Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas, is included in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia as its administrative district Novaya Zemlya and, within the framework of local government, in the status of the urban district Novaya Zemlya.
The archipelago consists of two large islands, the Northern and
the Southern, separated by a narrow strait (2-3 km) of Matochkin
Shar and many relatively small islands, the largest of which is
Mezhdusharsky. The northeastern tip of the North Island - Cape
Vlissing - is the easternmost point of Europe.
The
archipelago stretches from southwest to northeast for 925 km. The
northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya is the eastern island of the
Greater Oran Islands, the southernmost is Pynin Island of the
Petukhovsky Archipelago, the western is a nameless cape on the
Gusinaia Peninsula of the South Island, the eastern one is the Cape
Vlissing Island of North. The area of all islands is more than 83
thousand km²; the width of the North Island is up to 123 km, the
South is up to 143 km.
In the south, the Strait of Gates (50
km wide) is separated from Vaigach Island.
The climate is arctic, severe. Winter is long and cold, with
strong winds (the speed of the katabatic (runoff) winds reaches
40-50 m / s) and blizzards, and therefore it is sometimes called New
Land in the literature “The Land of the Winds”. Frosts reach −40 °
C. The average temperature of the warmest month - August - from 2.5
° C in the north to 6.5 ° C in the south. In winter, the difference
reaches 4.6 °. The difference in temperature conditions between the
coasts of the Barents and Kara seas exceeds 5 °. Such temperature
asymmetry is due to the difference in the ice regime of the
indicated seas. In the archipelago itself are many small lakes;
under the rays of the sun, the water temperature in southern areas
can reach 18 ° C.
About half of the area of the North
Island is occupied by glaciers. On a territory of about 20,000 km²,
there is a continuous ice cover extending nearly 400 km in length
and up to 70–75 km in width. The ice thickness is over 300 m. In
some places, the ice descends into the fjords or breaks into the
open sea, forming ice barriers and giving rise to icebergs. The
total area of the Novaya Zemlya glaciation is 29,767 km², of which
about 92% are glacier cover and 7.9% are mountain glaciers. On the
South Island - areas of the Arctic tundra.
On the archipelago - primarily on the South Island - mineral deposits
are known - mainly ferrous and non-ferrous ores. The most significant is
the Rogachevsko-Taininsky manganese-ore region, according to forecast
estimates, the largest in Russia. Manganese ores are carbonate and
oxide. Carbonate ores, with an average manganese content of 8-15%, are
distributed over an area of about 800 km², the predicted resources of
the P2 category are 260 million tons. Oxide ores, with a manganese
content of 16-24 to 45%, are concentrated mainly in the north of the
region — in the Severo-Taininsky ore field, the predicted P2 resources
are 5 million tons. According to the results of technological tests, the
ores are suitable for obtaining metallurgical concentrate. All deposits
of oxide ores can be mined in an open way.
Several ore fields
have been discovered (Pavlovskoye, Severnoye, Perevalnoye) with deposits
of polymetallic ores. The Pavlovskoye deposit, located within the ore
field of the same name, is so far the only deposit on Novaya Zemlya for
which balance reserves have been approved. The balance reserves of lead
and zinc in categories C1 + C2 are more than 2.4 million tons, and the
forecast resources of category P1 are 7 million tons (approved by the
Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia on 01.01.2003). The content of
lead in ores varies from 1.0 to 2.9%, zinc - from 1.6 to 20.8%. The
predicted resources of the Pavlovsky ore field of P2 category in total
for lead and zinc are 12 million tons (approved by the Ministry of
Natural Resources of Russia on 01.01.2003). In addition, silver reserves
are estimated as associated. The development of the deposit is possible
by an open method.
The remaining ore fields have been studied
much less. It is known that the Northern ore field, in addition to lead
and zinc, contains as associated components silver (content - 100-200
g/t), gallium (0.1-0.2%), indium, germanium, yttrium, ytterbium, niobium
.
In the South Island, occurrences of native copper and cuprous
sandstones are known.
All known ore fields require additional
study, which is hampered by natural conditions, insufficient economic
development and the special status of the archipelago.
