Show compact living on the new land. Urban district “Novaya Zemlya. It all started with two unsuccessful expeditions

This 10-day tour on the research vessel Ivan Petrov offers an up-close look at the most unique region of the Arctic - the Archipelago New Earth.

Research vessel "Ivan Petrov"- a vessel of ice class L1 of unlimited navigation area, designed for research in the field of oceanography, meteorology, hydrochemistry, biology, as well as the delivery of supplies and personnel to hydrometeorological stations.

Parameters and technical data:
Tonnage 928 t
Length 49.9 m
Width 10.02 m
Height 5.0 m
Average draft 3.6 m
Speed ​​12.8 knots
Sailing autonomy is 35 days. (5500 miles)
Crew: 18 crew members and 20 scientific personnel

1 day (Arkhangelsk)

2-3 day (Sea passage)

During the voyage, scientific conversations will be organized on various scientific topics, for example, the history of exploration and development of the Arctic, animals and vegetable world etc. You will have the opportunity to learn about the history, characteristics of origin, nature and landscapes of these territories.

4-5 days (Barents Sea)

During the voyage you will see amazing, awe-inspiring and delightful seascapes. When favorable weather conditions A short-term landing in Russkaya Gavan Bay is planned.

6-8 day

Archipelago Novaya Zemlya- one of the strictly protected zones of Russia. The purpose of our trip is to visit the Russian Arctic National Park, which is located in the northern part of the archipelago.
A polar camp will be equipped at Cape Zhelaniya, and walking and motorized routes will be organized throughout the National Park.

In the first year of the war, the fascist command did not send large naval forces to the Arctic. German strategists hoped to capture the main bases of the Northern Fleet from land. And only when the plan to capture Murmansk finally failed, it was decided to begin military operations of the fascist fleet in the Barents Sea. This decision was also influenced by the growing interaction between the USSR and Western countries. Already in his radio speech on June 22, 1941, W. Churchill stated that England “will provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help it can.” Over the next two months, agreements were concluded between the governments of the USSR and Great Britain on trade turnover and on joint actions and mutual assistance in the war against Nazi Germany. Then, similar documents were signed between the USSR and the USA.

At the end of July 1941, allied military missions began operating in the Soviet Union and England. They coordinated the organization of mutual supplies and issues of joint defense of northern sea lanes. To resolve specific issues related to the delivery of goods, the conduct of convoys, and the use and deployment of allied forces in the Northern Fleet zone, British naval missions were created in Polyarny and Arkhangelsk. These missions directly interacted with the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral A.G. Golovko, with the State Defense Committee’s authorized representative for transportation in the North, I.D. Papanin, with the headquarters of the Northern Fleet and the White Sea Flotilla. Since the Northern Fleet included a small number of large surface ships, the British Admiralty was responsible for organizing convoys and guarding them throughout the entire transition from England to Soviet ports. The Northern Fleet was supposed to strengthen the protection of convoys with ships in its zone and provide air cover for them on the approaches to the bases. In addition, the Northern Fleet trawled the fairways.

Practical interaction between our Northern and English fleets began at the end of July 1941. The minelayer Adventure left England for Arkhangelsk with a cargo of depth charges and magnetic mines. Its protection and passage in the White Sea was provided by the destroyer "Crushing".

In the first year of the war, joint efforts were made to ensure the passage of allied transports carrying cargo from the USA and England through Iceland. The transports were accompanied by a small number of warships. The transports returned just as successfully. The six allied convoys that reached Arkhangelsk included 34 British, 9 Soviet, 6 American and 2 Dutch transports. They delivered 750 aircraft, more than 500 tanks, and various equipment to the Soviet Union.

In the first half of 1942, German intelligence learned that more than 100 British tanks were delivered to the Stalingrad area through Arkhangelsk. In the spring of 1942, having made sure that it was impossible to capture Murmansk and Arkhangelsk from land, and taking into account the increasing number of allied convoys in the Arctic, the German command decided to redeploy the main part of the submarine fleet from the Atlantic to Norway. For attacks on the “Murmansk convoys” they transferred to the North battleship"Tirpitz", heavy cruisers "Admiral Scheer", "Admiral Hipper", "Lutzow", 20 submarines and attack aircraft.

Even before the start of active operations by the ships of the German fleet, the commander of the White Sea military flotilla was ordered by a directive of the Main Naval Staff of the Navy dated 19 May 1942 to carry out reconnaissance to determine the locations of the bases of light fleet forces and heavy naval reconnaissance aircraft in the Yugorsky Shar, Matochkin Shar straits and in the bay Belushya. The commission, chaired by Major General of the Coastal Service Lakonnikov, carried out reconnaissance of the indicated areas from August 5 to 18.

On August 18, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy, the Novaya Zemlya naval base was formed as part of the White Sea military flotilla. The main task of the Novaya Zemlya BMF is to protect the Novaya Zemlya Straits and approaches to them. The day of formation of the Novaya Zemlya naval base is considered to be August 22, 1942, when the corresponding order was issued by the commander of the Northern Fleet. The number of personnel of the formed base in the state was 1,183 military personnel (143 officers, 262 senior officers, 768 enlisted personnel) and 170 civilians.

The command of the Novaya Zemlya naval base had to: organize the defense of Novaya Zemlya and the western sector of the Arctic within the operational boundaries of the base from the actions of raiders, enemy submarines and its sea and airborne landings, protect our communications with the allies and the northern sea route in the western sector of the Arctic; maintain an advantageous operational regime in the theater of operations; create conditions that exclude the sudden appearance and unpunished actions of enemy forces in your area.

In Belushya Guba it was urgently necessary to form: a command, a headquarters, a political department, and a financial department of the Novozomel naval base. The base included a site administration, a telephone exchange, a radio station, a repair line platoon, 11 polar radio stations (Matochkin Shar, at Cape Stolbovoy, at Cape Vykhodnoy, in Malye Karmakuly, at Cape Zhelaniya, in Russkaya Gavan Bay, in Blagopoluchiya Bay, and also in Amderma, in Yugorsky Shar and on Vaygach Island), naval postal station N 1167, base logistics departments, veterinary department, base hospital, naval prosecutor's office, twelve SNiS posts (in Belushya Bay, Krestovaya Bay, in the Strait Matochkin Shar, in the Kostin Shar Strait, on Pakhtusov Island, in the bays of Abrosim, Litka, on Cape Menshikov, as well as two posts in the Yugorsky Shar Strait, on Kolguev Island and on Dikson Island). The Novaya Zemlya naval base included a northern detachment consisting of: detachment control, 1st group of patrol ships - TFR "Litke" ("SKR-l8"), TFR "Dezhnev" (SKR-19"); 2nd group of patrol ships - "ТШ-903", "ТШ-904", a group of GUSMP motorboats ("Nord", "Polyarnik", "Nerpa"; guarding the Russkaya Gavan raid (two TFR), guarding the Matochkin Shar raid: two TFR and coastal battery M28 (two 75 mm and two 76 mm guns). The Novaya Zemlya naval base also included the Pechersko-Novozemelsky hydrographic region. For the defense of Belushya Bay, battery No. 240 (two 130 mm guns) was delivered from Velikiy Island, battery of the 6th anti-aircraft artillery division and land battery No. 570 (four 152 mm guns) were delivered from Murmansk.

On September 15, 1942, the commander of the Novaya Zemlya naval base, Captain First Rank Dianov, arrived in Belushyu Bay by plane.

From September 19 to November 8, more than two dozen warships and transports delivered special cargo to Belushya Guba for the Novaya Zemlya naval base. The small number of personnel at the base, with the help of the residents of the camp, unloaded ships onto the unequipped coast around the clock. Male fishermen guarded the coast of Novaya Zemlya at observation posts and firing points, and served dog teams assigned to communicate with the military command and the island Council. Women and teenagers replaced men in fishing cooperatives. The Arkhangelsk authorities adopted a resolution “On the procurement of eggs, guillemot carcasses and fish production on the island of Novaya Zemlya and the export of prepared products to Arkhangelsk during the navigation season of 1942.” To prepare food for nurseries, kindergartens and schools, 150 school and technical school students were sent to Novaya Zemlya. They prepared over 20,000 murre carcasses, 5,000 eggs, and caught about 400 kilograms of char.

In 1942, military facilities of the Novaya Zemlya Naval Base were built at various points of the archipelago. On September 10, an airfield was built near Rogachev Bay (two intersecting strips measuring 160xl000 m and 700x100 m). On September 16, battery No. 240 (two 130 mm guns) was installed at Cape Litke. On September 25, work on the construction of a naval airfield in Samoyed Bay in Belushya Bay ends. On October 1, anti-aircraft battery No. 965 (four 37 mm guns) was installed in the camp of Lagernoye and half-battery No. 960 (two 37 mm guns) in Malye Karmakuly. On October 4, two half-batteries No. 960 (two 37 mm guns) were built at the Rogachevo airfield. On November 25, mobile battery No. 570 (four 152 mm guns) was installed at Cape Morozov. On December 10, 1942, battery No. 645 (two 102 mm guns) was installed on Kolguev Island.

Despite the winter conditions, by January 1, 1943, the main work on the construction of residential and auxiliary premises and warehouses was completed; most of the military personnel lived in dugouts until 1943, when the log houses were delivered disassembled.

Seraphim Vylka was recognized as the best hunter and fisherman on the archipelago during these years. Five to six seasonal assignments were carried out by industrialists P. Zhuravlev, T. Ledkov, F. Kozhin, I. Kuznetsov, I. Sluzov, G. Taibarei. When navigation began, ships from the archipelago delivered harvested bird carcasses, eggs, eider down, meat, fat and skins of sea animals, bears, deer, arctic foxes, as well as fish to the mainland.

In 1942, the Germans penetrated the shores of Novaya Zemlya. This year, the famous German weather forecaster Rupert Holzapfel visited Mezhdusharsky Island twice. The German military installed automatic radio weather stations at various points in the archipelago.

A German polar expedition under the code name “Treasure Hunter” landed on the Franz Josef Land archipelago. The German weather group on Alexandra Land included ten people; fortified dugouts, weather and radio stations were built for them. To conduct all-round defense, trenches were dug and mortar and machine gun nests were installed.

During the war years, the Arctic islands and archipelagos of our country were visited annually by two to four German expeditions under the code names “Crusader”, “Arctic Wolf”, “Celloist”, “Birds of Migratory”. Thanks to these works, the German command was able to organize military operations of its fleet in the Barents and Kara Seas. According to some reports, a German submarine base was located on the northeastern coast of Novaya Zemlya. Here, 2.5 km south of Cape Zhelaniya, fascist submarines defended themselves.

