Novaya Zemlya what region. The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is a picturesque corner of the Arctic. Commercial development of Novaya Zemlya

Archipelago New Earth located in the Arctic Ocean between the Kara 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 and 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 northeastern sea route to India as an alternative to the 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, since the 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.
Currently, Novaya Zemlya is a closed administrative-territorial entity within the 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 cold war 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.

Novaya Zemlya is dominated by the natural world for the Arctic lands 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.

The island archipelago Novaya Zemlya is located on the border of the Kara, Barents and Pechora seas, which belong to the Arctic Ocean. The Kara Gate Strait separates Novaya Zemlya from Vaigach Island by about fifty kilometers. It is believed that the first explorers and Novgorod merchants called the islands of the archipelago by such a common name. Most likely, they believed that the lands they saw across the strait were new. The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is the two most big islands North and South, they are separated by a narrow strait Matochkin Shar. How do they look?

In addition, there are small rocks and small islands nearby. Other islands and island groups include: Big Oransky, Gorbovye, Pastukhov, Pynina and Mezhdsharsky Islands. By the way, the latter is the third in the archipelago in terms of its area. The islands of the archipelago are spread over an area of ​​more than 83 thousand square kilometers. The territory of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago belongs to the Russian Federation. Administratively, it is included in the Arkhangelsk region, as a territorial municipality. Visit beautiful.

History of Novaya Zemlya

The Englishman Hugh Willoughby, in 1553, led an expedition that was aimed at opening routes through the north to India. He became the first European to see the islands of the archipelago. Gerard Mercator - Dutch cartographer and geographer, published a map in 1595 from Hugh's notes. On it, Novaya Zemlya appeared as a peninsula. In 1596, the expedition of Willem Barents circled the islands of Novaya Zemlya from the north and spent the winter on the North Island. In 1653, the Frenchman Pierre-Martin de la Martiniere, together with Danish merchants, visited Novaya Zemlya. They met representatives of the Samoyed tribe on the coast of the South Island, who were local residents.

Emperor Peter I planned to build a fort on Novaya Zemlya to mark the Russian presence in the archipelago. In 1768-69, Fyodor Rozmyslov, the first traveler and Russian explorer on the islands of Novaya Zemlya, arrived here. Two centuries ago, the Russian Empire officially announced that the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago belonged to it territorially. Then the forced settlement of the islands by Pomors and Nenets began. The village of Olginsky was founded on Severny Island in 1910, at that time it became the northernmost inhabited place Russian Empire.

In 1954, a Soviet nuclear test site was founded on these islands, the center of which was Belushya Guba. In addition, work in this area was carried out at three more sites in the archipelago. Unfortunately, in 1961, the most powerful explosion in the world occurred at this island test site. A 58 megaton hydrogen bomb exploded. To date, the nuclear test site at Novaya Zemlya remains the only operating nuclear test site in Russia. Also, the Novaya Zemlya archipelago has a rich history and interesting landscapes.

Origin of the island

The area of ​​the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is quite impressive. The length of the islands of the archipelago is 925 kilometers, and the width reaches 120-140 kilometers. Vostochny Island is the northernmost zone of Novaya Zemlya, it belongs to the Great Orange Islands. The Pynina Islands are the southernmost point; they are part of the Petukhovsky archipelago. Cape Nameless is the western side, it is located on Yuzhny Island, the Gusinaya Zemlya Peninsula. Cape Flissingsky is the easternmost point on Severny Island, it is also called the easternmost point in Europe.

The coasts of the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago are distinguished by a sinuous line. Many fjords and bays are formed here, they are perfectly connected to the land. The bays on the western coast are considered the largest, among them: Krestovaya Bay, Mityushikha Bay, Glazov Bay, Mashigin Bay, Inostrantsev, Borzov, Nordenskiöld and Russian Harbor. And in the east there are lips: Oga, Rusanova, Schubert, Neznaniy and Bear. The islands of the archipelago have a mountainous relief, mostly rocky and impregnable coasts. The height of the mountains increases towards the center of the islands. On Severny Island there is a nameless mountain, which is considered the highest point of the archipelago. A significant part of this island is covered with glaciers. Closer to the coast, they form small icebergs.

