The Arctic is the land of Franz Joseph. Nine facts about the land of Franz Joseph. Practical opening of the FFI

Franz Josef Land is known to many from the songs of Yuri Vizbor, who traveled all over the northern seas from Murmansk to Chukotka and further across the Far East!
And it’s worth it, because Franz Josef Land (abbreviated as ZFI) breaks many Russian and world records: it is the northernmost point of the Russian island land, the closest land to the North Pole, the northernmost border post of the Russian Federation, the northernmost post office and the northernmost airfield in world, the northernmost theater of combat in the Patriotic War, the most extreme of our islands!
And this list can go on for a long time!
And, of course, the northernmost Orthodox Cross - to our heroes, explorers and travelers who, without sparing their bellies, expanded the borders of our boundless Motherland!

Geography: island point: Cape Fligeli on Rudolf Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago is located all the way to the north - 81° 49" N, the distance from Cape Fligeli to the North Pole is only 900 km.

Rudolf Island is the northernmost of the Franz Josef Land islands. Cape Fligeli on the island is the northernmost point of land belonging to the Russian Federation, at the same time the northernmost point of Europe. The island administratively belongs to the Arkhangelsk region. Area 297 km?. Almost completely covered by a glacier.

The island, like the entire Franz Josef Archipelago, was discovered in 1873 by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of explorer J. Payer, and was named after Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. In 1936, the base of the first Soviet air expedition to the North Pole was established on the island. From there, in May 1937, four heavy four-engine ANT-6 aircraft brought the Papaninites to the top of the world.

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 post-Soviet times 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 in cases where it has long been no longer a secret. This is a little surprising, since for many both old-developed areas and newly developed regions, parts of various law enforcement agencies perform the functions of city-forming enterprises.

Franz Josef Land was discovered at the end of the 19th century. an Austro-Hungarian expedition that 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 *. Z.F.I., as it is usually called in the North, has an area of ​​approximately 16 thousand km2 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 Karmakuly, which exists to this day and is the oldest polar station in Russia.

Straits
The Arkhangelsk Strait passes between the Polar Pilots Peninsula and the Armitage Peninsula. South of the Arkhangelsk Strait is the Cambridge Strait, which washes the southern part of the island.

Bays and bays of Alexandra Land

Omelaya Bay
St. John's Bay
Topographers Bay (between Cape Melekhov and the western coast of the Polar Pilots Peninsula)
Dezhnev Bay
Northern Bay
Ostrovnaya Bay
Weyprecht Bay
Nordenskiöld Bay

Capes of Alexandra Land
Enumeration from the westernmost point clockwise:
Cape Mary Harmsworth
Cape Nimrod
Cape Strelka
Cape Nagursky
Cape Zamanchiviy
Cape Thomas
Cape Melekhova
Cape Dvoinoy
Cape Babushkina
Cape Ledyanoy
Cape Abrosimov
Cape Finger
Cape Ludlova
Cape Lofley

mid-polar summer in the Polar Region

LAND OF VILČEK
Wilczek Land is an island in the Arctic Ocean, the second largest island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Named after Hans Wilczek, who financed the Austrian expedition of Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer that discovered the island in 1873.
Located in the eastern part of the archipelago. Separated from the western group of islands by the Austrian Strait, from the Graham Bell Island lying northeast by the Morgan Strait. The surface of the island is a plateau with relative heights of 400-600 m and is almost completely covered by a glacier. The area of ​​the island is about 2000 km², the highest point is 606 m.

Nearby small islands
9 km south of Perseus Bay lies the island of Klagenfurt, named after the Austrian city of Klagenfurt.
Just off the east coast are the Gorbunov Islands, named after the Russian naturalist Grigory Petrovich Gorbunov.
Four small islands lie 1.5 km to the southeast:
Wood
Dawes
McCulta
Tillo
Climate
The climate is harsh, arctic. On average, only 18 days with temperatures above 0 °C are recorded per year. The average annual air temperature is −12 °C, the maximum recorded temperature is +12 °C, the minimum is −42 °C. The average annual precipitation is 280 mm.

GRAHAM BELL ISLAND
Graham Bell is the easternmost island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, in northern Europe. Part of the polar possessions of Russia is part of the Arkhangelsk region. Area - 1.7 thousand km².
It was discovered in 1899 during a sleigh ride by American meteorologist Evelyn Baldwin, named after Alexander Graham Bell.
The highest point is 509 meters, the Vetreny glacier dome.
The largest lake on the island is Small, the second largest is Severnoe.
The northernmost point of the island is Cape Aerosemki, the easternmost point is Cape Semerykh (Cape Peschany). The easternmost point of the island and the entire archipelago is Cape Olney, to the north of which Cape Kolzat is located; the extreme southern point is Cape Leiter.
In the west there is a large bay - Matusevich Bay. In the east there is a small Ilistaya Bay with many small sandy islands.
The nearest islands are Pearl Island and Trekhluchevoy. In the west, Graham Bell is separated from the island of Wilczek Land by the Morgan Strait.

Cape Trieste, Champ Island

JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF FRANZ JOSEPH
The Franz Josef Land archipelago is not only the most remote northern part of Russia, but also, perhaps, one of the most unexplored tourist spots in the world. No, the specialists there undoubtedly worked and tried to figure out a lot of things, but for tourists this region of our country is still “Terra incognita”.
Indeed, firstly, the opportunity to visit these islands for domestic and foreign travel enthusiasts appeared literally a couple of decades ago. Secondly, you can get there either by air, for example, by helicopter, or by sea-ocean, from Murmansk, but this is far, or from Arkhangelsk - this, of course, is closer, but in both cases, tourist trips to the Polar Region region do not happen often . Thirdly, it is possible to visit them for a very limited time, about three months a year.

But there is also a fourth thing. A trip there in any acceptable way costs decent money, in other words, well, you need a lot of money, so inquisitive foreigners from different regions of the Earth, for whom such amounts are not critical, visited the archipelago significantly more than Russians, although our compatriots also went there began to get there, and the further, the more.