In 1942, the Germans established a base in Cambridge Bay on Franz Josef Land for their submarines operating in the Kara Sea. Back in the spring of 1942 Soviet pilots discovered enemy submarines in Belushya Bay. Here, before the organization of the Novaya Zemlya naval base, they had a settling point. To fight German submarines, ships of the Northern Fleet moved from Arkhangelsk to the Yugorsky Shar Strait, and then to Belushya Bay, from July 27 to August 1. The patrol ships "Fedor Litke" and "Dezhnev" were accompanied by the minesweepers "T-903" and "T-904".

In July 1942, the tragedy of the allied convoy PQ-17 unfolded. On June 27, 1942, 34 ships of convoy PQ-17 left Iceland. Frightened by the possibility of the German battleship Tirpitz, which had arrived in Northern Norway in February of this year, participating in an attack on the convoy, the First Sea Lord of the English Admiralty, Sir Dudley Pound, ordered the convoy to be dispersed. The convoys included a strong close escort and a powerful cover of two battleships, an aircraft carrier, eight cruisers, 26 destroyers, and 16 escort and rescue ships. Additionally, the Allies deployed 11 submarines, nine of which, with three Soviet boats, took up positions on the expected course of the enemy squadron. 22 judges of the convoy were American. All this powerful covering force could well withstand the German fleet in the area, which consisted of the Tirpitz, a pocket battleship, a cruiser, ten destroyers and submarines.

As a result of the dispersion of the convoy, the German fleet and aircraft destroyed 23 ships individually. Merchant ships scattered in the Arctic Ocean were destroyed one by one by Luftwaffe submarines and aircraft. But the fascist battleship Tirpitz did not take part in these operations.

The scattered transport ships of the convoy, pursued by German submarines and aircraft, independently broke into the White Sea and to Novaya Zemlya. The American transport "Bellingham" and the Soviet transport "Donbas", which saved 51 American sailors along the way from the torpedoed ship "Daniel Morgan", arrived in Arkhangelsk on July 9. 11 Soviet and foreign transports of the convoy PQ-17 approached the shores of Novaya Zemlya. Soviet PE-3 fighters took part in searching and covering the convoy ships. Two seaplanes of the GST type were sent to the shores of Novaya Zemlya. In addition, assistance was provided to the transport crews by two seaplanes based in Malye Karmakuly. One of them was commanded by the famous polar explorer pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union I.P. Mazuruk. By July 7, the bulk of the surviving transports and English escort ships approached Novaya Zemlya. The hunting boat "Murmanets", the minelayer "Murman", and the minesweeper "TSCH-38" were sent to the archipelago to search for surviving ships and people who escaped from sunken ships. In the area of ​​Cape Zhelaniya, our pilots discovered three convoy vessels.

The American transport Winston Salem ran aground in Litka Bay. The ship's crew disabled the guns, flooded the artillery magazine and drove ashore. The English transport Empire Type entered Karmakuly Bay. The heavily damaged Soviet transport "Azerbaijan" took refuge in the Russian Harbor Bay, 5 allied transports and 11 small British escort ships entered the Matochkin Shar Strait under the cover of the coastal artillery battery of the Novaya Zemlya naval base.

At this time, the Soviet steamship Roshal approached Novaya Zemlya, which delivered food and cargo for the inhabitants of the camps and polar stations of the polar stations of the archipelago. On July 6, the crew of the steamer "Roshal" dropped anchor near the village of Lagernoye in the Matochkin Shar Strait. The next day, the ship's crew witnessed the arrival of the surviving part of convoy PQ-17. There were mutual visits to our and allied ships, as well as to the camp of Lagernoye. On July 12, the ship "Roshal" called at Malye Karmakuly to load boxes of guillemot eggs collected at local bird markets destined for Arkhangelsk. Here the crew found a large American transport. Two Catalina flying boats were anchored off the coast. Then the ship headed to Belushya Guba, from where it delivered five crew members from the lost American ship to Arkhangelsk. The Americans were exhausted, because after the death of the ship they had to spend 12 days at sea on an open whaleboat.

On July 27, after the Roshal left Malye Karmakuly, a German submarine destroyed the buildings of the Malye Karmakuly polar station with cannon fire and destroyed the twin-engine seaplanes (“flying boats”) along with the two pilots on duty on them.

On July 21, two German submarines fired at ships in Belushya Bay. On August 25, artillery fire from a German submarine damaged the Cape Zhelaniya polar station. Children and teenagers from 13 to 17 years old, sent to Novaya Zemlya from Arkhangelsk to collect bird carcasses, eggs, eider down and fish, helped save the crew of an American ship sunk by the Nazis on the archipelago.

The transition of the first convoy from Novaya Zemlya to Arkhangelsk was led by the commodore of the PQ-17 convoy, J. Dowding, who escaped from the sunken transport, and the commander of the Palomaris air defense ship, Capton Jonesy. While in Matochkin Shar, they held a conference of the commanders of the guard ships and the captains of the ships stationed in the strait. On July 7, two air defense ships, three corvettes, three minesweepers, three armed trawlers, one rescue ship and four transports left Matochkin Shar. On July 9, the convoy picked up boats and rescued people from two American transports. On July 10, during a raid by about 35 German bombers, two transports were severely damaged. Their crews were removed and the transports were sunk. On July 11, the Ocean Freedom and Samuel Chase transports and escort ships arrived in Arkhangelsk.

On July 9, three more American transports entered the Matochkin Shar Strait, accompanied by the English armed trawler Aishir.

The command of the Northern Fleet entrusted the command of the Northern Fleet to the experienced hydrographer and ice captain, officer of the White Sea Flotilla headquarters, Captain 2nd Rank I.F. Kotsov, with the leadership of a convoy of Soviet and English warships. This convoy was supposed to organize and ensure the transition of the transports remaining on Novaya Zemlya to Arkhangelsk. Together with I.F. Kotsov, the commodore of convoy PQ-17 J. Dowding and the translator of the headquarters of the White Sea military flotilla A.B Kaminsky went to the shores of Novaya Zemlya on ships. Belushya Bay was designated as a meeting place for all ships.

Minesweepers of the White Sea Flotilla tried to refloat the Winston Salem transport. On July 19, three English corvettes, Lotus, Poppy and La Mpone, entered Belushyo Guba, where the ship Roshal was located. The corvettes with the leaders of the convoy visited Litka Bay, where Koznov and Dowding monitored the progress of work on the refloating of the Winston Salem, then went to Bolshie Karmakuly, where the Empire Tide transport was located. In addition to the crew, there were 130 people on it, transported by the Murmanets motorboat from the bays and lips of Novaya Zemlya. These were the surviving crews of the sunken transports. Then the leadership of the convoy headed to the Matochkin Shar Strait, where there were four foreign transports, the English trawler "Ayrshire" and Soviet ships: the tanker "Azerbaijan" (brought by the minelayer "Murman" from Russian Harbor), "Murman" and the minesweeper TSCH-38. A plan was drawn up for the convoy to move to Arkhangelsk.

On July 20, the ships left Matochkina Shar and moved along the coast of the archipelago to the south. Then they went to the island of Kolguev and from there they reached Arkhangelsk without losses. At this time, attempts by Soviet sailors continued to refloat the Winston Salem transport in Litka Bay. The American team, refusing to carry out the work, sat on the shore.

On July 22, the last allied convoy from Novaya Zemlya, consisting of Soviet and American transports, guarded by four Soviet minesweepers, left Litke Bay. After entering Belushya Bay, the convoy arrived on July 28 in Arkhangelsk. The actions of the German fleet and aviation off the coast of Novaya Zemlya continued until late autumn. On October 2, 1942, a German submarine fired at the motorboat "Storm" in the area of ​​the western mouth of the Matochkin Shar Strait. On October 11, the SKR-2 (Monsoon) hit a mine in this area and sank. On October 13, a German Yu-88 aircraft was discovered on Mezhdusharsky Island. The command of the Novaya Zemlya Naval Base sent two landing groups to search for him. But the plane managed to fly away. On October 18, the patrol ship SKR-74 discovered an unknown ship approaching Belushya Bay and fired at it.

In 1943, the coastal defense of Belushya Guba was further strengthened. In March of this year, German reconnaissance aircraft dropped several bombs on the Novaya Zemlya base in the village of Belushya Guba. The first transports that began navigation in 1943 delivered I-15 bis fighters, which were stationed at the Rogachevo airfield, to Belushio Guba. After this, air raids on the base were stopped. In difficult conditions, our pilots carried out military missions with honor. After all, the winter of 1943-1944. they had to live in tents in Rogachev.

The German command decided to transfer 10-12 submarines (from the 30 submarines available in the North) to the Kara Sea. In 1943, a German submarine sank the scientific vessel Akademik Shokalsky near Cape Sporyi Navolok. On August 28, the Soviet submarine S-101 sank the German submarine U-639 near Cape Zhelaniya. On September 24, a German submarine completely destroyed the polar station in Blagopoluchiya Bay with artillery fire. The polar explorers were filmed by airplanes.

At the end of July 1943, the Roshal military transport was en route to Belushya Bay with cargo for the Novaya Zemlya naval base and industrialists. He was accompanied by two minesweepers from the Belomorsk naval base. TSCH-55 and TSCH-65 On June 30, in the area of ​​​​Cape Lilje - Belushya Bay, the signalman of the second minesweeper noticed the trace of a torpedo unexpectedly fired by the German submarine U-205. The commander of the minesweeper TSCH-65, senior lieutenant Nikolai Konstantinovich Golubentsev, decided to obscure the transport with military cargo with his ship. After a powerful explosion, the minesweeper began to quickly plunge into the stormy sea. Only when all the survivors left the ship, the shell-shocked commander was the last to jump into the icy water. Despite the fact that the second minesweeper immediately came to the rescue, only a few were saved.

After treatment at the Belushi Guba hospital, N. K. Golubentsev returned to the mainland and commanded the ship. He ended the war as commander of a division of patrol ships with the rank of captain 3rd rank. For his feat on the minesweeper TSCH-65 N, K. Golubentsev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, and three crew members were awarded the Order of the Red Star.

On May 7, 1989, the Central training ground of the Russian Federation solemnly reburied the remains of the dead TSCH-65 sailors from a rocky spit to a new cemetery in the village of Belushya Guba. On July 25, 1989, a monument to the heroic crew of TSCH-65 was solemnly unveiled in the village. This number was assigned during the war years to the former fishing minesweeper RT-76 "Astrakhan". Since August 1944, the Germans began using new weapons on submarines - acoustic electric torpedoes. On August 8 of this year, the Marina Raskova transport set off from Severodvinsk to Dikson Island and the ports of the Laptev Sea. On board there were 354 people who were supposed to relieve winterers at polar stations and enterprises of the Main Sevmorpuga. Among the passengers were women and children. The transport was accompanied by three minesweepers: AM-114, AM-1 l6 and AM-118. In total, there were 618 people on all vessels. Only 256 passengers and military personnel will survive. Most women and children will die.