Many small rivers originate in the mountainous regions of the islands: North and South. These rivers flow into the Barents and Kara Seas. Notable lakes include Lake Goltsovoye, which is located in the south of Severny Island. And in the west of the South Island is Gusinoye Lake. Experts classify the islands of the archipelago by their origin as mainland. Most likely, they were formed during the movement of the continents, they are called peers Ural mountains. There is a hypothesis that the South Island was a peninsula somewhere before the 16th century. Therefore, earlier on the maps it was designated in this way. When the seabed began to subside, it became an island.

Others argue that the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago were part of an ancient geological platform. Basically, the islands of the archipelago consist of granites and basalts, such is its geological structure. The discovered minerals include large deposits of iron and manganese ores. In addition to them, deposits of lead, silver, tin and rare earth metals were found.

A harsh climate reigns on the territory of these islands, experts classify it as arctic. Winter days are long enough and cold. At this time, strong gusty winds are typical. In winter, snowfalls and blizzards often fall, the temperature can drop to -40 degrees. Summer is relatively cold, the temperature rises above +7 degrees. Therefore, the climate of the islands is very cold, here you will not wait for warm sunshine. We recommend that you bring warm clothes with you.

Features of the islands of Novaya Zemlya

When a Soviet nuclear test site was created on the territory of the archipelago, indigenous people who lived here since the era of the Russian Empire. The settlements were empty, they were occupied by technical and military personnel. They began to ensure the life of the landfill facilities. To date, there are only two settlements on Yuzhny Island - these are Rogachevo and Belushya Guba. But on the other islands of Novaya Zemlya there are no permanent settlements. The total number of people living in the lands of the archipelago is no more than 2500 people. Basically, these are technical personnel, military and meteorologists.

The island ecosystem is assigned to the biomes that are inherent in the Arctic deserts. This applies to the north of the North and South Islands. The conditions for plants are not the easiest here, so lichens and mosses grow. In addition to them, arctic herbaceous annual herbs are found in the south of the archipelago, a significant part of them are classified as creeping species. Naturalists pay attention to creeping willow, saxifrage opposite-leaved and mountain lichen. On the South Island you can see low grasses and dwarf birches. Island mushrooms include: milk mushrooms and mushrooms. They are found in the lakeside and river valleys. Fish are found in island reservoirs, mainly arctic char.

The fauna is rather modest. Mammals such as the lemming, arctic fox and reindeer live here. In winter, polar bears live on the south coast. Marine mammals include: harp seals, walruses, sea hares and seals. Whales can often be seen in inland bays and coastal waters. The islands were chosen by various representatives of the bird world, these are: gulls, puffins and guillemots. They formed the largest bird colonies in Russia. Also on the islands there is a white partridge.

To date, the islands of Novaya Zemlya remain closed to a large number of tourists and travelers. Tourism is not developed in these places, because there is a nuclear test site and other military facilities. To visit the islands of the archipelago, you must obtain special permission from the Russian authorities, and you must also maintain the strictest secrecy. Naturalists and scientists are not allowed to enter here, so there is discontent among the world community. environmental situation on Novaya Zemlya, environmental organizations are concerned, because nuclear tests were carried out here. Despite the fact that the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago remain one of the closed territories, the world community continues to show interest in relation to them. So far, no one predicts the exact time of changes in the tourism sector of the islands of Novaya Zemlya.

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. Typically affects small areas 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. With an east wind, air accumulates on the windward side, which, when crossing the ridge, leads to air collapses, accompanied by a strong gusty wind, 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, personnel also live and serve in the village of Severny, at the Malye Karmakuly weather station, at the heliports of Pankovaya Zemlya, Chirakino.

On Novaya Zemlya there is a House of Officers, a soldiers' club, sports complex"Arktika", a secondary school, a 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", children's Cafe Skazka, Sever store. 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 - " Krasnoyarsk region, Dixon 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 civil aviation flights 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 in the south sea ​​routes Spain and Portugal dominated, 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 the Dutch navigator Willem Barents. In 1594, he passed along the northwestern coast of Novaya Zemlya and reached its northern tip. Along the way, the Dutch repeatedly met material evidence of the Russians' presence in Novaya Zemlya.

