What country does Franz Joseph Land belong to? The land of Franz Joseph belongs to Russia. Practical opening of the FFI

Where permafrost prevails, and the average annual temperature is −12 °C.

The Archipelago is located approximately a thousand kilometers from the North Pole. Most of Franz Josef Land is covered with glaciers.

Although, one should not confuse FJL with the North Pole. In summer, temperatures here can still reach +12 °C and the snow usually melts in July.

During this period, the ground is exposed, which in just a couple of weeks is covered with mosses and lichens, as well as flowering polar poppies, saxifrage, polar willow and other unpretentious plants.

There are not that many birds here, but they are there. These are little auks, guillemots, guillemots, kittiwakes, white gulls, glaucous gulls, terns, skuas, eiders, geese, etc.

Animals include polar bear and arctic fox. By the way, did you know that the polar bear is a marine mammal and even has a Latin name polar bear- Ursus maritimus is translated as “sea bear”? In the sea there are also seals, bearded seals, harp seals, walruses, narwhals and beluga whales.

Franz Josef Land is a region that is part of a small natural zone known as the polar desert zone.

People have never lived in the FJL for obvious reasons - there is no firewood, no berries, no mushrooms, no deer that can be domesticated, or other animals that can be hunted. There is simply nothing to feed and keep warm here. Even driftwood (logs brought by the sea) does not burn here, unlike driftwood on the coast. This happens, apparently, because wet firewood simply does not have time to dry, so it all year round completely “soaked” in ice.

However, in the twentieth century, during the development of the Arctic, weather stations and military camps were built on Franz Josef Land, so it turned out that with the complicity of civilization it was possible to live here. True, all this costs a lot of money, given the high cost of delivering food, fuel and building materials.

History of the emergence of Franz Josef Land (geological history)

In pre-Paleozoic times on the site of the modern Barents Sea there was a huge continent, extending west to the coast of Greenland. During the Paleozoic period, powerful mountain-building movements began to occur, after which most of the current Barents Sea began to represent a continent with difficult mountainous terrain.

However, erosion and denudation processes gradually cut off the mountainous terrain of the mainland, turned it into a flat country,which in Upper Devonian time was captured by the waters of the sea.

At the beginning of the Permian time it began to happen raising the bottom marine geosynclinal basins and their shallowing. Later, mountain-building movements appeared, accompanied by vigorous volcanic activity. Mountain-forming processes were powerful mountain ranges Novaya Zemlya, Urals, Kanin and parts of Spitsbergen. The rise of the shelf is accompanied volcanic eruptions(basalt covers of Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land). According to Fridtjof Nansen, on the site of the Barents Sea in Tertiary times there was a mountainous country, elevated 500 m above modern sea level.

In Quaternary time it happened placement of powerful ice sheets. During the maximum phase of glaciation, under the influence of glacial load, the islands and adjacent areas of the seabed sank by 300-400 m. In late and post-glacial times, dying ice sheets and complex fluctuations of the sea coastline. The process of raising the coastline of the Barents Sea continues today. The rate of general uplift of the archipelago over the past 7000 years is 1-5 mm/year.

By the way, on Franz Josef Land you can still find pieces of petrified trees, as well as deer antlers, which suggests that once upon a time a variety of flora and fauna could have actively grown and lived here.

Reindeer lived on Franz Josef Land in the Middle Holocene (8-2.5 thousand years ago). It follows that in the Middle Holocene the climate of the archipelago was warmer and the vegetation richer than at present.

The end of the "time of the deer" can be precisely dated. Deer antlers are not found below the 5-meter level. Consequently, climate deterioration, a major advance of glaciers and the extinction of deer on the islands of the archipelago occurred when its shores were 5 m lower, i.e. about 2.5 thousand years ago.

The extinction of deer and the major advance of glaciers on the archipelago coincides with the movement of the forest zone to the south and the revival of the tundra zone along north coast Russia, as well as with the departure of thermophilic fauna from the coastal waters of Spitsbergen.

History of the discovery and development of Franz Josef Land

Theoretical discovery of ZFI

First thoughts about the need for research northern territories appeared in the 18th century. Mikhail Lomonosov in his work entitled “A Brief Description of Various Travels in the Northern Seas and an Indication of a Possible Passage” Siberian Ocean to East India", expected to find islands east of Spitsbergen.

At the end of the sixties of the nineteenth century, the famous Russian meteorologist A.I. Voeikov raised the question of organizing big expedition to explore the Russian polar seas. This idea was warmly supported by the famous geographer and revolutionary, anarchist theorist Prince P.A. Kropotkin.

Various considerations, and mainly observations of the ice of the Barents Sea, led Kropotkin to the conclusion that “between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya there is an as yet undiscovered land that extends north beyond Spitsbergen and holds the ice behind it... The possible existence of such an archipelago was indicated in his excellent but little known report on currents in Arctic Ocean Russian naval officer Baron Schilling." In 1870, Kropotkin drew up a project for the expedition. However, the tsarist government refused funds, and the expedition did not take place.

Practical opening of the FFI

Franz Josef Land was discovered by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht, and it was explored by everyone - the British, the Scots, and the Americans... But we still got it. In the photo are Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. By the way, what kind of fur coat does one of them have? Not from the Red Book polar bear?)

In 1901, the archipelago was explored by the first Russian expedition on the icebreaker Ermak under the command of Vice Admiral Makarov. It is alleged that it was during this period that the Russian flag was first raised on the islands of the archipelago.

In 1914, in search of G. Ya. Sedov, Ishak Islyamov visited the archipelago. He declared ZFI Russian territory and raised the Russian flag over it.

Some sources (even in the same notorious Wikipedia) write that it was Islyamov who declared ZFI as Russian territory. Although, Makarov had already raised the flag before him, so it seems that it was Makarov who was the first to claim Russia’s rights to Franz Josef Land?

Why such a wayfarer arose - I don’t know, but for the sake of fairness I will note both facts - and you decide for yourself who was first.

Considering that the Barents Sea shelf adjacent to the FFI is promising for the discovery of hydrocarbon deposits here, the Archipelago can become a very profitable “acquisition”.