In the
waters of the seas surrounding the archipelago, a number of geological
structures have been identified that are promising for the search for
oil and gas fields.
The Shtokman gas condensate field, the
largest on the Russian shelf, is located 300 km from the coast of Novaya
Zemlya.
In ancient times, Novaya Zemlya was inhabited by an unknown tribe,
possibly belonging to the Ust-Polui archaeological culture. It is
possible that in the mythology of the Samoyeds (Nenets) it was known
under the name Sirtya.
Two stone labyrinths were discovered on
Yuzhny Island on the Medny Peninsula (east coast of the Kostin Shar
Strait) in the northern part of the coast of the Maly Bay of the
Propashaya Bay.
Presumably Novaya Zemlya was discovered in the
12th-13th centuries by Novgorod merchants, but there is no convincing
historical and documentary evidence of this. Failed to prove the primacy
in the discovery of the archipelago and the ancient Scandinavians. In
any case, the name of the island is of purely ancient Russian origin.
Of the Western Europeans, the archipelago was first visited in 1553
by 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 Northeast Passage" and establish relations with the Russian
state.
In 1594, the first expedition of the Dutch traveler Willem
Barents discovered a Russian settlement in the Stroganova Bay on Novaya
Zemlya that had died from scurvy. The members of the expedition found
traces of the presence of Russians at several points on the western
coast of Novaya Zemlya. It is obvious that in the 15th-16th centuries
Novaya Zemlya was visited by Russian industrialists engaged in hunting.
On the map of the Flemish scientist Gerard Mercator in 1595, Novaya
Zemlya still looks like a single island or even a peninsula.
In
the course of his third expedition, in 1596, Barents rounded the
northern tip of Novaya Zemlya and wintered on the east coast of Severny
Island in the area of Ice Harbor (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,
as well as a written report on wintering were found.
In 1652 and
1671, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, expeditions of Roman
Neplyuev and Ivan Neklyudov were sent to Novaya Zemlya to search for
silver ores, almost all of whose members died.
In 1671, the essay
“Journey to the Nordic Countries” was published in Paris, the author of
which, a nobleman from Normandy, Pierre-Martin de Lamartiniere, visited
Novaya Zemlya in 1653 on a ship of Danish merchants. Having descended to
the coast of the South Island in three boats, the Danish sailors and
Martinier met Samoyed hunters armed with bows who worshiped wooden
idols.
The famous Dutch natural scientist Nikolaas Witsen in the
book “Northern and Eastern Tartaria” (1692) - the first scientific work
in Western Europe about Siberia and the Russian North - reports that
Peter the Great intended to build a military fort on Novaya Zemlya.
In 1760-1761, the Pomor feeder Savva Loshkin for the first time
passed on a boat from south to north along the eastern coast of Novaya
Zemlya, spending two years on it.
The first Russian explorer of
Novaya Zemlya is considered to be the navigator Fyodor Rozmyslov (d.
1771). In July 1768, an expedition led by Rozmyslov on a three-masted
koch carried out measurements and studies of the Matochkin Shar Strait,
compiling a detailed physical-geographical, meteorological description
of it and a detailed map of its coast. Arkhangelsk Governor A. E.
Golovtsyn sent a report with copies of the scientific results of
Rozmyslov's expedition to Empress Catherine II.
In 1806,
Chancellor N.P. Rumyantsev allocated funds for the search for silver ore
in Novaya Zemlya. The expedition led by the mining official V. Ludlov on
the single-masted sloop "Bee" did not find silver, but discovered
deposits of gypsum and for the first time surveyed the coast of the
archipelago from Kostin Shar to Matochkin Shar.
In 1821-1824,
Lieutenant F.P. Litke led four expeditions to the archipelago on the
military brig Novaya Zemlya. The expeditions led by Litke made an
inventory of the western coast of Novaya Zemlya from the Kara Strait to
Cape Nassau, and also carried out a number of meteorological,
geomagnetic and astronomical observations.
In 1832-1833, the
expedition of P.K. Pakhtusov on the single-masted deckless karbas Novaya
Zemlya compiled the first map of the entire eastern coast of the South
Island of the archipelago.
