Severnaya Zemlya

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Lore & Background

Severnaya Zemlya was first recorded on a map during the 1913–1915 Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition of the icebreakers Taimyr and Vaigach, led by Boris Vilkitsky on behalf of the Russian Hydrographic Service. On 3 September 1913 (22 August 1913 in the Julian calendar), members of the expedition landed on what is now known as Cape Berg on present-day October Revolution Island, naming the new territory Tayvay Land. Barely six months later, by order of the Secretary of the Imperial Navy, it was renamed Emperor Nicholas II Land. In 1926, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR renamed it Severnaya Zemlya. The archipelago was thoroughly surveyed between 1930 and 1932 by Georgy Ushakov, accompanied by geologist Nikolay Urvantsev, surveyor Sergei Zhuravlev, and radio-operator Vasily Khodov. They established a small base at Golomyanny on Sredniy Island and produced the first detailed map showing four main islands. During the Cold War, geologists from NIIGA (the Scientific Research Institute of Arctic Geology) continued studies, compiling a comprehensive geological map between 1948 and 1954 under B. Kh. Egiazarov.

Reader's Guide

Severnaya Zemlya holds significance as the last sizeable archipelago on Earth to be discovered and mapped. Its discovery in 1913 by the Russian Hydrographic Service accomplished the goal of exploring the uncharted areas of the continental side of the Northern Sea Route. The archipelago's glaciers, particularly the Academy of Sciences Glacier—the largest in the Russian Federation—have played a key role in Arctic ice dynamics. Until the late summer of 2012, ice joined the islands to Eurasia, even at its smallest extent during the late summer melt season, blocking the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. By the late summer of 2012, however, due to Arctic sea ice decline the permanent ice had reached a record low extent and open water appeared to the south of the archipelago. Administratively, the islands form part of Russia's Krasnoyarsk Krai. Currently there are no human inhabitants in Severnaya Zemlya, except for the Prima Polar Station near Cape Baranov. A request to reinstate the former name of Severnaya Zemlya as 'Emperor Nicholas II Land' has been rejected by the local government for the time being.

Did You Know?

• Severnaya Zemlya was the last sizeable archipelago on Earth to be discovered and mapped, first sighted in 1913 and charted in 1930–1932.
• The largest glacier in the Russian Federation, the Academy of Sciences Glacier, is located in Severnaya Zemlya on Komsomolets Island.
• Until the late summer of 2012, permanent ice joined the islands to Eurasia, blocking the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
• The archipelago was originally named Emperor Nicholas II Land in 1914, then renamed Severnaya Zemlya by the Soviet government in 1926.
• As of 2021, there are no human inhabitants in Severnaya Zemlya except for the Prima Polar Station near Cape Baranov.

A Century of Near Misses

The archipelago that would become Severnaya Zemlya evaded formal cartographic record until the 20th century despite sitting just off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula. In 1810, Matvei Gedenschtrom and Yakov Sannikov noted a possible land mass in the general area while exploring the New Siberian Islands. Decades later, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld during the Vega expedition sailed very close to this land in 1878 but did not notice it. In 1882, the Danish Arctic explorer Andreas Peter Hovgaard set himself the goal of discovering land north of Cape Chelyuskin, but was prevented from accomplishing his objectives after having become trapped in thick ice, unable to reach even the shores of the Taymyr Peninsula. Even at the end of the 19th century, both Nansen's Fram expedition of 1895 and Eduard Toll's Russian polar expedition of 1900–02 on the ship Zarya failed to note any traces of land to the north of the 55 km-wide (34 mi) strait between the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea that they navigated. It was not until 3 September 1913, when Vilkitsky's expedition landed at Cape Berg on what is now October Revolution Island, that Severnaya Zemlya finally entered the cartographic record.

Naming, Renaming, and the Soviet Imprint

The territory's identity shifted dramatically with the political winds of the early twentieth century. Vilkitsky's 1913 landing crew initially called the land Tayvay Land, after the first syllable of each of their icebreakers' names, Taimyr and Vaigach. By early 1914, by order of the Secretary of the Imperial Navy, the new discovery was renamed Emperor Nicholas II Land, after the ruling Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. In 1926, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR renamed the still not fully-explored land Severnaya Zemlya. The Soviet imprint deepened during the 1930–1932 surveying campaigns, when cartographers assigned names to geographic features drawn from communist organizations, events, and personalities. That legacy proved fragile: due to anti-German sentiment caused by the 1941–1945 German-Soviet War in the USSR, some features that had been previously named in solidarity with German Communism were given Russian or neutral-sounding names, e.g. Cape Unslicht becoming Mys Peschanyy and Proliv Yungshturm becoming Yuny Strait. As of 2021, a request to reinstate the former name 'Emperor Nicholas II Land' has been rejected by the local government.

The Last Frontier Mapped

Severnaya Zemlya holds the distinction of being the last sizeable archipelago on Earth to be formally discovered and mapped. The 1913–1915 Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition, led by Boris Vilkitsky on behalf of the Russian Hydrographic Service and privately financed, first placed it on a map. But true cartographic understanding came later. In the spring of 1931, Georgy Ushakov, accompanied by geologist Nikolay Urvantsev, veteran surveyor Sergei Zhuravlev, and radio-operator Vasily Khodov, established a small base at Golomyanny – the western end of Sredniy Island, off October Revolution Island's western coast. From that foothold they made multiple surveying-trips into the interior and to the coastlines of the larger islands. Their cartographers produced the first detailed map showing the archipelago divided into four main islands. Ushakov himself was struck by the landscape's bleakness, writing: 'I have seen God-forsaken Chukotka Peninsula, blizzard-ridden Wrangel Island, twice visited fog-enshrouded Novaya Zemlya, and I have seen Franz Josef Land with its enamel sky and proud cliffs garbed in blue, hardened glacial streams, but nowhere did I witness such grimness or such depressing, lifeless relief...' By 1930–1932 the archipelago was fully charted, closing a long chapter in polar geography.

Ice, Glaciers, and a Warming World

Spanning 37,000 km² (14,000 sq mi) in the Russian high Arctic, Severnaya Zemlya sits astride the Vilkitsky Strait, the narrow waterway separating the Kara Sea to the west from the Laptev Sea to the east. The archipelago harbors the Academy of Sciences Glacier, the largest glacier in the Russian Federation. For decades, seasonal sea ice joined the islands to Eurasia, even at its smallest extent during the late summer melt season, blocking the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. That changed dramatically by the late summer of 2012, when due to Arctic sea ice decline the permanent ice had reached a record low extent. For the first time, open water appeared to the south of the archipelago, severing the ice bridge that had long tethered Severnaya Zemlya to the continent. Today the islands are essentially uninhabited, with no permanent residents except for the Prima Polar Station near Cape Baranov, making them a stark, silent witness to the rapid transformation of the Arctic environment.