Islyamov, having announced the acquisition of a new territory for the country, proposed to immediately rename it from Franz Josef Land to the Romanov Lands, but the proposal was stuck in the bureaucratic jungle. And there, first one empire went down into history, and immediately after it another. Iskhak Islyamov became a member of the Helsingfors Muslim Executive Committee of the Army, Navy and Workers, then fought as part of the White Army, emigrated, and headed the hydrographic part of the Russian naval base in Constantinople.

In 1926, the USSR Central Executive Committee adopted a decree according to which all Arctic islands adjacent to the land borders of the state were declared Soviet territory. Three years later, in the summer of 1929, Otto Schmidt, during a polar expedition on the icebreaking steamer Georgiy Sedov, hoisted the Soviet flag on the archipelago.

In 1929, the Soviet government decided to establish a research station to enhance scientific work in the Arctic. At the same time, the first Soviet research station opened in Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island. In 1931, the archipelago was declared a territory of the Soviet Union, and from that time the exploration of the North Pole by Soviet researchers began. Since then, the archipelago has been visited annually by Soviet polar expeditions.

The Soviet government was going to change the name of Franz Joseph as politically inconvenient and rename the archipelago in honor of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen or the Russian anarchist Kropotkin, but the decision was never understood.

In addition to scientists, military personnel have settled heavily in the FJL. In 1936, the first USSR military air base was established on Rudolf Island. And then off we went... However, in the 90s of the twentieth century, due to well-known economic and political reasons, the military left the archipelago, leaving only the Nagurskoye border post, located on the island of Alexandra Land, to function.

The town of the border linear department of military unit 9794, including the most northern airport and the border post - it still works. Not long ago, an excellent two-story building was built there with all the amenities: central heating, sewerage, cold and hot water, satellite TV. There is a “winter garden” inside the complex, although the plants and trees there are artificial. The border guards call this garden the “Atrium”. There is always a blue sky with cumulus clouds, a children's playground, a fountain, benches, billiards, an aquarium with live fish, a cinema hall, and table tennis.

Only officers and warrant officers serve in Nagurskoye. A third of the border guards live at the outpost with their wives. They fly here from Vorkuta and Arkhangelsk. Dense fogs, low clouds, precipitation and strong winds - this is the weather in Alexandra Land all year round. There were cases of unsuccessful landings, but an amazing thing: in the entire history, not a single person on the island died.

Although, there were victims on other islands. For example, on Graham Bell, where from the 50s to the 90s of the twentieth century there was a unique ice airfield, there were plane crashes with casualties a couple of times.

The crew of the 254th flight detachment took off from the Nagurskaya airfield at 08:20 Moscow time with the aim of reconnaissance of the ice conditions of the northern approaches to ensure the withdrawal of the icebreaker "Indigirka". The connection stopped after 3 hours 40 minutes. after takeoff. On October 23, an Il-14 aircraft was discovered on the northwestern slope of the glacier. Graham Bell destroyed and burned. During the fire at the disaster site, the ice partially melted and therefore the debris was found frozen into the glacier. Only 4 bodies were found.

In the last report, the crew reported their coordinates, true heading and flight altitude. From Fr. Hoffman's plane passed north of the island. Graham Bell and, having flown around it from the south, entered the Morgan Strait. During the flight, the crew repeatedly requested the actual weather of the Graham Bell and Sredny airfields, but the data was not transmitted due to their absence. Despite the presence in the area of. Graham Bell weather was below the minimum for flights in the area of islands and straits, the crew continued to carry out the mission and encountered severe weather conditions in the Morgan Strait.

At 11:50 the crew inquired whether the Graham Bell airfield drive was operating. Having received a negative answer, the crew requested a press on the communication transmitter to determine the bearing. Having determined the bearing, the crew considered that they had already passed the dangerous bottleneck of the strait. Heading for Graham Bell airfield, the crew believed that the flight was passing over the fast ice of the strait. Due to design flaws, neither the radio altimeter nor the radar provided true indications of the flight altitude and the actual picture of the terrain flown when flying over glacial massifs. In fact, the flight took place over the rising slope of a glacier. At an altitude of 150 m in horizontal flight, the plane collided with the slope of a glacier. Having separated, it flew 750 m, once again collided with the slope of the glacier at an altitude of 200 m, collapsed and burned. In memory of the dead western cape The island was named Cape of the Seven.

During the day, in normal weather conditions, while landing at the Ice Base airfield, 53 km from Graham Bell Island, an accident occurred with An-12 aircraft No. 12962 of the Krasnoyarsk Civil Aviation Administration. The crew of the Norilsk OJSC consisting of the ship's commander A.D. Ulagashev, co-pilot A.I. Menzhulin, crew navigator V.P. Chikhachev, flight mechanic E.A. and flight radio operator A.A. Kalachev carried out a transport flight to service the high-latitude expedition "North-86".

On the pre-landing straight, due to the general whiteness from the freshly fallen snow, the ship's commander was unable to determine the distance to the snow-covered ice surface, but continued the approach, allowing the vertical rate of descent to be exceeded. Before reaching the start of the runway, the plane collided with a snow parapet and suffered a breakdown. Reason aviation accident There was an error by the ship's commander in calculating the landing and in determining the moment of leveling due to his incomplete preparation for flights for this type of work, as well as a violation by the flight command staff of the standards for crew admission to flights to service high-latitude expeditions. As a result of movement and hummocking of the ice, on May 12, 1986, the fuselage of the aircraft, prepared for evacuation, sank.

And finally, near the airfield lies AN-12 No. 11994, but no information about him could be found.

On one of the forums I found information that it was just an unsuccessful landing - the plane landed on the runway too early. But there were no casualties - everything ended well.

If we talk about casualties, then I suspect that the main danger on the Franz Josef Land Archipelago arises from polar bears. Although, on the other hand, considering great amount bears in the Polar Region, there were not many deaths due to them. It is believed that Franz Josef Land is a maternity hospital for polar bears, so it can be assumed that the servicemen encountered predators constantly. This means that the percentage of accidents is actually not high at all.

