New land (in Belarusian). Novaya Zemlya (description, interesting facts, photos, history)

And near Novaya Zemlya the Arctic walks,
The Arctic is shaking.
Yu. Vizbor. New earth. 1970

The military played a leading role in the development of many remote territories of our country. In some places in the Far North and Far East, garrisons are still the main type of settlements. True, in the post-Soviet period, the number of such garrisons and the population in them sharply decreased. However, our geography textbooks still do not write anything about "military" development, even if it has not been a secret for a long time. This is a little surprising, since for many both old-developed regions and regions of new development, parts of different power departments perform the functions of city-forming enterprises.

Novaya Zemlya (area 83 thousand km 2) separates the Barents and Kara seas. This is one of the oldest islands in the Arctic Ocean since the discovery. 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 ancient name, Uterus. Hence the name of the Strait Matochkin Shar. Apparently, this name comes from the Finno-Ugric word matka - path. Franz Josef Land was discovered at the end of the 19th century. 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 by ice to the shores of a hitherto unknown land, named after the then emperor of Austria-Hungary. ZFI, as it is commonly called in the North, has an area of ​​approximately 16 thousand km 2 and consists of 191 islands.

The first permanent settlement on Novaya Zemlya appeared in 1877. It is called Malye Karmakuly. In 1896, a hydrometeorological station was created in Malye Karmakuli, which exists to this day and is the oldest polar station in Russia.

As the islands were being developed, more and more bays were opened and new settlements were built. One of such settlements was the current "capital" of Novaya Zemlya, the village of Belushya Guba, founded in 1897. In addition to Belushya Guba and Malye Karmakul, several more settlements were created on Novaya Zemlya before the revolution, all of which have long disappeared.

Novaya Zemlya survived the years of the Civil War hard. Since its development before the revolution went to public funds, and their receipt in 1917-1919. ceased, then the population of the islands fell into a very difficult situation.

The creation of new settlements and polar stations continued in the 1920s. For example, Krasino camp is being built on the banks of the Black Bay, 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 created on the Z.F.I., which in 1928 was 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 to penetrate, but also to defend here. On the shores of Novaya Zemlya, the Germans placed automatic hydrometeorological stations, and a polar station was built on Franz Josef Land (Alexandra Land). The remains of this station were discovered in the 50s.

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

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

In the fall of 1942, German aircraft 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 after visiting the islands in winter, one can appreciate the feat of these people.

In 1946 the Novaya Zemlya naval base was abolished. The naval ships left the island, the guns of the artillery batteries were removed. The years of the base's existence, however, gave a powerful impetus to the development of Belushya Guba. 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 USSR and the United States began to consider the Arctic as a likely theater of military operations, since the shortest route for strategic aviation between the two then superpowers runs through the North Pole. The newly created Air Defense Forces (the country's Air Defense Forces) are showing interest in creating positions on the Arctic islands, including Novaya Zemlya. Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land are beginning to be viewed 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, training ground was made in 1953. There are several reasons why Novaya Zemlya became its location. The routes to the islands were well known, the coast was more or less developed, marinas and an airfield were built. However, there were vast unpopulated areas here.

In 1954, work began on the creation of the landfill. The first place for testing atomic weapons was chosen in the Black Bay, where an underwater atomic explosion was carried out on September 21, 1955. 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 effect of atomic explosions was tested. The test settlement is being built not far from the Black Bay, in the Bashmachnaya Bay. The territory between the Black and Bashmachnaya lips is being built up with all sorts 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 turn into if the "products" tested on Novaya Zemlya found their combat use.

Apparently, the village on the bank of the Bashmachnaya Bay was abandoned in 1969, when there was a release of radioactive gas after tests in limestones. In this village, everything bears traces of a hasty flight, even building mixture left by an 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, saw it once, and more than twenty years ago). The monument to the fallen comrades in the center of the dead village makes a strong impression. The area of ​​the Black and Bashmachnaya lips subsequently became known as the "South zone" of the test site, after the 1969 release and the evacuation of the village, tests were not carried out here.

The official date of the creation of the training ground on Novaya Zemlya is September 17, 1954, when, in accordance with the directive of the General Staff of the Navy, the training ground was designated as military unit 77510. The number of the military unit is still preserved, although the training ground 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 foundation of the Belushya Guba settlement. On the thirtieth anniversary of this directive, in 1984, a monument 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” regime. Attempts were made to resume the basing of warships on Novaya Zemlya, but these attempts were unsuccessful. During nine months of the year, when the coast of New Zealand was ice, 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 consisted of 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. On Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, units of the 3rd Radio Technical Regiment (RTP) are deployed. The southernmost "point" of the 3rd RTP was located at 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 branches of the armed forces and branches of the armed forces begins. There were units of the Strategic Rocket Forces here, which 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 post still exists.

On Graham Bell Island, which is part of Franz Josef Land, there was a separate aviation commandant's office, which maintained an ice airfield in working order, capable of receiving heavy aircraft.

In 1956, the creation of the "Northern Zone" of the test site began in the area of ​​the Matochkin Shar Strait. At the western entrance to the strait on the southern side, the settlement of Severny 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 initial goal 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 "civil" development of Novaya Zemlya in Belushya Guba, only a few wooden buildings remained in the area of ​​the pier, on one of which there is (or was?) A wooden memorial plaque with the inscription: "Here was the Novaya Zemlya Island Council of Workers' Deputies, whose permanent chairman was Ilya (Tyko) Vylka. " In total, 298 people were resettled from Novaya Zemlya to the mainland.

From 1957 to 1999, no "civil" power existed in this part of the country, the supreme power on Novaya Zemlya was the commander of military unit 77510. In fact, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land were outside the grid of administrative-territorial division of the USSR, 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 the ground and under water were stopped. Since that time, only underground tests were conducted 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 all subsequent years - mainly 1-2 per year, a maximum of 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 1987 tests, a radioactive gas was released. The last tests of nuclear weapons on Novaya Zemlya were carried out on October 24, 1990. Since then, only explosions of non-nuclear weapons 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" development of Novaya Zemlya, atomic weapon testers and defenders of the northern air lines lived in conditions that would most correctly be called terrible. Residential buildings 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, they had to be content with water obtained as a result of melting snow. Only in the 70s and 80s, capital buildings were built in Belushya Guba and Rogachevo, 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, living conditions until the end of their existence (early 90s) remained basically the same. For the inhabitants of the outlets Belushya Guba and Rogachevo were indeed "capitals", the service at the outlets 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 length of service for two years, then the soldiers did not receive anything. The isolation from the mainland was aggravated by a long stay in a very small team, where all relations were aggravated to the limit, and by "hazing", which flourished here, as in all the Armed Forces. There have been cases of escape "to nowhere", since it is impossible to leave Novaya Zemlya.

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 Gates strait separates Novaya Zemlya from Vaygach Island by about fifty kilometers. It is believed that the first explorers and Novgorod merchants called the islands of the archipelago with such a common name. Most likely, they believed that the lands they saw beyond the strait were new. The Novaya Zemlya archipelago consists of the two largest islands, North and South, separated by the narrow Matochkin Shar Strait. What do they look like?

In addition, there are small cliffs and small islets nearby. Other islands and island groups include: Big Oranskie, Gorbovye, Pastukhova, Pyniny and Mezhdusharsky Island. By the way, the latter is the third largest 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 part of the Arkhangelsk region, as a territorial municipal entity. Visit beautiful.

History of Novaya Zemlya

Hugh Willoughby, an Englishman, led an expedition in 1553 to discover routes across 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 according to Hugh's notes. New Earth appeared on it as a peninsula. In 1596, the expedition of Willem Barents from the north rounded the islands of Novaya Zemlya and overwintered on the North Island. In 1653, the Frenchman Pierre-Martin de la Martiner, together with Danish merchants, visited Novaya Zemlya. They met on the coast of the South Island representatives of the Samoyed tribe, 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 Russian empire officially announced that the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago territorially belong to it. Then the forced settlement of the islands by the Pomors and the Nenets began. The village of Olginsky was founded on Severny Island in 1910, at that time it became the northernmost inhabited place of the 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 world's most powerful explosion took place at this island training ground. A 58 megaton hydrogen bomb exploded. Today the nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya remains the only operating nuclear test site in Russia. Also, the Novaya Zemlya archipelago has a rich history and interesting landscapes.

The 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. The Eastern Island is the northernmost zone of Novaya Zemlya and belongs to the Greater Oran Islands. The Pyniny Islands are the southernmost point; they are part of the Petukhovsky archipelago. Cape Bezymyaniy is on the western side, it is located on the Yuzhny Island, the Goose Land peninsula. Flissing Cape is the easternmost point on Severny Island; it is also called the easternmost point in Europe.