In 1837, on the schooner "Krotov"
under the command of ensign A.K. Tsivolka and a small boat "St. Yelisey”
an expedition of the Imperial Academy of Sciences headed by Academician
Karl Baer headed from Arkhangelsk to the shores of Novaya Zemlya. The
following were surveyed: the rivers Matochka and Chirakina in the
strait, Serebryanka Bay, Bezymyannaya Bay, the mouth of the Nakhvatova
River, the vicinity of the Kostin Shar Strait. The expedition stayed on
the islands for about a month and a half, collecting unique natural
science collections.
In 1838, under the command of ensign A.K.
Tsivolka, a new expedition was sent to Novaya Zemlya on the schooners
Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard.
Despite advances in scientific
research, until the end of the 19th century, Novaya Zemlya was a
virtually uninhabited archipelago, near which Pomors and Norwegians
fished and hunted. Neither one nor the other could settle and live on
the islands, and Novaya Zemlya remained only a transit point. From time
to time, minor diplomatic conflicts arose, in which the Russian Empire
invariably stated that "The Novaya Zemlya Archipelago is Russian
territory in its entirety."
In 1870, under the command of Vice
Admiral K. N. Posyet, the Varyag corvette and the Zhemchug clipper ship
were sent to Novaya Zemlya. On board the ships were the tsar's brother,
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the Arkhangelsk governor N. A.
Kachanov, academician A. F. Middendorf. The campaign was supposed to
demonstrate Russia's rights to own Novaya Zemlya.
The first
permanent resident of the archipelago is Thomas Vylka. He lived
permanently since 1869, when he transported his family from Pechora on a
karbas: wife, 2 sons and 2 daughters.
Following them, several
Nenets families moved to Novaya Zemlya for permanent residence in 1872.
In 1877, the Small Karmakuly camp was founded, where, by order of the
administration, 6 Nenets families were resettled in the amount of 24
people.
In the summer of 1879, the archipelago was visited by a
naval expedition of Captain 1st Rank Prince L.A. Ukhtomsky, who left an
interesting geographical description of the islands themselves and an
ethnographic description of their temporary population, the Samoyeds
(Nenets).
In 1887-1888 and 1890-1891, the traveler, ethnographer,
writer and journalist K. D. Nosilov, on behalf of the Imperial Russian
Geographical Society, spent three winters on Novaya Zemlya.
The
first two were carried out by him at the Malaye Karmakuly station on
Yuzhny Island, which was then the only Russian settlement on the
archipelago. Its elimination could lead to the loss of control by Russia
over the islands and their capture by the Norwegians.
Arriving on
the coast of Moller Bay on June 19, 1887, K. D. Nosilov settled in the
house of the station of the Water Rescue Society. Together with the
priest Father Jonah, who was sent by the Arkhangelsk diocese, sailors
and several Samoyeds, he restored an Orthodox chapel damaged by a
hurricane in the Small Karmakuly, which helped attract Russian
industrialists from Arkhangelsk to the island. During these winterings,
K. D. Nosilov explored the coast of the island itself and the mountain
range that crossed it, the local flora and fauna, the directions of
animal migration, and also studied the language and everyday culture of
the Samoyed families resettled there.
In the spring of 1889, with
two Nenets on dog sleds, K. D. Nosilov made an almost thousand-kilometer
trek across the South and North Islands, from Maly Karmakul to the bays
of Kankrin, Chekin, Medvezhye and Neznaniy. In 1889, at the Karmakul
station, he opened the “northernmost school” for Nenets children.
The third wintering of K. D. Nosilov in 1890-1891 took place on the
coast of the Matochkin Shar Strait, where he founded the first
meteorological station on the archipelago.
In 1901, the famous
polar artist Alexander Borisov arrived in Novaya Zemlya, where he met
and took the young Nenets Tyko Vylka as his guide. During the
400-kilometer trip around Novaya Zemlya on dogs, Borisov constantly made
sketches. Noticing the talent of a young Nenets who became interested in
painting, Borisov taught Tyko Vylka how to paint. When the artist and
writer Stepan Pisakhov was exiled to Novaya Zemlya in 1903, he also
noted Vylka's talent and presented him with paints and pencils.
