Severnaya Zemlya Severny Island Shokalsky Shren Islands Sibiryakov Island Sorevnovaniya Storozhevyye Sverdrup Island Taymyra Tillo Islands Tsivolko Islands Ushakov Island Uyedineniya Vaygach Island Vilkitsky Island Vize Island Voronina Yarzhinsky Islands Yermolov Island Yuzhny Island Zveroboy

Coordinates: 77°03′N 96°30′E / 77.050°N 96.500°E / 77.050; 96.500