Map of the southern part of the new land. Novaya Zemlya excursion

The archipelago consists of two large islands - North and South, 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 Flissing - is the most eastern point Europe.

It stretches from the southwest to the northeast for 925 km. The northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya is the eastern island of the Greater Orange Islands, the southernmost point is the Pynina Islands of the Petukhov Archipelago, the western one is an unnamed cape on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula of the South Island, and the eastern one is Cape Flissingsky of the Severny Island. The area of ​​all the islands is more than 83 thousand km2; the width of the North Island is up to 123 km, the South - up to 143 km.

In the south, the Karskie Vorota strait (50 km wide) is separated from Vaygach Island.

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, and therefore New Earth in literature it is sometimes customary to call it the "Land of the Winds". Frosts reach?40 °C. The average temperature of the warmest month - August - is from 2.5 °C in the north to 20 °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°. Such a temperature asymmetry is due to the difference in the ice regime of these seas. There are many small lakes on the archipelago itself; under the rays of the sun, the water temperature in the southern regions can reach 18 ° C.

About half of the area of ​​the North Island is occupied by glaciers. On the territory of about 20,000 km? - a continuous ice cover, stretching almost 400 km in length and up to 70-75 km in width. The thickness of the ice is over 300 m. In a number of places, the ice descends into the fjords or breaks off into the open sea, forming ice barriers and giving rise to icebergs. The total glaciation area of ​​Novaya Zemlya is 29,767 km², of which about 92% is cover glaciation and 7.9% is mountain glaciers. On south island- areas of the arctic tundra.

The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is located in the Northern Arctic Ocean between Karsky and. It consists of two islands - North and South - separated by the Matochkin Shar Strait. Severny Island is more than half covered with glaciers.

Discovery history

The Orange Islands - the northernmost in the archipelago - were discovered in 1594 by the Barents expedition, and got their name in honor of the Dutch prince Moritz of Orange. There is a large walrus rookery on the islands.

New Earth in the time of the Great geographical discoveries was a wintering place for expeditions that failed to break through the ice fields.
Even in the XII-XV centuries. on Novaya Zemlya there were temporary settlements of Pomors, who moved to the archipelago for the sake of fishing, hunting. They took with them everything they needed for wintering on the islands - from firewood to building material for huts. Over time, a peculiar culture of Pomeranian hunters was formed on the islands.
Discovery of Novaya Zemlya by Europeans in the 16th century. was associated with the search for a northeast sea route to India as an alternative southern routes controlled by Spain and Portugal. The path was very difficult, ice blocked it beyond Novaya Zemlya, so many sailors had to spend the winter in the harsh conditions of the archipelago; There were also those who were never destined to return to their homeland.
One of the expeditions to the northeast passage was led by the navigator Willem Barents, who set off in the summer of 1594. The first attempt to find a trade route was unsuccessful, and in 1596 a new expedition was equipped. During another grueling journey, the team was forced to spend the winter on Novaya Zemlya, as the ship "Mercury" was icebound in Ice Harbor Bay on the northeastern tip of Severny Island in the archipelago. Only on June 14, 1957, the Barents team managed to continue the journey, but the navigator himself died at the northwestern tip of the archipelago.
Later, already in 1608, the English navigator Henry Hudson visited Novaya Zemlya, who also tried to find a northeast passage. In the middle of the XVII century. ships of the Danish expedition reached Novaya Zemlya with similar goals.
At the same time, they began to head towards Novaya Zemlya. Russian expeditions, because Russian empire was interested in exploring new sources of silver and copper ores. However, at first they all ended in the death of most of their participants. One of the first successful trips to the archipelago was made by Savva Loshkin in 1760-1761: then he was able to overcome the path along the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya.
The traveler who initiated the scientific exploration of Novaya Zemlya was Fyodor Rozmyslov (d. 1771). On July 10, 1768, he set off with his team from Arkhangelsk to Novaya Zemlya and reached the goal a month later. Here Rozmyslov was engaged in the search for mineral deposits, meteorological and geodetic research.
In addition, he compiled an inventory of the Matochkin Shar Strait.
Until the 19th century the archipelago remained uninhabited, it was used as a staging post and a place for fishing and hunting. However, in order to minimize the risks of capturing sparsely populated lands, by the end of the century, a gradual settlement of the islands began, however, mainly by Nenets families.
At the beginning of the XX century. there were still many blank spots on the map of Novaya Zemlya, so research expeditions were constantly working on the islands of the archipelago. In particular, the Novaya Zemlya expedition of 1911 is known, as a result of which old abandoned Pomor settlements were discovered.

nuclear test site

A nuclear test site was opened on Novaya Zemlya during the Soviet era, and since then access to the archipelago has been limited.
At present, Novaya Zemlya is a closed administrative-territorial entity within Arkhangelsk region. In order to visit the archipelago, a special pass is required. This practice has been preserved since Soviet times, when settlements on Novaya Zemlya were closed for security reasons and their existence was not known.
On September 17, 1954, a Soviet nuclear test site was opened on Novaya Zemlya, which included three sites: Black Guba, Dry Nose and Matochkin Shar (underground tests were carried out at the latter). Almost the entire Nenets population was expelled from the archipelago, the military and specialists who worked at the training ground were placed in the villages.
After the USSR and the USA signed an agreement in August 1963 banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, under water and in space, the experiments at the Black Guba and Dry Nose sites were stopped. However, underground explosions in the Matochkina Shara area were carried out until 1990.

Population

The main settlement of the archipelago - Belushya Guba - was founded in 1897. With the opening of the nuclear test site, a completely new page opened in its history, since it was appointed the administrative center of this experimental complex. Today, the village retains its status, as the landfill continues to operate. Experiments are being carried out on it, including to ensure the safe storage of nuclear weapons. In addition, there is a military unit in the village.
However, the legacy of the Cold War is not limited to the nuclear test site. In some bays of Novaya Zemlya there are nuclear waste disposal sites. In order to avoid leakage of hazardous substances, they are constantly monitored by both Russian services and European specialists.
The second most important and populous point of Novaya Zemlya is the village of Rogachevo on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula. There are other settlements on the archipelago, but they do not have a permanent population. Among them is the village of Matochkin Shar, which has a seasonal commercial value.

Nature

Novaya Zemlya is a land of harsh nature. More than half of the territory of the archipelago is covered with glaciers, and this is mainly cover, and not mountain glaciation.

On Novaya Zemlya reigns natural for the Arctic lands natural world with a variety of bird and fish species. First of all, the archipelago is famous for its very large bird markets: here you can see gulls, guillemots, puffins. On the shores of Lake Gusinoye on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula, which is very rich in fish, many geese gather during the molting period.

Relatively heat-loving plants have been preserved on the archipelago, usually not found in such a harsh climate. Among them are cloudberries, blueberries, lingonberries, some types of sorrel, willow-herb and other plants. In addition, alien plants are found on the islands, including several species of buttercups, clover. The seeds got into the local soil with expeditions, merchant ships.

Man on Novaya Zemlya is constantly in contact with wildlife. A big threat to the local population is posed by polar bears, which, with the onset of cold weather, go to the villages in search of food. It is not uncommon for these predators to attack people.

general information

Administrative affiliation: Russian Federation.
Administrative center of Novaya Zemlya: Belushya Guba - 2308 people (2015).

Status: closed administrative-territorial entity.
Russian language.
Ethnic composition: Russians.
Religion: Orthodoxy

Numbers

Climate and weather

Economy

Attractions

Cult

It is assumed that members of the Barents team were among the first Europeans to see a polar bear.

On October 30, 1961, at the Dry Nose nuclear test site in the southwest of Severny Island, the most powerful explosive device in the history of mankind, the Tsar Bomb, a thermonuclear aviation bomb, was tested.

Cape Zhelaniya got its name for a curious reason: on the map of Barents, it was marked as Zhelanny, but due to inaccuracies in the translation, according to the Russian tradition, it became known as Cape Zhelaniya.

According to many geologists: Vaigach Island and Novaya Zemlya - are an ancient ridge -! Indeed, together they represent, albeit a curved, but solid line, which and.
On ancient maps (for example, by Mercator, which will be indicated in the article), Novaya Zemlya was a single island, and even a peninsula, which was connected to the continent in the area of ​​the Yugorsky Peninsula, that is Ural mountains in ancient times they went in a continuous chain far to the Arctic. Legends about Hyperborea also take place here, because this ancient ridge continues north of Novaya Zemlya along the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, that is, geologically - the Urals turn out to be longer, at least another thousand kilometers!
What lands were here before the onset of cooling and the rise of the ocean - this is a question for modern scientists!