On August 26, 1596, the Barents ship was wrecked off the northeastern coast of the archipelago, in Ice Harbor. The Dutch had to build a dwelling on the shore from driftwood and ship planks. During the winter, two 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 went 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 the northern 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 the eastern mouth of the strait - Tyulenya Bay and on 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 well-off Norwegian industrialists for sea animals, who have long hunted whales and seals in the North Atlantic and near Svalbard, 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, on two karbas to south coast The Nenets Foma Vylka sailed to Novaya Zemlya with his wife Arina and children. 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 the unloading and loading of ships. 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 best places in the plague. 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 a sea steamer came to Small Karmakuly. 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. A member of the Russian geographical society KD Nosilov, who conducted 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.

And the Arctic walks near Novaya Zemlya,
The Arctic is shaking.
Y. Vizbor. New Earth. 1970

The military played a leading role in the development of many remote territories of our country. Somewhere on Far North and the Far East, garrisons to this day are the main type of settlements. True, in the post-Soviet period, the number of such garrisons and the population in them have declined sharply. However, our geography textbooks still do not write anything about "military" development, even in cases where it has long been no longer a secret. This is a little surprising, since for many old-developed regions and regions of new development, parts of various law enforcement agencies perform the functions of city-forming enterprises.

Novaya Zemlya (an area of ​​83 thousand km 2) separates the Barents and Kara Seas. This is one of the oldest, according to the time of the discovery of the Northern Islands. Arctic Ocean. The exact time of the discovery of the islands is unknown, most likely, it happened during the independence of Veliky Novgorod. The antiquity of the discovery of Novaya Zemlya is also evidenced by its old name, Mother. Hence the name of the strait Matochkin Shar. Apparently, this name comes from the Finno-Ugric word matka - the way. Franz Josef Land was discovered at the end of the 19th century. by the Austro-Hungarian expedition, which set off in 1872 in search of the Northeast Passage, and perhaps to reach the North Pole, and in 1873 pressed against the shores of hitherto unknown land, named after the then emperor of Austria-Hungary. ZFI, as it is usually called in the North, has an area of ​​approximately 16,000 km2 and consists of 191 islands.

The first permanent settlement on Novaya Zemlya appeared in 1877. It is called Small Karmakuly. In 1896, a hydrometeorological station was established in the Small Karmakuly, which still exists today and is the oldest polar station in Russia.

As the islands were explored, more and more bays were opened and new settlements were built. One of these settlements was the current “capital” of Novaya Zemlya, the village of Belushya Guba, founded in 1897. In addition to Belushya Guba and Small Karmakul, several more settlements were created on Novaya Zemlya before the revolution, all of them disappeared long ago.

years civil war New Earth has gone through hard times. Since its development before the revolution went to state funds, and their receipt in 1917-1919. ceased, the population of the islands fell into a very difficult situation.

In the 1920s, the creation of new settlements and polar stations continued. For example, on the banks of the Black Bay, the camp of Krasino is being built, the remains of which have survived to this day. In the 1930s, polar stations were built at Cape Zhelaniya, in the Russian Harbor, on the coast of Matochkin Shara (Cape Stolbovoy). At the same time, polar stations were also created at Z.F.I., in 1928 officially proclaimed part of the territory of the USSR.

In 1942, German submarines began to penetrate the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land. And not only penetrate, but also defend here. On the shores of Novaya Zemlya, the Germans placed automatic hydrometeorological stations, and a polar station (Alexandra Land) was built on Franz Josef Land. The remains of this station were discovered in the 50s.

To combat the German fleet in 1942, the Novaya Zemlya Naval Base (Naval Base) was created, which had the status of a temporary one. The database included almost all existing by that time settlements and polar stations. The headquarters of the Novaya Zemlya Naval Base was located in Belushya Guba. The base was given two formations of patrol ships, several coastal defense batteries and semi-batteries, as well as anti-aircraft artillery batteries. Rogachevo airfield was built 12 km from Belushya Guba.

In July 1942, several ships of the infamous convoy PQ-17 approached Novaya Zemlya. Polar stations, ships and settlements on Novaya Zemlya were fired upon by German submarines.

In the fall of 1942, German planes bombed Belushya Guba. In the spring of 1943, I-15bis fighters were deployed at the Rogachevo airfield. The first military pilots on Novaya Zemlya lived in tents all year round. Only by visiting the islands in winter, one can appreciate the feat of these people.