In 1909, polar explorer Vladimir Rusanov came to Novaya Zemlya, who,
together with Tyko Vylka and captain Grigory Pospelov, explored the
entire archipelago and compiled its exact cartographic description.
In 1910, the Olginsky settlement was organized on Severny Island in
the Krestovaya Bay, which at that time became the northernmost (74 ° 08′
N) settlement of the Russian Empire.
The Novaya Zemlya expedition
of 1911, exploring the South Island, came across an extinct settlement
of Russian industrialists, the existence of which was not known until
that time. Located on the Black Nose in a bay without a name, nowhere
marked on the maps, the village was a sad sight: human skulls,
skeletons, bones scattered in all directions. The crosses standing right
there, apparently in the cemetery, were completely dilapidated and
decayed, the crossbars fell off, and the inscriptions on them were
erased. In total, the expedition counted the remains of about 13 people
here. Three more dilapidated crosses rose in the distance.
In
1921, with the consent of the Soviet authorities, Novaya Zemlya was
explored by the Norwegian geological expedition of Olaf Holtedahl. The
expedition passed through the Matochkin Shar Strait, explored Mashigin
Bay, mapped a number of islands. Holtendahl made a skiing expedition on
the glacier. The Norwegians also explored the Gorbovy and Krestovy
Islands, the Admiralty Peninsula. From the Mushroom Bay, the Norwegians
passed inland. From Mushroom Bay the expedition returned to Norway. As a
result of the expedition, two volumes on the flora and fauna of Novaya
Zemlya were prepared by the end of the 1920s. Paleontological
collections were also collected, a map of Mashigina Bay was compiled (it
was possible to identify changes in glaciers when compared with
Rusanov's surveys of 1909).
The first elections for the island
Council of Deputies were held on March 15, 1925.
From March 27,
1927, Novaya Zemlya, like other islands in the Arctic Ocean, was
governed by a special regulation of the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. In 1929,
they came under the direct jurisdiction of the executive committee of
the Northern Territory.
In 1939, due to the aggravation of
relations with Finland, the Solovetsky prison was transferred to Novaya
Zemlya and Norilsk, as it was close to the border. Large-scale
construction by prisoners of military and industrial facilities on the
archipelago, transport infrastructure begins. Pioneers were sent to
explore new "zones" - political prisoners convicted under Article 58 -
of the prisoners transferred to the archipelago, no one returned alive
from Novaya Zemlya, and if they returned, no memoirs were written.
Before the outbreak of World War II, there were 12 permanent
settlements in the archipelago. On August 18, 1942, the Novaya Zemlya
naval base was formed as part of the White Sea military flotilla, on
September 10, the construction of an airfield in Rogachevo was
completed, on September 25, a sea airfield in Samoyed Bay, piers in
Belushya Guba Bay were equipped.
After the Nenets were evicted to
the mainland, by the decision of the executive committee of the
Arkhangelsk Regional Council of Working People's Deputies of July 15,
1957, the Novaya Zemlya Island Council was abolished from August 1, 1957
in accordance with the resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme
Council of the RSFSR No. 764 of August 27, 1956.
From 1988 to
2014, the Marine Arctic Complex Expedition (MAKE) of the Russian
Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after A.I. D.
S. Likhachev under the command and scientific guidance of P. V.
Boyarsky.
In 2009, at the initiative of the geographer and polar
explorer P. V. Boyarsky, the Russian Arctic National Park was created in
the north of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
In 2015,
hydrographers of the Northern Fleet recorded the formation of seven
capes and four straits, and discovered nine islands in the Russian part
of the Arctic.
In total, in the area of the archipelagos of
Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, in total, for the period 2015-2019,
about 40 new islands, capes and bays were discovered and registered -
including thanks to enthusiasts, when analyzing satellite images.
In administrative terms, the archipelago is a separate municipality
of the Arkhangelsk region - the urban district "Novaya Zemlya". A
special pass is required to enter Novaya Zemlya.