Well, again, if people died at the Polar Field, it was solely because of their own stupidity and negligence. Everything is the same as everywhere else. Here's an example story:

“The next day we flew to Naguria and back, it’s about two and a half thousand kilometers. And then an urgent medical flight to Osir Grem-Bell, to ZFI. There's some kind of communications company there. The soldier took a sip of alcohol, got it somewhere, and he felt very bad. We took him, and while we were going to Dixon, he died in the arms of our nurse.

We arrived, and they told us: guys, we need to fly there again, urgently. It turns out that when they found out there, a whole line lined up to see the doctor: and we tried it! We went there again, and it was already the second day that we went, what kind of scientific and technical establishment is there? Let's go to the soldiers: brothers, we say, whoever tried at least a little, don't hide it, we're flying with us, we won't be able to do it a third time! In the air, two of them became very ill, one of them died in the hospital. It turned out that there was another one there, but we couldn’t, it was the third day. An ice scout was resting on Dikson, he was urgently picked up and flew off. And like this for a whole month. We flew one hundred and eighty hours.

Memoirs of polar aviation navigator Mark Solomonovich Edelshtein.”

Although, enough about the sad things. There are also many good things in Franz Josef Land. And few tourists have the opportunity to verify this.

Franz Josef Land in our time - photos, descriptions, maps

FJL is the northernmost territory of Russia, located approximately nine hundred kilometers from the North Pole. Administratively, the archipelago belongs to the Arkhangelsk region. Frankz Josef Land coordinates: 80.666667, 54.833333.

Wikipedia says that FJL consists of 192 islands. But it turns out that there were still certain doubts about this, and the 192nd island has not yet been officially “registered” and does not have a separate name.

The bottom line is that Northbrook Island in the southwest of the archipelago is two pieces of land separated by a strait. Moreover, initially it was considered a single island, but consisting of two parts connected by a narrow isthmus. However, due to the intensification of coastal processes, retreat sea ice In the summer and the thawing of the permafrost, the isthmus was washed away, and a strait formed between the two sections of the island.

In the summer of 2007, the Norwegian Borge Ousland, together with a fellow athlete from Switzerland, Thomas Ullrich, made a memorial expedition - they followed in the footsteps of Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen and, in the process of exploring Northbrook Island, discovered the strait. They did not keep silent about their find, and sent a letter to the Russian Embassy in Norway with a statement about the discovery of a new island in the FJL. The letter was transmitted through the Russian Embassy in Norway to the Russian Foreign Ministry, and from there they sent an order to the Navigation and Oceanography Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense to figure out how many islands there actually are in the archipelago.

At the same time, after public statements about the “appearance of a new island in Russia,” deputies of the Arkhangelsk Regional Assembly named the island after the famous polar captain Yuri Kuchiev. And under this name it already appears on Wikipedia, although the decision of the regional assembly on this issue is not legitimate. So now all that remains is to complete the discovery - to officially recognize and name the new geographical objects, which will have to be done by the Office of Navigation and Oceanography and the Commission on Geographical Names.

Sights of Franz Josef Land

The northernmost branch of the Russian Post, weather station - Hayes Island

On August 25, 2005, Russian Post announced that it was opening the northernmost post office in the world, Arkhangelsk 163100. It is located on Hayes Island. The post office is open one day a week: Wednesday from 10 to 11 am. And what is important - without interruption.

Since the summer of 1957, the Krenkel Observatory has been located on the island.

Interesting information:

On Hayes Island, Vladimir Sanin wrote one of his most famous books, “Don’t Say Goodbye to the Arctic.”
On February 12, 1981, an Il-14 plane carrying equipment and scientists for the observatory crashed while landing on Hayes Island. The crashed plane can still be seen today.

Gallya Island, Cape Tegethoff

Cape Tegethoff of Gallya Island is an iconic place. The Franz Josef Land archipelago was discovered here. On August 30, 1873, the ship Admiral Tegetthoff arrived here with the expedition of Julius Payer and Karl Weiprecht.

The remains of the winter quarters of Wellman's expedition are also located here.

Also famous are the cliffs at the tip of the island, which rise out of the sea itself.

Vilcek Island

Another island associated with the tragic events of the expedition of the discoverers of the archipelago is Vilcek Island. On the high island there is the grave of one of the expedition members on the ship Admiral Tegethoff, Otto Krisch, who was a mechanic on the ship and died in 1873 from scurvy.

Champa Island, Cape Trieste

On Cape Trieste there are unique stone formations of a perfectly round shape - spherulites, or concretions. Marcasite nodules are found everywhere on the cape, and their sizes range from a few centimeters to several meters in diameter.

The word “concretions” comes from the Latin concretio – “accretion”. These are nodules, rounded mineral formations in sedimentary rocks. Its composition is sandstone. At the very center of the concretion is an organic core, around which loose material of continental origin has accumulated.

Strait of Negri

A narrow strait between Gall Island and McClintock Island. Here are some of the largest glaciers archipelago. The strait is often literally clogged with icebergs.

Apollonov and Stolichka Islands

These islands do not stand out in appearance, and even on nautical charts usually indicated only more large island– The capital, but, as often happens, all the most interesting things are on the island nearby, very small and inconspicuous. In this case, it is Apollo Island. The island is famous for the fact that it is home to one of the largest rookeries of Atlantic walruses, listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Hooker Island

On Hooker Island there is an abandoned Soviet polar station called Tikhaya. The station was opened in 1929 and closed in 1959, but at that time it was the largest Arctic research station in the USSR. Until today, the station has retained its appearance– you can see with your own eyes how polar explorers lived in those days.

Rubini Rock

The largest bird market, where more than 50 thousand birds nest. Among them are kittiwakes, guillemots, guillemots, glaucous guillemots and little auks. Guillemots nest directly on ledges. They do not build nests, but lay eggs on bare stone surfaces. Kittiwake gulls build nests from grasses, lichens and other vegetation, holding it together with their own droppings.

Alger Island

Here in 1901 the base camp of the expedition was located, which arrived in the archipelago on the steam yacht America. The expedition was financed by millionaire William Ziegler.