And for ordinary people - Novaya Zemlya is known, first of all, for testing the most destructive hydrogen bomb in the history of mankind, or as it is called - the Tsar Bomba! The power of the bomb was more than 60 megatons, which is about 30 thousand bombs dropped on Hiroshima! A terrible force, a well of the abyss, but life has shown that those countries that do not have nuclear weapons cannot, in principle, have an independent and independent policy! The nuclear shield is one of the few allies of Russia, it is worth sawing or disposing of the last nuclear charge or delivery vehicle, as we will actually find out - what Western democracy is worth!

The shock wave circled the globe several times! And the surface of the landfill melted and swept clean. Test details will be below.

Novaya Zemlya from the satellite, the Matochkin Shar Strait is visible

GENERAL INFORMATION
Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean and; part of the Arkhangelsk region of Russia in the rank of the municipality "Novaya Zemlya".
The archipelago consists of two large islands - the North and the South, separated by a narrow strait (2-3 km) Matochkin Shar and many relatively small islands, the largest of which is Mezhdsharsky. The northeastern tip of the North Island - Cape Flissing - is the easternmost point of Europe.

It stretches from the southwest to the northeast for 925 km. The northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya is the eastern island of the Greater Orange Islands, the southernmost point is the Pynina Islands of the Petukhovsky archipelago, the western one is an unnamed cape on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula of the South Island, and the eastern one is Cape Flissingsky of the Severny Island. The area of ​​all the islands is more than 83 thousand km²; the width of the North Island is up to 123 km,
South - up to 143 km.

In the south, a strait (50 km wide) separates from Vaigach Island.

The climate is arctic and harsh. The 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 referred to in the literature as the “Land of Winds”. Frosts reach -40 °C.
The average temperature of the warmest month - August - is 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 and exceeds 5 °. Such a temperature asymmetry is due to the difference in the ice regime of these seas. There are many small lakes on the archipelago itself; under the rays of the sun, the water temperature in the southern regions can reach 18 ° C.

About half of the area of ​​the North Island is occupied by glaciers. On the territory 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 thickness of the ice is over 300 m. In a number of places, the ice descends into the fjords or breaks off into the open sea, forming ice barriers and giving rise to icebergs. The total glaciation area of ​​Novaya Zemlya is 29,767 km², of which about 92% is ice cover and 7.9% is mountain glaciers. On the South Island there are patches of arctic tundra.

cruiser Peter the Great near Novaya Zemlya

Minerals
On the archipelago, primarily on the South Island, deposits of minerals are known, mainly ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The most significant is the Rogachevsko-Taininsky manganese-ore region, according to forecast estimates, the largest in Russia.
Manganese ores are carbonate and oxide. Carbonate ores, with an average manganese content of 8-15%, are distributed over an area of ​​about 800 km², the predicted resources of the P2 category are 260 million tons. Oxide ores, with a manganese content of 16-24 to 45%, are concentrated mainly in the north of the region — in the Severo-Taininsky ore field, the predicted P2 resources are 5 million tons. According to the results of technological tests, the ores are suitable for obtaining metallurgical concentrate. All deposits of oxide ores can be mined in an open way.

Several ore fields have been discovered (Pavlovskoye, Severnoye, Perevalnoye) with deposits of polymetallic ores. The Pavlovskoye deposit, located within the ore field of the same name, is so far the only deposit on Novaya Zemlya for which balance reserves have been approved. The balance reserves of lead and zinc in categories C1 + C2 are more than 2.4 million tons, and the forecast resources of category P1 are 7 million tons (approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia on 01.01.2003).
The content of lead in ores varies from 1.0 to 2.9%, zinc - from 1.6 to 20.8%. The predicted resources of the Pavlovsky ore field of P2 category in total for lead and zinc are 12 million tons (approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia on 01.01.2003). In addition, silver reserves are estimated as associated. The development of the deposit is possible by an open method.

The remaining ore fields have been studied much less. It is known that the Northern ore field, in addition to lead and zinc, contains as associated components silver (content - 100-200 g/t), gallium (0.1-0.2%), indium, germanium, yttrium, ytterbium, niobium .

In the South Island, occurrences of native copper and cuprous sandstones are known.

All known ore fields require additional study, which is hampered by natural conditions, insufficient economic development and the special status of the archipelago.

In the waters of the seas surrounding the archipelago, a number of geological structures have been identified that are promising for the search for oil and gas fields. The Shtokman gas condensate field, the largest on the Russian shelf, is located 300 km from the coast of Novaya Zemlya.

Story
In ancient times, Novaya Zemlya was inhabited by an unknown tribe, possibly belonging to the Ust-Polui archaeological culture. It is possible that in the mythology of the Samoyeds (Nenets) it was known under the name Sirtya.

Presumably Novaya Zemlya was discovered in the 12th-13th centuries by Novgorod merchants, but there is no convincing historical and documentary evidence of this. Failed to prove the primacy in the discovery of the archipelago and the ancient Scandinavians.

Of the Western Europeans, the first to visit the archipelago in 1553 was the English navigator Hugh Willoughby, who, by decree of King Edward VI (1547-1553), led the expedition of the London "Moscow Company" to "find Northwest Passage and establishing relations with the Russian state.
On the map of the Flemish scientist Gerard Mercator in 1595, Novaya Zemlya still looks like a single island or even a peninsula.

The Dutch traveler Willem Barents rounded the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya in 1596 and wintered on the east coast of the Severny Island in the Ice Harbor area (1597). In 1871 the Norwegian polar expedition Elling Carlsen, a preserved Barents hut was discovered in this place, in which dishes, coins, wall clocks, weapons, navigational tools were found, as well as a written report on wintering, hidden in a chimney.

In 1671, the essay “Journey to the Nordic Countries” was published in Paris, the author of which, a nobleman from Lorraine Pierre-Martin de la Martiniere, visited Novaya Zemlya in 1653 on a ship of Danish merchants. Having descended to the shore of the South Island in three boats, the Danish sailors and Martinier met Samoyed hunters armed with bows who worshiped wooden idols.

The famous Dutch naturalist Nikolaas Witsen, in his book Northern and Eastern Tataria (1692), the first scientific work in Western Europe on Siberia and the Russian North, reports that Peter the Great intended to build a military fort on Novaya Zemlya.

The first Russian explorer of Novaya Zemlya is the navigator Fyodor Rozmyslov (1768-1769).

Until the 19th century, Novaya Zemlya was actually an uninhabited archipelago, near which Pomors and Norwegians fished and hunted. Neither one nor the other could settle and live on the islands, and Novaya Zemlya remained only a transit point. From time to time, minor diplomatic conflicts arose, in which the Russian Empire invariably stated that "The Novaya Zemlya Archipelago is Russian territory in its entirety."

Since those who claimed it could not live on the archipelago, several Nenets families were transferred to Novaya Zemlya. More active settlement of the islands began in 1869. In 1877, the settlement Small Karmakuly appeared on the South Island. In the 1980s, Novaya Zemlya already had a small colony.

Belushya Guba Novaya Zemlya

In 1901, the famous polar artist Alexander Borisov arrived in Novaya Zemlya, where he met and took the young Nenets Tyko Vylka as his guide. During the 400-kilometer trip around Novaya Zemlya on dogs, Borisov constantly made sketches. Noticing the talent of a young Nenets who became interested in painting, Borisov taught Tyko Vylka how to paint. When the artist and writer Stepan Pisakhov was exiled to Novaya Zemlya in 1903, he also noted Vylka's talent by giving him paints and pencils.

In 1909, the polar explorer Vladimir Rusanov came to Novaya Zemlya, who, together with Tyko Vylka and Grigory Pospelov, explored the entire archipelago and compiled its exact cartographic description.

In 1910, the Olginsky settlement was organized on Severny Island in the Krestovaya Bay, which at that time became the northernmost (74 ° 08′ N) settlement of the Russian Empire.

The Novaya Zemlya expedition of 1911, exploring the South Island, came across an extinct settlement of Russian industrialists, the existence of which was not known until that time. Located on the Black Nose in a bay without a name, nowhere marked on the maps, the village was a sad sight: human skulls, skeletons, bones scattered in all directions. The crosses standing right there, apparently in the cemetery, were completely dilapidated and decayed, the crossbars fell off, and the inscriptions on them were erased. In total, the expedition counted the remains of about 13 people here. Three more dilapidated crosses rose in the distance.

Novaya Zemlya polar plane - 30s of the last century

Cape Flissing is the easternmost insular point of Europe. It is located in the northeast of the Severny Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, Arkhangelsk region, Russia.