Until the early
1990s. the very existence of settlements on Novaya Zemlya was a state
secret. The postal address of the village of Belushya Guba was
"Arkhangelsk-55", the village of Rogachevo and the "points" located on
the South Island and the south of the North Island - "Arkhangelsk-56";
“points” located in the north of Severny Island and Franz Josef Land -
“Krasnoyarsk Territory, Dikson-2 Island” (communication with them
through Dikson was maintained). In the administrative center - the
urban-type settlement of Belushya Guba, located on the South Island,
2861 people live (2022). The second settlement on Novaya Zemlya that
currently exists is the village of Rogachevo (715 people, 2022), 12 km
from Belushya Guba. There is a military airfield - Amderma-2. 350 km to
the north on the southern coast of the Matochkin Shar Strait is the
village of Severny (without a permanent population), a base for
underground testing, mining, construction and installation works. There
are currently no settlements on the North Island.
The indigenous
population - the Nenets - were completely evicted from the islands in
the 1950s, when a military training ground was created. The population
of the settlements is mainly made up of soldiers and builders.
According to the results of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, the
population of Novaya Zemlya is 2429 people and is concentrated in only
two settlements - Belushya Guba and Rogachevo.
The Novaya Zemlya archipelago is a unique natural region. Its fauna
and flora still retain their natural state as a result of sparsely
populated areas and little human intervention. The ecosystems of Novaya
Zemlya are commonly referred to as biomes of the Arctic deserts
(Northern Island) and the Arctic tundra.
The main role in the
formation of phytocenoses belongs to mosses and lichens. The latter are
represented by species of cladonia, whose height does not exceed 3-4 cm.
Arctic herbaceous annuals also play a significant role. Creeping
species, such as creeping willow (Salix polaris), opposite-leaved
saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), mountain lichen and others, are
characteristic of the scarce flora of the islands. The vegetation in the
southern part is mostly dwarf birches, moss and low grass, in areas near
rivers, lakes and bays a lot of mushrooms grow: milk mushrooms,
mushrooms, etc.
Freshwater fish, in particular arctic char, is
found in Lake Gusinoe.
In the waters of the archipelago,
zooplankton is observed, including euphausiids and krill. Benthos is
also rich: areas with its high biomass fall on the ice edge.
On
the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, according to the combined data of various
authors, 6 species of bumblebees were identified. On the South Island of
the archipelago, 6 species of diurnal butterflies were found. The
coastal position of the areas can significantly limit the number of
species in the local butterfly fauna due to unfavorable natural and
climatic conditions. The flight time of the club-bearing Lepidoptera is
usually very short and falls on the warmest period, while the flight
time can be significantly shifted depending on weather conditions.
On the islands of the archipelago you can find the largest bird
colonies in the Russian region of the Arctic. Guillemots, Atlantic
puffins, and seagulls settle here. The most common birds are Arctic
tern, skuas (skuas, long-tailed, middle-tailed), buzzard, burgomaster,
ptarmigan, goose goose, white-fronted goose, snowy owl, common eider,
Lapland plantain, horned lark, common wheatear, common tap dance, snow
bunting, various waders (Dunlin, phalaropes, sandpipers, gerbil). There
are also swans - small and whooper. Waterfowl and waders are found
mainly on lakes, in marshy lowlands, on rivers and streams. In the zone
of the Arctic tundra, the bunting is the basis of the avifauna in almost
all habitats, and the most numerous and widespread are the ringed lark,
the horned lark, the bean goose, and the sandpiper. In the zone of polar
deserts, the bird population is extremely poor - the lack of food supply
for land birds and extreme climatic conditions lead to a sharp decrease
in the number of some species and the complete absence of others. Only
species connected with the sea in one way or another are capable of
maintaining a high population in the zone of polar deserts; therefore,
the avifauna of this zone is dominated by gulls (glaucous gull, ivory
gull, skuas, arctic tern) and waders (marine sandpiper); of the
passerines, only the snow bunting lives.
Mammals are less
numerous than birds and less common. Of these, polar foxes, lemmings,
and reindeer are common. Polar bears come to the southern regions with
the onset of cold weather, posing a threat to local residents. While
Arctic fox and lemmings are permanent residents, deer and polar bear
actively migrate around the island. Lemming is one of the rare species
on the island, but its numbers fluctuate markedly in different years. Of
the marine animals, there are seals, bearded seals, walruses, whales,
including beluga whales. In the past, in the 16th-18th centuries, the
Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus), harp seal, hooded seal and
gray seal swam into the waters. To date, the number of these animals has
greatly decreased and they have practically disappeared from the Novaya
Zemlya region. In the north of the archipelago (the Greater and Lesser
Orange Islands, the island of Gemskerka and in some others), small
walrus rookeries have been preserved.