Miracles on the FJL are found on literally every island, but among all of them there is one very amazing piece of land. And its name is also unusual - Champ, so short, but very sonorous. It turned out that it was named after William Champ, who in 1905, as the personal secretary of the American millionaire Ziegler, went as the head of a rescue operation to search for the missing polar expedition, financed by the same Ziegler.

So, the Arctic island named Champa is one of the most unique places on Earth - it is all strewn with strange, perfectly round stones, called “spherulites”, and they range from small, pocket-sized ones, to giants with a diameter of more than two meters and a weight of many tons The nature of their origin has not yet been explained by science. We were told all this at one of the briefings, and they even showed us photographs. Very impressive photos, I must say. Imagine how we longed to go there!

It was to this unusual island that our ship rushed. And everything would have been fine, but the closer we got to the island, the denser the fog became, and the less likely it was for us to land. The main danger in such weather was bears, because the animals could approach completely silently, the fog was not a hindrance for them, and it was very difficult to organize 100% security for tourists. And examining the island in such fog is a very dubious pleasure.
It was decided that “50 Years of Victory” would stand for a while near the island of Champa, and we would all wait, suddenly the gods would be merciful and the fog would clear.
After making such a decision, tourists, in order to distract them from sad thoughts, were invited to the lecture hall for another unusual and amazing event - a Charity Auction, the northernmost of all that have ever been held in the world, all proceeds from it should go to polar bear conservation fund.

We were still a little bored, but then everyone was invited to come for dinner, and we went to the restaurant. A big surprise awaited us there - a Russian dinner, all the waitresses were dressed in Russian national costumes, on the buffet table, along with the usual salads and appetizers, there were traditional Russian products - jars of black caviar, bottles of a wide variety of vodka, whatever there were: Stolichnaya, and Tsarskaya, and Five Lakes, and so on, and so on. There was only a Bad one, but that doesn’t happen in jokes either.
Everything was fine, there was only one problem - both the cans and bottles, as they were closed, remained closed until the end of dinner. Maybe they were dummies? We still don't understand.

After dinner, we were assured that if the fog cleared at night, and this was expected around two in the morning, then they would lift us up and we would go on an excursion on the Zodiacs; there would be no darkness, because the polar day overboard does not stop even at night .
We were sleeping soundly, but then the loudspeaker sounded:
— We invite everyone to an excursion to Champ Island.
While this message was being duplicated in other languages, we managed to get dressed, and only at the door did we pay attention to the TV screen. What we saw amazed us; it turned out that it really was 2 am.
“They give it to me,” it burst out from us at the same time.
On the upper deck we stood in a long line, it turned out that almost all the foreigners had already gathered, and the Chinese were standing first, apparently they were all sleeping without undressing, otherwise how could they get ready so quickly.

Boarding began, “Zodiac” after “Zodiac” was filled with tourists, but did not leave, but gathered nearby in a flock, we moved closer and closer to the ramp, the sixth boat was filled, and they all immediately disappeared into the fog. Yes, yes, it was precisely in the fog, which did not decrease at all, that it seemed to thicken even more.
“Maybe it’s just here, around the ship, that there’s such a fog, but the shore is clear?” — someone’s voice sounded behind him.
We looked at each other, such a simple thought did not occur to us. Well, this is probably really true, I thought, otherwise, why are they dragging us there in the middle of the night?
The boats left, we were told that we would have to wait at least an hour for their return. This means that they will reach the shore, disembark there, walk around a bit and get back into the Zodiacs to return on board, and only after that we will sail. Some of the tourists left, deciding that waiting in the middle of the night was not justified, but we were so curious, we so wanted to see these round stones, and, to hide one, secretly put it in our pocket, that we stayed, and we were right. This is what ultimately happened.

We stood leaning on the railing, anxiously waiting for the boats to return. Our eyes were directed into the foggy distance towards the stern of the ship, we were not bothered by extraneous sounds, nothing distracted us, we were, how would it be more correct to say, probably fixated on the very process of waiting. Imagine yourself, they wake you up in the middle of the night and say: you need to stand and wait for an hour. What would you do if you agreed to stand and wait for an hour at 2 am?

About another half hour passed, active movement began on the yachts, apparently they received the “Okay” and began to prepare the rubber boats for launching, but then our “Zodiacs” emerged from the fog, and we turned our attention to them. Tourists were climbing up the ladder, mostly they were silent and somehow sad and sad. One of the Russians who made it to the first approach explained to us that there was no less fog there, there was nothing to see, they didn’t see any living creatures except birds, in general, it wasn’t worth swimming.

But we considered it unreasonable to refuse the trip, after having already waited so long, and even at such a time, and settled on the sides of the boat, which was driven by Dmitry. There was only one more boat next to us; there were no more passengers. A few minutes later, the icebreaker disappeared into the fog, the second boat stayed nearby, but sometimes it also began to dissolve in space and then its contours could hardly be seen through the oncoming waves of dense fog. We moved on a whim, the Zodiacs were not equipped with any navigation devices, but we were not supposed to pass by a rather large island, and from the icebreaker we could correct our route via radio, because they saw us perfectly well, or rather not us, of course , but the point that corresponded to our location on the locator screen.