The shores of the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago are distinguished by a winding line. There are many fjords and bays formed here, they are excellently connected to the land. The bays on the western coast are considered the largest, among them: Krestovaya Bay, Mityushikha Bay, Glazov Bay, Mashigina Bay, Inostrantsev, Borzov, Nordenskheld and Russkaya Gavan. And in the east are the lips: Oga, Rusanova, Schubert, Unknown and Bear. The islands of the archipelago have mountainous terrain, mostly rocky and inaccessible shores. The height of the mountains increases towards the center of the islands. There is an unnamed mountain on Severny Island, which is considered the highest point of the archipelago. Much of this island is covered with glaciers. Closer to the coast, they form small icebergs.

Many small rivulets originate in the mountainous regions of the islands: North and South. These rivers flow into the Barents and Kara Seas. Notable lakes include Goltsovoye Lake, which is located in the south of Severny Island. And in the west of the South Island is Lake Gusinoe. Experts classify the islands of the archipelago as mainland by their origin. Most likely, they were formed during the period of movement of the continents, they are called the peers of the 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 sink, 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.

On the territory of these islands, a harsh climate reigns, experts classify it as arctic. Winter days are long enough and cold. This time is characterized by strong gusty winds. 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, you will not get warm sunshine here. We recommend that you bring warm clothes with you.

Features of the islands of Novaya Zemlya

When the Soviet nuclear test site was created on the territory of the archipelago, the indigenous population that had lived here since the era of the Russian Empire was taken to the continent. The settlements were empty, they were occupied by technical and military personnel. They began to provide the vital functions of the landfill facilities. Today, there are only two settlements on Yuzhny Island - 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. These are mainly technical personnel, military personnel and meteorologists.

The island ecosystem is classified as a biome that is characteristic of 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, in the south of the archipelago there are arctic herbaceous annual grasses, a significant part of which are classified as creeping species. Naturalists pay attention to creeping willow, opposite-leaved saxifrage and mountain lichen. On Yuzhny Island you can see low grasses and dwarf birches. Island mushrooms include: milk mushrooms and honey mushrooms. They are found in the lakeside and river valleys. Fish are found in the island waters, mainly Arctic char.

The fauna is rather modest. Mammals such as lemming, arctic fox and reindeer live here. In winter, polar bears live on the southern coast. Marine mammals include harp seals, walruses, bearded seals and seals. It is not uncommon to see whales in inland bays and coastal waters. The islands were chosen by various representatives of the avian world, these are: seagulls, puffins and guillemots. They formed the largest bird colonies in Russia. The ptarmigan is also found on the islands.

Today, 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 observe the strictest secrecy. Naturalists and scientists are not allowed to enter here, so there is discontent among the world community. Environmental organizations are concerned about the ecological situation on Novaya Zemlya, 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 them. So far, no one predicts the exact time of changes in the tourism sector of the Novaya Zemlya islands.

N.V. Vekhov,
candidate of biological sciences,
Senior Researcher, Moscow

NEW LAND - THE LARGEST AND EXOTIC ARCHIPELAGO IN THE NORTH OF RUSSIA

In memory of the researchers of Novaya Zemlya L. Grinevetskiy, RL Syamoilovich and M.M. Ermolaeva

The border and peripheral (remote) regions of the country, due to various reasons, for example, inaccessibility and (or) extreme natural and climatic conditions, are still little known and create a kind of mystery and mystery around them. One of such mysterious lands is the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, located on the border of Europe and Asia and, together with the Vaygach Island, serves as a geographical barrier between the two seas of the western Arctic - the Barents and Kara seas. This 900-kilometer-long island arc rushes almost from the very coast of the mainland in the direction of the North Pole. Like a mysterious magnet, for several centuries it attracted more than one generation of travelers and navigators who, despite the huge risk of swimming in the Arctic ocean, tried at least once to step foot on the mysterious land, the peaks of which were decorated with white caps of glaciers glittering for tens of kilometers, and on numerous bird colonies-colonies are arranged on the coastal cliffs; to visit the rivers literally packed with delicious char, to see colonies of molting geese with your own eyes.

Here I was lucky enough to spend four expedition seasons, and therefore my next story is dedicated to this archipelago.
The history of the discovery and development of the archipelago. Earlier than others, since the beginning of the 16th century, the islands of the archipelago and the sea areas around it began to be visited by Russian industrialists - hunters from Pomorie and from the lower reaches of the Pechora. Alas, history does not know a single document that directly speaks of the brave discoverers of the archipelago, immigrants from Ancient Russia. Only in the oral work of the Pomors have legends about past fishing expeditions of distant times to these northern islands been preserved. The real, strictly scientific, geographical discovery of Novaya Zemlya - already with maps, diary entries and later compiled colorful "pictures" confirming this event, took place at the very end of the 16th century. In the 1590s. By the circular northern route - through the Arctic seas - Dutch merchants sought to establish direct trade relations with China and other countries of Southeast Asia. They intended, in exchange for a European manufactory, to arrange supplies of silk, tea, jewelry, spices, porcelain, and other exotic goods to this part of the Old World.

Three Dutch expeditions in 1594, 1595 and 1596-1597. made it possible to draw on a geographical map the outlines of the western, Barents Sea coast of Novaya Zemlya, to show the main landmarks and objects on it. The Dutch discovery of Novaya Zemlya coincided in time with the invention of the first geographic maps of the modern type by mankind. So the Novaya Zemlya archipelago was "incredibly lucky": it was listed on them (albeit with distortions and inaccuracies due to a lack of reliable data) since the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. For almost two and a half centuries, knowledge about Novaya Zemlya was limited to information obtained by European navigators.

The second "discovery" of Novaya Zemlya took place in the 19th century. This period brought the first scientifically reliable information about the archipelago - its geographical position, geology, natural resources, seas washing the shores of the islands. The beginning of accurate instrumental research was laid by the expedition of the Main Hydrographic Directorate, headed by F.P. Litke. In 1821-1824. he made four voyages to the western shores of the archipelago, describing most of them - in latitude from the island of Kusova Zemlya (the southernmost limit of the archipelago) to Cape Nassau (North Island). Long-term expedition F.P. Litke determined the geographical coordinates of all key capes, islands and bays, by which it would be possible to navigate in the future during coastal navigation, the heights of the coastal hills, maps of the surveyed western part of the South and North Islands were compiled.

 
Started by F.P. Litke's work on the description of Novaya Zemlya in 1832-1835. continued by one of his associates in research at the mouth of the Pechora River, second lieutenant P.K. Pakhtusov. Unfortunately, in November 1835, his heroic efforts to explore Novaya Zemlya were interrupted by sudden death... Led by P.K. To the Pakhtusov expeditions, Russia owed the fact that the map showed the southern and eastern regions of the South Island from the Kara Vorota Strait to the eastern mouth of Matochkin Shar, the southern shores of the Matochkin Shar Strait and almost 3/4 of the coastal area of ​​the Northern Island, to Cape Dalniy, the positions and outlines were clarified a number of the most interesting in the commercial value of the bays and lips.

At the turn of the 1860-1870s. Due to the changed ice and climatic conditions in this part of the Earth (one of the periods of "low warming of the Arctic"), the navigation situation has improved so much that within several years Norwegian hunting vessels were able to penetrate here, into the Kara Sea. One of the captains of the Norwegian fishermen - E.G. Johannessen - managed to navigate along the narrow Matochkin Shar Strait and along the Kara Sea, usually covered with an ice cover, insurmountable for ships of that time (Savva Loshkin passed for the first time along the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya in the 1760s), followed along the Kara coast of the archipelago, reaching the extreme southern tip of the South Island. This navigator also holds another record - in 1870, for the first time since Willem Barentsz, he rounded Cape Zhelaniya and visited the northern part of the North Island. The Norwegian National Academy of Sciences found the results of the voyages of E.G. Johannessen was so significant for the knowledge of the Arctic that she even awarded him a gold medal. In 1871, the example of E.G. Johannessen was followed by other captains of the Norwegian hunting vessels: F.K. Poppy around Cape Zhelaniya also passed along the eastern coast of the archipelago, and E. Carlsen reached 77 degrees north. NS. and 60 degrees in. and then descended to the southern tip of Novaya Zemlya along the Kara Sea.

In the 1870s. For the first time, a permanent population appeared on the archipelago, and before that the islands were uninhabited, although sometimes wrecked seafarers or hunters-industrialists lingered on them, who for one reason or another could not get to the mainland until autumn. By these actions Russian government responded to the increased danger of the actual Norwegian annexation of Novaya Zemlya, which was then de facto considered a Russian possession, although the jurisdiction of Russia over the islands of the Western Arctic was not formalized by any documents. During this historical period, the Scandinavian authorities almost completely ousted the Russian Pomors from the Novaya Zemlya industries and even founded several of their base settlements on the islands. According to the plan of the Arkhangelsk provincial authorities, under whose authority the islands of Novaya Zemlya, Vaygach and a number of others were, it was necessary to create a network of fishing camps on the archipelago, populating them with Samoyeds (Nenets), as the most adapted to life in such climatic conditions. This is how the first Novaya Zemlya encampments appeared - Malye Karmakuly (1877), Matochkin Shar (1894), Belushya Guba (1897) and Olginskoye (1910).