The Russian Arctic National Park is located in the northern part of
the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The national park, established on June 5,
2009, included reserve lands with a total area of 1,426,000 hectares, of
which land - 632,090 hectares, marine areas - 793,910 hectares. The
region hosts the largest "bird markets" in the Northern Hemisphere
(guillemots and eiders), walrus rookeries, polar bears, bowhead whales,
arctic foxes, harp seals and seals. The park was created to preserve the
unique nature of the Arctic. The initiator of the creation of the
national park was the geographer and polar explorer P. V. Boyarsky. In
the national park, marine, coastal and coastal ecosystems are dominant -
the main species diversity of animals and plants depends on food
resources or habitats of the same name.
The flora is typical for
the high arctic and arctic tundra, and is represented by characteristic
plants: polar poppy, saxifrage, grains, polar willow, etc. Several
species of animals listed in the Red Book of Russia and the
International Red Book live in the Russian Arctic Park: polar bear,
Atlantic walrus , narwhal, white-faced dolphin, bowhead whale, Novaya
Zemlya subspecies of reindeer, as well as a number of protected bird
species, including black goose, thick-billed murre.
The cultural
heritage of the national park is also unique: there are places and
objects associated with the history of the discovery and development of
the Russian Arctic since the 16th century, in particular, those
associated with the activities of Russian polar explorers Rusanov and
Sedov, as well as the sites of the Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who
discovered these lands for Western Europeans, and Russian Pomors, who
had been there long before him.
After the leadership of the USSR came to the conclusion that the
Semipalatinsk nuclear test site could not provide the specified
intensity and power of tests, a State Commission was created under the
leadership of Rear Admiral Sergeev N. D. After studying various options,
the choice fell on the islands of the archipelago. The village of
Belushye was chosen as the center of the landfill, and it was planned to
build an airfield in the Rogachevo region. Local residents were evicted
to the Arkhangelsk region, where they were provided with housing. Hero
of the Soviet Union, Captain 1st Rank Starikov V.G. was appointed the
first head of the training ground.
The Novaya Zemlya nuclear
weapons test site was created and opened on September 17, 1954 with a
center in Belushya Guba. During the Cold War, it was intended to study
the destructive effect of explosions on naval facilities and to develop
means and methods for their protection.
Tests at the site were
carried out at 3 technological sites:
zone A (Chernaya Guba area):
used mainly in 1955-1962. Underwater and surface tests, ground nuclear
weapons and 6 underground nuclear tests in wells were carried out here
zone B (near the Matochkin Shar Strait): in 1964-1990, 36 underground
nuclear explosions were carried out in adits
zone C (Sukhoy Nos
Peninsula): ground and air tests of nuclear explosions in 1957-1962.
In addition, explosions were also carried out at other points (the
official territory of the test site occupied more than half of the
entire area of Yuzhny Island).
From September 21, 1955 to October
24, 1990 (the official date of the moratorium on nuclear testing), 132
nuclear explosions were carried out at the test site: 87 in the
atmosphere (of which 84 air, 1 ground, 2 surface), 3 underwater and 42
underground. Among the experiments were very powerful megaton tests of
nuclear charges, carried out in the atmosphere over the archipelago.
The first nuclear explosion at the test site was underwater (the
first underwater nuclear explosion in the Soviet Union) and was carried
out in Zone A near Chernaya Bay on September 21, 1955. At a depth of
about 12 meters, a nuclear torpedo was blown up, whose power was up to
20 kt in TNT equivalent. On Novaya Zemlya on October 30, 1961, the most
powerful hydrogen bomb in the history of mankind, the 50-megaton Tsar
Bomba, was detonated over the Severny Island of the archipelago at an
altitude of about 4 km at the D-II Dry Nose site. The tangible seismic
wave resulting 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.