Wilczek Land, Cape Heller

The island contains the remains of the Fort McKinley winter quarters and the grave of Bernt Bentsen, who was unable to survive the winter of 1898-99. He was part of Walter Wellman's expedition, the main goal of which was to conquer the North Pole. The main camp of the expedition was located at Cape Tegetthoff on the island of Hall. A temporary food warehouse was organized at Cape Geller. It was built from large flat stones and covered with the skins of killed walruses and bears. The temperature inside it in winter remained below 10 degrees. In January 1899, Bernt Bentsen died. However, he was buried only in the spring. Before his death, he asked not to bury him until spring, as he feared that his body would become easy prey for arctic foxes and polar bears.

Rudolf Island, Cape Fligeli

Most northern cape archipelago Franz Josef Land - the extreme island point Russian Federation and Eurasia.

Rudolf Island, Teplitz Bay

In Teplitz Bay there is an abandoned meteorological station, which was built in 1931–1932. This was the second station on the archipelago and it operated until 1995.

Jackson Island

Jackson Island and Cape Norway are famous for the fact that Fridtjof Nansen and Jamar Johansen spent the winter here (1895–96). They were returning after an attempt to conquer the North Pole, as they thought, to Spitsbergen, but they came to Franz Josef Land. They had time to prepare for winter. They shot walruses and polar bears and built a dwelling in which they spent the winter, mostly lying down in one sleeping bag. On Christmas Day they turned their shirts inside out, and on New Year Nansen told Johansen that after everything they had been through together, he could just call him Fridtjof, and not Mr. Nansen, and shook his hand. But they remained on “you”. There is a memorial sign on the cape and the remains of a winter hut.

Northbrook Island, Cape Flora

A distinctive feature of the Franz Josef Land archipelago is the presence of a large number historical places- the remains of wintering camps for expeditions that planned to use the archipelago as a launching pad to reach the North Pole, and some expeditions ended up in the archipelago after unsuccessful attempts to conquer the top of the planet. Almost all expeditions to Franz Josef Land stopped at Cape Flora of Northbrook Island.

The island was discovered by Benjamin Lee-Smith's expedition in 1880. His second expedition of 1881–1182 wintered here. Wintering was forced. Lee-Smith originally planned to spend the winter on Bell Island. In 1894, Briton Frederick Jackson built the first settlement on Cape Flora, Elmwood. The remains of the expedition's buildings can still be seen today.

In 1896, the historic meeting of Fridtjof Nansen and Frederick Jackson took place at Cape Flora. On June 17, two people approached the cape. No one was waiting for them or meeting them, and they themselves did not expect to meet anyone here. These were the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his companion Frederik Jamar Johansen. They were covered from head to toe with soot and dirt, and they had two kayaks and sleds with them. For three years, on the Fram ship, specially built for navigation in ice and wintering, Nansen and his 12 companions planned to conquer the North Pole. In 1893, the Fram froze into the islands north of the New Siberian Islands archipelago. The ship passed much further south. After two years in the ice, the Fram reached its northernmost geographical location. 700 kilometers from the North Pole, Nansen and Johansen left the ship and set off to conquer the Pole on dog sleds and kayaks. On April 8, they reached a record latitude of 86 degrees 14 minutes north and were forced to turn south towards the Franz Josef Land archipelago. After wintering on Jackson Island at Cape Norway, they moved south and reached Cape Flora, where they met Jackson's expedition. This meeting actually saved their lives. At one time, Nansen did not take Frederick Jackson with him on the Fram, because he believed that the North Pole should be conquered by the Norwegians. Jackson was from Great Britain.

PUTIN’S RUSSIA DOESN’T TAKE SOMEONE ELSE’S, BUT WILL NOT GIVE ITS OWN

Although the land is called Franz Josef Land, it belongs to Russia

This is our land, the northernmost Russian land. The Franz Josef Land archipelago was declared Soviet territory 90 years ago, in 1926. Mikhail Lomonosov suspected its existence, but the Austro-Hungarian expedition was the first to land on this shore. At that time, many believed that Franz Josef Land extended to the North Pole.

The history associated with this archipelago is as follows

Franz Josef Land is an archipelago of almost two hundred islands. The closest place to the North Pole is from Rudolf Island - less than 900 kilometers. Cape Fligeli on this island is the northernmost point of Russia. Most of the archipelago is located north of the 80th parallel. It is very cold here, the average annual temperature is minus 12 degrees Celsius.

The archipelago is part of the polar possessions of Russia, part of the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. Consists of 192 islands, total area 16,134 km².

If Mikhail Lomonosov said. that Russia’s wealth will increase through Siberia, then Vladimir Putin said that it will also increase through the Arctic.

Image of the archipelago from the Terra satellite

Another brilliant Russian scientist M.V. Lomonosov, in a work entitled “A Brief Description of Various Travels in the Northern Seas and an Indication of the Possible Passage of the Siberian Ocean to East India” (1763), suggested the existence of islands east of Spitsbergen.

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 north beyond 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.”

In 1871, a detailed project for the expedition was drawn up, but the tsarist government refused funds, and it did not take place.

Franz Josef Land was discovered by the Austro-Hungarian expedition by the great maritime power of the Austria-Hungary Empire, which had the money for the expedition. Under the leadership of Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer on the sailing-steam schooner "Admiral Tegetthoff", the Expedition aimed to test the hypothesis of the German scientist August Petermann about the existence of a warm North Polar Sea and a large polar continent.

Austrian travelers gave the newly discovered land the name of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I. It is interesting that in Russia, both in pre-revolutionary and Soviet times, the question of renaming the archipelago was raised: first to the Romanov Land, and later, after 1917, to the Kropotkin Land or Nansen Land, however, these proposals were not implemented; the land still bears its original name. In my humble opinion, this archipelago should be called Lomonosov Land.

It is interesting to note that the expedition almost died and was saved by Russian Pomors. 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 (Wikipedia).

Since then, only the lazy have not visited this archipelago. But finally. under Emperor Nicholas II, Russia woke up and in the summer of 1901, the southern and southwestern shores of the archipelago were explored by the first Russian expedition on the icebreaker Ermak under the command of Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov. Some sources claim that it was she who first raised the Russian flag here. "Ermak" became the first Russian ship off the coast of Franz Josef Land; the crew consisted of 99 people, including a scientific group. So, the awakened brown Russian bear paid a visit to its distant polar relative, the polar bear.