The fog cleared a little, and it became clearer and further away. In front of us appeared the shore of the island, covered with a glacier sliding into the sea; one of the icebergs, which had recently broken off from this glacier, was floating very close by. The iceberg housed many birds, which chose it as a mobile recreation center. Some of the birds swam on the water.
Dmitry pointed the boat towards the iceberg so that we could get a good look at the birds. And then two fast and agile figures appeared between the shore and the boat in the sea - they were young walruses. The animals, not paying any attention to us, dived, disappearing for a long time under water.
The walruses dived once again and disappeared under water for a long time. Dmitry started the engine and began to move in the direction where the walruses had recently been.
- We won't scare them? - someone asked.
- Yes, no, on the contrary. They are curious and will come closer to the noise.
That's how it all happened. The walruses surfaced next to our boat and swam nearby for a while, as if posing so that we could get a good look at them. Interesting fact: according to evolutionary theory, a walrus is a bear that went underwater. We tried to find similarities between a bear and a walrus, sometimes it worked, but more often the walrus looked like anyone, but not a bear.

journey through the FJL - icebreaker Captain Dranitsyn

GALL ISLAND
At this time we were walking at cruising speed towards Gallya Island, one of the southernmost islands of the archipelago. It was there that we planned our final helicopter landing on the mesa of Cape Tegethoff. Table Mountain is the scientific name for all peaks with a truncated, flat top. There are an innumerable number of such mountains in the world; their formation is explained by the weathering of the sedimentary rocks from which they are composed. We saw a lot of them at FFI. But it seemed to me that the tops of the mountains there were simply licked off by a glacier or pressed down so that a flat surface was formed.

The sea was calm, the fog was swirling somewhere in the distance, visibility was very acceptable, so for a very long time we, those who were on the navigation bridge, saw a huge iceberg lying alone on the surface of the sea.
The captain immediately appeared and ordered to slow down and approach this handsome man. And there was something to see. A block of blue ice lay motionless on the sea surface, it seemed that it just lay at the very top, stretching out in length for a good hundred or so meters and rising up to the height of a ten-story building, such a hill appeared in front of us.
Behind the iceberg we could already see the islands we were aiming for, but there was no time for them. We saw a real iceberg for the first time and were eager to examine it from all sides. The reason for the sinking of the Titanic became clear; if it ran into such an obstacle at full speed, nothing would survive, not a single ship, perhaps even one like our icebreaker.
The icebreaker came almost close to the ice mountain, and then lightly poked its nose into the edge of this wall, and immediately pieces and pieces fell from it, the wall turned out to be weak.
There was mass photography taking place against the backdrop of this miracle of nature. People took the most bizarre poses just to catch the angle they liked. We didn’t lag behind everyone either.
We stood high above the water level and looked down, so we clearly saw that the mountain was going straight under the water. It was impossible to determine how far, or rather, deep, it continues under water, but it is obvious that the experts are right, and most of the ice is down there, under water, but I don’t know about 90%, it seems to me that this figure is somewhat exaggerated.
The nuclear-powered ship slowly walked around the ice mountain, it was obvious that nature knew its business well, the ice was all eaten away by the mild sun, fog and rain. It was clear that this piece of ice would not float in the ocean for long; it would soon come to an end, and the volume of sea water would not be replenished much.
We swam around the iceberg and saw its reverse side, it seemed to be the creation of human hands, such a smooth, slightly inclined, upward surface appeared before us, well, just like the take-off deck of an aircraft carrier, and immediately the handsome “Admiral Kuznetsov” appeared before our eyes.
That's it, the iceberg was left far behind, and we continued on our way to Gallya Island. In front of us lay a seemingly endless strip of islands covered with snow and ice; perhaps this is exactly what the Austrian sailors, the discoverers of these islands, saw.
The ship dropped anchor near the famous Cape Tegethoff. Well, since I wrote that the cape is famous, I need to explain why. The fact is that the history of the development of the Franz Josef Land archipelago began from this cape. After all, it was to the area of ​​Hallya Island, or, to be more precise, to this very cape on August 30, 1873 that the ice brought the schooner “Admiral Tegethoff” of the Austrian expedition - the discoverers of the Polar Region. In memory of their landing, a monument to the schooner was erected on the cape.

We looked from the deck of the nuclear-powered ship at the sharp kekurs sticking out straight from the depths of the sea, which the famous Russian polar explorer Viktor Boyarsky figuratively called “Dragon Fangs”, and indeed they really resemble something similar, however, we were not able to see the dragons themselves, but their fangs could be only like this and no other, and the place, it would seem, was created just for them.

The long wait began for our turn for the helicopter tour. To be fair, the management changed the order of flights, and this time tourists from the very last group were supposed to fly first. The procedure was structured as follows. First of all, the guards flew to the mountain; you can expect anything from the bears. By the way, the first tourists noticed a polar bear below, but, most likely, he was greatly frightened by the helicopter roar, and he chose to hide; we never saw him. Together with the guards, Ian and his friend flew there, who led all the landing and landing operations.

The empty helicopter returned to the ship, the Chinese comrades loaded into it, and the carousel began to spin - the helicopter was swinging back and forth, carrying the next group from the icebreaker, then picking up the previous one from the island, and so on until the very end, when it made its last flight, taking Yan and security. We were now almost at the end, but the queue, no matter how slowly it crawled - after all, a two-way flight with two take-offs and landings and a change of tourists took about 10-12 minutes - still got to us, and we sat down in The helicopter, this time next to the pilot to get a better look at everything, went to the island.

So, jumping from rock to rock, we moved from the landing site, perhaps the only truly flat place suitable for a helicopter, to the edge of the peak, from where we could take decent photographs of the cape, the sea and the ship, and then back to the landing site .
From above, of course, the view of the cape is very good; two rock outcrops, 25 and 60 meters high, are clearly visible. There is a border at the cape - they go to the south, and to the north lies Surovaya Bay, which is already part of the Arctic waters, like this. It must be said that this border is not clearly demarcated.
Slowly moving along the mountain, we tried to find at least some signs of life, but around there were only stones, stones, ice and snow, but no, in one place there was a tiny island of greenery that pleased us with its love of life.