It is a rocky massif up to 28 meters high, strongly protruding into the sea. Divides coastal waters into Emergency Bay (in the north) and Andromeda Bay (in the south).
A little south of the cape, the Andromeda River flows into the sea, beyond which there is Cape Burunny. To the north, along the coast, there is a relatively large river Ovrazhistaya. Further along the coast is Cape Dever, which limits the Gulf of Emergency from the north.
The cape was discovered and mapped by the expedition of Willem Barents in 1596, the name was given in honor of the Dutch city of Vlissingen. Southwest of the cape in September 1596, the ship of the expedition froze into ice - its participants had to spend the winter on the shore, building a hut from the so-called. "fin" (wood thrown out by the sea). They earned their livelihood, in particular, by hunting polar bears and seals. The following year, from fragments of the ship's hull, which continued to remain in ice captivity, they built two boats and set off on the return journey. During this return, Barents died of scurvy.
This story became the basis for the plot of the Dutch feature film "New Earth", the script of which is based on the memoirs of one of the members of the Barents team, a wintering participant Gerrit de Veer.

settlement Rogachevo Novaya Zemlya

Population
In administrative terms, the archipelago is a separate municipality of the Arkhangelsk region. It has the status of ZATO (closed administrative-territorial entity). A special pass is required to enter Novaya Zemlya. 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 the "points" located on the South Island and the south of the North Island - "Arkhangelsk-56", the "points" located in the north of the North Island and Franz Josef Land - " Krasnoyarsk region, island Dixon-2 "(communication with them through Dixon was maintained). IN administrative center- the urban-type settlement of Belushya Guba, located on the South Island - 2149 people live (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 - Amderma-2. 350 km north of south coast Matochkin Shar Strait - Severny settlement (without a permanent population), base of underground tests, mining, construction and installation works. There are currently no settlements on the North Island.
The indigenous population - the Nenets were completely evicted from the islands in the 1950s, when a military training ground was created. The population of the settlements is mainly made up of soldiers and builders.
According to the results of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, the population of Novaya Zemlya is 2429 people and is concentrated in only two settlements- Belushya Guba and Rogachevo.

Kara Gate Novaya Zemlya

Flora and fauna
Ecosystems of Novaya Zemlya are usually classified as Arctic desert biomes ( north island) and the arctic tundra.
The main role in the formation of phytocenoses belongs to mosses and lichens. The latter are represented by species of cladonia, the height of which does not exceed 3–4 cm.

Arctic herbaceous annuals also play a significant role. Creeping species, such as creeping willow (Salix polaris), opposite-leaved saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), mountain lichen and others, are characteristic of the scarce flora of the islands. The vegetation in the southern part is mostly dwarf birches, moss and low grass, in areas near rivers, lakes and bays a lot of mushrooms grow: milk mushrooms, mushrooms, etc.

Most big lake- Goose. It is home to freshwater fish, in particular arctic char. Of the animals, arctic foxes, lemmings, white partridges, and also reindeer are common. Polar bears come to the southern regions with the onset of cold weather, being a threat local residents. Marine animals include harp seals, seals, bearded seals, walruses, and whales.
On the islands of the archipelago you can find the largest bird colonies in the Russian region of the Arctic. Guillemots, puffins, seagulls settle here.

nuclear test site
The first underwater nuclear explosion in the USSR and the first nuclear explosion on Novaya Zemlya on September 21, 1955. Testing of the T-5 torpedo with a capacity of 3.5 kilotons at a depth of 12 m (Chernaya Bay).
On September 17, 1954, a Soviet nuclear test site was opened on Novaya Zemlya with a center in Belushya Guba. The polygon includes three sites:
Black Lip - used mainly in 1955-1962.
Matochkin Shar - underground tests in 1964-1990.
D-II SIPNZ on the Dry Nose Peninsula - ground tests in 1957-1962.
In addition, explosions were also carried out at other points (the official territory of the test site occupied more than half of the entire area of ​​the island). New Earth

From September 21, 1955 to October 24, 1990 (the official date of the moratorium on nuclear testing), 135 nuclear explosions were carried out at the test site: 87 in the atmosphere (of which 84 air, 1 ground, 2 surface), 3 underwater and 42 underground. Among the experiments were very powerful megaton tests of nuclear charges, carried out in the atmosphere over the archipelago.
On Novaya Zemlya in 1961, the most powerful hydrogen bomb in the history of mankind was detonated - the 58-megaton "Tsar Bomba" at the D-II "Dry Nose" site. A perceptible seismic wave resulting from the explosion circled three times Earth, and the sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dixon Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers. However, sources do not report any destruction or damage to structures, even in the villages of Amderma and Belushya Guba located much closer (280 km) to the landfill.

In August 1963, the USSR and the United States signed a treaty banning nuclear tests in three environments: the atmosphere, space and under water. Restrictions on the power of charges were also adopted. Underground explosions were carried out until 1990. In the 1990s, in connection with the end of the Cold War, testing abruptly came to naught, and at present, only research is being done in the field of nuclear weapons systems (the Matochkin Shar facility).

Glasnost policy led to the fact that in 1988-1989 the public learned about nuclear tests at Novaya Zemlya, and in October 1990 activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace appeared here to protest against the resumption of nuclear tests on the archipelago. On October 8, 1990, at night, in the area of ​​​​the Matochkin Shar Strait, the Greenpeace vessel entered the territorial waters of the USSR, and a group of anti-nuclear action activists was secretly sent ashore. After a warning salvo from the XXVI Congress of the CPSU patrol ship, the ship stopped, and Soviet border guards boarded it. Greenpeace was arrested and towed to Murmansk, then released.
However, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the test site at Novaya Zemlya, the head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Alexander Rumyantsev, said that Russia intends to continue to develop the test site and keep it in working condition. At the same time, Russia is not going to conduct nuclear tests on the archipelago, but intends to carry out non-nuclear experiments to ensure the reliability, combat capability and safety of storing its nuclear weapons.

Amderma Novaya Zemlya

burial radioactive waste
In addition to testing nuclear weapons, the territory of Novaya Zemlya (or rather, the water area adjacent directly to its eastern coast) in 1957-1992 was used for the disposal of liquid and solid radioactive waste (RW). Basically, these were containers with spent nuclear fuel (and in some cases, entire reactor plants) from submarines and surface ships of the Northern Fleet of the Navy of the USSR and Russia, as well as icebreakers with nuclear power plants.

Such RW disposal sites are the bays of the archipelago: Sedov Bay, Oga Bay, Tsivolki Bay, Stepovoy Bay, Abrosimov Bay, Prosperity Bay, Currents Bay, as well as a number of points in the Novaya Zemlya depression stretching along the entire archipelago. As a result of such activities and the bays of Novaya Zemlya, many underwater potentially hazardous objects (POHOs) have been formed. Among them: the completely flooded nuclear submarine "K-27" (1981, Stepovoy Bay), the reactor compartment of the nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" (1967, Tsivolki Bay), reactor compartments and assemblies of a number of other nuclear submarines.
Since 2002, the areas where the PPO is located have been subject to annual monitoring by the Russian Emergencies Ministry. In 1992-1994, international expeditions were carried out (with the participation of specialists from Norway) to assess the degree of environmental pollution; since 2012, the activities of such expeditions have been resumed.

Cape Sedova Novaya Zemlya

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE NEW EARTH
That Novaya Zemlya was known to Russians earlier than to foreigners is evidence of this by the very name "Novaya Zemlya", under which this island became known to Western peoples, and which was retained by it in all foreign atlases. Also, Russian industrialists sometimes served as guides to English and Dutch discoverers on their first voyages to the east, along the northern coasts of Russia, informing them that the coast seen in such and such a direction is “New Earth”.

Findings on its shores by the first foreign sailors of crosses and huts that fell apart from dilapidation, also proving this, at the same time testify that it has been visited by our compatriots for a long time. But exact time, when Novaya Zemlya was discovered by the Russians and in what way remains unknown, both of which can only be assumed with greater or lesser probability, based on certain historical data relating to the Russian North.

One of the Slavic tribes, which has long lived near Lake Ilmen and had Veliky Novgorod as its main city, already at the dawn of its history had a desire to the north, to the White Sea, the Arctic Ocean and further to the northeast, to the Pechora and beyond the Ural Range, to the Yugorsky Territory , while gradually crowding out their indigenous inhabitants, belonging to the Finnish tribe and called by the Novgorodians with the common name "Zavolotskaya Chud".

Initially, the Novgorodians gave one common name"Zavolochya", since this territory was located from Novgorod behind the "portage" - a vast watershed separating the basins of the Onega, Dvina, Mezen and Pechora rivers from the Volga basin, and through this watershed, during campaigns, the Novgorodians dragged ("dragged") their court.

From the beginning of the 13th century, with the expansion of geographical information about the newly conquered country, only the lands lying between the Onega and Mezen rivers began to be called Zavolochie, while others to the northeast and east of White Sea received separate names. So, for example, on the northern coast of the White Sea there was a volost "Tre" or "Tersky coast"; the Vychegda river basin was called the "Perm Volost"; the Pechora river basin - "Pechora volost". Beyond the Pechora and on the other side of the northern Ural ridge was the Ugra volost, which, it is believed, included the Yamal Peninsula. Part of the Zavolochye, between the Onega and Dvina rivers, was also called the "Dvina Land".