In 1946, the Novaya Zemlya naval base was abolished. The ships of the Navy left the island, the guns of artillery batteries were taken out. The years of existence of the base, however, gave a powerful impetus to the development of Belushya Guba. The Rogachevo airfield provides the village with the position of the "capital of the islands". In 1947, the first Nagurskoye airfield was created on Alexandra Land, which is part of Franz Josef Land.
Belushya Guba ("Belushka").

In the 1950s, the Arctic began to be considered by the USSR and the USA as a likely theater of military operations, since the shortest route for strategic aviation between the two superpowers of that time runs through the North Pole. The newly created Air Defense Forces (Air Defense Forces of the country) are showing interest in creating positions on the Arctic islands, including Novaya Zemlya. Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land are beginning to be regarded as a kind of "umbrella" covering the European part of the USSR from the north.

In 1949, the first atomic explosion was carried out in the USSR at the Semipalatinsk test site. The decision to create a second, naval, test site was made in 1953. There are several reasons why Novaya Zemlya became the location for it. The paths to the islands were well known, the coast was more or less developed, wharfs and an airfield were built. However, there were vast uninhabited territories here.

In 1954, work began on the creation of a landfill. The Chernaya Bay was chosen as the first place for testing atomic weapons, where on September 21, 1955, an underwater atomic explosion was carried out. In 1957, the only ground explosion on Novaya Zemlya was carried out here. In the 80s, the shores of the Black Bay were littered with armored vehicles - tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, on which, apparently, the effects of atomic explosions were tested. The test village is being built near the Black Bay, in the Bashmachnaya Bay. The territory between the Black and Shoe lips is built up with various kinds of structures, the purpose of which is not always possible to guess. But their number, and often their size, is amazing. In those places it is very easy to understand what the planet would have turned into if the “products” tested on Novaya Zemlya had found their combat use.

Apparently, the settlement on the shore of Bashmachnaya Bay was abandoned in 1969, when radioactive gas was released after tests in limestone. Everything in this village bears the marks of a hasty flight, even the mortar left against the unfinished brick wall. In the center of the village in the 80s there was still a monument with the inscription “In memory of our fallen comrades” (I reproduce the text from memory, I saw it once, and more than twenty years ago). The monument to fallen comrades in the center of the dead village makes a strong impression. The region of Chernaya and Bashmachnaya lips subsequently became known as the "Southern zone" of the test site; after the release of 1969 and the evacuation of the village, no tests were carried out here.

September 17, 1954 is considered the official date of the creation of the test site on Novaya Zemlya, when, in accordance with the directive of the Main Headquarters of the Navy, the test site was designated as military unit 77510. The number of the military unit is still preserved, although the test site itself is no longer subordinate to the Navy, but directly to the Ministry of Defense. This day, September 17, 1954, is considered the official day of the founding of the village of Belushya Guba. By the thirtieth anniversary of this directive, in 1984, a monument was erected in Belushya Guba “To the founders of the garrison. 1954-1984".

The Navy is creating a system of units that monitor the movement of ships in the Novaya Zemlya area. These units are located mainly at the former polar stations, although some of these stations (for example, Malye Karmakuly, Cape Zhelaniya and Cape Menshikov) continue to operate in a "civilian" mode. Attempts were made to resume the basing of warships on Novaya Zemlya, but these attempts were unsuccessful. During nine months of the year, when there is ice off the Novaya Zemlya coast, the use of these ships was impossible.

Simultaneously with the units of the Navy, units of the country's Air Defense Forces begin to deploy on Novaya Zemlya. The headquarters of the 4th Air Defense Division, as well as the headquarters of the training ground, was located in Belushya Guba. It included radio engineering, anti-aircraft missile and fighter aviation regiments located on Novaya Zemlya, the northeast of the European part of the USSR and on Yamal. Units of the 3rd Radio Engineering Regiment (RTP) are being deployed on Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land. The southernmost "point" of the 3rd RTP was located on Cape Menshikov. The northernmost "points" were located on Franz Josef Land - Graham Bell and Nagurskaya, and in the second half of the 80s a "point" was deployed on Victoria Island, located between Z.F.I. and Svalbard. The "points" of the 3rd RTP on Franz Josef Land and Victoria Island were the northernmost military units of the Soviet Union. The anti-aircraft missile regiment covered Belushya Guba and Rogachevo, the fighter aviation regiment was based at the Rogachevo airfield and was also intended mainly to protect Novaya Zemlya itself.