On August 16, 1914, during the search of the expedition of G. Ya. Sedov, the motor-sailing vessel "Greta" managed to break through the ice to Cape Flora, on board of which was the head of the search expedition, Captain 1st Rank Iskhak Islyamov. Islyamov declared the archipelago Russian territory and planted a Russian flag over it, made of sheet iron. The artist S. G. Pisakhov, who was on the ship, made sketches of the shores of Franz Josef Land.

The First World War was raging. On September 20 (October 3), 1916, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued an official note on the polar possessions of the Russian Empire, in which the government listed previously known and recently discovered polar lands by the Hydrographic Expedition of the Arctic Ocean, considered an indivisible part of the empire, among which Franz Josef Land was not mentioned and Iskhak Islyamov’s initiative did not receive legal support from government officials. The question is, why? Traitors were clearly already at work preparing the collapse of the Russian Empire.

Cape Tegethoffisland Gallya

And only with the advent of Bolshevik power after the creation of the USSR on April 15, 1926, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, by decree “On declaring lands and islands located in the Arctic Ocean as the territory of the USSR”, announced the rights of the Soviet Union to all known and not yet discovered lands and islands, concluded in the Arctic sector between the meridians running from the westernmost point of the northern border (the USSR border with Finland 32°4'35 E) and the middle of the Bering Strait (168°49'30 W) in the east to the North Pole.

This automatically meant that Franz Josef Land was officially declared to be under the full jurisdiction of the USSR. Administratively, the archipelago was included in the Arkhangelsk region. The decree was notified during the preparation of the first transpolar expedition on the airship "Norway". (Wikipedia).

Since 1928, the situation around the archipelago began to worsen. In Italy, preparations began for a 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", departing 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 he took an active part Soviet Union using icebreakers and icebreaking vessels.

Stalin took up the matter directly. On July 31, 1928, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on strengthening scientific research work in the Arctic 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 ( New Earth and Franz Josef Land) were equipped in advance, without waiting for the final approval of the plan.

In September 1928, the icebreaker Krasin approached the shores of Alexandra Land and George Land. At Cape Nile, the icebreaker crew hoisted the USSR flag over the archipelago for the first time.

The struggle for the Arctic was heating up. On December 19, 1928, the Norwegian government, confirming receipt of notification of the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of April 15, 1926, made a reservation regarding Franz Josef Land: “The Royal Government is not aware that any other interests are known in Franz Josef Land, except for the economic interests of Norway...” Plans for the creation of a permanent Norwegian settlement on the archipelago in 1929 were discussed in the press; the ships Ballerosen and Thornes 1 were prepared at the expense of Norwegian whalers; Norwegian naval officers participated in the expedition.

The Soviet side began accelerated preparations for the expedition. The project was developed by the Polar Commission of the Academy of Sciences and approved by the government Arctic Commission on March 5, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars, after approving the project, allocated necessary funds, the direct organization of the voyage was carried out by the Institute for the Study of the North. O. Yu. Schmidt was appointed head of the expedition, and the leadership of the expedition in Arkhangelsk was presented with the USSR flag at the plenum of the City Council.

On 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.

In the 50s In the 20th century, “points” of the Radio Engineering Troops of the country’s Air Defense Forces were created on Franz Josef Land. These “points” were the northernmost military units of the Soviet Union. They were abolished by the traitors and destroyers of the USSR in the early 1990s.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many objects on the archipelago, as well as equipment and fuel reserves, were abandoned. According to estimates for 2010, on the islands of Franz Josef Land there were about 250,000 barrels of fuel (up to 60 thousand tons of petroleum products), stored in improper conditions and threatening the ecological situation of the islands. In addition, about 1 million more empty barrels were scattered across the islands. In 2012, a program to clean up the Arctic began.

Now Putin has taken charge of Arctic affairs. On October 12, 2004, a memorial plaque was installed on Alexandra Land “as a sign that here, on Nagurskaya, Franz Josef Land, the first Russian base will be created, from which the development of the Arctic in the 21st century will begin.” The applicant team included the FSB of Russia, the Arctic Regional Border Administration, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, the Interregional public organization"Association of Polar Explorers", Polar Fund, Scientific Center for the Study of the Arctic and Antarctic "Polyus", Institute named after G. Ya. Sedov.

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 2500 m, the width will be up to 46 m, which will allow it to accommodate all types of aircraft in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces. Nagurskoye will become the closest permanent airfield to the North Pole; It is planned that Il-78, A-50, A-100, Il-38 and others will be based on the island. Also at the Nagurskoye airfield, Su-27 and MiG-31 fighters will be permanently stationed, the task of which will be to ensure the full protection of Russia’s air borders in the Arctic region

Border guard on the territory of the Nagurskoye border post Photo: Vladimir Baranov / RIA Novosti

The border guards are assisted by specially trained and recruited polar bears.

Bears in unsurpassed camouflage will tear the jaws of any foreign aggressor apart for the cause of Vladimir Putin and Russia. They recognize only one password, “Putin,” to which they respond with a joyful roar. They shoot at everything that moves, and that’s what they feed on.

He comes to bases only to replenish ammunition. Reliable guards of the Russian Arctic, on duty around the clock.

And now Russian leader Vladimir Putin has to be reminded again: Foreigners have forgotten that Franz Josef Land belongs to Russia. At a large press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that foreigners are disputing Russia’s ownership of the polar archipelagos in the Russian waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Putin recalled how some time ago he was on the Franz Josef Land archipelago, which is territorially included in the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. “Foreign guides, showing tourists the nature of these islands, said: the islands used to belong to Russia.” This was the attitude given to the guides by the enemies of Russia. And they also pay extra for such words.

In the West, Putin said, they apparently forgot that Franz Josef Land, like other territories of the Arctic Ocean, is Russian territory.

This is a very inhospitable region where only polar bears live permanently. The rocky shores are covered with thick eternal ice, from which icebergs periodically break off. More than one polar explorer gave his life to reach these islands and put them on the map. Nowadays, icebreakers carrying tourists only occasionally approach the shores of Franz Josef Land.

POLAR ARCHIPELAGO

Scientists have long suspected the existence of these islands, but they were discovered completely by accident.