It’s all over, the helicopter has come for us, it’s time to go down to the ship, but first we need to examine the island from above.
Down from the top of the table mountain of Gallya Island stretch beautiful rocks, named in memory of the outstanding Soviet geologist Academician Alexander Nikolaevich Zavarnitsky, Zavarnitsky Rocks, stretching 15 kilometers deep into the island, reaching a maximum height of 500 meters.
Well, the helicopter’s rotor froze, everyone returned on board, and we can move on. We were surprised to hear the announcement that the icebreaker was turning around and we would go back to Champ Island. We really liked this solution, maybe we will still be able to get to the island with the stone balls.
Moving on, we cast our last glance at the “dragon’s fangs”; from this point they could be mistaken for a kind of gate blocking the path to Gallya Island and the cape itself with two remnants decorating it.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
Savatyugin L.M., Dorozhkina M.V. Archipelago of Franz Josef Land: history, names and titles. - St. Petersburg: AAII, 2012. - 484 p. — ISBN 978-5-98364-054-2
Sergey V. Popov, Vladilen A. Troitsky Franz Josef Land Archipelago // Toponymy of the seas of the Soviet Arctic / Ed. L. A. Borisova. - Leningrad: Geographical Society of the USSR, 1972. - P. 85-128. — 316 p. — 1000 copies.
Franz Josef Land: Collection of articles / USSR, Scientific and technical. ex. VSNKh No. 352. - M.: State Technical Publishing House, 1930. - (Proceedings of the Institute for the Study of the North; issue 47).
Mikhail N. Ivanychuk 14 months on the land of Franz Joseph. Impressions of a winterer. - Kharkov: Ukrainian robotnik, 1934. - 122, p.
http://greenbag.ru/russia/
Martynov V. | Novaya Zemlya is a military land | Newspaper "Geography" No. 09/2009
Island of Captain Kuchiev | Ship side April 2, 2008 | Publishing house "Northern Week"
Kryukov V.D., Zatsepin E.N., Sergeev M.B. Historical sketch of the Polar Marine Geological Exploration Expedition. "Exploration and protection of subsoil" No. 8 2012
The northernmost branch of the Russian Post.
Two million barrels await Putin's partners in the Arctic - Science - GZT.RU
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg: 1890—1907.
http://www.photosight.ru/
photo by V. Balyakin, O. Parshina, A. Zolotina, S. Anisimov

The administration of the Russian Arctic National Park is planning a “Living History of the Arctic” on the Franz Josef Land archipelago by 2020, the exhibition of which will feature the first Soviet polar station, cars, installations, wildlife objects, all-terrain vehicles and aircraft.

On the island of Alexandra Land, part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, at the Nagurskoye border outpost, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was erected - the northernmost Christian temple in the world. It was consecrated in 2012.

In the fall of 2014, on the Franz Josef Land archipelago to recreate military infrastructure. On the island of Alexandra Land there are objects of a technical position and administrative-residential, warehouse, utility and park areas, as well as the Nagurskoye airfield. The construction of the administrative and residential complex "Arctic Trefoil" is also underway here, which is the only capital construction project in the world being built at 80 degrees north latitude.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

In 1865, the Russian naval sailor, Admiral N. G. Shilling, in his article “Considerations about a new route in the Arctic Sea”, published in the “Sea Collection”, based on an analysis of the movement of ice in the western part of the Arctic Ocean, suggested the existence of an unknown land , located to the north further than Spitsbergen.

At the end of the 1860s, the famous Russian meteorologist A.I. Voeikov raised the question of organizing a large expedition to explore the Russian polar seas. This idea was warmly supported by the geographer (later revolutionary) Prince P. A. Kropotkin. Observations of the ice of the Barents Sea led him to the conclusion that:

“between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya there is an as yet undiscovered land that extends to the north beyond Spitsbergen and holds the ice behind it... The possible existence of such an archipelago was indicated by the Russian naval officer Baron Schilling in his excellent but little-known report on currents in the Arctic Ocean.”

On May 20, 1874, the crew of the Tegetgoff was forced to abandon the ship and travel across the ice to the shores of Novaya Zemlya, where they met with Russian Pomor fishermen who assisted in the return of the expedition.

Research

In September 1927, the Soviet motor-sailing vessel "Elding" of the Northern Scientific and Fishery Expedition of the Supreme Council of National Economy approached Cape Flora; due to the large accumulation of broken ice off the coast, no landing was made.

Since 1928, the situation around the archipelago began to worsen. After the successful flight of Umberto Nobile and Raoul Amundsen on the airship "Norway", preparations began in Italy for the next, purely national Arctic expedition on the airship "Italy", in connection with this, opinions were expressed in the Italian press about the possible upcoming annexation of Franz Josef Land in favor of Italy. "Italy", taking off from a base on Spitsbergen, passed over the northern tip of the archipelago from west to east in mid-May 1928, during its second Arctic flight, but disaster occurred on its third flight to the pole. In the subsequent search for the airship, the Soviet Union took an active part, using icebreakers and icebreaking vessels.

On July 31, 1928, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on strengthening scientific research work in the active possessions of the USSR. The first five-year plan for scientific research was being developed, according to which, on Franz Josef Land, as well as on other Arctic lands, it was planned to build geophysical observatories. Scientific work was financed by deductions of 1.5-2.25% from income from Arctic fishing and trade. Expeditions aimed at securing the most disputed territories for the country (Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land) were equipped in advance, without waiting for the final approval of the plan.

In August 1928, as part of the search for the crew of the “Italy”, a significant area of ​​water on the southern shores of Franz Josef Land was explored for a month by the icebreaking steamer “G. Sedov”, conducting extensive hydro- and meteorological observations.

August 30, 1929 The grand opening of the first permanently operating polar station on Franz Josef Land took place, at 13:30 the USSR flag was raised over the station and the first radiogram was transmitted to the mainland. From that moment on, the archipelago was visited annually by Soviet polar expeditions.

From 1990 to 2010 The Marine Arctic Complex Expedition (MAE) of the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after A.V. worked on the archipelago. D. S. Likhachev under the leadership and scientific guidance of P. V. Boyarsky. MACE, within the framework of its programs: “Comprehensive study of the cultural and natural heritage of the Arctic” and “In the footsteps of Arctic expeditions”, identified, studied and described in its scientific works the vast majority of cultural heritage sites in the archipelago of the 19th - 20th centuries, published a comprehensive monograph “Franz Land” Joseph" (M.: 2013), the first map and book appendix to it "Franz Josef Land Archipelago. Cultural and natural heritage. Pointers to the map. Chronicle of Franz Josef Land" (M.: 2011) under the general editorship of P. V. Boyarsky.