On August 12 at 19:45 the vessels were in the area of ​​Bely Island. At that moment, an explosion of a new acoustic torpedo was heard under the hull of the Marina Raskova, which was mistakenly taken for a mine explosion. The explosions continued, and the sailors decided that they had walked into a German floating minefield. Therefore, the German submarine IO-365, which attacked the transport, was able, without being pursued by anyone, to move unnoticed to the side and again take a position favorable for the salvo. One after another, all the ships were hit and then sunk, except for the AM-1l6, which delivered 176 people rescued from other ships to the village of Khabarovo in the Yugorsky Shar Strait. Then AM-116 returned to the scene of the tragedy and began searching for lifeboats, a boat and a kungas with people who managed to escape. Having learned about what had happened, the naval command and the headquarters of maritime operations of the Main Northern Sea Route urgently sent ships and planes to the area where the Marina Raskova died. On the fourth day after the death of the ship, a boat (18 people, including the commander of AM-114) was discovered at sea. All of them were taken to Belushya Guba and from there to Arkhangelsk. Other boats were also spotted from the planes at sea. It was not possible to remove people from them, so food and warm clothes were dropped on them.

On August 18, a seaplane from Dikson, after repeated searches, discovered a whaleboat in the sea and rescued 25 people from it. On this day, our plane took on board 11 more people from the boat. On August 19, Soviet pilots found kungas (37 people) in the sea and even sat down nearby, but strong waves did not allow them to pick up everyone, and the dropped food, except for a few chocolate bars, sank. Only on the 11th day after the death of Marina Raskova, the remaining people, our other plane was shining. In very difficult weather conditions, 14 people who were drifting in the Kungas were rescued. The overloaded plane could not rise, and only the next day pilot M.I. Kozlov brought his plane by sea to Malygina Bay. Here the minesweeper "AM-60" took the rescued people on board from the plane and delivered them to Khabarovo. M.I. Kozlov’s plane flew from the strait to Dikson.

In September 1944, the minesweeper "AM-116" with the same crew on board that participated in the tragic events of the transition of "Mapuna Raskova" discovered and sank a non-capable submarine in the area of ​​Uedineniya Island. It is possible that it was she who carried out the attack on August 12.

Map of the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

Novaya Zemlya is an island archipelago located almost at the junction of the Barents, Kara and Pechora seas of the Arctic Ocean, approximately 50 kilometers distant to the north from Vaygach Island by the Kara Gate Strait. It is generally accepted that the islands of the archipelago received their common name “Novaya Zemlya” from Novgorod merchants and explorers, who considered the lands they saw across the strait to be new.

The Novaya Zemlya archipelago consists of the two largest islands, Yuzhny and Severny, separated by the narrow Matochkin Shar Strait, as well as many small islands and rocks located nearby. Among other smaller islands and island groups The islands of Mezhdusharsky (the third largest in the archipelago), Bolshie Oransky, Petukhovsky, Pyniny, Pastukhov and Gorbovy islands are distinguished.

total area The islands of the archipelago exceed 83 thousand square kilometers.

The Novaya Zemlya archipelago belongs territorially to Russian Federation and is included administratively in the Arkhangelsk region with the status of a territorial municipal entity.

View of Severny Island from an airplane.

Story.

In ancient times, the islands of Novaya Zemlya were inhabited by representatives of unknown tribes, which belong to the Ust-Poluysk culture. The reasons that led to the decline of this tribe are not known. Scientists argue that the climate on Novaya Zemlya over the past 1000-1200 years has become much harsher than it was before.

It is believed that the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, deserted and depopulated by the 10th century, was discovered in the period of the 12th-13th centuries by Novgorod merchants and explorers, who, having reached the Yugorsky Peninsula, saw new lands in the distance beyond the Vaygach Island. This name was subsequently assigned to the islands of the archipelago.

In the summer of 1553, the Englishman Hugh Willoughby, who led an expedition sent to open northern routes to India, was the first among Europeans to see the islands of the archipelago.

According to the records of Hugh Willoughby, the Dutch geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator published a map in 1595 on which Novaya Zemlya was depicted as a peninsula.

The Dutch expedition of Willem Barents in 1596 rounded the Novaya Zemlya archipelago from the north, and also wintered in the Ice Harbor of the North Island.

The Frenchman Pierre-Martin de la Martiniere visited Novaya Zemlya with Danish merchants in 1653 and discovered local residents of the Samoyed tribe on the coast of the South Island, who arrived on the island in search of fur-bearing animals.

Cape Zhelaniya (Northern Island).

Russian Tsar Peter I had plans to build a fort on Novaya Zemlya in order to indicate the Russian presence in these lands.

In the period 1768-1769, the first Russian explorer and traveler Fyodor Rozmyslov visited Novaya Zemlya.

In the 19th century, Russia officially announced territorial claims to the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and began to forcibly populate them with Nenets and Pomors.

In 1910, the village of Olginsky was founded on Severny Island, which at that time became the northernmost settlement in the Russian Empire.

On September 17, 1954, a Soviet nuclear test site was created on the Novaya Zemlya islands. Its center was located in Belushya Guba, and it included three more sites in different places of the archipelago.

In 1961, the most powerful explosion in the history of mankind, a 58-megaton hydrogen bomb, was carried out at the Novaya Zemlya test site.

Currently, the nuclear test site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is the only one operating in Russia nuclear test site.

View of Mount Krusenstern.

Origin and geography of the island.

The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is quite impressive in area, so it geographical coordinates It is customary to determine by the approximate geographical center: 74°00′ N. w. 56°00′ E. d.

The islands of the archipelago stretch in a wide arc 120-140 kilometers wide from southwest to northeast for approximately 925 kilometers. The northernmost point of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is the Eastern Island as part of the Greater Orange Islands, the southernmost is Pynina Island as part of the Petukhovsky archipelago, the westernmost is Cape Bezymyany of the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula on Yuzhny Island, and the easternmost is Cape Flissingsky on Severny Island, which is most eastern point Europe.

The coastline of the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is quite winding and forms many bays and fjords that protrude deep into the land. The largest bays are considered to be on west coast- Mityushikha Bay, Krestovaya Bay, Mashigin Bay, Glazov Bay, Borzov Bay, Inostrantsev Bay, Russian Harbor and Nordenskiöld, in the east - Rusanova, Oga, Medvezhy, Neznaney and Schubert.

The topography of the islands of the archipelago is mountainous, and the shores are rocky and mostly inaccessible. Toward the central part of the islands, the height of the mountains increases. Highest point archipelago is an unnamed mountain on Severny Island, 15 kilometers south of Nordenskiöld Bay (sometimes called Krusenstern Mountain), 1547 meters above sea level. Most of Severny Island is covered with glaciers, which, going down to the coast from the mountains, can even form small icebergs.

On the South and North Islands mountainous areas Many small rivers originate in the Kara and Barents Seas. Among the lakes, it is worth noting lakes Goltsovoye, located in the southern part of Severny Island, and Gusinoye, located in the west of Yuzhny Island.

By their origin, the islands of the archipelago are classified as mainland islands. Most likely, they were formed during the movement of continents in a period distant from us by 26 million years, and are the same age as the Ural Mountains, of which they are a continuation of the system. There is a hypothesis that the islands (at least Yuzhny Island) until about the middle of the 16th century were a peninsula (initially it was designated as such on maps of that time), and then, when the seabed subsided in the Kara Gate Strait, it became an island. Opponents of this theory argue that the islands are part of a powerful ancient geological platform, and the likelihood of such cataclysms in this area is negligible.

The geological structure of the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago consists mainly of basalts and granites. Among the mineral resources, there are large deposits of manganese and iron ores, in addition to them there are small deposits of tin, silver and lead, as well as rare earth metals.

Lake Gusinoye (Yuzhny Island).

Climate.

The climate on the Novaya Zemlya islands is harsh; it should be classified by type as arctic. Winter here is long and quite cold, with strong gusty winds, the speed of which sometimes exceeds 40-50 meters per second. In winter, blizzards and snowfalls are also frequent. Frosts during this period can reach −40 °C. IN summer period the air temperature never rises above +7 degrees.

View of the village of Belushya Guba from an airplane.

Population.

After the creation of the Soviet nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya, indigenous people, which had settled here since the times of the Russian Empire, was exported to the continent. Military and technical personnel settled in the deserted villages and ensured the vital functions of the test site facilities. Currently, there are only two functioning settlements on Yuzhny Island - Belushya Guba and Rogachevo; there is no permanent population on Severny Island and other islands of the archipelago.

The total population of the archipelago currently does not exceed two and a half thousand people. These are mainly meteorologists, military personnel and technical personnel of military installations.

Administratively, Novaya Zemlya as a closed territorial municipal entity is placed under the management of Arkhangelsk region Russian Federation.

Residential buildings in the village of Belushya Guba.

Flora and fauna.

The ecosystem of the islands of Novaya Zemlya is classified as a biome characteristic of arctic deserts ( Northern part Severny Island) and Arctic tundra (Yuzhny Island).

Under these conditions, only mosses and lichens survive well on the islands of plants. In addition to them, especially in the southern regions of the archipelago, Arctic herbaceous annual grasses also grow, most of which are classified as creeping species. Among them, naturalists in these places highlight creeping willow (Salix polaris), opposite-leaved saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), as well as mountain lichen. On Yuzhny Island there are also quite common dwarf birch trees and low grasses. In river valleys and lake areas there are mushrooms, among which honey mushrooms and milk mushrooms stand out due to their abundance.

The lakes and rivers of the islands are home to fish, the overwhelming majority of which are Arctic char.

The fauna of the islands is represented by mammals such as arctic fox, lemming and reindeer. IN winter period There are always a lot of polar bears on the southern coast of Yuzhny Island. Of the marine mammals on the coast of the islands, harp seals, ringed seals, bearded seals and walruses make their rookeries. Whales come into the coastal waters and even into the inner bays of the islands.

The birdlife on the islands is represented by guillemots, puffins and gulls, which form here perhaps the largest bird colonies in Russia. The white partridge is one of the non-sea birds nesting on the islands.

Typical landscape of the Novaya Zemlya islands.

Tourism.

The islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago continue to remain closed to visitors big amount willing. The presence of a nuclear test site mothballed here and other military facilities of the Russian army make tourism to these places almost impossible. Visits to the islands of the archipelago are carried out exclusively with special permission from the Russian authorities with the strictest secrecy. The entry of scientists and naturalists to the islands is also this moment remains almost impossible, which causes a lot of complaints about this from the world community. Environmental organizations are seriously concerned about the environmental situation on the islands of the archipelago, which became significantly more complicated during the period of nuclear testing. On this occasion, UNESCO tried to create a special commission on environmental problems on Novaya Zemlya, but the decision was categorically blocked by the Russian side.