The Russian Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land lies east of Spitsbergen and northwest of the Novaya Zemlya Islands, well above the Arctic Circle and less than a thousand kilometers from the North Pole. Almost all of the 196 islands of the archipelago are located north of 80° N. w. The duration of the polar night in these places is 125 days, and the polar day is about 140.

The entire archipelago is divided into three groups. Eastern - the islands of Wilczek Land and Graham Bell - separated by the Austrian Strait. Central - many small islands, including Rudolf, Jackson, Salisbury and Hooker islands - lies between the Austrian Strait and the British Channel. Western - the largest islands of the archipelago George's Land with a height of 620 m and Alexandra Land - are separated by the British Channel.

The straits and channels 500-600 m deep, separating the islands, are wide crevices cut through the basalt mass by powerful glaciers. Glaciers appeared on Franz Josef Land about a million years ago, when a period of cooling began in the Northern Hemisphere.

The relief of the islands of Franz Josef Land is represented by hills that form clusters in the form of a basalt plateau and reach medium height 400-500 m above sea level. The plateau is covered with ice domes with tongues of glaciers leading to a cliff on the seashore, where icebergs break off from the glacier. On average, the glaciers of the archipelago lose up to 3.3 km3 of ice in the form of icebergs per year. Glaciers cover over 85% of the archipelago's surface, and the ice thickness reaches 100-500 m.

The small ice-free surface is represented by rocky “oases”, bare capes and nunataks - rocks protruding above the surface of the ice sheet. Where there is no ice, permafrost reigns, and numerous nameless lakes can be seen. There are more than a thousand lakes here, some of which are quite large: up to 2 km2 in area and up to 10 m deep. Most of the year the lakes are covered with ice.

The entire archipelago is located in a zone of typical Arctic climate. In winter, the temperature drops to -52°C, stormy winds blow continuously, and snowstorms rage. The temperature could drop even lower, but in winter the severity of the frost is to a large extent mitigated by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

This northern archipelago was discovered completely by accident, although assumptions about its existence were made by Russian naval officer N. G. Shilling in 1865 and the famous Russian geographer P. A. Kropotkin in 1870.

In 1872, the ship of the Austro-Hungarian expedition of J. Payer and K. Weyprecht (researchers were looking for the Northeast Passage, the northern sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean) was covered in ice northwest of Novaya Zemlya. Drifting in the ice westward, in August 1873, an Austrian ship found itself off the coast of a previously unknown land. The Austrians explored the shores, mapped the archipelago and named it in honor of Franz Joseph I, the ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Subsequently, the archipelago was visited by the British in 1881-1882 and 1895-1897. They examined almost the entire archipelago and became convinced that it was much larger than the Austrians thought. The famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen visited the islands in 1895 and proved that the archipelago does not go further to the northeast, towards the pole. This was also confirmed by the American-Norwegian expedition of 1898 at the cost of the lives of people who died during wintering.

Starting from 1901, Russian expeditions began to come here regularly, in particular the expedition of G. Ya. Sedov in 1913-1914, which wintered near Hooker Island. Sedov tried to reach the North Pole, but died and, according to one version, was buried on Rudolf Island.

In 1914, the Russian expedition of hydrographic officer I. Islyamov dropped anchor in the waters of Franz Josef Land, declared the archipelago to be Russian territory and raised the Russian flag over it.

On Franz Josef Land there is little land itself: the islands are covered mainly with snow and ice. There is cover glaciation on the archipelago. Glaciers occupy more than 4/5 of the entire territory. The relatively large ice-free areas on the islands of Alexandra Land, George Land, Graham Bell and Hayes have hilly terrain.

LIFE IN THE ICE

There is no permanent population on the islands, but, nevertheless, there is life here.

IN geographically Franz Josef Land is notable for the fact that Cape Fligeli on Rudolf Island is the most northern point Russia. In addition, the archipelago is located on the edge of the continental shelf and is the northernmost landmass of Eurasia.

As a legacy from ancient times, when the islands were warm and ferns grew here 200 million years ago, brown coal remained among the clay shales and sandstones of the archipelago at Cape Flora, which was used by polar explorers in their wintering grounds. However, due to the harsh natural conditions There is no industrial activity on the islands.

IN Soviet times scientific research stations operated here, and there were stationary stations for radio engineering troops air defense and even a separate detachment serving the ice airfield. Currently, the territory and facilities are abandoned; one observatory named after Ernst Krenkel operates on Hayes Island, and the islands themselves are visited only by individual tourist groups.

This land has a unique position and nature, formed at a distance from the mainland, and a nature reserve has been created here federal significance“Franz Josef Land” with an area of 4.2 million hectares. The reserve serves the purpose of preserving the unique landscapes of the archipelago, as well as protecting the breeding areas of polar bears, marine mammals and mass nesting areas of birds. Among the especially valuable natural objects are the Cape Bryce paleovolcano (Ziegler Island), non-freezing lakes, and Atlantic walrus rookeries.

The flora of the archipelago is poor in species, vegetation covers no more than 5-10% of the surface. Mosses and lichens predominate here - bright and multi-colored. Although rare, arctic flowers are also found: polar poppy, saxifrage, and buttercups.

The polar bear constantly lives on the archipelago; the arctic fox comes here much less often. But the waters surrounding the archipelago have become home to mammals: seals, bearded seals, harp seals, walruses, narwhals and beluga whales. Birds have chosen these places because no one is stopping them from breeding here.

There are 26 species of birds on the archipelago, the most numerous being guillemot, guillemot, ivory gull, and glaucous gull. Birds form gigantic bird colonies: in total, more than 5 million seabirds nest on the islands. The largest bird colony within the archipelago, the Rubini Rock, numbers approximately 55 thousand individuals. Thick-billed guillemots, kittiwakes, little auks, glaucous guillemots, and common guillemots nest here. On southern islands archipelago you can meet arctic foxes that live under bird colonies.

On Franz Josef Land, many historical attractions have been preserved in the form of the remains of wintering camps of expeditions that used the archipelago as a springboard to reach the North Pole. Memorable places marked with tablets, crosses and stone obelisks. At Cape Flora, a ship's cabin from 1894 has been preserved, which was used by participants in many polar expeditions.