In 2016, the Russian Ministry of Defense began construction of the Nagurskoye airfield on Alexandra Land. The length of the concrete runway at the Nagurskoye airfield will be 2,500 meters, the width will be up to 46 meters, which will allow it to accommodate all types of aircraft in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces. On the island, the stationary airfield closest to the North Pole, on which the following will be based: Il-78, A-50, A-100, Il-38 and others. Also, Su-27 and MiG-31 fighters will be permanently stationed at the Nagurskoye airfield, which will fully ensure the protection of Russia’s air borders in the Arctic region.

Geography

Franz Josef Land is one of the northernmost territories of Russia and the world. Consists of 192 islands, with a total area of ​​16,134 km². Divided into 3 parts: eastern, separated from the others by the Austrian Strait, with the large islands of Wilczek Land (2.0 thousand km²), Graham Bell (1.7 thousand km²); the central one - between the Austrian Strait and the British Channel, where the most significant group of islands is located, and the western one - to the west of the British Channel, which includes the largest island of the entire archipelago - George's Land (2.9 thousand km²).

The surface of most of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is plateau-like. Average heights reach 400-490 m (the highest point of the archipelago is 620 m).

Population

There is no permanent population on the archipelago. There is not a single municipality or settlement. The temporary population consists of scientists at research stations, meteorologists and FSB border guards.

Hydrology

Most of the islands are covered with glaciers; in places free from them there are many lakes, covered with ice most of the year. Permafrost .

Lakes

Many lakes still do not have names; the following have acquired their own designations: Cosmic, Ledyanoe, Melkoe, Severnoe, Utinoe, Shirshova.

Glaciers

The study of glaciation on the archipelago began especially intensively with the beginning of the International Geophysical Year. As a result of two years of field work, the participants of this Russian expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences received the first summary of the glaciology of the territory, which was published in the collective monograph “Glaciation of Franz Josef Land” (authors M. G. Grosvald et al., 1973). It contained characteristics of the morphology of glacial complexes, glacial climate, ice formation zones, temperature conditions, structure and tectonics of glaciers. Domestic glaciologist M. G. Grovald and his colleagues were the first to make an important conclusion that glaciation in the FJL is decreasing: over the past 30 years, the archipelago has lost an average of 3.3 km³ of ice per year. Before these works, the world scientific community was of the opinion that glaciation in the FJL was stationary or even growing.

Glaciers cover 87% of the archipelago's territory. Ice thickness ranges from 100 to 500 m. Glaciers descending into the sea produce large numbers of icebergs. The most intense glaciation is observed in the southeast and east of each island and the archipelago as a whole. Ice formation occurs only on the top surfaces of ice domes. The glaciers of the archipelago are rapidly shrinking, and if the observed rate of degradation continues, the glaciation of Franz Josef Land may disappear in 300 years.

Climate

The climate of the archipelago is typically arctic. Average annual temperature up to −12 °C (Rudolph Island); average July temperatures from −1.2 °C in Tikhaya Bay (Hooker Island) to +1.6 °C (Hays Island, where the world's northernmost meteorological station is located - the Krenkel Observatory); the average January temperature is about −24 °C (minimum temperatures in winter are −52 °C), the wind reaches 40 m/sec. Precipitation ranges from 200-300 mm to 500-550 mm (in the zone of accumulation of ice domes) per year.

Flora and fauna

The vegetation cover is dominated by mosses and lichens. There are also polar poppy, saxifrage, grains, and polar willow. Mammals include the polar bear and, less commonly, the arctic fox. In the waters surrounding the islands there are

FRANZ JOSEPH LAND (ZFI)

An archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, northern Europe. Part of the polar possessions of Russia is part of the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. Consists of 191 islands, total area 16,134 sq. km.

The existence of these islands east of Spitsbergen was predicted by Lomonosov, and later by Schilling and Kropotkin. The latter even presented his project of an expedition to study them to the Russian Geographical Society in 1871, but the government refused him funds.
Discovered completely by accident: the Austro-Hungarian expedition led by Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer on the sailing-steam schooner Admiral Tegetthoff (German: Admiral Tegetthoff), which set off in 1872 to open the Northeast Passage, was covered in ice to the northwest from Novaya Zemlya and then, gradually carried away by them to the west, on August 30, 1873, it was brought to the shores of an unknown land, which was then examined by Weyprecht and Payer as far as possible to the north and along its southern outskirts. Payer managed to reach 82°5"N (in April 1874) and draw a map of this vast archipelago, which seemed to the first explorers to consist of a number of vast islands. Austrian travelers gave the newly discovered land the name of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Weyprecht and Payer explored the southern part of the archipelago in 1873, and in the spring of 1874 they crossed it all from south to north on sleds. The first map was drawn up.
In 1881-82 The archipelago was visited by Scotsman Benjamin Leigh Smith on the yacht Eira. The Englishman Frederick Jackson in 1895-1897 carried out a number of important surveys of the southern, middle and southwestern parts of the archipelago, which turned out to consist of a much larger number of islands than previously thought, but smaller in size compared to those indicated on Payer’s map.

During the same time, the northeastern and middle part of the archipelago was visited by Nansen and Johansen, who, during their famous journey, were forced, in mid-August 1895, to winter on the shore of Jackson Island, one of the northern islands of the archipelago. On the way to this place, Nansen became convinced that the archipelago had no continuation to the northeast, except for small islands. In June 1896, Nansen came across F. Jackson's winter quarters on Northbrook Island and thus connected his work with his writings.