Southern coast of Yuzhny Island.

And that same morning at 11:32 a.m. over Novaya Zemlya, at an altitude of 4000 m above the land surface, a bomb with a capacity of 50 million tons of TNT was detonated.
The light flash was so bright that, despite the continuous cloud cover, it was visible even at a distance of a thousand kilometers. The swirling giant mushroom has grown to a height of 67 km. By the time of the explosion, while the bomb was slowly falling on a huge parachute from a height of 10,500 m to the calculated detonation point, the Tu-95 carrier aircraft with the crew and its commander, Major Andrei Egorovich Durnovtsev, was already in the safe zone. The commander was returning to his airfield as a lieutenant colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Slavsky and Moskalenko, being delegates to the congress, specially flew to the northern test site early in the morning on the day of the experiment to observe the preparation and implementation of the explosion. From a distance of several hundred kilometers from the epicenter, while on board an Il-14 aircraft, they saw a fantastic picture. The impression was completed by the shock wave that overtook their plane.

One of the groups of experiment participants, from a distance of 270 km from the point of explosion, saw not only a bright flash through protective dark glasses, but even felt the impact of a light pulse. In an abandoned village - 400 km from the epicenter - wooden houses were destroyed, and stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors.

Many hundreds of kilometers from the test site, as a result of the explosion, the conditions for the passage of radio waves changed for almost an hour and radio communications stopped. Those who were at the airfield Kola Peninsula near Olenya, the creators of the bomb and the leaders of the experiment, led by the Chairman of the State Commission, Major General N.I. Pavlov, for 40 minutes did not have a clear idea of ​​what happened and in what condition the crews of the carrier aircraft and the laboratory aircraft accompanying it Tu-16. And only when the first signs of radio communication with Novaya Zemlya appeared, with command post near Olenya they asked in plain text for information about the height of the cloud. The answer was: about 60 km. It became clear that the design of the bomb did not fail.

Meanwhile, the crews of the two planes flying out on the mission, and the documentary filmmakers who were filming at other points, experienced, as circumstances dictated, the most vivid and powerful impressions. The cameramen recalled: “It’s scary to fly, one might say, astride a hydrogen bomb! What if it goes off? Even though it’s on fuse, but still... And there won’t be a molecule left! Unbridled power in it, and what kind of it! The flight time to the target is not very long , and it’s dragging on... We’re on the combat course. The bomb bay doors are open. Behind the silhouette of the bomb there’s a whole bunch of clouds... Have the fuses been removed? Or will they be removed when they’re released? The bomb went and sank in the gray-white mess. doors. The afterburner pilots are leaving the drop site... Zero! Below the plane and somewhere in the distance, the clouds are illuminated by a powerful flash. Behind the hatch, a sea of ​​light has just spread, an ocean of light, and even the layers of clouds have become visible. .. At that moment, our plane came out between two layers of clouds, and there, in this gap, from below, a huge bubble of light orange color appeared. It, like Jupiter - powerful, confident, self-satisfied - slowly, silently creeps up.. Breaking through the seemingly hopeless clouds, it grew and grew. Behind him, as if into a funnel, the whole Earth seemed to be drawn in. The spectacle was fantastic, unreal... at least unearthly"

How to get to Novaya Zemlya

History of Novaya Zemlya

First unsuccessful expedition:

Subsequent expeditions:

Study of Novaya Zemlya by Russians

Development of Novaya Zemlya

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The exact date of origin of the name Novaya Zemlya is not known. Perhaps it was formed as a copy of the Nenets Edey-Ya “New Earth”. If so, then the name could have arisen during the first visits to the islands by Russians in the 11th-12th centuries. The use of the name Novaya Zemlya at the end of the 15th century is recorded by foreign sources.

The Pomors also used the name Matka, the meaning of which remains unclear. It is often understood as “nurse, rich land.”

And the land there is really rich, but not in plants, but in animals, which were hunted by commercial hunters. Here, for example, is how the artist A. Borisov wrote about the riches of the Arctic at the end of the 18th century, having visited Yugorsky Shar and Vaigach:

“Wow, how nice it would be to live here in this region rich in fisheries! In our places (Vologda province), look how a man works all year round, day after day, and only barely, with all his modesty, can feed himself and his family. Not so here! Here, sometimes one week is enough to provide for yourself for a whole year, if traders did not exploit the Samoyeds so much, if the Samoyeds were at least somewhat able to preserve and manage this rich property...”

Based on the Pomeranian uterus (compass), the name is associated with the need to use a compass for sailing to Novaya Zemlya. But, as V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote, “Svenske, in his description of Novaya Zemlya, says that the name of the Matochkin Shar strait comes from the word - matochka (small compass). This is not true: Matochkin’s ball is called Matochkin’s in contrast to other small Novaya Zemlya balls, since it crosses the entire Matka, that is, the hardened land of this archipelago.”

In Finnish, Karelian, Veps matka - “path, road”, in Estonian matk “journey, wandering”. The term is widely represented in the toponymy of the North (cf. Matkoma, Matkozero, Irdomatka, etc.), it was mastered by the Pomors, and perhaps the name Matka is associated with it.

Novaya Zemlya is located on the border of two seas. In the west it is washed by the Barents Sea, and in the east by the Kara Sea.

The archipelago consists of two big islands and many small ones. In general, we can say that Novaya Zemlya is two islands: South and North, separated by the narrow Matochkin Shar Strait.

The distance from the northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya (Cape Zhelaniya) to the North Pole is only about one and a half thousand kilometers.

Cape Flissingsky of the North Island is the easternmost point of Europe.

Novaya Zemlya belongs to the Arkhangelsk region, as well as another neighboring Arctic archipelago - Franz Josef Land. That is, residents of the Arkhangelsk region, having visited Novaya Zemlya, will actually not even leave their subject, despite the fact that from Arkhangelsk to Novaya Zemlya in a straight line is about 900 kilometers, almost the same as to Moscow, Estonia or Norway.

The Barents Sea, along which Russian Pomors had been sailing for several centuries, was visited in 1594, 1595 and 1596 by expeditions led by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents and, although he was not even the first foreign traveler to visit Novaya Zemlya, the sea in 1853 was named after him. This name has been retained to this day, despite the fact that in Russia in the old days this sea was called the Northern, Siversky, Moscow, Russian, Arctic, Pechora and most often Murmansk.

Something about the geology and climate of the archipelago

Novaya Zemlya in the west is washed by the relatively warm Barents Sea (compared to the Kara Sea), and due to this the weather there can be quite warm, and even, oddly enough, sometimes warmer than on the coast. Weather forecast on Novaya Zemlya now (in Belushaya Guba), as well as for comparison on the coast (in Amderma):

The so-called “Novaya Zemlya bora” is very interesting and noteworthy - a strong, cold, gusty local wind, reaching up to 35-40 m/s, and sometimes 40-55 m/s! Such winds off the coast often reach the strength of a hurricane and weaken with distance from the coast.

The word Bora (bora, Βορέας, boreas) is translated as cold north wind.

Bora occurs when a flow of cold air encounters a hill on its way; Having overcome the obstacle, the bora hits the coast with enormous force. The vertical dimensions of the bora are several hundred meters. Typically affects small areas where low mountains directly bordering the sea.

The Novaya Zemlya forest is caused by the presence of a mountain range stretching from south to north along the island. Therefore, it is celebrated on the western and eastern coasts of the South Island. Characteristic signs of a “bora” on the west coast are strong gusty and very cold winds from the northeast or southeast. On the east coast - winds from the west or north-west.

The greatest frequency of the Novaya Zemlya bora is observed in November - April, often lasting 10 days or more. During bora, all visible air is filled with thick snow and resembles smoking smoke. Visibility in these cases often reaches its complete absence - 0 meters. Such storms are dangerous for people and equipment and require residents to use foresight and caution when moving in case of emergency.

The Novaya Zemlya Ridge influences not only the direction, but also the speed of the wind crossing it. mountain range contributes to an increase in wind speed on the leeward side. With an easterly wind, air accumulates on the windward side, which, when passing over the ridge, leads to air collapses, accompanied by strong gusty winds, the speed of which reaches 35-40 m/s, and sometimes 40-45 m/s (in the area of ​​the village of Severny up to 45-55 m/s).

New Earth is covered with “thorns” in many places. If I'm not mistaken, this is slate and phyllite (from the Greek phýllon - leaf) - a metamorphic rock, which in structure and composition is transitional between clayey and mica slate. In general, almost everywhere in the south of New Zealand that we visited, the land is like this. That’s why the running dogs here always had wounded paws.

Previously, when Europeans had boots with leather soles, they constantly risked tearing their shoes. There is a story on this topic told by Stepan Pisakhov in his diary: “In the first days, I decided to go away from the camp. She saw Malanya, started shaking, hurried, and caught up. - Where are you going? - To Chum Mountain. Malanya looked at my feet - I was wearing boots - How are you going back? Are you going to roll yourself sideways? - Malanya explained that the shoes would soon break on sharp rocks. - I'll bring you pima. I waited.

Malanya brought new seal pimas with seal soles. - Put it on. In these pymas it’s good to walk on pebbles and you can walk on water. How much do pima cost? - One and a half rubles. It seemed cheap to me. Surprise resulted in a question: “Both?” Malanya laughed a long laugh and even sat down on the ground. Waving her hands, she swayed. And through laughter she said - No, just one! You wear one, I’ll wear one. You step your foot, and I step your foot. So let's go. Malanya laughed and told an old Nenets fairy tale about people with one leg who can only walk by hugging each other - They live there loving each other. There's no malice there. They don’t deceive there,” Malanya finished and fell silent, thought, and looked into the distance of the tale being told. Malanya was silent for a long time. The dogs have calmed down, curled up in balls, and are sleeping. Only the dogs’ ears tremble with every new sound.”

Modern life on Novaya Zemlya

First of all, many people associate Novaya Zemlya with a nuclear test site and testing of the most powerful hydrogen bomb in the history of mankind - the 58-megaton Tsar Bomba. Therefore, there is a widespread myth that after nuclear tests it is impossible to live on Novaya Zemlya due to radiation. In fact, to put it mildly, everything is completely different.

On Novaya Zemlya there are military towns - Belushya Guba and Rogachevo, as well as the village of Severny (without permanent population). In Rogachevo there is a military airfield - Amderma-2.

There is also a base for underground testing, mining and construction work. On Novaya Zemlya, the Pavlovskoye, Severnoye and Perevalnoe ore fields with deposits of polymetallic ores were discovered. The Pavlovskoye field is so far the only field on Novaya Zemlya for which balance reserves have been approved and which is planned to be developed.