From other historical events of the chronicle of the development of Novaya Zemlya, which are of universal significance, I note that it was here, on the western coast of the Northern Island, that the world era of polar aviation began. In August, already distant 1914, the Russian pilot Ya.I. Nagursky on a Maurice-Farman aircraft, weighing only 450 kg, with a Renault engine power of 80 l / s and a speed of 90 km / h, when any gust of wind threatened to dump the car into the Arctic Barents Sea or onto the Novaya Zemlya glacier , in the fog, "blindly", without knowledge of meteorological conditions on the track, without a radio station and climatic clothing, made several search flights over land and sea. These flights are a real human feat.

They were almost ten years ahead of the next appearance of aircraft in the Arctic, when in 1923 the Swiss pilot Mittelgolzer made successful raids over the shores of Spitsbergen, and in 1924 the domestic pilot B.G. Chukhnovsky flew around Novaya Zemlya for the first time on a Yu-20 float plane.

All these foreign and domestic individual researchers and entire expeditions left some kind of traces on the map of Novaya Zemlya - the memory of oneself in the form of a mass of geographical names. The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is a real historical and geographical memorial, where thousands of toponyms are concentrated associated with the activities of Austrian, Dutch, Russian and Norwegian expeditions - Willem Barents, Yakov Gemskerk and Cornelius Ney, F.F., Rozmyslov, F.P. Litke, P.K. Pakhtusova, A.K. Tsivolka, officers under the command of K.N. Posiet, A. Peterman, J. Payer and K. Weyprecht, and many others. But the first here, apparently, nevertheless received "registration" the old Pomor names, which were given by now unknown, brave fishermen-Pomors, even before the Barents, went to Novaya Zemlya for "fish teeth" (walrus tusks), seals, walruses, char; they were met in 1594 by the official discoverers of the archipelago - the Dutch, led by a triumvirate of European "captains", Brant Eisbranz, Willem Barents and Admiral of the Fleet Cornelis Ney. Among the Pomor toponyms I will note - Big and Small Britvin Islands, Glazova Bay, Malye Karmakuly Bay, Mashigina Bay, Cape Nikolsky Nos, Sakhanikha Bay, Stroganov Bay, Yartseva Island, and others.

Structure, size and geographic coordinates of Novaya Zemlya

The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is the largest archipelago in the Eurasian part of the Cycrumpolar region of the Northern Hemisphere. The total area of ​​the islands of Novaya Zemlya is almost 83 thousand km2. Even if the Vaygach Island is included in the archipelago, which in origin and geology, like Novaya Zemlya, is an organic continuation of the Ural mountainous country, its area will increase by only 3.4 thousand km2. For comparison, I will point out that the areas of the other three most significant archipelagos in this part of the Arctic Ocean are much smaller: Franz Josef Land - 16.1 thousand km2; Severnaya Zemlya, or the Land of Emperor Nicholas II - 37.6 thousand km2; Spitsbergen - about 62 thousand km2. Novaya Zemlya is included in the list of the largest archipelagos on the planet, ranking 10th. Within the entire Arctic region of the Northern Hemisphere, Novaya Zemlya land is second only to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago with an area of ​​about 1.3 million km2.

So, in fact, Novaya Zemlya consists of two large islands - the North, with an area of ​​48.9 thousand km2, and the South, with an area of ​​33.3 thousand km2. They are separated from each other by a narrow, 800 m to 3 km wide, articulated-curved Matochkin Shar Strait. The strait is so narrow that it was almost always filled with ice, driven by winds from the east, from the Kara Sea. That is why in the old days and, interestingly, even in the 1920s, when the large-scale development of Novaya Zemlya began, in literature and even official documents Novaya Zemlya was referred to as a single island - the island of Novaya Zemlya.

The extreme boundaries of the islands of the archipelago: the northern point is Cape Carlsen, 77 ° 01 "N, 67 ° 52" E, although there are two groups of islands to the north - Small and Big Orange (the northernmost tip of the latter lies for three seconds north of Cape Carlsen); southern point - Cape Kusov Nos on Kusov Island Earth - 70 ° 28 "N, 57 ° 07" E, western point - unnamed cape on the Gusinaya Zemlya Peninsula, 71 ° 50 "N, 51 ° 27 "v.d .; the eastern limit of the archipelago is Cape Flissing, 76 ° 42 "N, 69 ° 02" E. The highest point of Novaya Zemlya is Mount Maka on the North Island (1547 m at sea level), in the area occupied by ice sheets.

Both large islands of the archipelago are surrounded by a whole scattering of small islands, especially along the western, Barents Sea coast and in the south - on the border with Vaygach in the Kara Vorota Strait. Similar islands in the Kara Vorota Strait, south of the Gusinaya Zemlya Peninsula (the central part of the western coast of the South Island) and north of it, and in Moller Bay, form a system of skerry waters. Of the largest satellite islands, I will point out Mezhdusharsky (off the southwestern coast of the South Island) and Kusova Zemlya (off the southern coast of the South Island).

The archipelago is washed by the waters of two seas: the Barents Sea, the warmest in the Eurasian Arctic, and the Kara Sea, one of the most ice-covered in the Arctic. In the south, the border lines between them lie in the Karskiye Vorota and Yugorskiy Shar straits, and in the north - approximately at the longitude of Cape Zhelaniya. The central axis of the archipelago - the watershed of the two seas - is shifted to the west. These seas are different. The Barents Sea experiences the warming influence of the dying branches of the warm Gulf Stream, which abut against the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and do not penetrate into the Kara Sea, which is why the latter is a kind of "refrigerator" on the border of the Western and Central Arctic.

Ecological and geographical features. Geology and origins

The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is mainly composed of rocks of the Paleozoic age, overlapped from above by Quaternary deposits. Its geological history has alternated periods of mountain building and relative dormancy. The oldest rocks in the Cambrian archipelago are black phyllites, sandstones, shales and conglomerates with trilobite fauna. Primorsky land areas are covered with multi-meter strata of Early Quaternary ice sheets. When the glaciers retreated, a gradual isostatic uplift of the seabed began, which continues to this day at a rate of about 5-6 mm per year. It is likely that modern coastal land areas were freed from the sea about 7,600 years ago. One of the evidence of such a process is the landscape of the modern territory characteristic of the former seabed. These are the forms of low ridges (hills) smoothed out by the actions of the glacier and sea waves with shallow but significant depressions between them, small absolute heights. Glacial processes and the action of sea waves have led to the fact that the hard bedrocks that make up the archipelago (granites, sandstones, shales, limestones and others) are covered from above with a cover of loose ice-sea sediments up to 1.5-2.5 m thick. sandy-gravelly soils with boulders and pebbles rounded by the sea.

The further development of the natural complexes of Novaya Zemlya was significantly influenced by planetary (global) climate change processes. Such as, for example, the last period of climate warming - the Holocene climatic maximum, when the air temperature was several degrees higher than the present one, the snowless interval was longer, and the winter was milder. In this era, plant communities developed on the archipelago, similar in composition to the modern groupings of continental subarctic tundras - more southerly natural landscapes. Depressions of the relief along the banks of streams were occupied by sedge and grass-sedge bogs, and vast lowlands with saucers of shallow water bodies were overgrown with hypnum mosses; Here, a kind of hypnum swamps with massive thickets of mosses were formed at the bottom and along the banks of reservoirs. On hypnum bogs, common in more southern regions, mainly in the south of the Arctic and in the Subarctic (as now on Vaygach Island, in the Bolypezemelskaya and Malozemelskaya tundra), thermophilic bog plants grew - for example, marsh cinquefoil, willows, blueberries, cloudberries, some Potentilla and saxifrage. Now they are preserved on Novaya Zemlya in peculiar isolated habitats on the South and partly on the North Islands - in refugia (shelters). Since the Holocene climatic maximum, active peat accumulation has continued in swampy depressions and lakes of the archipelago, but in the environmental conditions that have changed since then, it is now limited only to the South Island, where peat bogs with a maximum thickness of 1.2 m are noted, for example, in Gribovaya lip, on the Belushiy Peninsula and at the southern tip of the island. In evolutionary terms, this process ultimately leads to the disappearance of lakes as a result of the complete filling of lake baths with peat.

Since Novaya Zemlya is located on a continental shelf, it is a typical shelf formation. The modern relief is determined by the tectonic movement of the land. Both islands are characterized by through valleys-grabens, laid along large land faults and having a latitudinal orientation in the general direction. Similar through valleys were discovered relatively recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Russian researcher V.A. Rusanov made several through routes across the Northern Island, between the Krestovaya lips (on the west coast) and (on the east). The above-mentioned Matochkin Shar Strait, which has a maximum depth of up to 200 m, is the same fault.