In 1898, American journalist Walter Wellman went to Franz Josef Land in winter with the goal of reaching the Pole. The main base of the expedition was located on Gallya Island. On about. Wilczek spent the winter with two Norwegians - participants in this American-Norwegian expedition. One of them, a member of Nansen's expedition, Bernt Bentsen, died during the wintering period. In the spring of 1899, on ice, he managed to reach only 82° N, along the eastern side of the island of Rudolf Land, where Payer had also been. Another part of the expedition, under the leadership of Baldwin, explored unknown parts of the southeastern edge of the archipelago, which, as it turned out, did not go far to the East; Finally, in the summer we managed to visit the middle part of the archipelago. On the way back, the expedition met another, Italian, Duke of Abruzzo, who managed to very easily sail a ship to Rudolf Island at the end of July 1898 and even visit its northern shore, which turned out to be much less extensive than Payer had expected. They wintered approximately near the place to which Payer reached on a sled in 1874. From here, in the spring of 1900, a dog sled trip was undertaken across the ice to the north, under the command of Captain Cagny.

He managed to go to 86 ° 33 "N; this trip finally revealed that Peterman's land north of Rudolf Island and King Oscar's land to the northwest, which appeared on Payer's map, do not exist, and in general there is no further to the pole any significant land.
In the summer of 1901, the southern and southwestern shores of the archipelago were visited and examined by Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov. All these works established, in general terms, the size of the archipelago. In 1901-1902, the American Baldwin-Ziegler expedition wintered on Franz Josef Land, followed by the Ziegler-Fiala expedition in 1903-1905, with the goal of trying to reach the pole on the ice. The shipwreck forced members of the Ziegler expedition to spend two years in isolation on the archipelago before they were rescued.

In 1913-1914, the expedition of G. Ya. Sedov wintered in the bay near Hooker Island. In an attempt to reach the Pole, Sedov died and was buried on Rudolf Island.
In the summer of 1914, navigator Albanov and sailor Conrad, the last surviving members of Brusilov's expedition, managed to reach the old base of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition at Cape Flora on Northbrook Island. They were then rescued by the schooner Saint Foca, which had called at Cape Flora due to lack of fuel.

In 1914, in search of G. Ya. Sedov, the Islyamov expedition visited the archipelago. Islyamov declared the archipelago Russian territory and raised the Russian flag over it.
In 1929, the first Soviet research station opened in Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island. Since then, the archipelago has been visited annually by Soviet polar expeditions.
In July 1931, a meeting between the German airship Graf Zeppelin and the Soviet icebreaker Malygin took place in Tikhaya Bay. Mail was transferred from the airship to the icebreaker.

Fragment of an overview map. Atlas of the commander of the Red Army 1938. In 1936, the base of the first Soviet air expedition to the North Pole was established on Rudolf Island. From there, in May 1937, four heavy four-engine ANT-6 aircraft took the Papaninites to the top of the world. And a polar station began to operate on the island.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many sites on the archipelago were abandoned. In 2008, during an expedition on the nuclear icebreaker Yamal, a new island was discovered, separated from Northbrook Island. The new geographical object was given the name “Yuri Kuchiev Island”, in memory of the Arctic captain Yu. S. Kuchiev.

Geography

Franz Josef Land is one of the northernmost territories of Russia and the world. It is divided into 3 parts: the eastern part, separated from the others by the Austrian Strait, with the large islands of Wilczek Land (2.0 thousand sq. km), Graham Bell (1.7 thousand sq. km); the central one - between the Austrian Strait and the British Channel, where the most significant group of islands is located, and the western one - to the west of the British Channel, which includes the largest island of the entire archipelago - George's Land (2.9 thousand sq. km).
The surface of most of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is plateau-like. Average heights reach 400-490 m (the highest point of the archipelago is 620 m).

The northernmost post office in the world, Arkhangelsk 163100, operates on Hayes Island; it is open for 1 hour, from 10 to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Cape Fligeli on Rudolf Island is the northernmost point of Russia and Franz Josef Land. Cape Mary Harmsworth is the westernmost point of the archipelago, Lamont Island is the southernmost, and Cape Olney on Graham Bell Island is the easternmost.
Most of the islands are composed of sandstones, siltstones and limestones, overlain by an effusive layer of horizontal basalt covers (basalt thickness 20-30 m). Brown coal was discovered among the Jurassic shales and sandstones at Cape Flora.
Most of the islands are covered with glaciers; in places free from them there are many lakes, covered with ice most of the year. Permafrost.

Many lakes still do not have names; the following have acquired their own designations: Kosmicheskoe, Ledyanoe, Melkoe, Severnoe, Utinoe, Shirshova.
The study of glaciation on the archipelago began especially intensively with the beginning of the International Geophysical Year. As a result of two years of field work, the participants of this Russian expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences received the first summary of the glaciology of the territory, which was published in the collective monograph “Glaciation of Franz Josef Land” (authors M. G. Grosvald et al., 1973). It contained characteristics of the morphology of glacial complexes, glacial climate, ice formation zones, temperature conditions, structure and tectonics of glaciers. Domestic glaciologist M. G. Grovald and his colleagues were the first to make the important conclusion that glaciation in the FJL is decreasing: over the past 30 years, the archipelago has lost an average of 3.3 cubic meters. km of ice per year. Before these works, the world scientific community was of the opinion that glaciation in the FJL was stationary, or even growing.