Somewhat later on Novaya Zemlya and Z.F.I. the deployment of units and subunits of other arms and branches of the armed forces begins. There were units of the Strategic Missile Forces here, who monitored the test launches of missiles and the launch of spacecraft from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Military construction units (“construction battalions”) are deployed in Belushya Guba. On Alexandra Land in the 70s, the Nagurskaya frontier post was created, which became the northernmost frontier post of the Soviet Union and present-day Russia. This frontier still exists today.

On Graham Bell Island, which is part of Franz Josef Land, there was a separate air command post that maintained ice airfield capable of receiving heavy aircraft.

In 1956, the creation of the "Northern Zone" of the test site in the area of ​​the Matochkin Shar Strait began. At the western entrance to the strait with south side the Severny settlement is being built, where the main tests were carried out in the 60-70s. If the "Southern Zone" of the test site was created for testing atomic weapons, then the original purpose of creating the "Northern Zone" was to test nuclear weapons, which are many times more powerful than nuclear weapons. The main tests of nuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs) were carried out on Novaya Zemlya.

In 1957, the entire local population was evicted from the islands and the military became its undivided masters. Since that time Novaya Zemlya has not performed any economic functions. From the period of the “civilian” development of Novaya Zemlya in Belushya Guba, only a few wooden buildings remained in the pier area, on one of which there is (or was?) a wooden memorial plaque with the inscription: “The Novaya Zemlya Island Council of Workers’ Deputies was located here, whose permanent chairman was Ilya (Tyko) Vylka. In total, 298 people were resettled from Novaya Zemlya to the mainland.

From 1957 to 1999, there was no “civilian” authority in this part of the country, the commander of military unit 77510 was the highest authority on Novaya Zemlya. In fact, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land were outside the grid of the USSR administrative-territorial division, obeying directly to Moscow.

The most powerful "product" that was tested over Novaya Zemlya was a bomb of 500 megatons of TNT equivalent. This test was carried out on October 30, 1961 over the North Island. In 1962, atomic tests in the air, on land and under water were stopped. Since that time, only underground tests have been carried out on Novaya Zemlya, carried out mainly in the northern zone of the test site. The number of these tests is sharply reduced: if in 1962 there were 36 of them, then in all subsequent years - basically 1-2 per year, maximum 4 (1975). These tests were carried out from 1963 to 1984, in 1985 and 1986 they were not carried out, then they were resumed, and during the tests in 1987 a release of radioactive gas occurred. The last tests of nuclear weapons at Novaya Zemlya were carried out on October 24, 1990. Since then, only explosions of non-nuclear munitions have been carried out at the Northern test site, mainly to maintain the technical condition of the test site.

In the first decades of the "military" exploration of Novaya Zemlya, the testers of atomic weapons and the defenders of the northern air barriers lived in conditions that could best be called terrible. Residential houses and barracks were mostly wooden and for the most part were barracks with no running water or sewerage. A more or less stable water supply could be established only where there were large lakes with drinking water. In all other places it was necessary to be content with water obtained as a result of melting snow. Only in the 70s and 80s in Belushya Guba and Rogachevo capital buildings were built, the construction of which took into account the "northern" standards - high ceilings, triple glazing, etc.

However, at the points built in the second half of the 50s, the living conditions until the end of their existence (the beginning of the 90s) remained basically the same. For the inhabitants of the points, Belushya Guba and Rogachevo were indeed "capitals", the service at the points was inhumanly difficult. There was no "northern romance", as some might think, in such a service. If the officers received a double or triple salary and two years of service, the soldiers received nothing. Isolation from big land aggravated by a long stay in a very small team, where all relations are aggravated to the limit, and hazing, which flourished here, as in all the Armed Forces. There were cases of escape "to nowhere", since it is impossible to leave the New Earth.