2,149 people live in Belushaya Guba, 457 people live in Rogachevo. Of these, 1,694 are military personnel; civilians - 603 people; children - 302 people. Currently, personnel also live and serve in the village of Severny, at the Malye Karmakuly weather station, at the Pankovaya Zemlya and Chirakino helipads.

On Novaya Zemlya there is an Officers' House, a soldiers' club, sports complex"Arktika", a secondary school, a kindergarten "Punochka", five canteens, a military hospital. There is also a food store "Polyus", a department store "Metelitsa", a vegetable store "Spolokhi", a cafe "Fregat", a children's cafe "Skazka", a store "North". The names are just mi-mi-mi :)

Novaya Zemlya is considered a separate municipal entity with the status of an urban district. The administrative center is the village of Belushya Guba. Novaya Zemlya is a ZATO (closed administrative-territorial entity). This means that you need a pass to enter the urban district.

Website of the municipal formation “Novaya Zemlya” - http://nov-zemlya.ru.

Until the early 1990s. the very existence of settlements on Novaya Zemlya was a state secret. The postal address of the village of Belushya Guba was “Arkhangelsk-55”, the village of Rogachevo and the “points” located in the south - “Arkhangelsk-56”. The postal address of the “points” located in the north is “ Krasnoyarsk region, Dikson Island-2". This information has now been declassified.

There is also a weather station called Malye Karmakuly on Novaya Zemlya. And in the north of Novaya Zemlya (Cape Zhelaniya) there is a stronghold National Park“Russian Arctic”, where its employees live in the summer.

How to get to Novaya Zemlya

Regular planes fly to Novaya Zemlya. Since November 5, 2015, Aviastar Petersburg has been operating passenger and cargo flights on the route Arkhangelsk (Talagi) - Amderma-2 - Arkhangelsk (Talagi) on An-24 and An-26 aircraft.

For questions regarding purchasing tickets, booking tickets, dates and times of departure for regular flights civil aviation in Novaya Zemlya, you can contact representatives of Aviastar Petersburg LLC on weekdays from 9.30 to 19.00.

Representative of Aviastar tel. +7 812 777 06 58, Moskovskoe shosse, 25, building 1, letter B. Representative in Arkhangelsk tel. 8 921 488 00 44. Representative in Belushya Guba tel. 8 911 597 69 08.

You can also get to Novaya Zemlya by sea - by boat. Personally, we visited there exactly like that.

History of Novaya Zemlya

It is believed that Novaya Zemlya was discovered by Russians already in the 12th-15th centuries. The first written evidence of the presence and fishing activities of Russians on the archipelago dates back to the 16th century and belongs to foreigners. Indisputable material evidence of the long-standing presence of Russians on the archipelago was recorded in 1594 and 1596-1597. in the diaries of De Fer - a participant in the Dutch expeditions led by Willem Barents.

By the first arrival of Europeans to Novaya Zemlya, unique spiritual and fishing traditions of Russian Pomors had already developed here. Novaya Zemlya was visited by fishermen seasonally to hunt sea animals (walruses, seals, polar bears), fur-bearing animals, birds, as well as collect eggs and catch fish. Hunters obtained walrus tusks, arctic fox, bear, walrus, seal and deer skins, walrus, seal, beluga and bear “fat” (blub), omul and char, geese and other birds, as well as eider down.

The Pomors had fishing huts on Novaya Zemlya, but they did not dare to stay there for the winter. And not so much because of the harsh climate, but because of the terrible polar disease - scurvy.

Industrialists brought timber and bricks themselves to build huts. The houses were heated with firewood brought with them on the ship. According to surveys conducted among industrialists in 1819, “there are no natural inhabitants; nothing has been heard of since the beginning of centuries,” i.e. any indigenous inhabitants of Novaya Zemlya were unknown to the fishermen.

Discovery of Novaya Zemlya by foreign navigators

Due to the fact that Spain and Portugal dominated the southern sea routes, in the 16th century English sailors were forced to look for a northeastern passage to the countries of the East (in particular, to India). This is how they got to Novaya Zemlya.

First unsuccessful expedition:

In 1533, H. Willoughby left England and apparently reached the southern coast of Novaya Zemlya. Turning back, the two ships of the expedition were forced to winter at the mouth of the Varsina River in eastern Murman. The following year, the Pomors accidentally stumbled upon these ships with the corpses of 63 English winter participants.

The following unfinished expeditions, but without casualties:

In 1556, an English ship under the command of S. Borro reached the shores of Novaya Zemlya, where it met the crew of a Russian boat. Ice accumulation in the Yugorsky Shar Strait forced the expedition to return to England. In 1580, the English expedition of A. Pete and C. Jackman on two ships reached Novaya Zemlya, but solid ice in the Kara Sea also forced them to sail to their homeland.

Expeditions with casualties, but also achieved goals:

In 1594, 1595 and 1596, three trade sea expeditions headed from Holland to India and China through the northeast passage. One of the leaders of all three expeditions was the Dutch navigator Willem Barents. In 1594, he passed along the northwestern coast of Novaya Zemlya and reached its northern tip. Along the way, the Dutch repeatedly encountered material evidence of the Russians’ presence on Novaya Zemlya.

On August 26, 1596, Barents' ship was sunk off the northeastern coast of the archipelago, in Ice Harbor. The Dutch had to build a dwelling on the shore from driftwood and ship planks. During the winter, two crew members died. On June 14, 1597, abandoning the ship, the Dutch sailed in two boats from Ice Harbor. Near the northwestern coast of Novaya Zemlya, in the area of ​​Ivanova Bay, V. Barents and his servant died, and a little later another member of the expedition died.

On the southern coast of the archipelago, in the area of ​​the Costin Shar Strait, the Dutch met two Russian boats and received rye bread and smoked birds from them. By boat, the surviving 12 Dutchmen reached Kola, where they accidentally met the second ship of the expedition and arrived in Holland on October 30, 1597.

Subsequent expeditions:

Then the English navigator G. Hudson visited Novaya Zemlya in 1608 (during landing on the archipelago, he discovered a Pomeranian cross and the remains of a fire); in 1653, three Danish ships reached Novaya Zemlya.

Further, until 1725-1730, Novaya Zemlya was visited by the Danes, Dutch, and English, and at this point the voyages of foreign ships to the archipelago ceased until the 19th century. The most outstanding of the expeditions were the two Dutch expeditions of V. Barents. The main merit of Barents and De-Fer was the compilation of the first map of the western and northern coasts of Novaya Zemlya.

Study of Novaya Zemlya by Russians

It all started with two unsuccessful expeditions:

In 1652, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the expedition of Roman Neplyuev set off to Novaya Zemlya to search for silver and copper ores, precious stones and pearls. Most of the 83 participants and Neplyuev himself died during the winter south of Dolgiy Island.

In 1671, an expedition led by Ivan Neklyudov was sent to Novaya Zemlya to search for silver ore and to build a wooden fortress on the archipelago. In 1672, all members of the expedition died.

Finally, relative luck:

In 1760-1761 Savva Loshkin first sailed on a boat from south to north along the eastern shore of Novaya Zemlya, spending two years on it. One of his winter quarters was apparently built at the mouth of the Savina River. Loshkin circled the northern coast and descended to the south along the western coast.

In 1766, the helmsman Yakov Chirakin sailed on the ship of the Arkhangelsk merchant A. Barmin from the Barents Sea to the Kara Strait through the Matochkin Shar Strait. Having learned about this, Arkhangelsk Governor A.E. Golovtsyn agreed with Barmin to send the ship with the expedition.

In July 1768, an expedition led by F.F. Rozmyslova went on a three-masted kochmara to the western mouth of the Matochkin Shar Strait to map the strait and measure its depth. The objectives of the expedition were: to pass, if possible, through Matochkin Shar and the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Ob River and to study the possibility of opening a route from the Kara Sea to North America. From August 15, 1768, the expedition carried out measurements and studies of Matochkina Shar. At the eastern mouth of the strait - Tyulenyaya Bay and on Cape Drovyanoy, two huts were built, where, dividing into two groups, the expedition spent the winter. Yakov Chirakin died during the winter. Of the 14 people on the expedition, 7 died.
Returning to the western mouth of the Matochkin Shar, the expedition met a Pomeranian fishing vessel. The rotten kochmara had to be left at the mouth of the Chirakina River and returned to Arkhangelsk on September 9, 1769 on a Pomor ship.

Of course, the name of Rozmyslov should take one of the first places among the outstanding Russian sailors and Arctic explorers. He not only measured and mapped the semi-legendary Matochkin Shar Strait for the first time. Rozmyslov gave the first description of the natural environment of the strait: the surrounding mountains, lakes, and some representatives of the flora and fauna. Moreover, he carried out regular weather observations and recorded the time of freezing and breaking up of ice in the strait. Fulfilling the assignment given to him, Rozmyslov built the first winter hut in the eastern part of the Matochkin Shar Strait. This winter hut was later used by industrialists and researchers of the archipelago.

In 1806, Chancellor N.P. Rumyantsev allocated funds to search for silver ore on Novaya Zemlya. Under the leadership of the mining official V. Ludlov, in June 1807, two mining masters and eleven members of the ship’s crew set off for the archipelago on the single-masted sloop “Pchela”. The expedition visited the island of Mezhdusharsky, visiting the famous Pomeranian settlement of Valkovo. While studying the islands in the Costin Shar Strait, Ludlov discovered deposits of gypsum.

In 1821-1824. Lieutenant F.P. Litke led four expeditions on the military brig Novaya Zemlya. Expeditions led by Litke made an inventory of the western coast of Novaya Zemlya from the Kara Gate Strait to Cape Nassau. The consolidated ice did not allow us to break further to the North. For the first time, a whole range of scientific observations was carried out: meteorological, geomagnetic and astronomical.

In 1832, difficult ice conditions in the Kara Gates forced the expedition of P.K. Pakhtusov to put the single-masted, deckless large carbass “Novaya Zemlya” for the winter off the southern coast of the archipelago, in Kamenka Bay. The remains of a Pomeranian hut and driftwood found here were used to build housing. As soon as all the expedition members moved to the rebuilt winter hut, from the second ten days of September they began to keep a meteorological journal, entering into it every two hours the readings of the barometer, thermometer and the state of the atmosphere. With the end of winter, multi-day walking routes for the purpose of inventorying and surveying the southern shores of the archipelago. The results of the expedition are the drawing up of the first map of the entire eastern coast of the South Island of the archipelago. Thanks to his subsequent expeditions, outstanding results were achieved. Pakhtusov described the southern shore of Matochkina Shar, East Coast archipelago from the Kara Gate to Cape Dalniy.