One of the most amazing and mysterious in the archipelago is Champ Island. There are many stone balls of almost ideal shape scattered across the entire surface of the island, ranging in size from a few centimeters to several meters. Such balls are found in other areas of the world, but such large and round ones cannot be found anywhere else. There is no definite answer to the question of their origin, although the balls are undoubtedly created by nature itself.

FUN FACTS

■ Since there are so many birds on the islands, they often get caught in helicopter blades. In this case, tourists have to return to the icebreaker using a boat.

■ In the late 1970s. Hydrographers of the Ministry of the Navy found a letter from one of the leaders of the Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1873-1874 on the island of Lamont in Franz Josef Land. Karl Weyprecht. The letter, wrapped in wax paper and foil, lay in a wooden cylinder for more than a hundred years. It reported on the plight of the expedition. Kept in the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic in St. Petersburg.

■ In 1929, an expedition on the icebreaking steamer “Sedov” under the leadership of O. Yu. Schmidt, the future head of the Main Northern Sea Route and an academician, planted a Soviet flag made of iron on Hooker Island and declared the islands to be the territory of the USSR.

■ freshwater lake Space on Hayes Island received its name on October 22, 1957 in connection with the first launch of weather rockets from the surface of the lake.

■ From the 1930s to the mid-1990s. The Franz Josef Land archipelago was a closed territory on which military installations of defense significance were located.

■ According to some reports, during the Second World War, in the western part of the island of Alexandra Land there was a German weather station and a base for laying and refueling submarines.

■ According to various sources, up to one million empty barrels of fuel and lubricants have accumulated on the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, the removal of which may take at least eight years.

■ Austria-Hungary, which fought on the side of Germany in the First World War, was too busy with problems in Europe and did not protest against the declaration of Franz Josef Land as Russian territory.

■ The most powerful glaciation can be traced in the southeast and east of each island and the entire Franz Josef Land archipelago. Ice forms only at the tops of ice domes. The glaciers of the archipelago are steadily shrinking. If the rate of glacier reduction continues, all glaciation on Franz Josef Land will disappear within 300 years.

■ Geophysical Polar Observatory named after Ernst Krenkel (formerly called “Druzhnaya”) on Hayes Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago - the only observatory in Russia in the region of the geomagnetic polar cap.

■ The total volume of ice in the Franz Josef Land archipelago is 2500 km3, which contains up to 2250 billion tons of pure fresh water, which is more than in Lake Baikal.

■ Tourists are taken to Franz Josef Land in summer time, on icebreakers, and they get to the shore aboard a helicopter. At the same time, all tourists are required to wear bright yellow-orange jackets so that people do not get lost among the ice.

■ Cape Fliegeli on Rudolf Island is named after the Austrian cartographer August von Fliegeli; was discovered on April 12, 1874 by the Austrian polar expedition on the ship "Tegetthof" under the leadership of J. Payer and K. Weyprecht.

ATTRACTIONS

■ Cape Wings (Rudolph Island).
■ Nature reserve federal significance "Franz Josef Land".
■ Stone balls of Champ Island.
■ Ernst Krenkel Geophysical Polar Observatory (Hays Island).
■ Bird markets (Tikhaya Bay, Hooker Island, Rubini Rock).
■ House "Eira" (Bell Island, site of 1914 V.I. Albanov).
■ Walrus rookeries (Nordbrook Island, Stolichki Islands, Apollonov Islands).
■ Sedov Glacier (Hooker Island).
■ Fridtjof Nansen's Hut (Jackson Island, 1895-1896).
■ Wooden structure of the Wellman expedition of 1898-1899. (Alger Island).
■ Polar station “Tikhaya Bay” 1929-1957. (Hooker Island).
■ Ship's cabin in 1894 (Cape Flora, Kuchieva Island).

Atlas. The whole world is in your hands No. 142

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 sailing and motor vessel "Elding" of the Northern Scientific and Fishery Expedition of the Supreme Council of National Economy approached Cape Flora, due to a large accumulation of broken ice off the coast, no landings were 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 Italia crew, a significant area of water southern shores The 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 objects cultural heritage on the archipelago of the 19th - 20th centuries, published a comprehensive monograph “Franz Josef Land” (M.: 2013), the first map and an appendix book 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 largest 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 ( highest point archipelago - 620 m).

Population

There is no permanent population on the archipelago. There is none municipality And 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 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.

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

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Franz Josef Land is an archipelago of islands in the Barents Sea in the very north of Russia. In total, the archipelago consists of 192 islands. I had a chance to visit this place during an expedition to the North Pole on board the nuclear icebreaker "50 Let Pobedy".

Franz Josef Land, Russia

Despite the middle of summer, already a day after our departure from the port of Murmansk we began to encounter ice floes.

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Very soon, individual ice floes gave way to entire ice fields. Small icebergs began to appear.

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It was in this area that we met the first polar bears. No wonder. This combination of ice, land and water is the ideal habitat for this polar predator.

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The polar bear's main prey is seal. He tracks her mainly by smell. Very often the seal hides in hollows in the ice. She doesn’t risk showing herself on the surface too often. The polar bear, having tracked the seal, breaks through the ice with all its strength with its front paws and then tries to pull it out. This bear was clearly late. Someone luckier has already dealt with the seal.

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Trusting their noses, polar bears are able to climb far north from the nearest land. They have no natural enemies. They are not social animals and prefer to live alone. The only exception is mothers with small cubs. The mother not only feeds the cub at the beginning of its life, but also protects it from adult males. From time to time they attack cubs.

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Although they are capable of traveling tens of kilometers across the icy desert, they still favorite place Their habitat is a combination of land, ice fields and open water. Bears swim well in water, but once again they prefer not to poke their noses into it. They can easily jump over small cracks in the ice.

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After a successful hunt, a bear is able to go without eating for weeks. Therefore, they are filled for future use. A bear that has just had lunch can be easily recognized by its huge belly.

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Due to the fact that they have no natural enemies, bears are quite curious. Of course, most of them prefer to stay away from the nuclear icebreaker. Still, the difference in size is colossal. But some people come right up to the board with interest and try to see what is going on on the deck.

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Everyone was especially pleased with the bear with a very small bear cub. They circled around for at least an hour. This was unusual, because most often, at the slightest danger, the female tries to take the baby away.