Glaciers cover 87% of the archipelago's territory. Ice thickness ranges from 100 to 500 m. Glaciers descending into the sea produce a large number of icebergs. The most intense glaciation is observed in the southeast and east of each island and the archipelago as a whole. Ice formation occurs only on the top surfaces of ice domes. The glaciers of the archipelago are rapidly shrinking, and if the observed rate of degradation continues, the glaciation of Franz Josef Land may disappear in 300 years.
The climate of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is typically arctic. Average annual temperature up to -12 degrees Celsius (Rudolph Island); average July temperatures from -1.2 degrees Celsius in Tikhaya Bay (Hooker Island) to +1.6 degrees Celsius (Hayes Island, where the world's northernmost meteorological station is located - the Krenkel Observatory); the average temperature in January is about -24 degrees Celsius (minimum temperatures in winter are up to -52 degrees Celsius), the wind reaches 40 m/sec. Precipitation ranges from 200-300 mm to 500-550 mm (in the zone of accumulation of ice domes) per year.
Flora and fauna of the Franz Josef Land archipelago

The vegetation cover is dominated by mosses and lichens. There are also polar poppy, saxifrage, grains, and polar willow. Mammals include the polar bear and, less commonly, the arctic fox. The waters surrounding the islands are home to seals, bearded seals, harp seals, walruses, narwhals and beluga whales. The most numerous birds (26 species) are: little auks, guillemots, murres, kittiwakes, white gulls, glaucous gulls and others, forming so-called “bird colonies” in the summer. There are polar stations on the islands of Alexandra Land and Rudolf Island. On Hayes Island there is a geophysical observatory named after E. T. Krenkel (since 1957).

After a year's break on Franz Josef Land - the northernmost archipelago of Russia and Eurasia - work will resume to eliminate accumulated environmental damage. This is the official name for cleaning up the Arctic. The islands became a pilot for this project. It was here in 2010 that Vladimir Putin announced the need to carry out a “general cleaning” in the Arctic.

Garbage on four Eiffel towers

A geoecological survey of Franz Josef Land in 2011–12 was carried out by several specialized institutes and organizations. It was necessary to identify the most problematic areas. Six islands have been declared an environmental disaster area: Alexandra Land, Hooker Island, Hayes Island, Rudolph Island, Hoffman Island and Graham Bell Island. Somewhere the military was based, others were polar stations. Rusty fuel barrels have become a symbol of Arctic waste. They also represented the greatest danger.

Work began on Alexandra Land. Now the westernmost island of the archipelago has been practically cleared, there are no fields of barrels here anymore, and technical soil reclamation has been carried out. The situation on Graham Bell turned out to be the most difficult. This is the easternmost island, where in Soviet times an air defense station, a Long-Range Aviation regiment and the world's northernmost ice airfield were located.

“Due to climate change, a large number of barrels of oil products ended up in the water. They were stored along the coastline. If oil products had entered the ocean, the slick would have moved towards Spitsbergen. In 2013, we prevented an environmental disaster on Graham Bell,” - says the first director of the Russian Arctic National Park, Roman Ershov.

Not every year does ice conditions allow a ship to even approach Graham Bell, let alone unload. Nevertheless, over the five years of Arctic cleanup, more than 40 thousand tons of waste were removed from the islands: scrap metal, barrels, household and industrial waste, remains of buildings and equipment. In terms of mass, this is four Eiffel towers along with the foundation. After the garbage is removed, the top layer of soil is also cleaned. 270 hectares have already been reclaimed - the area is approximately 380 football fields.

“In 2017, it is planned to reduce the negative impact on the environment on the territory of the Russian Arctic National Park in a volume of at least 8 thousand tons,” says acting director of the park Alexander Kirilov about plans for the upcoming season. “Simultaneously with cleaning the territory of four of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago: Alexandra Land, Hayes Land, Graham Bell Land, Hooker Land and, possibly, Hoffmann Island - a geo-ecological survey will be carried out at the sites of future work. This is necessary in order to assess the situation - where what is left - and clarify the further plan actions."

The park is convinced that cleanup should continue until the environmental damage on the polar islands is completely eliminated.

Wreckage of Il-14 and the world's northernmost kindergarten

There is a balance to be struck between cleaning and what needs to be preserved. In 2014, Yuri Rutkauskas supervised the progress of work on Hayes Island as a state inspector of the national park. “Our responsibilities were to accept work from the organization involved in cleaning up the island from previous human activity, as well as to comply with environmental legislation during the work. (...) At the final stage of the cleanup, workers walked around and manually collected the remains of human activity.” He complains that quite a lot of interesting finds - old equipment, equipment - went under the knife of an excavator.

An Il-14 plane, which crashed here in February 1981, was left on the island. The plane was landing in the dark and landed to the left of the runway, landing in deep snow. At the same time, the additional fuel tank, which was located in the cabin, came off. Two passengers died. The aircraft remained on the island.

Some of the artifacts are now used for exhibitions in the national park, for example, an M-100 rocket with a parachute and a launch control. This Soviet two-stage, unguided, solid-propellant weather rocket with a lift altitude of 100 km was used for atmospheric sounding.

Since 1957, on Hayes Island there was not just a weather station, but an observatory, which in 1972 began to bear the name of the famous polar radio operator Ernst Krenkel. High-altitude sounding occupied a special place in the scientific program. Since October 1957, rockets have been launched into near space. The program was discontinued in the early 90s. In its heyday, up to 200 people lived on Hayes Island, there was the world's northernmost kindergarten, and the village consisted of up to 40 houses.

The station was closed in 2001 after a fire and resumed operations in 2004. “Currently, four people work at the station. They carry out standard observations: meteorological, marine coastal hydrological, aerological. As for high-altitude sounding of the atmosphere, it is planned to resume, but it is unknown when,” says the head of the department of the state observation network of the Federal State Budgetary Institution about the current situation. Northern UGMS" (Northern Administration for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring. - Approx. TASS) Vasily Shevchenko.

According to him, data from Hayes Island is important for weather forecasting, since there are no more stations in this region, including automatic ones. And there are no plans to install the latter yet.

Dog Street and Aircraft Hangar of the Museum Island

The polar station "Tikhaya Bay", opened on August 30, 1929 on Hooker Island, became the first permanent settlement on Franz Josef Land. It is interesting that in 1929, Soviet and Norwegian expeditions were sent to the archipelago almost simultaneously. The latter was hampered by difficult ice conditions. Tikhaya Bay is an iconic place. Georgy Sedov named it that way; here he spent the winter of 1913–14, and from here he went on his last desperate trip to the North Pole.

