Samoyedic peoples from the island Novaya Zemlya

Samoyedic peoples from the island Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya (Russian Новая Земля/Novaya Zemlya ‘new land’) is a Russian twin island located west of the Inner Eurasian border in the Arctic Ocean and counted as part of Europe. It is part of Arkhangelsk oblast.

The slightly crescent-shaped double island is the eastern boundary of the Barents Sea and the western of the Kara Sea. The latter is the inner Eurasian estuary sea of the great Siberian rivers Ob and Yenisei and is significant for the humid island climate.

The first Samoyed settlement was established in 1872 at Kostin Shar on the west coast of the South Island. In 1875 a life-saving station was established at Malyje Karmakuly, soon followed by the meteorological station there. In 1894, a regular steamer service was established from Arkhangelsk to Novaya Zemlya.

Most of the inhabitants belong to the indigenous people, the Nenets. Fishing and fur hunting, especially for the arctic fox, play a major role for Novaya Zemlya.

Source: Living Races of Mankind. A popular illustrated account of the customs, habits, pursuits, feasts, and ceremonies of the races of mankind throughout the world by Henry Neville Hutchinson (1856-1927), John Walter Gregory and Richard Lydekke. Published by Hutchinson & Co. Paternoster Row, London 1902.

From 1955, Novaya Zemlya was used for nuclear weapons testing by the Soviet Union under the code name “Object 700”. Among other things, the so-called Tsar bomb was tested over this site, which, at 57 megatons of TNT equivalent, is the largest nuclear fusion weapon ever detonated. A total of 130 nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the area by 1990 in three zones, including 88 atmospheric, 39 underground, and three underwater.

According to various reports, large amounts of radioactive waste are stored on the island and in the waters of the Kara Sea to the east. Known are the nuclear submarine K-27 and the nuclear reactors and wreckage of the icebreaker Lenin and the reactor of submarine K-19.

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