The relief of the archipelago is dominated by scattered mountain ranges, not elongated in any one direction. Fjords, skerries, sea terraces, as well as many islands and straits between them are common in the coastal area. Some areas of land rose more intensively than others and now rise above the water in the form of islands, others subsided or rose very slowly, which led to the formation of many bays and straits. Land uplifts determined the young character of the modern river network with undeveloped river valleys, rapids, waterfalls, the so-called hanging mouths of the valleys. Past and modern glaciations are the reasons for the dominance even at low altitudes of the relief of the features inherent in the highlands, where kars, circuses, nunataks, moraines and glacial lakes are common, which give the relief an alpine-type appearance. Plains (up to 200 m above sea level), low mountains (up to 500 m), middle mountains (up to 900 m) and high mountains (over 900 m) are represented on Novaya Zemlya in terms of height and landforms.

In the very general view the relief of each island in the archipelago is as follows. The central regions in the depths of the land, at a distance from the coastline from several to two tens of kilometers, are occupied by an area with heights of more than 200 m - from low mountains to high mountains, including glaciers, some of which break off directly into the sea waters surrounding the archipelago. Along the periphery, this area is bordered by coastal plains, the tongues of which along river valleys and large depressions penetrate deep into the upland part, sometimes 20-30 km, and in the southern and middle regions of the South Island it even occupies the entire space - "from sea to sea". from the line of the Barents Sea coast to the Karsky line.

The coastline of the archipelago is very indented, abounding, especially in the west, with an abundance of bays deeply protruding into the land - typical fjords. The largest of them are Reineke Bay, Loginov Bay and Sakhanikha Bay, with steep, steep banks. In the south of the island, the shores are of a typical skerry character. But the most impressive fjords are on the North Island, where in their apex parts (peaks) tongues of outlet glaciers break off into the water.

Cover glaciers and the phenomenon of glaciation in general are especially interesting natural objects. Novaya Zemlya is characterized by intense glaciation due to the specific climate in this region of the Arctic. All conditions for the formation and existence of ice sheets have been created here - a relatively large amount of solid precipitation, low average annual air temperatures, cold summers and a large albedo of the surface covered with snow and ice. Most of the North Island (about 340 km long, starting from the very north of the archipelago, and the greatest width up to 70 km at latitudes between 75 ° and 76 ° N) and the central part of the South Island adjacent to the Matochkin Shar Strait are located in the cover , semi-cover and mountain glaciers. The area of ​​glaciation in the archipelago is more than 24 thousand km2. The archipelago is the only region of Russia where all existing forms of glaciation are represented - cover, reticular, mountain-valley, and also the ice sheet. North of 75 ° N the largest area of ​​a continuous ice sheet is located, where the ice thickness reaches 250-300 m.The ice sheet here consists of two parts - the Novaya Zemlya ice sheet proper with heights of up to 1000 m, located from the north of the Admiralty Peninsula to 66 ° E, and the North an ice cap with heights of 550-600 m, separated from the main ice sheet by the valley of St. Anne.

 
Along with the general trend of retreat of glaciers, which has been traced at least over the past four hundred plus years (their initial state was recorded in 1594-1597 by the expeditions of V. Barents), there are advancing glaciers on Novaya Zemlya. These are, for example, the Petersen and Shokalsky glaciers. The archipelago contains both active and sedentary glaciers. From observations on the Shokalsky glacier in its middle part, the speed of ice movement was determined - 100-150 m per year. In the central parts of the ice sheet, at altitudes of 700 m and more, i.e. in the area of ​​feeding, the speed of movement of glaciers decreases to 10-20 m per year. The highest values ​​of the speed of movement of glaciers are noted on the passes through the barriers, where it reaches 300-600 m per year. Interestingly, in winter, the speed of glaciers' movement decreases by about half compared to summer.

While on Novaya Zemlya, it is interesting to observe such a phenomenon as the formation of icebergs. They form at the marginal areas of glacial tongues descending into the sea. A particularly picturesque picture is presented by narrow fjord bays, at the tops of which, with a huge noise, similar to the explosions of powerful shells or bombs, under the pressure of the weight of the ice bulk of the glacier, many-meter mountains of greenish ice break off into the sea, raising small "tsunamis". From here, along the entire length of the bay, like flocks of mysterious white birds of a bizarre shape, newly formed icebergs "float" into the open sea.

Climate. The archipelago is located in two climatic zones - arctic and subarctic. On Novaya Zemlya it would have been much colder if not for the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, the North Cape branch of which, albeit already almost cooled, still reaches the archipelago. It rests on its western, Barents-sea coast, where winter temperatures can be 5 degrees or more higher than on the eastern, Kara.

The characteristic features of the climate of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago are high air humidity, an almost constantly gloomy sky (the number of clear days per year does not exceed 29), frequent and rather significant atmospheric precipitation (from 190 mm at Cape Zhelaniya in the northernmost point of the archipelago to 300 mm at Cape Vykhodny; the amount of precipitation on the glaciers reaches 600 mm per year), fogs and constant strong winds, accompanied by blizzards, which is why Novaya Zemlya is often called the "Land of Winds".

In the Arctic belt is the northern part of the archipelago - Severny Island and the small islands adjacent to it, the rest of Novaya Zemlya lies in the subarctic belt. In the northern part of the archipelago, the average temperatures of the coldest month range from -15 to -20 ° C on the west coast, and on the east from -20 to -30 ° C. Average temperatures of the warmest month on the coast reach + 5 ° C, and at sea -0 - + 5 ° С. For the southern part of Novaya Zemlya, the average January temperatures are –5 °, –10 ° С - in the west and –10 °, –25 ° С - in the east. July temperatures reach + 10 ° C on land and + 5 ° C at sea.

An extraordinary phenomenon of the local climate, especially on the North Island, is the famous Novaya Zemlya pine forest. It is most often observed in winter, but it can also be in summer. It was in such a summer forest that I had to get in August 1995 during my stay on the shore of Ivanov Bay in the north-west of the Northern Island. During a bora, the wind accelerates in a matter of hours to the speed of a hurricane (up to 30 m / s, with gusts up to 60 m / s). This wind flow, like a "courier" train, suddenly falls from the heated part of the glaciers down to the sea; its stream carries small stones, pebbles and sand, causing an unusual phenomenon - during the twilight that suddenly fell on the plains from the coast towards the seaward part, low waves with white crests - "lambs" run. Bora can last for 4-7 days. Usually, after a borough, the weather changes sharply, as after a major thunderstorm in middle lane Russia.

Rivers and lakes. It is not surprising, but even in the Arctic, on Novaya Zemlya, there are many rivers and lakes, although they are unevenly distributed over the archipelago. For example, on the North Island, the most severe in terms of natural conditions, there are few rivers. This is both a consequence of climatic features and the presence of glaciation on land. The rivers of the Severny Island are short, no more than 10-15 km in length. The largest of them are Gusinaya, Mityushikha, Promyslovaya and Yuzhnaya Krestovaya. A completely different picture is observed on Yuzhny Island, where the river network is more developed. The rivers are long, several tens of kilometers long; among the largest of them are the rivers Abrosimova, Savina, Sakhanina, Bezymyannaya, Rogacheva, Pukhovaya.

The watershed between the rivers flowing into the Barents and Kara Seas is well expressed. On the South Island, it runs along the ridges of uplands in the interior regions and is displaced to the east, as a result of which the drainage basin of the Barents Sea occupies 2/3 of its area on this island. Most rivers are characterized by undeveloped valleys, replete with heaps of boulders, collapses of the slopes of the valleys with extended rapids, rocky rifts and waterfalls. All of them are fed by snow and glaciers. The water temperature in the rivers during the summer period is cold - does not exceed 8-10 ° С; in glacial streams and rivers it is even lower - no more than 0.1-0.2 - 1.5 ° C.

There are also lakes on Novaya Zemlya, which is generally uncharacteristic for such high-latitude islands, where these geographic objects are rather an exception than a rule, and this circumstance noticeably distinguishes the Novaya Zemlya archipelago among its Eurasian "brothers". Here lakes are common and occur from its southernmost limits to northern ones; they even have them at one of its extreme points - on the Cape of Desire, where long time were a supplier of fresh water to supply it to the polar station of the same name.

Both in the interior, confined to the periglacial area (directly at the foot of the glaciers), and in the coastal areas of both islands of the archipelago, there are many lakes ranging in length from several hundred meters to 1.5-3 km. The tundra plains of the Southern Island are especially rich in stagnant reservoirs, where the largest lakes in terms of area are the 1st and 2nd Nekhvatovs, Pakhtusova, Kashina, Sakharova, Zyussa, Ledyanoe and Gusinoe. Several types of lakes are known on the archipelago: thermokarst (zonal for the permafrost area), they can be found only on the South Island - on the peat bogs in the Gribovaya Bay and in the southern part of the archipelago; relict coastal, formed during the uplift of the coastal area and often located at heights of up to 100-150 m above sea level; glacial valleys and mountainous. Most of the reservoirs are flowing. The depths of the lakes are very different. For example, thermokarst and lying on the coastal plains in the southern polar deserts of the North Island are shallow - 0.9-2.0 m deep. But there are many lakes on the archipelago, insignificant in area, but deep-water, as, for example, discovered by the author on the eastern coast of the South Island on the coast of Abrosimov Bay (6-10 m deep with a water surface of no more than 1 hectare). The deepest among the described and studied lakes of the archipelago are Deryugina (maximum depth 90 m) and Nekhvatovy (74 m). All shallow lakes up to 2 m deep in winter freeze to the bottom, and deep lakes in winter are covered with a layer of ice of almost two meters. Such deep lakes differ from all sorts of small ones by the presence of arctic char populations in the first of them.