Nuclear
weapons tests were carried out with developed measures to ensure the
environmental safety of the environment. For this purpose, special
conditions for conducting nuclear explosions were chosen. Underwater and
ground explosions were carried out in weather and landscape conditions
in such a way that their traces subsequently fell on the territory of
the test site, which was significantly smaller than the total area of
the archipelago. Of the 42 conducted underground nuclear explosions, 2
were accompanied by abnormal radiation situations - there were
breakthroughs of a vapor-gas mixture of radioactive inert gases along
tectonic cracks. At technological sites, the dose rate reached several
hundred R/h. When testing at the test site, radioecological studies of
their impact on the environment were regularly carried out by various
organizations and ministries of the USSR (the USSR Ministry of Defense,
the USSR Academy of Sciences, the State Committee for Hydrometeorology,
the USSR Ministry of Health, and many others) in the area of the test
site and adjacent water areas, as well as in settlements on distance up
to 100-200 km from the test site. The objects of study were water and
atmospheric precipitation, soil, bottom sediments, flora and fauna, as
well as domestic animals, locally produced food. Data on the
accumulation of cesium-137 and strontium-90 radionuclides in the soil
testified to an increase in the levels of radiation contamination on
average throughout the entire territory of the USSR and separately on
the Novaya Zemlya archipelago since 1954. At the same time, this
increase in radiation pollution was somewhat higher in the archipelago.
In 1965-66, 3-4 years after the large tests, there was a tendency to
establish radiation contamination of the soil of the archipelago with
radionuclides, and then to reduce contamination due to radioactive
decay.
In August 1963, the USSR and the United States signed a
treaty banning nuclear tests in three environments: the atmosphere,
space, and underwater. Restrictions 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, tests abruptly came
to naught, and at present they are only engaged in research in the field
of nuclear weapons systems (the Matochkin Shar facility).
The
policy of glasnost led to the fact that in 1988-1989 the public learned
about nuclear tests at Novaya Zemlya, and in October 1990 activists from
the environmental organization Greenpeace appeared here to protest
against the resumption of nuclear tests on the archipelago. On October
8, 1990, at night, in the area of the Matochkin Shar Strait, the
Greenpeace vessel entered the territorial waters of the USSR, and a
group of anti-nuclear action activists was secretly sent ashore. After a
warning salvo from the patrol ship "XXVI Congress of the CPSU", the ship
stopped, Soviet border guards boarded it. Greenpeace was arrested and
towed to Murmansk, then released.
However, on the eve of the 50th
anniversary of the creation of the test site at Novaya Zemlya, the head
of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Alexander Rumyantsev, said
that Russia intends to continue to develop the test site and keep it in
working 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 capability and safety of
storing its nuclear weapons.
In addition to testing nuclear weapons, the territory of Novaya
Zemlya (or rather, the water area adjacent directly to its eastern
coast) in 1957-1992 was used for the disposal of liquid and solid
radioactive waste (RW). Basically, these were containers with spent
nuclear fuel (and in some cases, entire reactor plants) from submarines
and surface ships of the Northern Fleet of the Navy of the USSR and
Russia, as well as icebreakers with nuclear power plants.
Such RW
disposal sites are the bays of the archipelago: Sedov Bay, Oga Bay,
Tsivolki Bay, Stepovoy Bay, Abrosimov Bay (NPS K-19 reactor),
Blagoupuchie Bay, Currents Bay, as well as a number of points in the
Novaya Zemlya depression stretching along the entire archipelago. As a
result of such activities, a lot of underwater potentially hazardous
objects (OPOOs) have formed at the bottom of the Kara Sea and the bays
of Novaya Zemlya. Among them: the completely flooded nuclear submarine
"K-27" (1981, Stepovoy Bay), reactor compartments and assemblies of a
number of other nuclear submarines, the reactor compartment of the Lenin
nuclear icebreaker (1967, Tsivolki Bay).
Since 2002, the areas
where the PPO is located have been subject to annual monitoring by the
Russian Emergencies Ministry. In 1992-1994, international expeditions
were carried out (with the participation of specialists from Norway) to
assess the degree of environmental pollution; since 2012, the activities
of such expeditions have been resumed.