The primitive inhabitants of Zavolochye were generally separate, with a cult of idolatry, Finnish tribes - Yam, Zavolotskaya Chud, Perm, Pechora and Ugra (or Yugra):
They lived scattered, in small villages, among forests and swamps, along the banks of rivers and lakes, being engaged exclusively in hunting and fishing. Surrounded on the north by the seas, and on the south by dense forests, they were completely independent until the enterprising Novgorodians penetrated into their region.

Cape Zhelaniya - the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya

The occupation of the region by the Novgorodians was almost exclusively an act of private enterprise. Their movement here, first as conquerors - ushkuins, and then as colonizers - trading guests, went mainly along the course of the rivers, which were the only and most convenient ways of communication in this primitive region, and later the first settlements of Novgorodians were founded on them.

In the Russian chronicles there are indications that the inhabitants of Zavolochye were already tributaries of the Novgorod Slavs in the first half of the 9th century, and the Lapps (Lop) of the Kola Peninsula in the same century were their allies, who came for trade and crafts long before the Varangians were called to Rus'. But later, when the Novgorodians began to appear here as conquerors, Chud did not immediately submit to the newcomers, rebuffing them sometimes by force, sometimes paying tribute. Only since the conquest of Zavolochye by the Novgorodians did their first settlements appear along downstream Dvina, on the shores of the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
At the end of the 9th century, there were no Slavs at the mouth of the Dvina, since the Norwegian Viking Otar or Okhter, sent by the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great to the north in order to find out how far the land extends in this direction, and in the second half of the mentioned century reached the mouth Dvina by the sea, found here the tribe of Biorms, who, in his opinion, spoke the same language with the Finns. At the same time, Okhter does not mention anything about the Slavs. Unfriendly met by the Biorms and fearful of their numbers, he did not dare to sail further up the river. The land of the Ter-Finns (Tersky coast), which he saw when sailing here by sea, was not inhabited - he saw only temporarily fishermen and hunters from the Finns who were here.

Novgorod settlements are not visible here even at the beginning of the 11th century, since in 1024 to the mouth of the Dvina, where there was a rich trading city of Chudi and where Scandinavian merchants came to trade in the summer, another Norwegian Viking, Ture Gund, who robbed this time the temple of the Chud deity Yumala. Zavolochye was known at that time to Europe under the name of Biarmia or Permia, main city which was located near the current Kholmogory.

But no more than 50 years after the destruction of the temple of Yumala by the Norwegians, the first settlements of Novgorodians with their posadniks appear here, to which the entire local population more or less calmly submits. From that time on, Chud partly merged with the newcomers, became Russified, and partly moved further to the northeast and east. At present, only the names of almost most of our northern rivers, lakes, tracts and localities of various kinds, such as Dvina, Pechora, Pinega, Kholmogory, Shenkursk, Chukhchenema, etc., remind of it.

At the beginning of the 11th century, Novgorodians also appeared on the Murmansk coast of the Arctic Ocean. This is evidenced by one Scandinavian runic letter, from which it is clear that no later than 1030, the sea bay of Lugen Fjord, not far from Tromsø, was considered the border in the north between Russia and Norway. Since it is impossible to think that the aforementioned establishment of boundaries occurred immediately after the appearance of the first Novgorodians here, it can be concluded with a greater degree of probability that they appeared here earlier, namely in the 10th century. The establishment of the border was probably caused by the already widespread activity of the newcomers. Their appearance here earlier than at the mouth of the Dvina can be explained by the fact that the Novgorodians met little resistance from the Lapps, since this semi-wild nomadic tribe did not have permanent settlements, but moved from place to place in accordance with the movement of their deer for food. Therefore, the squads of Novgorodians could meet a rebuff only from the settled Norwegians. The border was established by agreement between the Novgorod prince Yaroslav the Wise, later the Kyiv prince, with the Norwegian king Olaf Tolstoy, whose daughter Yaroslav was married to.

Without a doubt, the beginning of Russian navigation in the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean must be attributed to the time of the appearance of the Novgorodians in the Dvina Land and on the Murmansk coast. But there is no information about how far these journeys were. One must think that they were not far away, since the Novgorodians, still little familiar with the sea, had to get used to it for some time in order to embark on a distant, unknown and dangerous path. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the Novgorodians came to Murman not by sea from the Svyatoy Nos, but from Kandalaksha, between which and Kola there is only one portage, about a verst long, and it is known that the Novgorodians made their trips mainly by boat along the rivers, dragging them across the watersheds - drags.

Sunrise in the Kara Sea Novaya Zemlya

The latter assumption is confirmed by the fact that they founded Kola much earlier than the settlements on the Tersky coast of the White Sea - Ponoy, Umba and Varzuga. If the Novgorodians were going to Murman for the first time from the White Sea, then these rivers, which they could not help but notice, would also serve as the place of their first settlements. Based on the foregoing, it is unlikely that Novaya Zemlya was discovered by the Russians from this side, that is, from the side of the White Sea.

Most likely, this could have been done from the side of the Pechora or Yugorsk Territory, where the Novgorodians also penetrated early, namely in the 11th century, as indicated by the chroniclers. Like the inhabitants of Zavolochye, Yugra also submitted to the Novgorodians, but not immediately - they made repeated attempts to overthrow the yoke of the newcomers, as evidenced by the many campaigns of the conquerors here to pacify some natives:
Having contact with the inhabitants - the nomads of the Pechora and Yugorsky regions - Novgorodians could then learn and hear about Novaya Zemlya, familiar to these nomads for a long time. After all, they could penetrate there through the island of Vaygach, separated from the mainland by a narrow strait and not particularly wide from Novaya Zemlya. You can get to Vaigach in winter on the ice on reindeer, and from it Novaya Zemlya can be clearly seen in clear weather.

Whether the campaign of the Novgorodians to the Iron Gates means a campaign to the Karsky Gates, also called the Iron Gates, cannot be reliably said, since there are quite a few places with that name in the north.

Herberstein, in his memoirs of Muscovy, twice mentions some country "Engroneland", located in the Arctic Sea, beyond the Riphean and Hyperborean mountains and beyond the mouths of the Pechora and Ob, relations with which are difficult due to constantly floating ice. But is this Novaya Zemlya mixed with Greenland by Herberstein, especially since such a mistake on his part is very possible in view of the fact that geographical description this part of Russia he compiled from the words of narrators, and his personal knowledge of geography could not be particularly extensive and clear? In any case, one must think that the Russians, who gave him geographical information about their country, Novaya Zemlya could not be called "Engroneland". last name he gave, forgetting her real name, reported by the Russians. And about Greenland, as an icy country and also in the ocean, he could hear in Europe.

Did the Russian discoverers of Novaya Zemlya know that it was an island and not a mainland? It can be assumed that at first it was considered the mainland, and only this can explain its name and, mainly, the presence of the word "land" in it. It's on the tongue Northern Pomors means "mother coast" - the mainland. She could make such an impression on the first newcomers there or those who saw her for the first time since Vaigach. For the enterprising Novgorodians, who were irresistibly striving in their forward movement to the northeast and further, the large island that appeared before them, still unknown to them, could really seem like “land” - it was so big compared to other islands that they had seen before.

But the Novgorodians and their successors, making voyages to Novaya Zemlya, did not leave any written information about it or about their travels there. They were passed on to offspring by oral traditions and in the same way they got acquainted with her. The first printed information about Novaya Zemlya appeared only from the time it was visited by foreign navigators who sought to open the northeastern route to China and India.

Strait Matochkin Shar Novaya Zemlya

THE LIFE OF A POLAR MONK
Father Innokenty, polar explorer monk. Life on New Earth
There is a mysterious island in the Arctic Ocean - Novaya Zemlya. From Arkhangelsk it is 1200 kilometers towards the North Pole. And people live there, in relation to whom we are southerners spoiled by warmth and natural bounties. It is here, in the northernmost point of the Arkhangelsk region, that there is the northernmost Russian Orthodox church in the name of St. Nicholas, whose rector for more than 5 years has been Abbot Innokenty (Russians).
The average summer temperature there is +3, the snow melts by the end of June, exposing a moss-lichen gray-brown desert. Melt water accumulates in lakes, there are no trees at all. And in winter - endless snow, whiteness, from which, according to science, the eyes "starve". Not much is known about Novaya Zemlya: until recently, it was covered in a veil of secrecy. Nuclear test site, closed military zone. The soldiers live there with their families. There is no indigenous population: the Nenets lived here before the creation of the landfill, and then, in the 50s of the last century, they were all evicted. It is here, in the northernmost point of the Arkhangelsk region, that there is an Orthodox church in the name of St. Nicholas, the rector of which for more than 5 years has been Abbot Innokenty (Russians). "How could you volunteer to go to this northern expanse?" - ask the young clergyman. "But someone had to go!" - Father Innokenty calmly answers.
Once upon a time, at the end of the 19th century, there was a temple on Novaya Zemlya, also St. Nicholas, in which missionaries labored - monks of the Orthodox Nikolo-Karelsky Monastery. old wooden church and now exists on the banks of Belushya Bay, a kilometer from the current village. The building was assembled in Arkhangelsk and transported to this island in the Arctic Ocean. The parishioners were Nenets. More than seven years ago, the command and residents of the village of Belushya Bay asked Bishop Tikhon of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory to send a priest. And in February 1999, Father Innokenty appeared in the military town of Belushya Guba. Due to the constant unfavorable weather, it was decided to arrange a church in the village itself, for this they allocated a large room, the first floor in a residential building - a former cafe. And the life of a parish priest flowed ...