Flora and vegetation (natural areas). Unlike all other high-latitude archipelagos of the circumpolar region, Novaya Zemlya lies in two natural zones. Slightly more than a third of the archipelago (Yuzhny Island up to about 72 ° N) is occupied by Arctic tundra, and on the coastal areas there are plain variants of tundra-Arctic vegetation. And in the inner, more sublime,
landscapes - mountain-arctic tundra. In the coastal part of Yuzhny Island, the lowland variants of the Arctic tundra go up to the Matochkin Shar Strait (up to about 73 ° N), although its mountainous region is already occupied by the mountain-arctic variants of the polar deserts.

To the north of the main dividing line of the islands of the archipelago - Matochkin Shara, the nature of the vegetation changes radically. Here, even on the coast, there are practically no flat areas (they are represented by small fragments) and low mountains dominate. Therefore, mountain tundra groupings go to the sea itself, and in the central, most elevated part, mountain-arctic variants of polar deserts are common, in some points they also go directly to the sea.

The last sections of the mountain variants of the Arctic tundra go in the coastal region of the Severny Island approximately to the latitude of the Admiralty Peninsula (up to 75 ° N), and to the north begins the kingdom of polar deserts, represented by their southern version. In this part of the archipelago, where on the periphery of the North Island land has risen from the sea or freed from retreating glaciers relatively recently, primary landscapes that have not yet changed in evolutionary terms are widespread, with landscapes similar to lunar landscapes and primitive, poorly structured soils. Polar deserts in a narrow strip (with a maximum width of no more than 2-6 km) run along the edge of the sea to the highest latitude point of the archipelago, encircling it from the Barents Sea and Kara sides. The inner part of the island is an area of ​​lifeless ice sheets.

The main feature of the natural zones of the archipelago is a significant variety of vegetation (more than 240 species of terrestrial flora are known), which is associated with the extended latitudinal extension of Novaya Zemlya and its proximity to the mainland land. Both the Arctic tundra and the polar deserts differ significantly in the diversity of flora from the same natural areas in other regions of the Arctic. This is due to the presence of a wide variety of habitat conditions on the islands and microzonal refugia (shelters), which predetermined during periods of climatic changes on Earth (cooling and warming of the climate) unhindered migrations and penetration of heat-loving plants, respectively, from the south, from the mainland tundra through Vaigach Island, to the north ( during climate warming) or, conversely, the movement and subsidence far to the south of cold-loving plants of the north (from the polar deserts and their analogues) to the south, the fixation of such migrants in the composition of plant complexes.

The presence of hydrophilic species in the composition of vegetation is evidence of more comfortable conditions for biota on the high Arctic islands in the history of this region of the Earth. For such of them, as, for example, crested pondweed, several types of dupontia and phippia, arctophila yellow, Pallas buttercups, Hyperborean and others, lanceolate and common tails, marsh cinquefoil, unrooted mulberry, marsh marigold, Novaya Zemlya - the only one among the high-latitude archipelago the area where these aquatic and semi-aquatic plants are known, which gives the whole archipelago an exotic look. A researcher who finds himself near water bodies suddenly gets the impression that he is on the mainland, a few degrees south of latitude, in a different natural-geographical area. Almost like Jules Verne in his Children of Captain Grant or Arthur Conan Doyle among the members of the expedition to the Lost World. For some of these plants, Novaya Zemlya habitats are the northernmost currently known in Europe.

Heat-loving relics, witnessing more favorable conditions than modern conditions on the islands, on the archipelago are "land" cloudberries, blueberries, two species of fern cystopteris, round-leaved wintergreen, willow-leaved and broad-leaved willow-leaved tea, Lapland castillea, dwarf birch, a number of other marsh plants ... These species survived in micro-shelters - in hollows protected from strong northern winds, in crevices of rocks, on the slopes of the southern exposure, where heated soils and stones create favorable temperature conditions, cause flowering of plants and ripening of seeds, which is a necessary condition for the existence of their populations in time.

The landscapes in the zone of the southern variants of the polar deserts also have an exotic look. These are almost continuous massifs of gravel, boulders, primary, unstructured soils released from under melting glaciers, or reclaimed by sea waves deposits. As in the real desert of the hot belt of the Earth, there is no continuous cover of vascular plants, and even such primitive plant forms as mosses and lichens form small clusters only in hollows, in places protected from the wind, etc. ecotopes. Primitive, almost completely devoid of vegetation, primary landscapes experience a real moisture deficit; lakes and rivers are the exception rather than the rule. Separate vascular plants, their stunted clumps, together with mosses and lichens, are noted in very exotic loci, again similar to the deserts of the hot south. The lack of organic matter and moisture, common for the southern and northern deserts, determines the type of vegetation that is the same for such landscapes - these are peculiar oases, sometimes having areas of several tens of square centimeters or even the size of a tea saucer, formed on a seaside terrace on the discharges of the remains of dead marine animals ( whales, sperm whales, walruses, seals) or fin. Such accumulations of organic matter, slightly immersed in pebbles or clay soil and decomposing over decades, serve first as a haven for mosses, on whose layers lichens settle, and only then vascular (higher, or flowering) plants. Another potential ecotope for plant settlement is a narrow, literally a few centimeters wide, strip of coast along large and small streams, rivers and lakes. Such harsh conditions for the existence of plants here also led to the poverty of the flora of flowering plants, of which only a little more than 50 species were noted (more than 4 times less than in the tundra adjacent to the Arctic deserts). The settlement of the polar desert landscapes comes from the south, from the area of ​​the arctic tundra. The first barrier on the way of such migrants is the transitional area between these two natural zones. More than 80 species reach it, but, as you can see, almost a third of migrants settle here, stopping their distribution to the north.
Fauna. As with any northern island, there are very few real land animals on the archipelago. On Novaya Zemlya, only four are now known - the Arctic fox, the Novaya Zemlya subspecies of the wild reindeer, the hoofed and Siberian (Ob) lemmings. In the historical past (before the beginning - the end of the 19th century), when there were many game animals on the archipelago and their intensive hunting was carried out, there were also wolves and foxes. Of the mammals, marine species are the most diverse.

Coastal areas of land and sea areas, like a magnet, attract Atlantic walrus, polar bears, seals (bearded seal, ringed seal, bald seal, or harp seal). Narwhal, beluga whale and bowhead whale are common offshore. At the end of the 20th century, when the decline in the number of marine mammals began throughout the Arctic, the waters and land of the archipelago remained the only region where there is a relatively large number of walrus, and in the north of the North Island - from the Russkaya Gavan Bay to the Ice Harbor - the author discovered several large rookeries this giant with a total number of several hundred, and possibly even thousands of heads. Some of these rookeries, for example, on the Greater Orange Islands, have been known since their discovery in 1594 by an expedition of Dutch merchants.

In addition to amazing colonial seabirds, Novaya Zemlya is the nesting area of ​​the common eider, northern colonial sea duck, barnacle goose, an exotic species that arranges colonies, like gulls, on cornices. Other “flying” exotic species include graceful swans - bean goose, whooper, white-fronted, white-fronted white-fronted goose, tundra goose, and several species of geese (black and red-breasted).

Of course, Novaya Zemlya is not only a habitat for large animals, mammals and birds. Primitive animals live in the soil and on its surface - insects (mosquitoes, midges, rare species of butterflies and beetles), worms, as well as nematodes, rotifers, and lower crustaceans living in lakes. These animals are located at the very base of the trophic pyramids of soil and aquatic ecosystems, constituting a food base for small species of birds and fish living in island rivers and lakes.
This, in general terms, looks like the most extensive archipelago in the Eurasian Arctic - Novaya Zemlya.

"Geography for Schoolchildren". - 2015. - No. 3 . - S. 3-14.

Paem, which has become a hell of a halo of Belarusian literature, naradzilasya ў astroze. Ab nyadaly cookery tastes dzyadzki Antosya is aware of amal INTO skinny Belarusian schoolchildren, and signs of radki "My dear kut, you are sweet to me" can pratsyagnuts any Belarus.

Yak otvaraўsya adzin from national simvals, once from sputnik caretakers Alesy Sharshnevay succeeded to name a hole ektar Natsiyanalnay biblіyatekі Belarus Ales Susha.