Then in 1837 we were on the schooner “Krotov” and the small boat “St. Elisha” expedition of the Imperial Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Academician K. Baer. The ship was commanded by warrant officer A.K. Tsivodka.
In 1838, under the command of warrant officer A.K. Tsivolka, an expedition was sent to Novaya Zemlya on the schooners “Novaya Zemlya” and “Spitsbergen”. The second schooner was commanded by warrant officer S.A. Moiseev. As a result, a number of important studies were carried out; famous domestic and Western European scientists repeatedly addressed the various scientific results of the Tsivolki-Moiseev expedition.

In subsequent years, the Pomors, who continued to fish on Novaya Zemlya, at the request of the famous Siberian industrialist M.K. Sidorov, landed in the places indicated by him and collected samples rocks and put up application posts. In 1870, Sidorov published the project “On the benefits of settlement on Novaya Zemlya for the development of marine and other industries.”

Commercial development of Novaya Zemlya

The history of the creation of fishing settlements on Novaya Zemlya has purely “political roots.” This region has long been “Russian”, but unfortunately there was not a single permanent settlement here. The first Russian settlers in the North and their descendants, the Pomors, came here to fish. But for some reason the “simple Rusaks” believed that their Arctic paradise would always be inaccessible to the “nemchura”, “Germans” - foreigners (“Germans”, i.e. dumb, not speaking Russian, the Pomors called all foreigners). And they were clearly wrong.

It is known that back in the 16th century, soon after the Dutchman Willem Barents and his associates visited the region, Europe became interested in this particular “corner of the Russian Arctic.” And to confirm this, “in 1611 a society was formed in Amsterdam that established hunting in the seas near Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya,” and in 1701 the Dutch equipped up to 2,000 ships to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya to “beat whales.” According to the information of the famous Siberian merchant and philanthropist M.K. Sidorov, who spent his entire life and fortune just to prove that Russia’s strength lies in the development of Siberia and the North, “before Peter the Great, the Dutch freely hunted whales in Russian territory.”

At the end of the XVIII - first third XIX century, when the North Atlantic whale and fish stocks had already dried up, and the beaches and shallows of Jan Mayen and Bear, Spitsbergen and other islands lost their once familiar appearance - walruses and seals, polar bears, our eternal competitors in the development of the North, the Norwegians, disappeared from here. turned their attention to the undeveloped eastern expanses of the Barents Sea - the islands of Kolguev, Vaygach and Novaya Zemlya, the icy Kara Sea, still “teeming” with Arctic life. The main period of their exploitation of the Novaya Zemlya fields covers approximately a 60-year period - from the end of the second third of the 19th century to the end of the 1920s.

Although Norwegian industrialists appeared in the Novaya Zemlya fisheries several centuries later than Russian sea animal hunters and Nenets, the presence of the Scandinavians in the region was very large-scale, and the nature of the exploitation natural resources- predatory, poaching. In just a few years, they mastered the entire range of Russian fisheries on the Barents Sea side of both islands of Novaya Zemlya, penetrated into the Kara Sea through Cape Zhelaniya, the Yugorsky Shar and Kara Gate straits and onto the eastern coast of the archipelago. Well-equipped and financially secure Norwegian sea game industrialists, who have long hunted whales and seals in the North Atlantic and off Spitsbergen, skillfully took advantage of the experience of the Arkhangelsk Pomors.

When sailing along the coast of the archipelago, the Norwegians relied on navigational and noticeable signs (gurias, crosses) set by the Pomors, and used old Russian camps or their remains as strongholds. These camps also served as a signal to the Norwegians that the fisheries were somewhere nearby, since the Pomors usually built camps and huts near them. By the beginning of the 20th century. they even organized several winter quarters on the archipelago.

An entire branch of the Norwegian economy quickly matured in Russian fisheries, and small villages in the northern region of our Scandinavian neighbor, from where fishing expeditions were sent to the Arctic, turned into prosperous cities in a matter of years, creating a good financial foundation for the entire twentieth century.

“The development of fisheries by the Norwegians in the Barents and Kara Seas, on Vaigach and Kolguev contributed to the development of the outlying cities of Norway. So, small town Hammerfest, one of the northernmost cities in the world in the mid-19th century, had no more than 100 inhabitants in 1820. After 40 years, 1,750 people already lived there. Hammerfest developed its fisheries on Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and in 1869 sent 27 ships with a displacement of 814 tons and 268 crew for the fisheries.”

Knowing about the existence in Russia of laws of “coastal law that prohibit foreigners from settling the shores of the islands without the permission of the government,” the Norwegians quite cleverly avoided this legal obstacle. In particular, according to the famous Arkhangelsk Pomor F.I. Voronin, who had been trading on Novaya Zemlya for 30 years, knew of cases when “agents of Norwegian merchants, having their relatives as colonists on the Murmansk coast, extended their plans not only to the island of Novaya Zemlya, but also to Kolguev and Vaygach.

And so, in order to somehow protect themselves from Norwegian expansion in the Russian North, in the 1870s, a plan matured in the bowels of the Arkhangelsk provincial administration - to create settlements on Novaya Zemlya, denoting national interest in this region of the Arctic. Naturally, the good idea was supported in the capital. The go-ahead is coming from St. Petersburg to Arkhangelsk to begin the colonization of the Arctic island. The beginning of the existence of the Novaya Zemlya island hunting industry should be considered the second half of the 1870s, when the Arkhangelsk provincial administration, with state support, founded the first permanent settlement on the archipelago - the Malye Karmakuly camp.

From the very beginning of the creation of settlements on the Arctic archipelago, both the state and the provincial authorities believed that the main occupation of the Nenets on Novaya Zemlya would be fishing activities. The provincial administration even developed and implemented a number of measures to stimulate the involvement of the Nenets in relocating to Novaya Zemlya and supporting their fishing activities.
In the initial period of colonization of Novaya Zemlya, according to the highest royal decree, each pioneer male industrialist was entitled to 350 rubles from the state treasury as “lifting” or compensation. At the same time, the settlers were exempt from all government and zemstvo fees for 10 years, and those who wished to move back to the mainland after five years could return to their previous place of residence without prior permission.

In 1892, by order of the Minister of the Interior, 10% of the gross proceeds from the sale of craft products were to be “credited to a special reserve colonization capital, and the net profit of individual colonists was to be deposited in a savings bank in special personal books.” Each Samoyed hunter was entitled to a special book signed by the governor, in which “the amount belonging to the owner of the book is indicated.” The reserve capital was used to provide assistance to the first settlers - to deliver them from the tundra to Arkhangelsk, live there for several months, provide clothing and fishing tools, deliver them to Novaya Zemlya, issue gratuitous cash benefits, etc.

Settlement of Novaya Zemlya (its inhabitants)

The residence of indigenous Samoyeds on Novaya Zemlya before the 19th century, unlike Vaygach (an island located between Novaya Zemlya and the mainland), has not been confirmed.

However, when in 1653 (after Barents and other foreign predecessors) three Danish ships reached Novaya Zemlya, the ship’s doctor of this expedition, De Lamartiniere, in his description of the voyage to the archipelago, pointed to a meeting with local residents - “New Zealanders”. Like the Samoyeds (Nenets), they worshiped the sun and wooden idols, but differed from the Samoyeds in clothing, jewelry and face paint. Lamartiniere points out that they used boats that resembled light canoes, and the tips of their spears and arrows, like their other tools, were made of fish bones.

In the literature there are also references to attempts by Russian families to settle on the archipelago in the 16th-18th centuries. There is a legend that Stroganov Bay, located in the southwestern part of Novaya Zemlya, is named after the Stroganov family, who fled Novgorod during the persecution of Ivan the Terrible. Two hundred years later, in 1763, on the coast of Chernaya Bay ( South part archipelago) 12 people of the Old Believer family Paikachev settled. They were forced to flee from Kem, refusing to renounce their faith. Both families died, apparently from scurvy.

However, it is reliably known that Novaya Zemlya became inhabited only at the end of the 19th century. In 1867, on two carbass to south coast The Nenets Foma Vylka sailed to Novaya Zemlya with his wife Arina and children. The Nenets who accompanied them went back in the fall, and Vylka with her family and the Nenets Samdey remained for the winter. At the end of winter Samdey died. Vylka became the first known permanent resident of the archipelago. He lived on Goose Land, in Malye Karmakuly and on the coast of Matochkina Shar.

In 1869 or 1870, an industrialist brought several Nenets (Samoyeds) for the winter and they lived on Novaya Zemlya for several years. In 1872, the second Nenets family arrived in Novaya Zemlya - the Pyrerki of Maxim Danilovich. The Nenets proved that man can live on Novaya Zemlya.

“In 1877, a rescue station was established in the settlement of Malye Karmakuly with the aim of providing industrialists with a reliable shelter both during fishing and in case of an unexpected winter, and at the same time to provide assistance to the crews of ships in the event of their wreck near this island.
In addition, to protect the erected buildings and to engage in crafts there, five Samoyed families from the Mezen district, numbering 24 people, were then brought to Novaya Zemlya and settled in the Malokarmakul encampment; They were provided with warm clothing, shoes, guns, gunpowder, lead, food supplies and other tools for hunting and crafts.

Sent to Novaya Zemlya to set up a rescue station, Lieutenant Tyagin of the corps of naval navigators met there the same two Samoyed families, consisting of 11 people, who had been wandering around Mollera Bay for eight years.

These Samoyeds were sent here by a Pechora industrialist, and they were supplied good means for crafts, but they squandered them and, without risking returning to their homeland, completely got used to the New Earth. Finding themselves in complete economic dependence on one of the Pomor industrialists, who supplied them with the necessary supplies, in return - of course, at incredibly cheap prices - taking away their craft items, the Samoyeds asked Tyagin to include them in the Samoyed artel brought with the funds of the Water Rescue Society.” . A. P. Engelhardt. Russian North: Travel notes. St. Petersburg, published by A.S. Suvorin, 1897

Expedition of E.A. Tyagin. built a rescue station in Malye Karmakuly and carried out hydrometeorological observations during wintering. Tyagin’s wife gave birth to a child, who became one of the first children born on Novaya Zemlya.

The families of Nenets colonists who settled in Malye Karmakuly elected Foma Vylka as the first inhabitant of the island, headman. He was entrusted with taking care of the human colonists, maintaining order, as well as organizing the unloading and loading of sea vessels. When performing his official duties, Foma wore a white round tin badge over his patched and blubber-salted malitsa, which meant he was a foreman. After Tyatin’s departure, all management of the rescue station passed into the hands of Foma. He fulfilled this duty conscientiously for many years.

The first known inhabitant of Novaya Zemlya - Foma Vylka

Foma Vylka is an interesting person. He was born on the banks of Golodnaya Bay at the mouth of the Pechora River, in a very poor family. At the age of seven, left an orphan, he became a farm laborer for a rich reindeer herder and worked only to be fed.