On " big land"Father Innokenty is rare, mostly on study leave (the priest is educated in absentia in the spiritual educational institution). According to Father Innokenty, the permanent parish of the Novaya Zemlya church is fifteen people, which is 1% of the entire population of the military camp. Mostly women. The community gathered rather quickly, and those who are can be called active and church-going parishioners. They often go to confession and take communion, gather together, observe fasts, and read spiritual literature. On many issues, they turn to the priest for advice, and problems are solved jointly. The priest himself visits military units - he is present at the oaths, conducts conversations, sanctifies the premises. Father Innokenty has many good acquaintances among the local population, mostly officers. The priest also communicates with residents on local television, and regularly delivers sermons. This is the best option for education, because, as experience has shown, a Sunday school for children cannot exist here. During the school year, on weekends, children are used to staying at home: usually the weather is very bad, and you can’t force anyone to go outside. In general, there is nowhere to go especially in the village, people get used to a sedentary lifestyle.
Father Innocent is a monk. It is more usual for a monastic to live within the walls of a monastery, among the brethren, under the direction of the abbot. Here is a completely different situation. Father Innokenty came to Solovetsky Monastery at a fairly young age, he performed his obedience in the kliros, was tonsured a monk. Then he served in the Arkhangelsk Church of All Saints until he volunteered to go to Novaya Zemlya. Now the father lives alone, in an ordinary apartment. In order not to lose physical health at all, he goes in for sports: he goes to the gym, swimming pool, because physical activity in this climate and with a sedentary lifestyle is simply necessary. In addition, Father Innokenty is constantly studying, preparing for sessions at the theological seminary. He often conducts rehearsals with his choir (this priest loves to sing very much).

Father Innokenty realizes that he is doing an important job. Of course, life and priestly service beyond the Arctic Circle is a sacrifice, but every person must sacrifice something. The main thing is that now an Orthodox parish has appeared in that remote point, services are being held, prayers are being offered. People here are already accustomed to the church, and without it it would be hard for them. And the obedience of monk Innokenty is the work of an ordinary parish priest and missionary, on which the hardships and peculiarities of the northern island of Novaya Zemlya are superimposed.

TSAR BOMB TEST
Tsar Bomba (Big Ivan) - tests of a 50 megaton thermonuclear bomb at the Novaya Zemlya test site.
Date of explosion: October 30, 1961

Explosion coordinates:
73 degrees 50"52.93" N (Time zone "November" UTC-1) 54 degrees 29"40.91 E.

The largest hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb is the Soviet 50-megaton "Tsar Bomba", detonated on October 30, 1961 at a test site on the island of Novaya Zemlya.
Nikita Khrushchev joked that the 100-megaton bomb was originally supposed to be detonated, but the charge was reduced so as not to break all the windows in Moscow.
There is some truth in every joke: structurally, the bomb was indeed designed for 100 megatons, and this power could be achieved by simply increasing the working fluid. It was decided to reduce the energy release for safety reasons - otherwise the landfill would suffer too much damage. The product turned out to be so large that it did not fit into the bomb bay of the Tu-95 carrier aircraft and partially stuck out of it. Despite the successful test, the bomb did not enter service; nevertheless, the creation and testing of the superbomb was of great political importance, demonstrating that the USSR had solved the problem of achieving almost any level of megatonnage of a nuclear arsenal.

Ivan is a thermonuclear device developed in the mid-1950s by a group of physicists led by Academician I.V. Kurchatov. The group included Andrei Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov.

The original version of the bomb weighing 40 tons, for obvious reasons, was rejected by the designers of OKB-156 (the developers of the Tu-95). Then the nuclear scientists promised to reduce its mass to 20 tons, and the pilots proposed a program for the corresponding modification of the Tu-16 and Tu-95. The new nuclear device, according to the tradition adopted in the USSR, received the code designation "Vanya" or "Ivan", and the Tu-95 chosen as the carrier was named Tu-95V.

The first studies on this topic began immediately after I.V. Kurchatov's negotiations with A.N. Tupolev, who appointed his deputy for weapons systems A.V. Nadashkevich as the head of the topic. The analysis carried out by the Prochnists showed that the suspension of such a large concentrated load would require major changes in the power circuit of the original aircraft, in the design of the cargo bay and in the suspension and drop devices. In the first half of 1955, the overall and weight drawing of the "Ivan" was agreed, as well as the layout drawing of its placement. As expected, the weight of the bomb was 15% of the carrier's takeoff weight, but its overall dimensions required the removal of the fuselage fuel tanks. The new beam holder BD7-95-242 (BD-242) developed for the Ivan suspension was similar in design to the BD-206, but much more powerful. It had three Der5-6 bomber locks with a carrying capacity of 9 tons each. BD-242 was attached directly to the power longitudinal beams, edging the cargo compartment. The problem of controlling the release of the bomb was also successfully solved. Electric automatics ensured exclusively synchronous opening of all three locks, which was dictated by security conditions.

On March 17, 1956, a resolution of the Council of Ministers was issued, according to which OKB-156 was to begin converting the Tu-95 into a carrier of high-power nuclear bombs. These works were carried out in Zhukovsky from May to September, when the Tu-95V was accepted by the customer and handed over for flight tests. They were conducted under the leadership of Colonel S.M. Kulikov until 1959, included the dropping of a "superbomb" model, and passed without any special remarks.

The carrier of the "superbomb" was created, but its real tests were postponed for political reasons: Khrushchev was going to the USA, and there was a pause in the Cold War. The Tu-95V was transferred to the airfield in Uzin, where it was used as a training aircraft and was no longer listed as a combat vehicle. However, in 1961, with the beginning of a new round of the Cold War, testing of the "superbomb" again became topical. On the Tu-95V, all the connectors in the reset electric automatic system were urgently replaced, the doors of the cargo compartment were removed, because. the real bomb turned out to be somewhat larger in size and weight than the mock-up and now exceeded the dimensions of the compartment (the mass of the bomb was 24 tons, the parachute system was 800 kg).

The prepared Tu-95V was transferred to the northern airfield in Vaenga. Soon, with a special white thermal protective coating and a real bomb on board, piloted by a crew led by pilot Durnovtsov, he headed for Novaya Zemlya. The test of the most powerful thermonuclear device in the world took place on October 30, 1961. The bomb exploded at an altitude of 4500 m. The plane shook, and the crew received a certain dose of radiation. The power of the explosion, according to various estimates, ranged from 75 to 120 Mgt. Khrushchev was informed about the explosion of a 100 Mgt bomb, and it was this figure that he called in his speeches.

The results of the explosion of the charge, which received the name Tsar Bomba in the West, were impressive - the nuclear "mushroom" of the explosion rose to a height of 64 kilometers (according to American observation stations), the shock wave resulting from the explosion circled the globe three times, and the electromagnetic radiation of the explosion became cause radio interference for one hour.

The creation of the Soviet super-powerful hydrogen bomb and its explosion on October 30, 1961 over Novaya Zemlya became an important stage in the history of nuclear weapons. V. B. Adamsky and Yu. N. Smirnov, who repeatedly appeared on the pages of our journal, together with A. D. Sakharov, Yu. N. Babaev and Yu. A. Trutnev were direct participants in the development of the design of this bomb. They also participated in her trial.

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
http://yaranga.su/svedenia-novaya-zemla-1/
Pasetsky V. M. The discoverers of Novaya Zemlya. — M.: Nauka, 1980. — 192 p. — (History of science and technology). — 100,000 copies.
Saks VN Quaternary deposits of Novaya Zemlya. / Geology of the USSR. - T. XXVI, Islands of the Soviet Arctic. 1947.
Robush M.S. On the Arctic Ocean. (From travel notes) // Historical Bulletin. - 1890. - T. 42. - No. 10. - S. 83-118, No. 12. - S. 671-709.
Yugarov I.S. Journal for Novaya Zemlya (climate) for 1881 and 1882 / Extracted from. and comment. M. S. Robusha // Historical Bulletin. - 1889. - T. 36. - No. 4. - S. 117-151. — Under the heading: A Year on Novaya Zemlya.
E. R. a Trautvetter. Conspectus Florae Insularum Nowaja-Semlja (lat.) // Tr. Imp. St. Petersburg. bot. garden. - 1871-1872. - V. I. - T. I. - S. 45-88. (~ 77 Mb)
Martynov V. | New Earth - military land| Newspaper "Geography" No. 09/2009
Based on the materials of "The First Russian Explorers of Novaya Zemlya", 1922, compiled by P. I. Bashmakov
http://www.pravda.ru/districts/northwest/arhangelsk/31-12-2004/49072-monah-0/
http://www.nationalsecurity.ru/maps/nuclear/004.htm
http://www.photosight.ru/
http://www.belushka-info.ru/

The time of the origin of the name Novaya Zemlya is not exactly known. Perhaps it was formed as a tracing-paper from the Nenets Yedei-Ya "Novaya Zemlya". If so, then the name could have arisen during the very 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.