"Valadarka" yak krynitsa natchnennya

"New Land" Yakub Kolas pachynak pisats at Minsk and dies there. And eight half-time crop packs on the way started for 12 gados - the menavit of so many spatrebіlasya, if you’re out of your mind - it was shmat.

Pisats Kanstantsin Mitskevich Pachak in 1911, Sedzyachy in Turme for a large number of illegal workers in Minsk province. , for old months, for adnago z znavalnіkaў Belarusian literary language.

"Passing vains svayh times of 1947 Kolas uzgadvaў, INTO, sedzyachy ў astroza, velmi sumavaў on the piles of land and zgadva moments of svaygo dzyatsіnstva", - Pavedamіў Alyaksandr Susha.

For three bastards of znyavolennya light dwindled sluggish kolkassi razdzelaў paemy, yakіkh, darechy, it was tryzzats. Some adraz f drukavalisya ў "Nasha Niva".

Lipsya book to the light and opera

Aўtabіigrafіchny creation in 1923 was the first to be ruled by the Belarusian caapertsynae production "Savetskaya Belarus" - dzyarzhaunai and the most violent for thousands of hours.

© Sputnik Alesya Sharshneva

Issued paems "New Land" by Yakub Kolas

"Kolas Kazak himself, INTO padzei ў paeme adnosyatstsa yes 1890-1900-s gadoў, ale nekatorya padzei apisanyya pa realyah to the pains of an hour. - tlumachyts Aleksandr Susha.

Praz some hour s "yaўlyaetsa yashche adno issued - the hell of Belarusian dzyarzhaўnaga issued. Knigu was given out often, and over the masculine afarmlenm pratsavali lepshy creators of those hours. stagodja.

The creative work of Kolas and the master Georgiy Paplauskag. Yon zrabin tsely tsykl malyunkak, for yakia at the Leiptsyg exhibition, issued to Oznagarodu yak "Lepshaya kniga to the light".

In tsyagam hour the paem was atrymal and musical. In 1980, Ales Petrashkevich wrote libret, and from "there was a national opera" New Land. " tematku ў the clock was set by the redka.

Encyclapedia for inshaplanetsyan

Paem nezdarma borrow haloўnaye months ў Belarusian literature. "New land" - the persians of the riotous lyra-epic creature, written in Belarusian, padkreslivaye Alyaksandr Susha.

The tagachasnya chytachy adraza have suppressed the paemu yak folk: the head teacher for the memory and for the easy reading of the days of the khatnikh gastsenyak.

"Acenki paems of adraz and shepherding were great greats, and not only from the side of the chytach and praedstauniko of Belarusian culture, ale and hell of foreign litaraturaznautsau", - Uzbek specialists.

The recenzents are highly appreciated by the mastats of the yakast of the creature and the zmyastoyny, who were grazing and ahrystsili paemu "encyklapedyyayi life of the Belarusian syliancy of the XIX century - the patch of the XX stagoddzya". Menavita geta parananne zastaetstsa adnom of the most papular and tsyapers.

Ales Adamovitch at the piles navukai of the "Belarusian verses Raman" Yakub Kolas's "new land"

It is possible to infect a lot of haloes issued by Belarusians not only in any country. On the other hand, the National Library of Belarus presented the works of the Belarusian songwriter on the site.

In the case of the admiralty virtual solution, it is possible to `` bachyts '' not only scans of the first issued, but also the first publications, and the sherag of analogous texts, and the third supratsoўnikamі biblіatek.

According to many geologists: Vaygach Island and Novaya Zemlya are an ancient ridge! Indeed, together they represent at least 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 region of the Yugorsky Peninsula, that is, the Ural Mountains in ancient times went in a continuous chain far to the Arctic. Legends about Hyperborea also take place here, because this ancient ridge and north of Novaya Zemlya continues along the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, that is, geologically - the Ural is at least another thousand kilometers longer!
What lands were there before the onset of a cold snap and the rise of the ocean - this is a question for modern scientists!

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

The shock wave circled the globe several times! And the surface of the polygon was melted and swept clean. Details of the test will be below.

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

GENERAL INFORMATION
New Earth is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean and; is included in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia in the rank of the municipal formation "New Earth".
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 in Europe.

It stretches from southwest to northeast for 925 km. The northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya is the eastern island of the Big Oran Islands, the southernmost point is the Pyniny Islands of the Petukhovsky Archipelago, the western one is an unnamed cape on the Gusinaya Zemlya Peninsula of the South Island, the eastern is the Cape of Flissing Island Severny. The area of ​​all islands is more than 83 thousand km²; width of the North Island up to 123 km,
South - up to 143 km.

In the south, it is separated from the Vaygach Island by a strait (50 km wide).

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, in connection with which Novaya Zemlya is sometimes called the "Land of Winds" in the literature. Frosts reach -40 ° C.
The average temperature of the warmest month - August - ranges from 2.5 ° C in the north to 6.5 ° C in the south. In winter, the difference reaches 4.6 °. The difference is in temperature conditions and exceeds 5 °. This 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, stretching for almost 400 km in length and up to 70-75 km in width. The ice thickness is over 300 m. In a number of places the ice descends into the fjords or breaks off into the open sea, forming ice barriers and giving rise to icebergs. The total glaciated area of ​​Novaya Zemlya is 29,767 km², of which about 92% is ice sheet and 7.9% is mountain glaciers. On the South Island there are sections of the Arctic tundra.

cruiser Peter the Great near Novaya Zemlya

Minerals
On the archipelago, primarily on the South Island, there are known deposits of minerals, mainly ferrous and non-ferrous metal ores. The most significant is the Rogachevsko-Taininsky manganese-ore region, which, according to forecast estimates, is 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-Taininskoye ore field, the predicted resources of the P2 category are 5 million tons. Based on the results of technological tests, the ores are suitable for the production of metallurgical concentrate. All oxide ore deposits can be mined by open pit mining.

Several ore fields (Pavlovskoe, Severnoe, Perevalnoe) with deposits of polymetallic ores have been identified. 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 the C1 + C2 categories are more than 2.4 million tons, and the forecast resources of the P1 category are 7 million tons (approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia as of 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 Pavlovsk ore field, category P2, for lead and zinc in total, are 12 million tons (approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia as of 01.01.2003). In addition, silver reserves were estimated as associated. The development of the deposit is possible by open-cut method.

The rest of the ore fields are much less studied. 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 ...

Native copper and cuprous sandstones are known on the South Island.

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 washing the archipelago, a number of geological structures have been identified that are promising for the search for oil and gas deposits. The Shtokman gas condensate field, the largest on the Russian shelf, is located 300 km off the coast of Novaya Zemlya.

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

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

Among 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 the Northwest Passage” and establish 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 Barentsz circled the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya in 1596 and spent the winter on the eastern coast of the North Island in the Ice Harbor area (1597). In 1871, the Norwegian polar expedition of Elling Carlsen discovered a preserved Barents hut in this place, in which dishes, coins, wall clocks, weapons, navigational tools were found, as well as a written account of the wintering, hidden in a chimney.

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

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

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

Until the 19th century, Novaya Zemlya was actually an uninhabited archipelago, near which the 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 declared that "the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago is, in its entirety, Russian territory."

Since those who claimed it could not live on the archipelago, several Nenets families were transported to Novaya Zemlya. More active settlement of the islands began in 1869. In 1877, the settlement of Malye Karmakuly appeared on the South Island. In the 1880s, there was already a small colony on Novaya Zemlya.

Belushya Lipa Novaya Zemlya

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

In 1909, the polar explorer Vladimir Rusanov came to Novaya Zemlya, who, together with Tyko Vylka and Grigory Pospelov, surveyed the entire archipelago and made an accurate cartographic description.

In 1910, on the Northern Island, the Olginsky settlement was organized in the Krestovaya Bay, which at that time became the most northern (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 an unnamed bay, nowhere marked on maps, the village was a sad sight: human skulls, skeletons, and bones scattered in all directions. The crosses standing right there, apparently in the cemetery, are completely dilapidated and decayed, the crossbeams 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 towered in the distance.