The station operated actively until 1957, but was closed due to the creation of a new one on Hayes Island. It turned out to be more favorable for meteorological research. There is a whole village left in Tikhaya Bay: not only residential buildings, workshops, laboratories, but also a whole street of dog kennels. Even the bowls were preserved. By 2011, when the Russian Arctic National Park began operating on Franz Josef Land, the buildings were abandoned, clogged with snow and ice. On Hooker Island, during the cleanup work, it was decided to leave the entire station complex. And create an open-air museum.

This island was cleaned by hand: the station is located on a slope, like steps. The technology cannot be deployed there. The garbage was packed into bags, which were then transported by sea. As Maria Gavrilo, deputy director for scientific work of the Russian Arctic, says, the most difficult situation now is with the wooden aircraft hangar. “The whole village needs to be preserved, but the hangar is in the most critical condition. It is being cleared of ice, and it has become more vulnerable,” explains the scientist.

If there are still houses or, for example, laboratories of this type in the Russian Arctic, then the hangar is a unique structure. “It was built in 1932 under the leadership of Papanin and was intended to house a small seaplane Sh-2 or a biplane Po-2. At that time it was a large and complex structure. Its construction on Franz Josef Land was an extremely difficult task. Great luck, that the hangar has survived to this day,” says leading researcher at the national park Evgeniy Ermolov.

Archipelago-mainland

Each island of Franz Josef Land is compared by those who have been there to a separate planet. They are so diverse. Hooker Island is now visited by almost every cruise ship that comes to the archipelago. A historical site, the world's northernmost post office accessible to tourists, plus unique natural landscapes. Rock Rubini was once named after the famous opera singer. She really sings - tens of thousands of birds nest in the largest bird market on the archipelago: guillemots, kittiwakes, little auks, guillemots, fulmars and glaucous guillemots. The rock seems to be made of hexagonal basalt pencils, the protrusions of which are ideal for arranging nests. As Maria Gavrilo says, the same guillemots, for example, can return a year later to the same ledge where they nested last season. Scientists use this for research - they put loggers on the birds, which record the route of their movement. After a year or several years, the bird is caught, the device is removed and the data is decrypted. Such research will continue this year, as will monitoring of polar bears, bowhead whales and walruses.

A video camera is working at the walrus rookery of Dead Seal Island, adjacent to Hooker Island. “We hope that she survived the second year, and we will have dynamics of filling the rookery,” says Maria Gavrilo.

Observations of the white gull will continue, a bird that never flies from the Arctic and is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. “There was, for example, a colony on Alexandra Land, consisting of two clusters of 150 birds each,” says the researcher. “So one of them was located right next to the border guards’ runway. The head of the outpost (Nagurskoe. - Approx. TASS) Maxim Nosov protected her very much.”

The scientist says that the archipelago has been unevenly studied. On the one hand, compared to other Russian polar islands, we can say that research is in good condition, “but compared to Spitsbergen, we are failing, but 50 countries have been studied there,” she notes. It is known what kind of birds and mammals live on Franz Josef Land, but there are still many discoveries to be made about those that live in the sea and invertebrates, says Gavrilo. In the late 90s, a new species of fish was found off Kuna Island - the band-bodied gymnasium, and in 2012 - a new species of bell-bellied mosquito, it was named in honor of Franz Josef Land. Many collections are being processed, for example nematodes (roundworms. - Approx. TASS) was sent for description to Bulgaria. According to preliminary data, the list of species is already larger than on Spitsbergen.

“In a number of biological groups, Franz Josef Land is ahead of Spitsbergen,” says Gavrilo, “where conditions are more favorable. Why there is such diversity needs to be explained. For now, we have more questions. Such is the archipelago-continent.”

Botanist Oleg Ezhov says that according to vascular (floral. - Approx. TASS) for plants the picture is more or less clear. There are about 50 species: various saxifrages, polar poppies, buttercups, cereals. There are those that are found on almost every island, and there are those found only on one. Like, for example, one of the types of bluegrass that is found only on Hooker Island. But mosses, lichens and fungi have been studied much less well. “About 800 species of lichens are known from Spitsbergen, less than two hundred are known from Franz Josef Land. We need to study further,” explains Yezhov. “My five-year “mushroom” trips to Franz Josef Land and the efforts of my colleagues already provide a preliminary list of mushrooms larger than those on Spitsbergen,” says Gavrilo.

Some of the collections were collected during a complex expedition, which in 2013, “Russian Arctic” was carried out jointly with the National Geographic Society of the United States (National Geographic). "Franz Josef Land is one of the wildest and most beautiful places I have seen in the world. With its polar bears, walruses, bowhead whales and huge colonies of nesting seabirds, it is pure in its pristine nature," says hydrobiologist and National Geographic staff explorer Enric Sala.

Sala is confident that Franz Josef Land has enormous potential for ecotourism, but properly regulated. "The Arctic is a fragile environment, but a well-designed tourism plan can help raise awareness of the importance of protecting such places without damaging the environment," the expert said.

As explained in the "Russian Arctic", during the five years of existence of the specially protected natural area, tourists landed on the shore and examined from board a ship, boat or helicopter only 30 - but the most iconic and beautiful - places on Franz Josef Land and the north of Novaya Zemlya. “It is possible to visit new places; this will be taken into account when zoning the Russian Arctic National Park. Among the interesting places that will most likely be available to tourists after the cleanup is completed is the polar station on Heiss Island,” explained the head of the park, Alexander Kirilov.

The park says that the number of visitors to Franz Josef Land could reach 5-7 thousand per year. Now it's about a thousand. There are several conditions. One of them is the operation of a border checkpoint on the island of Alexandra Land for various ships. For now it is operating in test mode for a specific vessel. In addition, a year-round airstrip is being put into operation at Alexandra Land. Provided that an agreement is reached on its use by civil aviation, tourists may also arrive to the archipelago by air. But careful preparation is needed: arrangement of ecological trails, training of professional personnel to work with tourists and raising awareness of visitors about the rules of behavior on the territory.

Irina Skalina