Pomors also used the name Matka, the meaning of which remains unclear. Often it is understood as "nurse, rich land."

And the land there is really rich, but not in plants, but in animals, which were hunted by hunters. Here, for example, as 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 good it would be to live here in the regions rich in crafts! In our places (Vologda province), look how a peasant works all year round, day after day, and only barely, with all his modesty, can feed himself and his family. Not here! Here, sometimes one week is enough to provide yourself with whole year if the merchants did not exploit the Samoyeds in this way, if the Samoyeds were at least somewhat able to preserve and dispose of 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: the Matochkin ball is called matochkin, unlike other small Novaya Zemlya balls, since it crosses the entire Uterus, that is, the hardened land of this archipelago.

In Finnish, Karelian, Vepsian matka means “way, 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 large islands and many smaller ones. In general, we can say that Novaya Zemlya is two islands: South and North, separated by a narrow strait Matochkin Shar.

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 Arctic archipelago adjacent to it, Franz Josef Land. That is, the inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk region, having visited Novaya Zemlya, in fact, will 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, which had been traversed by Russian coast-dwellers for several centuries before, 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 preserved to this day, despite the fact that in Russia this sea in the old days was called the Northern, Siver, 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 even warmer than on the coast. The weather forecast for Novaya Zemlya now (in Belushya Guba), as well as for comparison on the coast (in Amderma):

Very interesting and remarkable is the so-called "Novaya Zemlya bora" - a strong cold impetuous local wind, reaching up to 35-40 m / s, and sometimes 40-55 m / s! Such winds near the coast often reach the strength of a hurricane and weaken with distance from the coast.

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

Bora occurs when a stream of cold air encounters a hill on its way; having overcome the obstacle, the bora with great force falls on the coast. The vertical dimensions of the bur are several hundred meters. Affects, as a rule, small areas where low mountains directly border the sea.

Novaya Zemlya bora is due to the presence of a mountain range stretched from south to north along the island. Therefore, it is celebrated on the western and eastern coasts of the South Island. The characteristic features of the "bora" on the west coast is a strong gusty and very cold wind, northeast or southeast directions. On the east coast - winds of the western or north-western direction.

The highest frequency of Novaya Zemlya bora is observed in November - April with a duration of 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 foresight and caution from residents when moving in case of emergency.

The Novaya Zemlya Range affects 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. At east wind on the windward side, air accumulates, which, when crossing 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 Severny village up to 45-55 m/s).

Novaya Zemlya 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 clay and mica schist. In general, almost everywhere in the south of NZ where we visited, the land is like this. That is why here the paws of the running dogs were constantly injured.

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 early days, I was going to go away from the camp. Malanya saw, swayed, hurried, 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 stones. - I'll bring you pima. Waited.

Malanya brought new seal pima with sea hare soles. - Dress up. In these pims, it is good to walk on pebbles, and you can walk on water. How much do pimas cost? - One and a half rubles. It seemed cheap to me. Surprise resulted in a question: - Both? Malanya laughed a long laugh, even sat down on the ground. Waving her hands, she swayed. And through laughter she said - No, one pim! You will wear one, I will wear one pim. You step foot and I step foot. So let's go. Malanya laughed and told an old Nenets tale about people with one leg who can only walk with their arms around each other - They live there loving each other. There is no malice there. They don’t cheat there, - finished Malanya and fell silent, thoughtful, stared into the distance of the told fairy tale. Malania was silent for a long time. The dogs have calmed down, curled up in balls, sleeping. Only the ears of dogs flinch at 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 on Novaya Zemlya it is impossible to live because of radiation. In fact, everything, to put it mildly, is not at all like that.

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

There is also a base for underground testing, mining and construction and installation works. On Novaya Zemlya, the Pavlovskoye, Severnoye and Perevalnoye 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.

2149 people live in Belushi Guba, 457 people live in Rogachevo. Of these, military personnel - 1694 people; civilians - 603 people; children - 302 people. Currently also resides and serves personnel in the village of Severny, at the Malye Karmakuly weather station, on the heliports of Pankovaya Zemlya, Chirakino.

Novaya Zemlya has the House of Officers, a soldier's club, the Arktika sports complex, a secondary school, kindergarten Bunochka, five canteens, a military hospital. There is also a grocery store "Pole", a department store "Metelitsa", a vegetable store "Spolohi", a cafe "Fregat", a children's cafe "Skazka", a store "Sever". The names are just mi-mi-mi :)

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

The site 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 "points" located in the south - "Arkhangelsk-56". The postal address of the "points" located in the north is "Krasnoyarsk Territory, Dikson Island-2". Now this information is declassified.

The Malye Karmakuly meteorological station also operates 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 about purchasing tickets, booking tickets, the date and time of departure for regular flights civil aviation to Novaya Zemlya, you can contact the representatives of Aviastar Petersburg LLC on weekdays from 9.30 to 19.00.

Representative of Aviastar tel. +7 812 777 06 58, Moscow highway, 25, building 1, lit. 8 921 488 00 44. Representative in Belushya Guba tel. 8 911 597 69 08.

Also, Novaya Zemlya can be reached by sea - by boat. Personally, we went there just like that.

History of Novaya Zemlya

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

By the first arrival of Europeans to Novaya Zemlya, the unique spiritual and fishing traditions of the Russian Pomors had already developed here. Novaya Zemlya was visited by hunters seasonally to hunt sea animals (walruses, seals, polar bears), fur-bearing animals, birds, as well as collect eggs and fish. Hunters hunted for walrus tusks, polar fox, bear, walrus, seal and deer skins, walrus, seal, beluga and bear “fat” (blubber), omul and loaches, 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 for the construction of huts brought wood and bricks themselves. The dwelling was heated with firewood brought with them on the ship. According to surveys conducted among industrialists in 1819, “there are no natural inhabitants; any indigenous inhabitants of Novaya Zemlya were unknown to the fishermen.

Discovery of Novaya Zemlya by foreign sailors

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). So they got to the New Earth.

First unsuccessful expedition:

In 1533 X. Willoughby left England and apparently reached the southern coast of Novaya Zemlya. Turning back, the two ships of the expedition were forced to spend the 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 wintering 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 he met the crew of a Russian boat. The accumulation of ice 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 home.

Expeditions with victims, but also goals achieved:

In 1594, 1595 and 1596 northeast passage three trading sea expeditions to India and China. One of the leaders of all three expeditions was 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 met material evidence of the Russians' presence in Novaya Zemlya.

August 26, 1596 northeast coast archipelago, in Ice Harbor. The Dutch had to build a dwelling on the shore from driftwood and ship planks. During the winter, two members of the team died. On June 14, 1597, leaving the ship, the Dutch set sail in two boats from Ice Harbor. Off the northwestern coast of Novaya Zemlya, in the area of ​​Ivanov Bay, V. Barents and his servant, a little later another member of the expedition, died.

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

Subsequent expeditions:

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

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

Exploration of Novaya Zemlya by Russians

It all started with two unsuccessful expeditions:

In 1652, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, an 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 build a wooden fortress on the archipelago. In 1672, all members of the expedition died.

Finally, relative luck:

In 1760-1761. Savva Loshkin traveled by boat from south to north along the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya for the first time, spending two years on it. One of his winter huts, apparently, was built at the mouth of the Savina River. Loshkin rounded north coast and along West Bank went down south.

In 1766, helmsman Yakov Chirakin sailed on the ship of the Arkhangelsk merchant A. Barmin from the Barents Sea to the Kara Strait Matochkin Shar. Upon learning of this, the Arkhangelsk governor A.E. Golovtsyn agreed with Barmin to send a ship with an expedition.

In July 1768, an expedition led by F.F. Rozmyslova set off on a three-masted kochmar to the western mouth of the Matochkin Shar strait in order to map the strait and measure its depth. The tasks of the expedition included: to go, if possible, through Matochkin Shar and the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Ob River and study the possibility of opening a route from the Kara Sea to North America. From August 15, 1768, the expedition carried out measurements and research of Matochkin Shar. IN eastern mouth the strait - Tyulenaya Bay and Cape Drovyanoy, two huts were built, where, divided into two groups, the expedition spent the winter. During the winter, Yakov Chirakin died. Of the 14 people on the expedition, 7 died.
Returning to the western mouth of the Matochkin Shara, the expedition met a Pomeranian fishing vessel. The rotten kochmara had to be left at the mouth of the Chirakina River and returned on September 9, 1769 to Arkhangelsk on a ship of the Pomors.