The owner had a son who was taught to read and write, forced to read and write. Foma saw all this. He asked the young owner - they were the same age - to teach him how to read and write. They went further into the tundra or into the forest, where no one could see them, there they drew letters in the snow or sand, put words together, and read them syllable by syllable. This is how Thomas learned Russian literacy. And one day, when the owner severely beat Thomas, he ran away from the house, taking with him the owner’s psalter...

Moving from pasture to pasture, where many reindeer herders gathered, Foma looked for a beautiful girl and decided to get married. Violating the ancient rituals of matchmaking, he himself asked the girl if she wanted to become his wife. And only when he received her consent, he sent matchmakers. Several years have passed. Foma arrived in ancient capital European Nenets Pustozersk to the fair. Here he was persuaded to accept Christianity, marry his wife according to Christian rites, and baptize his daughter. Thomas himself had to confess in church. This is where something unexpected happened. The priest asked the confessor, “Didn’t you steal?” Thomas became worried, upset, and even wanted to run away, but finally admitted that in childhood he took the psalter from the owner...

The new owner, to whom Foma hired himself for this work, invited him to go to Vaygach Island at the head of the owner’s fishing team to hunt for sea animals. So for three years Thomas sailed on carbass across the sea to Vaygach and always brought good booty to the owner. Foma's reputation as a successful hunter, a skilled pilot and a good leader of a fishing artel was strengthened. After some time, he began to ask the owner to send him with an artel to fish for sea animals on Novaya Zemlya. The owner approved this plan, assembled an artel, and equipped two sailing boats. On the way to Novaya Zemlya they were met by a strong storm, the rudder of one carbass was torn off, and Foma was washed out to sea. Miraculously, the assistant pulled him on board by his hair. One carbass turned back, the second, driven by Foma Vylka, safely reached the shores of Novaya Zemlya. This is how Foma Vylka and his wife and daughter first came to Novaya Zemlya. A year later their second daughter was born there.

One day, Thomas was returning from fishing and saw a large polar bear near the hut-hill, where his wife and children were. The polar bear was considered a sacred animal among the Nenets. Hunting for it was not prohibited, but the hunter, before killing this animal, must mentally advise the bear to leave in good health. If the bear does not leave, it means that he himself wants to die. Thomas killed the polar bear, approached him, apologized, and bowed to him as the owner of Novaya Zemlya and the sea. According to ancient Nenets customs, only men were allowed to eat bear meat. The carcass of the sacred beast could be brought into the tent not through the door, which was considered an unclean place, but only from the front side of the tent, by lifting its cover. Women could eat bear meat if they drew a mustache and beard on themselves with charcoal. Such a “cunning move” with a deviation from ancient rituals apparently helped many Nenets women escape from starvation.

Foma Vylka’s family had to endure many difficulties on Novaya Zemlya. Harsh, endlessly long winters, loneliness. Food was obtained with great difficulty, clothes and shoes were made from animal skins. There was not enough firewood to warm and light the tent a little; they burned blubber - the fat of sea animals.

One day, when the family of another Nenets, Pyrerka Maxim Danilovich, was already living on the island next to Vylka’s family, such an event happened. In late autumn, Norwegian sailors from a broken ship came to the Nenets tents. Their appearance was terrible: exhausted to the point of death, in tattered clothes and shoes. Foma and Pyrerka gladly accepted them into their tents, fed them, warmed them, and provided them with best places in the plague. The wives sewed them warm fur clothes and shoes. The Norwegians did not eat seal meat, and the Nenets had to specially go hunting in the mountains, kill wild deer there and feed the guest fresh boiled meat. When one of the Norwegians fell ill with scurvy, Foma and Pyrerka forcibly forced him to drink the warm blood of animals and eat raw deer meat, rubbed his legs and body, forced him to walk, did not allow him to sleep much, and thus saved him from death.

In the spring, the Nenets gave the Norwegian sailors a boat, and they left for their homeland. The parting was very touching: they cried, kissed, hugged, the sailors thanked the Nenets for saving them from inevitable death. Gifts were exchanged. They gave Foma a pipe, and he gave them a walrus tusk.

Several years have passed since the sailors left. One day a sea steamer came to Malye Karmakuly. All Nenets colonists were invited to it. The Swedish envoy read and presented a letter of gratitude signed by the Swedish king. Then they began to distribute gifts. The first gift to Foma Vylka was a shotgun and cartridges. They showed how to use it. Foma, with joy, could not resist and immediately hit the head of a floating loon with a shot from his hand, thereby disrupting the order of the solemn ceremony...

Development of Novaya Zemlya

In 1880, M.K. Sidorov, together with shipowners Kononov, Voronov and Sudovikov, submitted a report to the Minister of Internal Affairs on improving the situation of the Northern Territory. It proves the need for proper organization of the resettlement of Russian industrialists to Novaya Zemlya. By the summer of 1880, the armed sailing schooner “Bakan” was transferred from the Baltic to guard the northern lands of Russia. Starting this year, regular steamship flights from Arkhangelsk to Malye Karmakuly are being established.

In 1881, the regulations on the colonization of Novaya Zemlya were approved. From September 1, 1882 to September 3, 1883, under the program of the First International Polar Year, continuous observations of meteorology and terrestrial magnetism were carried out in Malye Karmakuly.

The work of the polar station was supervised by the hydrographer, Lieutenant K.P. Andreev. At the end of April - beginning of May 1882, station employee doctor L.F. Grinevitsky, accompanied by the Nenets Khanets Vylka and Prokopiy Vylka, made the first research crossing of the Southern Island of Novaya Zemlya from Malye Karmakul to the eastern shore in 14 days (round trip).

In 1887, a new camp was founded in Pomorskaya Bay, Matochkin Shar Strait. A member of the Russian Geographical Society, K.D. Nosilov, stayed here for the winter and carried out regular meteorological observations. Hieromonk Father Jonah arrived in Malye Karmakuly with a psalm-reader. Before this, the diocesan spiritual authorities annually sent a priest to Novaya Zemlya in the summer to perform religious services and worship in a small chapel.

In 1888, Arkhangelsk Governor Prince N.D. Golitsyn arrived in Novaya Zemlya. In Arkhangelsk, a wooden church was built especially for Novaya Zemlya, which the governor delivered along with the iconostasis to Malye Karmakuly. That same year, Father Jonah made two trips. One to Matochkin Shar for the baptism of two residents. The second - on east coast South Island, to the Kara Sea. Here he found and destroyed a Nenets wooden idol, personifying the patron god of deer hunting. Idols were discovered and destroyed by Father Jonah in other places on the South Island. Father Jonah began teaching Nenets children to read and write and their parents to teach prayers.

On September 18, 1888, the new church was consecrated. The church was equipped with magnificent icons, valuable church utensils and bells. In 1889, in Malye Karmakuly, a monastic monastery was established by the Nikolo-Karelian Monastery, with the permission of the Holy Synod. The monks’ task was not only to preach among the Nenets, but also to help change the existing way of life during the transition from nomadic to sedentary life. Jonah's father's many years of work bore fruit. The German colonists willingly visited the temple, and their children read and sang in the church during services.

In 1893, Russian industrialists Yakov Zapasov and Vasily Kirillov and their families moved from the mouth of the Pechora to Novaya Zemlya for permanent residence.

By 1894, the permanent population of Novaya Zemlya consisted of 10 Nenets families of 50 people. This year, Arkhangelsk Governor A.P. visited Novaya Zemlya. Engelhard, who on the Lomonosov steamship brought 8 more families among 37 people who expressed a desire to settle on the archipelago.

A disassembled six-room house was delivered on the ship for the school and residence of Jonah's father and the psalm-reader. This house was built in Malye Karmakuly. Another house was brought for the camp in Matochkin Shar. So, in Malye Karmakuly in 1894 there was a church building, a school, two houses in which the Nenets lived, a building in which a paramedic lived and a supply warehouse, a barn where spare building materials were stored, and in winter - a rescue boat. In Matochkino Shar there were three small houses in which the Nenets lived.

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Invasion of polar bears on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago . It is important to note that in the period from December 2018 to February 2019 near populated areas archipelago Novaya Zemlya Local residents have observed a fairly large concentration of polar bears. By decision of authorized persons, starting from February 9, 2019, on the territory of the Russian Arctic archipelago Novaya Zemlya A state of emergency was introduced. This was done due to the massive invasion of polar bears.
For example, in the vicinity of the Arctic village of Belushya Guba, 52 polar bears were observed. In addition, cases of polar bears attacking people have been recorded. Cases of polar bears entering residential and various office premises have also been recorded. It is worth noting that throughout the entire territory of the comfortable village of Belushya Guba archipelago Novaya Zemlya Approximately six to nine polar bears are permanent residents.
According to one famous scientist, the invasion of bears is associated both with the traditional seasonal migration of these animals and the presence of landfills with various food waste in Arctic villages.
It is noteworthy that in order to ensure safety, they began to accept necessary measures precautions. For example, reliable additional fencing was installed in local kindergartens in children's walking areas. In addition, delivery of local children to kindergartens was organized.
It is also already planned to organize a feeding area for polar bears far from the village of Belushya Guba, which will significantly protect local residents from bear invasions.
After 10 days, namely February 19, 2019, the state of emergency in the Arctic archipelago Novaya Zemlya was canceled due to the “voluntary” departure of the bears.
Location of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago .

Russian territory Novaya Zemlya archipelago is a fairly large archipelago, which is widely spread in the waters of the Arctic Ocean, namely between the Kara Sea and the Kara Sea.
is part of the northern region of the country. in the south it is separated from Vaygach Island by the Kara Gate Strait, the width of which is approximately 50 km.
Characteristics of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago . Extensive Novaya Zemlya archipelago consists of: two fairly large islands, namely the Northern Island and the Southern Island, which are separated by the narrow Matochkin Shar Strait, the width of which is approximately 2-3 km, and of many relatively small islands, of which largest island is the island of Mezhdusharsky. Northeastern tip of the North Island archipelago Novaya Zemlya Cape Flissingsky is considered. This is the easternmost point.