New Earth polar plane - 30s of the last century

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

It is a rocky massif with a height of up to 28 meters, strongly protruding into the sea. Divides coastal waters into Avariyny Bay (in the north) and Andromeda Bay (in the south).
Slightly south of the cape, the Andromeda River flows into the sea, behind which is Cape Burunny. To the north, along the coast, there is a relatively large Ovrazhistaya river. Further along the coast, Cape Dever is located, bordering the Avariyny Bay from the north.
The cape was discovered and mapped by the expedition of Willem Barentsz in 1596, the name was given in honor of the Dutch city of Vlissingen. Southwest of the cape in September 1596, the expedition ship was frozen into the ice - its participants had to spend the winter on the shore, building a hut made of the so-called. "Fin" (wood thrown out by the sea). They got their food, in particular, by hunting polar bears and seals. The next year, from the 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 Land", the script of which is based on the memoirs of one of the members of the Barents team, the wintering participant Gerrit de Veer.

pos. Rogachevo Novaya Zemlya

Population
Administratively, the archipelago is a separate municipality Arkhangelsk region. It has the status of ZATO (closed administrative-territorial entity). A special pass is required to enter Novaya Zemlya. Until the early 90s. the very existence of settlements on Novaya Zemlya was a state secret. The postal address of the village of Belushya Guba was "Arkhangelsk-55", the village of Rogachevo and "points" located on the South Island and the south of the North Island - "Arkhangelsk-56", "points" located in the north of the North Island and Franz Josef Land - " Krasnoyarsk Territory, Dikson Island-2 ”(communication with them through Dikson was supported). The administrative center - the urban-type settlement Belushya Guba, located on the South Island - is home to 2,149 people (2013). The second settlement on Novaya Zemlya that exists at present 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 shore 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.
The indigenous population, the Nenets, was 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 2,429 people and is concentrated in only two settlements - Belushya Guba and Rogachevo.

Kara gates Novaya Zemlya

Flora and fauna
Ecosystems of Novaya Zemlya are usually referred to as the biomes of the Arctic deserts (North Island) and the Arctic tundra.
The main role in the formation of phytocenoses belongs to mosses and lichens. The latter are represented by cladonium species, 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 sparse 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, many mushrooms grow: milk mushrooms, honey agarics, etc.

The largest lake is Gusinoe. It is found in freshwater fish, in particular arctic char. Among animals, Arctic foxes, lemmings, ptarmigan, and reindeer are common. Polar bears come to the southern regions with the onset of cold weather, posing a threat to local residents. Sea animals include the harp seal, seal, sea hare, walruses, and whales.
On the islands of the archipelago, you can find the largest bird colonies in the Russian Arctic region. Guillemots, puffins, and seagulls live 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 a 3.5 kiloton T-5 torpedo at a depth of 12 m (Black Bay).
On September 17, 1954, a Soviet nuclear test site was opened on Novaya Zemlya with its 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 Sukhoi Nos peninsula - ground tests in 1957-1962.
In addition, explosions were 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 announcement of the moratorium on nuclear tests), 135 nuclear explosions were carried out at the test site: 87 in the atmosphere (of which 84 were 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 Bomb at the D-II Sukhoi Nos site. A perceptible seismic wave from the explosion circled the globe three times, 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 an agreement banning nuclear tests in three environments: atmosphere, space and under water. Limitations on the power of the charges were also adopted. Underground explosions were carried out until 1990. In the 1990s, in connection with the end of the Cold War, the tests came to naught, and at present they are engaged only in research in the field of nuclear weapons systems (the Matochkin Shar facility).

The policy of publicity led to the fact that in 1988-1989 the public learned about the nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya, and in October 1990 activists of the environmental organization Greenpeace appeared here to protest against the resumption of nuclear tests in the archipelago. On October 8, 1990, at night in the area of ​​the Matochkin Shar Strait, the Greenpeace ship entered the territorial waters of the USSR, and a group of anti-nuclear activists was secretly sent ashore. After the warning salvo of the patrol ship "XXVI Congress of the KPSS", 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 landfill on Novaya Zemlya, the head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Alexander Rumyantsev, said that Russia intends to continue to develop the landfill and maintain it in working order. 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 effectiveness and safety of storing its nuclear weapons.

Amderma Novaya Zemlya

Disposal of radioactive waste
In addition to nuclear weapons tests, 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 the entire reactor facilities) from submarines and surface ships of the Northern Fleet of the Soviet and Russian Navy, as well as icebreakers with nuclear power plants.

Such places of disposal of radioactive waste are the bays of the archipelago: Sedov Bay, Oga Bay, Tsivolki Bay, Stepovoy Bay, Abrosimov Bay, Blagopoluchiya Bay, Techeniy 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 (POCOs) were formed. Among them: the completely submerged 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 PCPO is located have been subject to annual monitoring by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. 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 NEW EARTH
That Novaya Zemlya was known to Russians earlier than to foreigners is evidenced by the very name “Novaya Zemlya”, under which this island became known to Western peoples, and which was retained for it in all foreign atlases. Also, Russian industrialists sometimes served the English and Dutch explorers as guides on their first voyages to the east, along the northern shores of Russia, informing them that the coast seen in such and such a direction was “Novaya Zemlya”.

The finds on its shores by the first foreign navigators of the crumbling crosses and huts, also proving this, at the same time testify that it has been visited by our compatriots for a long time. But the exact time when Novaya Zemlya was discovered by the Russians and in what way remains unknown, and both can only be more or less likely to be assumed based on certain historical data concerning the Russian North.

One of the Slavic tribes, which had long lived near Lake Ilmen and had Veliky Novgorod as the main cities, already at the dawn of its history had an aspiration to the north, to the White Sea, the Arctic Ocean and further to the northeast, to the Pechora and beyond the Ural ridge, to the Yugorsk Territory , gradually crowding out their indigenous inhabitants, who belong to the Finnish tribe and were called by the Novgorodians by the common name "Zavolotskaya Chud".

Initially, the whole country, lying from Novgorod to the north and northeast to the Ural ridge, the Novgorodians gave one common name "Zavolochya", since this territory was located from Novgorod beyond the "portage" - a vast watershed separating the basins of the Onega, Dvina, Mezen and Pechora from the Volga basin, and across this watershed, during the campaigns, the Novgorodians dragged ("dragged") their ships.

From the beginning of the XIII century, with the expansion of geographical information about the newly conquered country, only the lands lying between the rivers Onega and Mezena began to be called Zavolochy, and others to the northeast and east of the White Sea received separate names. So, for example, on the northern coast of the White Sea there was a volost "Tre" or "Tersky Bereg"; the Vychegda river basin was called the “Perm volost”; basin of the Pechora river - "Pechora volost". Further on Pechora and on the other side of the northern Ural ridge was the Yugra volost, which is believed to have included the Yamal Peninsula. Part of Zavolochye, between the rivers Onega and Dvina, was also called "Dvinskaya Zemlya".

The primitive inhabitants of Zavolochye were generally separate, with a cult of idolatry, the 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, exclusively engaged in hunting and fishing. Surrounded by seas in the north and dense forests in the south, they were completely independent until the enterprising Novgorodians penetrated their area.

Cape Desire - the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya

The occupation of the region by Novgorodians was almost exclusively an act of private enterprise. Their movement here, first as conquerors - ushkuiniks, and then as colonizers - trade guests, went mainly along the course of the rivers, which were the only and most convenient communication routes in this primitive region, and later the first settlements of Novgorodians were also 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 Russia. But later, when the Novgorodians began to appear here as conquerors, Chud did not immediately obey the new newcomers, sometimes repulsing them by force, sometimes paying off by paying tribute. Only from the time of the conquest of Zavolochye by the Novgorodians did their first settlements appear along the lower course of the 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 Norse Viking Otar or Ochter, sent by the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great to the north in order to find out how far the land stretches in this direction, and reached the mouth in the second half of the mentioned century Dvina by the sea, found here the Biorm tribe, who, in his opinion, spoke the same language with the Finns. At the same time, Okhter does not mention anything about the Slavs. Unfriendly greeted by the Borms and fearing their multitude, he did not dare to sail further up the river. The land of the Ter-Finns (the Tersky Coast), which he saw while sailing here by sea, was not inhabited - he saw only the Finnish fishermen and hunters who were temporarily here.

There are no Novgorod settlements here either 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 came by sea and not for the first time, robbing this time the temple of the Chud deity Yumala. Zavolochye was known at that time to Europe under the name of Biarmia or Permia, the main city of which was located near the present-day Kholmogory.

But no more than 50 years after the defeat of the Yumala temple by the Norwegians, the first settlements of Novgorodians with their mayors appeared here, to whom the entire local population more or less calmly obeys. Since that time, Chud partly merged with new aliens, became Russified, and partly went further to the northeast and east. At present, only the names of almost most of our northern rivers, lakes, natural boundaries and localities of various kinds, such as Dvina, Pechora, Pinega, Kholmogory, Shenkursk, Chukhchenem, etc., remind of it.

At the beginning of the 11th century, Novgorodians appeared on the Murmansk coast of the Arctic Ocean. This is evidenced by one Scandinavian rune letter, from which it can be seen that no later than 1030, the sea bay Lugenfjord, not far from Tromsø, was considered the border in the north between Russia and Norway. Since it is impossible to think that the mentioned establishment of borders took place immediately after the appearance of the first Novgorodians here, then we can more likely conclude that they appeared here earlier, namely in the 10th century. The demarcation of the border was probably prompted by widespread alien activity already in progress. 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 reindeer for food. Therefore, the squads of Novgorodians could only meet with resistance from the settled Norwegians. The border was established by agreement between the Novgorod prince Yaroslav the Wise, later the Kiev prince, with the Norwegian king Olaf Tolstoy, to whose daughter Yaroslav was married.