Of course, the name of Rozmyslov should take one of the first places among the outstanding Russian sailors and explorers of the Arctic. He not only measured and put on the map 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, some representatives of the flora and fauna. Moreover, he carried out regular observations of the weather, fixed the time of freezing and opening 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 explorers of the archipelago.

In 1806, Chancellor N.P. Rumyantsev allocated funds for the search for silver ore in 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 traveled to Mezhdusharsky Island, visiting the famous Pomeranian camp of Valkovo. 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 Strait to Cape Nassau. Close-knit ice did not allow them to break further to the North. For the first time, a whole complex 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 up a single-mast deckless large karbas “Novaya Zemlya” for wintering near the southern shores of the archipelago, in the Kamenka Bay. For the construction of housing, the remains of a Pomeranian hut and a driftwood found here were used. As soon as all the members of the expedition moved to the rebuilt winter hut, from the second decade of September they began to keep a meteorological log, entering into it every two hours the readings of the barometer, thermometer and the state of the atmosphere. With the end of winter, many-day hiking routes began to describe and survey the southern shores of the archipelago. The results of the expedition - 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 coast of Matochkin Shar, East Coast archipelago from the Kara Gate to the Far Cape.

Then they were in 1837 on the schooner “Krotov” and a small boat “St. Elisha” expedition of the Imperial Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Academician K. Baer. Ensign A.K. Tsivodka commanded the ship.
In 1838, under the command of Ensign A.K. Tsivolka, an expedition was sent to Novaya Zemlya on the schooners Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen. The second schooner was commanded by Ensign S.A. Moiseev. As a result, a number of important studies were made, and well-known domestic and Western European scientists repeatedly addressed various scientific results of the Tsivolka-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, collected samples rocks and put up stakes. In 1870, Sidorov published a project “On the benefits of a 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". For a long time this region was "Russian", but unfortunately there was not a single permanent settlement here. Even the first Russian settlers in the North and their descendants, the Pomors, went here to fish. But the “rustic Russians” for some reason believed that their Arctic paradise would always be inaccessible to the “nemchure”, “Germans” - foreigners (“Germans”, that is, dumb, not speaking Russian, the Pomors called all foreigners). And they were clearly wrong.

It is known that as early as the 16th century, shortly after the visit of the Dutchman Willem Barents and his associates to the region, Europe was interested in this particular “corner of the Russian Arctic”. And in confirmation of 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 Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya to “beat the whales”. According to the famous Siberian merchant and philanthropist M.K. Sidorov, who spent his whole life and fortune just to prove that Russia's strength was 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 18th - the first third of the 19th century, when the North Atlantic whale and fish stocks had already dried up, and the beaches and shoals of Jan Mayen and Bear, Svalbard and other islands lost their once familiar appearance - walruses and seals, polar bears, our the eternal competitors in the development of the North, the Norwegians, turned their attention to the undeveloped eastern expanses of the Barents Sea - the islands of Kolguev, Vaigach and Novaya Zemlya, the icy Kara Sea, which were still "teeming" with Arctic life. The main period of their exploitation of the Novaya Zemlya fisheries covers approximately a 60-year period - from the end of the second third of the 19th century to the end of the 1920s.

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

In voyages along the coast of the archipelago, the Norwegians relied on the navigational and perceptible signs (houris, crosses) set by the Pomors, used the old Russian camps or their remains as strongholds. These camps also served as a signal to the Norwegians that the crafts were somewhere nearby, since the Pomors usually built camps and huts near them. By the beginning of the XX century. they even organized several winter quarters in the archipelago.

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

“The development by Norwegians of crafts 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 middle of the 19th century, had no more than 100 inhabitants in 1820. After 40 years, 1750 people lived in it. Hammerfest developed his trades on Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya, sent in 1869 27 ships with a displacement of 814 tons and 268 crew members for fishing.

Knowing about the existence in Russia of the laws of "coastal law, which prohibit foreigners from settling the shores of the islands without the permission of the government," the Norwegians quite cleverly circumvented this legal obstacle. In particular, according to the famous Arkhangelsk Pomor F.I. Voronin, who worked on Novaya Zemlya for 30 years, he knew 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 Vaigach.

And so, in order to somehow protect themselves from Norwegian expansion in the Russian North, in the 1870s, a plan ripened 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. From St. Petersburg to Arkhangelsk comes "good" for the beginning of the colonization of the Arctic island. The beginning of the existence of the Novaya Zemlya island hunting economy should be considered the second half of the 1870s, when the first permanent settlement, the Small Karmakuly camp, was founded on the archipelago by the Arkhangelsk provincial administration with state support.

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 stimulating the involvement of the Nenets in resettlement to Novaya Zemlya and supporting their fishing activities.
In the initial period of the colonization of Novaya Zemlya, according to the royal decree, each male industrialist pioneer was entitled to 350 rubles from the state treasury as "lifting" or compensation. At the same time, the settlers were exempted from all state and zemstvo fees for 10 years, and those who wished to move back to the mainland in five years could return to their former 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 paid into a savings bank on special personalized 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 help the first settlers - to bring them from the tundra to Arkhangelsk, to live there for several months, to provide them with clothes and tools for crafts, to bring them to Novaya Zemlya, to issue a gratuitous cash allowance, etc.

Settlement of Novaya Zemlya (its inhabitants)

The residence of indigenous Samoyeds on Novaya Zemlya until the 19th century, unlike Vaigach (an island located between Novaya Zemlya and the mainland), is not confirmed.

Nevertheless, when in 1653 (already after the Barents and other foreign predecessors) three Danish ships reached Novaya Zemlya, the ship's doctor of this expedition, De Lamartinier, in the description of the voyage to the archipelago, pointed to a meeting with local residents - "New Landers". Like the Samoyeds (Nenets), they worshiped the sun and wooden idols, but differed from the Samoyeds in clothing, jewelry, and face painting. Lamartinière indicates that they used boats that resembled light canoes, and that spear and arrowheads, like their other tools, were made of fish bones.

In the literature, there are also references to the attempts of Russian families to settle in the archipelago in the 16th-18th centuries. There is a legend that the Stroganov Bay, located in the southwestern part of Novaya Zemlya, is named after the Stroganov family, who fled from Novgorod during the persecution of Ivan the Terrible. Two hundred years later, in 1763, 12 people of the Paikachev family of the Old Believers settled on the coast of Chernaya Bay (the southern part of the archipelago). 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, the Nenets Foma Vylka with his wife Arina and children sailed to the southern coast of Novaya Zemlya on two karbashes. The Nenets accompanying them went back in the fall, while Vylka, his family and the Nenets Samdey stayed for the winter. At the end of the winter, Samdey died. Vylka became the first known permanent resident of the archipelago. He lived on Goose Land, in the Small Karmakuly and on the coast of Matochkin Shara.

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 - Pyrerka Maxim Danilovich. The Nenets proved that a person can live on Novaya Zemlya.

“In 1877, a rescue station was set up in the Malye Karmakuly camp in order to provide industrialists with a reliable shelter both for the time of fishing and in case of an unforeseen wintering, and at the same time to provide assistance to the crews of ships in case they crash near this island.
In addition, to protect the erected buildings and to engage in crafts there, five Samoyed families from the Mezen district, including 24 people, were then delivered to Novaya Zemlya and settled in the Malokarmakulsky camp; they were provided with warm clothes, shoes, guns, gunpowder, lead, food supplies and other tools for hunting and crafts.

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

These Samoyeds were sent here by a Pechora industrialist, and were provided with good means for crafts, but they squandered them and, not risking returning to their homeland, completely got used to Novaya Zemlya. Having found themselves in complete economic dependence on one of the Pomor industrialists, who supplied them with the necessary supplies, in return for this - of course, at fabulously cheap prices - taking away their crafts, the Samoyeds asked Tyagin to include them in the Samoyed artel brought at the expense 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 the Small Karmakuly and carried out hydrometeorological observations during the winter. Tyagin's wife gave birth to a child who became one of the first children born on Novaya Zemlya.

The families of the Nenets colonists who settled in the Small Karmakuly elected Foma Vylka as the first inhabitant of the island, the headman. He was entrusted with the care of the people-colonists, the duties of maintaining order, as well as organizing unloading and loading. sea ​​vessels. In the performance of his official duties, Foma put on a white round tin badge over a patched and greasy blubber coat, which meant a foreman. After the departure of Tyatin, the entire management of the rescue station passed into the hands of Foma. He faithfully fulfilled this duty for many years.