Clear, clear! you are not for me!
Not me, you are abagrety,
I am glad to sleep your passage, -
Tsyabe forever, vyasna, hava.
Do not go back, praising melting,
Into s fast rechkay swim away.
More than once, yana, having worked in pairs,
On the wings of the sun doidze to the dark
Dyznoў dazhdzhom on the river sydze -
None of the borders of your own will not come out,
From laws written in life,
Abo on the slopes of the mists.
But who is the package for us?
Lying on a valley with snow?
You will not return, like praising melting,
To me, you are clear, young one! ..
Vos yak tsyaper, pass me
Keep a pack of that jumper,
Krynichki vuzenko box
І tree ў couples with hvaіnoyu,
Abnyaushysya tsesna over water,
Like a young woman, it’s an hour of kahannya,
Ў aposhni evening parting.
I bachu forest, I calla huts,
Dze kolіs merry dzyaўchaty
They sang songs to friendly choirs,
From works іduchy known to bors.
The languages ​​of the healthy songs were heard,
Ў lyasah once-a-time adbіvalіs,
I am uzgorki adklіkalіs,
I rejoiced in the songs of the free.
And needles, fir-trees of centuries
Pad languages ​​the song of the young
Maўchkom flocked ў some thought,
І ў іх tsikhusenechkі noise
It turned out to be vechernyae malenne
Ogaru, holy addalenne.

Kalya pasada forestry
I'm slacking off
Old, high forests of tsyanisty.
Here is the top of the asina round
Splicing with needles, with oaks,
And fir-trees with gloomy wings
High ў the sky stood out,
Taemna hvoyami shaptalіs.
Zasedy vague, would have been,
Yana's flocked the most,
I'm so dirty pasirali
Their conceived heads!
The forest is advancing and parting,
A green meadow is torn;
And dze jumping bends
So dear, kalya sit down,
What is simple I would love.
And at the bottom of the geta forest is cashews
Meў zelyanyusenkyya shaty
Lazy, charms and buckthorn,
Aleshyn lipkikh, verabina.
Glyadzіsh, it happened, and zdaetstsa,
What do I go through galіn living,
Through this fabric, young
Not a mouse, not a bird, did not work.
The cycle is here from the forest nevyalіchka
Krynichka overgrown with grass,
Abodva beragі katorai
Lazniak, rakіtnik abstupali;
Bruіlisya ў tsyanku іх praise
І ў Meadow I mean ruin
Ishli spakoyna mizh charotaў,
Worked a lot of zavarota,
As long as the Neman did not chime.