Undoubtedly, the beginning of the Russian voyage in the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean should be attributed to the time of the appearance of the Novgorodians in the Dvinskaya 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, who were not yet 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 direction of the Holy Nose, but from Kandalaksha, between which and Kola there is only one portage, about a mile long, and it is known that the Novgorodians made their trips mainly on boats along the rivers, dragging them over the watersheds.

sunrise in the Kara Sea Novaya Zemlya

The latter assumption is confirmed by the fact that Kola was founded by them much earlier than the settlements on the Tersk coast of the White Sea - Ponoy, Umba and Varzuga. If the Novgorodians went to Murman for the first time from the White Sea, then these rivers, which they could not fail to 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 XI century, as indicated by the chroniclers. Like the inhabitants of Zavolochye, Ugra also obeyed the Novgorodians, but not immediately - they made repeated attempts to overthrow the yoke of the aliens, as evidenced by the many campaigns here by the conquerors to pacify some natives:
Having communicated with the inhabitants - the nomads of the Pechora and Yugorsk Territories - 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 Vaigach Island, 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.

It is impossible to say for certain whether the campaign of Novgorodians to the "Iron Gates" means a trip to the Karsky Gates, also called "Iron", since there are quite a few places with this name in the north.

Herberstein, in his memoirs about 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, with which relations are difficult due to the constantly floating ice. But is this Novaya Zemlya, mixed by Herberstein with Greenland, especially since such a mistake on his part is very possible in view of the fact that he compiled the geographical description of this part of Russia from the words of the storytellers, and his personal knowledge in geography could not be especially broad and clear? In any case, one must think that the Russians, who gave him geographical information about their country, could not call Novaya Zemlya "Engronelandia". He gave the last name, having forgotten its real name, reported by the Russians. And about Greenland, as an ice 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 a continent, and only this can explain its name and, mainly, the presence of the word "land" in it. In the language of the Northern Pomors, it means "mother coast" - continent. She could make such an impression on the first newcomers there or who saw her for the first time since Vaygach. For enterprising Novgorodians, irresistibly striving in their forward movement to the northeast and further, the large, still unknown island before them could really seem "land" - it was so great against other islands 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 in the offspring by oral legends and in the same way there was an acquaintance with her. The first printed information about Novaya Zemlya appeared only from the time of its visit by foreign seafarers seeking to open the northeastern route to China and India.

Strait of Matochkin Shar Novaya Zemlya

LIFE OF A POLAR MONK
Father Innokenty, polar explorer monk. Living on Novaya Zemlya
There is a mysterious island in the Arctic Ocean - Novaya Zemlya. From Arkhangelsk to it 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 abbot has been Abbot Innokenty (Russians) for more than 5 years.
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 the lakes, there are no trees at all. And in winter - endless snowiness, whiteness, from which, according to science, the eyes "starve". Not much is known about Novaya Zemlya: until recently, it was covered with a veil of secrecy. Nuclear test site, closed military zone. The military lives there with their families. There is no indigenous population: the Nenets lived here before the creation of the test site, and then, in the 50s of the last century, everyone was 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 abbot of which has been Abbot Innokenty (Russians) for more than 5 years. "How could one voluntarily go to this northern distance?" - they ask the young clergyman. "But someone had to go!" - Father Innokenty answers calmly.
Once, at the end of the 19th century, on Novaya Zemlya there was a church, also St. Nicholas, in which missionaries - monks of the Orthodox Nikolo-Karelian monastery - lived. The old wooden church still exists on the banks of Belushya Bay, a kilometer from the present village. The structure was assembled in Arkhangelsk and transported to this island in the Arctic Ocean. The Nenets were parishioners. More than seven years ago, the command and residents of the village of Belushya Guba asked Bishop Tikhon of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogorsk to send a priest. And in February 1999, Father Innokenty appeared in the military town of Belushya Lipa. Due to the constant unfavorable weather, it was decided to arrange a church in the village itself, for this they allocated large room, the first floor in a residential building is a former cafe. And the life of a parish priest flowed ...

Father Innokenty is rarely on the "mainland", mainly on study leave (the priest receives his education in absentia educational institution). According to Father Innokenty, the permanent parish of the Novaya Zemlya church is about fifteen people, which is 1% of the total population of the military town. Mostly women. The community gathered quite quickly, and those who do exist can be called active and churched parishioners. They often confess and receive communion, gather in unification, observe fasts, and read spiritual literature. On many questions they turn to the priest for advice, and problems are solved together. The priest himself visits military units - he is present at the oaths, conducts talks, consecrates the premises. Father Innokenty has many good friends among the local population, mostly officers. The priest also communicates with the 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 accustomed 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 in the village, people get used to a sedentary lifestyle.
Father Innokenty is a monk. It is more customary when a monk lives within the walls of a monastery, among the brethren, under the supervision of the abbot. Here is a completely different situation. Father Innokenty came to the Solovetsky monastery at a rather young age, performed obedience in the kliros, and was tonsured a monk. Then he served in the Arkhangelsk Church of All Saints, until he volunteered to go to Novaya Zemlya. Now father lives alone, in an ordinary apartment... In order not to lose physical health at all, he goes in for sports: goes to gym, pool, because physical activity in this climate and with a sedentary lifestyle is simply necessary. In addition, Father Innokenty is constantly studying and 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 ministry in the Arctic Circle is a sacrifice, but after all, every person must sacrifice something. The main thing is that now an Orthodox parish has appeared in that distant point, services are being held, and prayer is being offered up. People here are already accustomed to the church, and without it it would be hard for them. And the obedience of the monk Innocent 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.

TEST OF THE KING BOMB
Tsar Bomba (Big Ivan) - tests of a thermonuclear aerial bomb with a capacity of 50 megatons 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 Bomb", detonated on October 30, 1961 at a test site on Novaya Zemlya Island.
Nikita Khrushchev joked that it was originally supposed to detonate a 100-megaton bomb, but the charge was reduced so as not to break all the glass in Moscow.
There is some truth in every joke: structurally, the bomb was really designed for 100 megatons and this power could be achieved by simply increasing the working fluid. They decided to reduce the energy release for safety reasons - otherwise the landfill would be too damaged. 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 protruded from 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 the 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 initial version of the 40-ton bomb, for obvious reasons, was rejected by the designers of OKB-156 (developers of the Tu-95). Then the nuclear scientists promised to reduce its mass to 20 tons, and the airmen 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 the negotiations between I.V. Kurchatov and 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 strength experts showed that the suspension of such a large concentrated load would require serious changes in the power scheme of the original aircraft, in the design of the cargo compartment, and in the suspension and drop devices. In the first half of 1955, the outline and weight drawing of "Ivan", as well as the layout drawing of its location, were agreed. As expected, the mass of the bomb was 15% of the takeoff weight of the carrier, but its overall dimensions required the removal of the fuselage fuel tanks. The new BD7-95-242 (BD-242) beam holder developed for the Ivan suspension was similar in design to the BD-206, but much more powerful. It had three Der5-6 bombing castles with a carrying capacity of 9 tons each. BD-242 was attached directly to the power longitudinal beams that edged the cargo compartment. The problem of bomb dropping control was also successfully solved. Electroautomatics ensured extremely synchronous opening of all three locks, which was dictated by safety conditions.

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

The "superbomb" carrier was created, but its real tests were postponed for political reasons: Khrushchev was going to the United States, and there was a pause in the "cold war". 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, tests of the "superbomb" again became relevant. On the Tu-95V, all the connectors in the reset electroautomatic system were urgently replaced; the real bomb in size and weight turned out to be slightly larger than the layout 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 it will be covered with a special thermal protective coating white and a real bomb on board, piloted by a crew led by pilot Durnovtsov, 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 jolted, and the crew received a certain dose of radiation. The explosion power, according to various estimates, ranged from 75 to 120 megatons. Khrushchev was informed about the explosion of a 100 megaton bomb, and it was this figure that he named in his speeches.

The results of the explosion of the charge, which received the name in the West - Tsar Bomba, 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. VB Adamskiy and Yu. N. Smirnov, who repeatedly appeared on the pages of our magazine, together with AD 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 PHOTOS:
Team nomad
http://yaranga.su/svedenia-novaya-zemla-1/
Pasetskiy V.M., Discoverers of Novaya Zemlya. - Moscow: Nauka, 1980 .-- 192 p. - (History of Science and Technology). - 100,000 copies
Saks V.N. 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. - P. 83-118, No. 12. - P. 671-709.
Yugarov I.S. Journal for Novaya Zemlya (climate) for 1881 and for 1882 / Extract. and comments. M. S. Robush // Historical Bulletin. - 1889. - T. 36. - No. 4. - P. 117-151. - Under the caption: 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. | Novaya Zemlya - military land | Newspaper "Geography" No. 09/2009
Based on materials from "The First Russian Explorers of Novaya Zemlya", 1922, compiled by P. I. Bashmakov
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