The first known inhabitant of Novaya Zemlya - Thomas Vylka

Foma Vylka is an interesting personality. He was born on the banks of the Hungry Bay at the mouth of the Pechora River, in the poorest family. At the age of seven, left an orphan, he went to work as a farm laborer to a rich reindeer herder and worked only for the fact that he was fed.

The owner had a son who was taught to read, forced to read and write. Thomas saw it all. He asked the young owner - they were the same age - to teach him to read and write. They went further into the tundra or into the forest, where no one saw them, there they drew letters in the snow or sand, added words, read in syllables. So Foma learned Russian letters. And once, when the owner beat Foma severely, he ran away from home, taking with him the master's psalter...

Moving from pasture to pasture, where many reindeer herders gathered, Foma looked after himself a beautiful girl and decided to marry. Violating the ancient rites of matchmaking, he asked the girl if she wanted to become his wife. And only when he received her consent, he sent matchmakers. Several years have passed. Thomas came to ancient capital European Nenets Pustozersk at the fair. Here he was persuaded to accept Christianity, to marry his wife according to the Christian rite, and to baptize his daughter. Thomas himself had to take confession in the church. It was then that something unexpected happened. The priest asked the confessor, "Have you stolen?" Foma became agitated, upset, even wanted to run away, but finally admitted that in childhood he had taken the psalter from the owner...

The new owner, to whom Foma was hired for this job, suggested that he go to Vaigach Island at the head of the owner’s fishing artel to hunt the sea animal. So for three years Foma went on karbass across the sea to Vaigach and always brought good booty to the owner. For Thomas, the reputation of a successful hunter, a skilled pilot and a good headman 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, equipped two sailing karbas. On the way to Novaya Zemlya, they were met by a strong storm, the rudder of one karbas was torn off, Foma was washed into the sea. Miraculously, the assistant dragged him on board by the hair. One karbas turned back, the second, led by Foma Vylka, safely reached the shores of Novaya Zemlya. So Foma Vylka with his wife and daughter first came to Novaya Zemlya. A year later, their second daughter was born there.

Foma Vylka's family had to endure many hardships in Novaya Zemlya. Harsh, endlessly long winters, loneliness. Food was obtained with great difficulty, clothes and shoes were sewn from animal skins. There was not enough firewood to heat and light the tent a little, they burned blubber - the fat of a sea animal.

Once, when the family of another Nenets, Pyrerka Maxim Danilovich, was already living on the island next to the Vylka family, such an event happened. In late autumn, Norwegian sailors from a wrecked ship came to the plagues of the Nenets. Their appearance was terrible: exhausted to a pulp, in tattered clothes and shoes. Foma and Pyrerka gladly accepted them into their tents, fed them, warmed them, provided them with the best places in the tent. The wives sewed warm fur clothes and shoes for them. 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 with 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 reindeer meat, rubbed his legs and body, forced him to walk, did not let him 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. We exchanged gifts. Foma was given a pipe, and he gave them a walrus tusk.

Several years have passed since the sailors left. Once I came to Small Karmakuly sea ​​steamer. All Nenets colonists were invited to it. The Swedish envoy read out and presented a letter of gratitude signed by the Swedish king. Then gifts began to be distributed. The first gift to Foma Vylka was a rifle and cartridges. Showed how to use it. Foma could not resist with joy and immediately smashed the head of a floating loon with a shot from his hand, thereby violating the order of the solemn ceremony ...

Exploration of Novaya Zemlya

In 1880, M.K. Sidorov, together with the shipowners Kononov, Voronov and Sudovikov, submitted a report to the Minister of the Interior on improving the situation in 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 protect the northern lands of Russia. Starting from this year, regular steamboat flights from Arkhangelsk to Malye Karmakuly are being established.

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

The work of the polar station was supervised by a hydrograph, lieutenant K.P. Andreev. In late April - early May 1882, an employee of the station, doctor L.F. Grinevitsky, accompanied by the Nenets Khanets Vylka and Prokopy Vylka, made the first exploratory crossing of the Southern Island of Novaya Zemlya from Malye Karmakul to the eastern coast in 14 days (round trip).

In 1887, a new encampment was founded in the Pomorskaya Bay, Matochkin Shar Strait. Here, a member of the Russian Geographical Society K.D. Nosilov stayed for the winter, who carried out regular meteorological observations. Hieromonk father Jonah arrived in Small Karmakuly with a psalmist. Prior to this, the diocesan spiritual authorities annually sent a priest to Novaya Zemlya in the summer to officiate trebs and services in a small chapel.

In 1888, the Arkhangelsk governor, Prince N.D. Golitsyn, arrived in Novaya Zemlya. In Arkhangelsk, a wooden church was built specially for Novaya Zemlya, which the governor delivered along with the iconostasis to Malye Karmakuly. In the same year, Father Jonah made two trips. One in Matochkin Shar for the baptism of two residents. The second - to the eastern coast of the 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 of the South Island. Father Ion began to teach Nenets children to read and write, and their parents to pray.

On September 18, 1888, the new church was consecrated. The church was supplied with magnificent icons, valuable church utensils and bells. In 1889, in the Small Karmakuly, the Nikolo-Karelsky Monastery was established, with the permission of the Holy Synod, a monastic skete. The task of the monks included not only preaching among the Nenets, but also helping to change the prevailing way of life during the transition from nomadic to settled life. The long-term activity of Jonah's father has borne fruit. The German colonists willingly visited the temple, and their children read and sang in the church during worship.

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

By 1894, the permanent population of Novaya Zemlya was 10 families of Nenets in the amount of 50 people. This year, Novaya Zemlya was visited by Arkhangelsk Governor A.P. Engelgard, who brought 8 more families, including 37 people, who expressed a desire to settle in the archipelago, on the Lomonosov steamer.

On the ship, a six-room house was delivered in disassembled form for the school and the residence of Jonah's father and the psalmist. This house was assembled in Small Karmakuly. Another house was brought to the camp in Matochkin Shar. So, in Small 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 depot, a barn where spare building materials were stored, and in winter - a rescue boat. In Matochkin Shar there were three small houses where the Nenets lived.

Geographical position

New Earth- an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara seas; part of the Arkhangelsk region of Russia in the rank of the municipality "Novaya Zemlya".
The archipelago consists of two large islands - North and South, 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 Flissing - is the easternmost point of Europe.

It stretches from the southwest to the northeast for 925 km. The northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya is the eastern island of the Greater Orange Islands, the southernmost point is the Pynina Islands of the Petukhov Archipelago, the western one is an unnamed cape on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula of the South Island, and the eastern one is Cape Flissingsky of the Severny Island.

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

Climate

The climate is arctic and harsh. The winter is long and cold, with strong winds (the speed of katabatic (katabatic) winds reaches 40-50 m/s) and blizzards, which is why Novaya Zemlya is sometimes referred to in the literature as the "Land of Winds". Frosts reach -40 °C. The average temperature of the warmest month - August - is 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°. Such a temperature asymmetry is due to the difference in the ice regime of these seas. There are many small lakes on the archipelago itself; under the rays of the sun, the water temperature in the southern regions can reach 18 ° C.

Population

In administrative terms, the archipelago is a separate municipality of the Arkhangelsk region. It has the status of ZATO (closed administrative-territorial entity). A special pass is required to enter Novaya Zemlya. 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 the "points" located on the South Island and the south of the North Island - "Arkhangelsk-56", the "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). In the administrative center - the urban-type settlement of Belushya Guba, located on the South Island - 2149 people live (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 - Amderma-2. 350 km to the north on the southern coast of the Matochkin Shar Strait is the Severny settlement (without a permanent population), a base for underground tests, mining, construction and installation works. There are currently no settlements 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 settlements is mainly made up of soldiers and builders.

According to the results of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, the population of Novaya Zemlya is 2429 people and is concentrated in only two settlements - Belushya Guba and Rogachevo.

Nature

The ecosystems of Novaya Zemlya are usually referred to as biomes of the 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 species of cladonia, the height of which does not exceed 3-4 cm.
Arctic herbaceous annuals also play a significant role. Creeping species, such as creeping willow (Salix polaris), opposite-leaved saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), mountain lichen and others, are characteristic of the scarce flora of the islands. The vegetation in the southern part is mostly dwarf birches, moss and low grass, in areas near rivers, lakes and bays a lot of mushrooms grow: milk mushrooms, mushrooms, etc.
The largest lake is Gusinoe. It is home to freshwater fish, in particular arctic char. Of the animals, arctic foxes, lemmings, white partridges, and also reindeer are common. Polar bears come to the southern regions with the onset of cold weather, being a threat to local residents. Marine animals include harp seals, seals, bearded seals, walruses, and whales.
On the islands of the archipelago you can find the largest bird colonies in the Russian region of the Arctic. Guillemots, puffins, seagulls settle here.