A green meadow, like a skin to the wok,
Abrusam lush and wide
Abapal
For hatay, I'm swearing at once
Let's breathe
Z murozhnay slavnayu grass
І zzyaў on the suns ў peralivah
Pyashchotny tones. Yak in the fields
Zhyta zbazhynki easy gnuzza
And people are happy to laugh
To our primal, sweet sings
Fall down to the light breeze of paves, -
So gnuzza, goidaya grass,
Yak armhole breeze their affectionate,
I go to herbal praise
With the right spells of charada,
Whisper the colors between yourself,
Neby dzyachchatki young.
Ah, the meadow is wide! How alive, you
The real sleepyhead is flooded,
Uvesh staish perad vachyma,
You are sweet and troubled, like a joy,
Like our old lady,
Dze smugі blue pyalyonka
The summer hour is hazy
Think farther away.
Hotz I navollyat tsyazhka zmuchan
I was separated from native shores,
Yes, my soul azhuyu,
I think as I think
Tsyabe, my meadow and shore are native,
Dze liezza Neman srebravodny,
Oaks dze friendly charadoy
Flock, like vezhy, over water
For the latest help to the vartans
I zzyayutsya formidable zharalami.
And only here, fall of their enchantress,
Fly away, good pagodka,
Kasboy tired, spachynesh
Pack your thoughts,
Fall asleep krepka and licorice.
It's so cool here, so quick!
And the birds are loud and healthy
Smyayutstsa cute shchabyatannym
І poўnyats meadow with your sleep.
And on the oaks, like hats,
Buslavy's nests are charneyuts.
Beads are clattering, buslings
Pishchats is plaintive, like shchanyats,
We are fading away
І ask esci ў your time.
And there, dze busliki ўzduzhali,
Іх pachynayuts vabіts far away;
Yana patchouli is the power of itself,
Yana's already bred wings,
Ўgaru on the location fall,
Pavetra catch, grab
I clumsy nagas
Dancing funny over the oaks.
There, at the padsuses with beads,
І verab’i, shpak vyaduzza;
Klapotna shchebety yasuzza
I can know in the evenings.
Ў oaks are covered with sivavaronki,
I whistle over the meadows sharp, calls
Karshun is dirty so early
I throw some confusion.
Ah, the meadow is wide! How alive, you
Grass murozhnuyu closed,
Become green with me
I zzyayesh dzіўnaya beauty!
Like two old cabets,
To which starasts unknowingly
Falling like a villain in the middle of the night,
Yak savory sleep zmykae vochy,
You take beauty and strength
I steal all my life
Dy kіne іh hellish, old ones,
Hell, like a finger, and a little bit alive
І non-proprietary anіkomu
On tsyagast zhytstsu young man -
So Kalya huts, near the garden,
Shіlіўshys tsіkhenka ў kutochku,
There were two old willows,
And navacola is young
Dzyareўtsy are magnificently handsome,
Pasirali was hanging into the light.
Gallo descended over parkanas,
The pear grew here with thin camps;
Pa-above parkanam lush shafts
Flocks of cherries are thick, weepy.
The garden would be, true, nevyalichki:
Two verses and three dzіchki
Dy mizh willow sticky young,
Would be their darling.
Ale yak is cheerful and sweet
Here is a bee ў vullah hamanila!
And it smelled like honey!
Pladzіl_s pcholki z skin years:
Shtoleta vullya rushed -
Grandma was trotting on the bees.
The rumble of their flocks and days and nights.
Happened, ўletka, ў hour of work
More than once there I feel the roar of the vine:
- Oh, tata! dzyadzka! the bees are out!
In the cherry villages of the kala raft!
Men gave work,
Kasbu over the river behind the bushes,
I fugitive shybka, cab hours
The bees are not angry at the forest,
Duc іh there pіlnenkka glyadzeli.

On the jumping ropes, entrusted to the gardens,
The pavets with the threshing floor flocked to the glades,
And fall pavetka prolady:
Vazok, wheels, panarades,
Old sleigh, wake, cola
І vullyaў nekalki on bees,
Yashche unfinished; sujina,
Stary tsaberak, paўasmina
І different rubbish and scrap lying around,
Hell of the sun, rainy hava -
Patrebny speeches, eat out!
Gumenets, covered salomay,
Hell spent long hours;
Saloma kudlam_ hung,
Yae wind parazіmalі,
And three lads were passyagali,
Lazyachy on fear, it happened, -
Ih geta zabaўka occupied.
And fall with a shchyt on a pavucine
Nishchymny Kolas-Siratsina
Ў zatsіshku lёgenka gaidaўsya;
For three hours I've been trembling there,
That God is holy, you know!
Budoulya, big yashche old,
With rotten, concave fear
A flock of sluts just like that
I chuts lipeў, as if on the square
Garshchok, smashed with kachargo.
Stary, paedzeny charvy,
On the side are covered with wind,
Glyadzeў hleў gety oldychynay,
Pahilay share the gill;
And on the side, ў field, not far
A flock of adzinok jumper,
Pakhilkam, bitter orphan,
Dol stubborn fear.
On a block of dwara, a hut melted
I looked zukhavata
Pamizh zapushchanay budovy,
Like a gentry zastsyankova,
That ў day is holy kala kastsela,
Chuts-chuts fall the edge of the padola,
So important is walking with parasons,
Fall down, turn like an agon,
Z darozhak ardor, sang sing
І ў look at the lads.

For hatay, the field was soiled,
Dze zhyta horasha gaidala
I grew aves, barley and buckwheat, -
It was a naughty nest! ..

My native kut, meadows, krynitsa!
Tsyaper for you I am a stranger.
That same forest, palettes,
Yes, other people live there.
My soul smells of turmoil,
That the bastards passed away,
May happy dzyanechki, -
Prayshla, you are very young!

Tsyaper we will kindle the hours of the shaty,
Closer we jump and huts,
Yes Mikhasya and yes Antosya,
Like it was sluggish there, like it was stinging.