Length archipelago Novaya Zemlya in the direction from southwest to northeast it is 924.9 km. Northernmost point archipelago Novaya Zemlya considered the eastern island of the Greater Orange Islands, and the most southern point The Pynin Islands are considered to be the picturesque Petukhovsky archipelago, the extreme western point is the nameless cape, which is located on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula of the South Island, the extreme eastern point is Cape Flissingsky of the North Island.
total area archipelago Novaya Zemlya is over 83,000 km². It is worth noting that the width of the North Island reaches 123 km, and the width of the South Island is 143 km. According to the 2010 census, archipelago Novaya Zemlya There were about 3,000 inhabitants.
North Island archipelago Novaya Zemlya . Approximately half the area of ​​the North Island is occupied by glaciers. The area, which extends almost 401 km in length and up to approximately 71-74.5 km in width, contains a continuous white ice sheet covering an area of ​​approximately 20,000 km². The thickness of the ice cover here is more than 300 meters. In some places, the ice descends into picturesque fjords or drops steeply straight into the open sea, forming large ice barriers and thus giving rise to huge ice blocks - icebergs, the weight of which can sometimes reach several million tons.
Total area of ​​glaciation archipelago Novaya Zemlya is 29,767 km², of which approximately 92% is covered by glaciation and 7.9% is due to unique mountain glaciers.
On South Island Above the above-mentioned archipelago there are areas of the Czech tundra that are surprisingly charming in their beauty.
Climate of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago . On the Russian major archipelago Novaya Zemlya severe prevails, . Winter here is very cold and long with strong winds and snowstorms. The speed of winter winds on the archipelago reaches approximately 40-50 m/s, which is why Novaya Zemlya is sometimes also called the “Land of the Winds”. frosts on archipelago Novaya Zemlya reach −40 °C. average temperature air in the warmest month of the year - August - varies from +2.5 °C in the northern part of the archipelago to +6.5 °C in its southern part.
Thus, the difference in temperature between the coasts of the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea exceeds approximately 5°C.
It is noteworthy that this temperature asymmetry is explained by the difference in ice conditions above mentioned seas.
On archipelago Novaya Zemlya There are many small lakes, the water in which, under the rays of the sun in the southern regions, can warm up to even +18 °C.

Geographical position

New Earth- an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara seas; is included in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia in the rank of the municipal formation “Novaya Zemlya”.
The archipelago consists of two large islands - Northern and Southern, separated by a narrow strait (2-3 km) Matochkin Shar and many relatively small islands, the largest of which is Mezhdusharsky. The northeastern tip of the North Island - Cape Vlissingsky - is the easternmost point of Europe.

It stretches from southwest to northeast for 925 km. The most northern point Novaya Zemlya is the eastern island of the Greater Orange Islands, the southernmost is the Pynin Islands of the Petukhovsky archipelago, the western is an unnamed cape on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula of Yuzhny Island, the eastern is Cape Flissingsky of Severny Island.

Area of ​​all islands more than 83 thousand km²; The width of the North Island is up to 123 km, the South Island is up to 143 km.
In the south, the Kara Gate Strait (50 km wide) separates it from Vaygach Island.
About half the area of ​​the North Island is occupied by glaciers. On an area of ​​about 20,000 km² there is a continuous ice cover, extending almost 400 km in length and up to 70-75 km in width. The ice thickness is over 300 m. In a number of places, the ice descends into fjords or breaks off into the open sea, forming ice barriers and giving rise to icebergs. The total glaciated area of ​​Novaya Zemlya is 29,767 km², of which about 92% is cover glaciation and 7.9% is mountain glaciers. On the South Island there are areas of arctic tundra.

Climate

The climate is arctic and harsh. Winter is long and cold, with strong winds (the speed of katabatic (katabatic) winds reaches 40-50 m/s) and snowstorms, which is why Novaya Zemlya is sometimes called the “Land of the Winds” in literature. Frosts reach −40 °C. The average temperature of the warmest month - August - ranges from 2.5 °C in the north to 6.5 °C in the south. In winter, the difference reaches 4.6°. The difference in temperature conditions between the coasts of the Barents and Kara Seas exceeds 5°. This temperature asymmetry is due to the difference in the ice regime of these seas. The archipelago itself has many small lakes; under the rays of the sun, the water temperature in the southern regions can reach 18 °C.

Population

Administratively, the archipelago is a separate municipal entity of the Arkhangelsk region. It has the status of a ZATO (closed administrative-territorial entity). To enter Novaya Zemlya you need a special pass. Until the beginning of the 90s. the very existence of settlements on Novaya Zemlya was a state secret. The postal address of the village of Belushya Guba was “Arkhangelsk-55”, the village of Rogachevo and “points” located on the South Island and the south of the North Island - “Arkhangelsk-56”, “points” located in the north of the North Island and Franz Josef Land - “ Krasnoyarsk Territory, Dikson-2 Island" (communication with them through Dikson was maintained). The administrative center, the urban-type settlement of Belushya Guba, located on the South Island, has a population of 2,149 people (2013). The second settlement on Novaya Zemlya that currently exists is the village of Rogachevo (457 people), 12 km from Belushya Guba. There is a military airfield here - Amderma-2. 350 km north on south coast Strait of Matochkin Shar - the village of Severny (without permanent population), a base for underground testing, mining and construction work. There are currently no populated areas on the North Island.

Indigenous people- the Nenets were completely evicted from the islands in the 1950s, when a military training ground was created. The population of the villages is mainly made up of military personnel and construction workers.

According to the results of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, the population of Novaya Zemlya is 2,429 people and is concentrated in only two populated areas- Belushya Guba and Rogachevo.

Nature

The ecosystems of Novaya Zemlya are usually classified as biomes of Arctic deserts(North Island) and Arctic tundra.
The main role in the formation of phytocenoses belongs to mosses and lichens. The latter are represented by types of cladonia, the height of which does not exceed 3-4 cm.
Arctic herbaceous annuals also play a significant role. Plants characteristic of the sparse flora of the islands are creeping species, such as creeping willow (Salix polaris), saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), mountain lichen and others. The vegetation in the southern part is mostly dwarf birches, moss and low grass; in areas near rivers, lakes and bays, many mushrooms grow: milk mushrooms, honey mushrooms, etc.
The most big lake- Goose. It is home to freshwater fish, in particular Arctic char. Common animals include arctic foxes, lemmings, partridges, and reindeer. Polar bears come to the southern regions with the onset of cold weather, becoming a threat local residents. Marine animals include harp seal, ringed seal, sea hare, walruses, and whales.
On the islands of the archipelago you can find the largest bird colonies in the Russian Arctic. Guillemots, puffins, and seagulls live here.

Region

Type of tour

Description

The expedition cruise will provide the opportunity to visit two unique regions of the Arctic at once - the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos. Own research will lead tour participants to walrus rookeries, bird colonies, historical huts and abandoned scientific stations. In 2016 it will pass along the route Spitsbergen - Franz Josef Land - Spitsbergen.

Tour program

1 day
In Murmansk, participants of the tour to the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos will have a short excursion: a visit to the monument to the Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War, and the wonderful Church of the Savior on the Waters. In the second half, departure to the expedition sea ​​cruise on the ship "Akademik Shokalsky".

2 - 3 days
Participants of the tour to the Arctic will dilute their impressions of the vast expanses of the Barents Sea with information about the polar explorers Barents, Nansen, Sedov and others. In the company of experts in the region, we will observe representatives of the Arctic fauna and the movements of pack ice.

4 - 6 days
Stretching in a semicircle between the Barents and Kara seas, the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is one of the most “closed” territories of Russia. Most of the islands of Novaya Zemlya lie in a strictly guarded military zone. We will go to the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, in national park"Russian Arctic". Here we plan to approach the coast of Novaya Zemlya on Zodiacs and take photographs of bird colonies. A landing on the coast of Cape Northern is also planned.

7 - 11 days
We will devote these days to exploring Franz Josef Land. Franz Josef Land is an archipelago of 191 islands in the Arctic Ocean. Belongs to Russia. Franz Josef Land was discovered in 1873 by Austrian travelers, who named it in honor of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I. The closest known geographical point to Franz Josef Land is the North Pole. The Arctic, ice-covered archipelago is extremely attractive: for scientists as a base for polar research, and for tourists - the opportunity to observe animals (polar bears, walruses) and birds in wildlife, with its unusual landscapes. Franz Josef Land is called the “Lunar Archipelago”: local glaciers look like lunar craters.
During five days of exploration of Franz Josef Land, we will be able to trace rich history polar discoveries: “discuss plans” in the perfectly preserved cabin of Lee Smith's expedition (1881) on Bell Island; see the ruins of the camp on Northbrook Island, where in 1896 the historic meeting of Jackson and Nansen took place and the phrase was uttered, forever inscribed in the history of polar discoveries: “You must be Nansen?”; visit the abandoned polar research station on Hooker Island. Photographers and professionals will not be disappointed: dazzling glaciers, polar poppies and colorful mosses, the unique “round stones” of Champ Island, clusters of representatives of the Arctic fauna.

12-13 days
Heading southwest Barents Sea. From the open decks and captain's bridge you can watch the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises, whales, seals and seabirds.

Day 14
Disembarkation at the port of Murmansk, transfer to the airport and departure home.

Accommodation and meals

Categories of cabins on the ship "Akademik Shokalsky".

Triple room without amenities
Main deck. Approximate area: 9-10 sq.m. air ventilation, portholes, 1 upper and 2 lower berths, desk, chair, mirror, toiletry shelf, storage space, washbasin. Bathrooms with shower and toilet are conveniently located on the same deck.

Double without amenities
Main deck. Approximate area: 9-10 sq.m. air ventilation, porthole, 2 lower berths, desk, chair, mirror, toiletry shelf, storage space, sofa (in some cabins), washbasin. Bathrooms with shower and toilet are conveniently located on the same deck.

Quadruple room with amenities
Upper deck. Approximate area: 10-12.5 sq.m. air ventilation, 1 opening window, 2 lower and 2 upper berths, desk, chair, bookshelves, storage, sofa (in some cabins). Bathroom with shower and toilet. Suitable for accommodating a family or group of friends.

Double room with private facilities
Captain's and Upper Deck. Approximate area: 10-12.5 sq.m. air ventilation, windows, 2 lower berths, desk, chair, bookshelves, storage space. Bathroom with shower and toilet.

Mini Suite
Captain's deck. Approximate area: 17-20 sq.m. air ventilation, windows, separate bedroom: double bed; folding sofa (can be used as an additional sleeping area), desk, chair, storage space. TV DVD players. Bathroom with shower and toilet.

Captain's Suite
Deck 5. Area: 23.2 sq.m. air ventilation, windows (view of the bow and port side of the ship), separate bedroom: double bed, folding sofa; in the living room: seating area, refrigerator, TV, video player. Bathroom with shower and toilet.

Not included

air tickets; hotel accommodation and meals not specified in the program; optional excursions not listed in the program; personal expenses: laundry, communications, bar; insurance.

"Academician Shokalsky"- a small ice-class expedition vessel designed to comfortably accommodate 54 people. It was built in 1982 in Finland for polar and oceanographic research and was updated several times. The ship is equipped with everything necessary for safe navigation: passive stabilizers to reduce the effect of pitching, equipped with a satellite system and communications equipment. For the convenience of passengers there is a bar and lounge, and a library. The spacious captain's bridge is always open to passengers.

 

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