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Here they themselves approached the ship and circled the ice floes for a long time.

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We watched their relationship with great interest.

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Trying to better see what exactly was happening on board, the bear even climbed onto the iceberg.

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We were practically at her eye level. This was probably the most interesting encounter with bears during the entire expedition.

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In addition to polar bears, we also came across walruses. They are less shy than seals. Although an adult bear is sometimes able to cope with a walrus on land. They feel quite safe in water. Often their rookeries are located directly on large ice floes.

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However, when approaching big ship most often they prefer to dive into the water. They are much more comfortable there, and the speed at which they swim is much greater than clumsy movement on land.

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Large males are all covered with scars from fights with their relatives. Every big walrus strives to protect its harem and territory from annoying competitors. Therefore, they have to spend most of their lives in battles.

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After two days of travel, we approached the first islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago. The existence of land east of Spitsbergen was predicted by many scientists. Lomonosov spoke about this at one time. One of the most basic research in this matter was done by Pyotr Alekseevich Kropotkin. He even calculated the coordinates of the islands. Unfortunately, no funds were found for the expedition. Therefore, the discovery of the islands was completely accidental. The Austro-Hungarian expedition of Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer tried to find the Northeast Passage but was covered in ice near Novaya Zemlya. Gradually, the drift carried their sailing-steam schooner to the shores of the archipelago. This happened on August 30, 1873. Therefore, the newly discovered land was named after the Austrian Emperor Fraz Joseph I.

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The expedition leader on our journey was the famous Canadian traveler Lorrie Dexter. Based on the ice conditions around the island, it was decided to land on the shore by helicopter. The Zodiac inflatable boats could not get close enough to the landing site. We were supposed to go ashore near Cape Flora on the island of Yuri Kuchiev. Interestingly, this island is one of the youngest in the archipelago. It was discovered in 2008 during the expedition of the icebreaker "Yamal". Before this, there was an isthmus between the islands and it was part of Northbrook Island. But the crew of the nuclear-powered ship discovered that the isthmus had been washed away by water. Thus appeared on the map new island. It was named in honor of the captain of the legendary icebreaker "Arktika". It was under his command that for the first time in the history of mankind, a surface vessel reached the top of the world - the North Pole.

On board our icebreaker there was an MI-8 helicopter with a crew. Typically such large helicopters are not used for actual work at sea. For ice reconnaissance, the more economical and smaller MI-2 is sufficient. However, in our case it was planned to disembark people and deliver equipment, so the choice fell on this type of helicopter.

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Only experienced crews can carry out such tasks. It is necessary not only to land and take off from a small platform on a ship, but also to choose the landing site wisely and make sure that there is no danger for people around. During landings on shore or ice, the main problem was polar bears. First of all, it was necessary to make sure that they were not nearby.

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Near the landing site, a 300-meter mountain slope rises. Thousands of birds nest on it. These are mainly guillemots and ivory gulls. The black dots around the helicopter are just birds in the air.

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The first to land on shore are the people who ensure the safety of the rest of the group. Polar bear hunting is prohibited by law. And although they are armed, bullets are used to scare away the beast. No one shoots to kill. In order to eliminate ricochet, a steel core is used. This way you can shoot at the stones and drive away the bear. In addition, there are flash-noise grenades.

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Our landing site is Cape Flora. Arctic expeditions have repeatedly landed in this place. For the first time, the crew of the British yacht Eira, under the command of Benjamin Lee Smith, spent the winter here. His ship was lost in the ice not far from this place. The researchers managed to build a hut from scrap materials and spend the winter on the island. With the onset of spring, they reached Novaya Zemlya on four sloops, where they were picked up by an English ship sent to search.

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British polar explorer and geographer Frederick Jackson established a permanent base here during an expedition to explore Franz Josef Land. On June 17, 1896, it was to this base that Norwegian explorers Fritjor Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen reached after their unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole.

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The expeditions of the American Walter Wellman on the steamer Fridtjof, as well as the Duke of Arbuzzi on the Stella Polare, stayed in this place.

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Many polar expeditions used brown coal reserves, which are deposited on the island. It’s interesting that Sedov, during the winter, neighboring island on the schooner "St. Thomas the Martyr" knew nothing about this. They desperately needed fuel and dismantled the base's wooden buildings to do so.

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This is only a small part of the history of Arctic exploration in this region. The archipelago was officially declared Russian territory during the expedition of Iskhak Ibragimovich Islyamov in search of Sedov in 1914. It was then that the Russian flag was raised here.

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Not less history you are amazed at the beauty of this place northern nature. Summer here is short but very bright. Everywhere under your feet there is colorful moss covered with flowers. All you have to do is step on this carpet and you immediately fall into water up to your knees.

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You can constantly hear the incessant noise of birds. The surrounding rocks are favored by thousands of guillemots and gulls.

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They nest literally everywhere on these basalt rocks. Only glaciers are free of bird colonies.

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Polar bears also come here. The islands are also home to Arctic fox, walrus, seal, bearded seal, harp seal, narwhal and beluga whale. A little further south in the sea you can find killer whales. But on this visit we did not see any animals. Just old bones.

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We flew back as one of the last helicopters. I wanted to walk around the island as long as possible and admire the local beauty. And I must say that we succeeded in full.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

Almost immediately after takeoff, we felt a strong vibration. The helicopter initially lost altitude sharply and then climbed and turned around the neighboring cape. I sat in the tail and heard how much the tail boom creaked.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

After some time, we sat down on the landing and it became clear that on takeoff we hit one of the many guillemots with the blade. Because of this, the tip of the propeller was deformed.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

It was decided to transport everyone on rescue boats from the other side of the bay. There was no ice coastline. After evacuating all the people from the island, the helicopter crew will independently try to fly aboard the icebreaker.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

Thus, we had a “wonderful” opportunity to admire the beauty of the island to our hearts’ content during this landing. However, the transition was not very long. Most of the path was on a hill, so it was relatively easy to walk.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

The second time we visited the islands of Fratz Joseph Land was on our way back from the North Pole.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

First of all, we approached the Rubini basalt rock. It is named after the famous Italian tenor and is interesting for its huge bird colony.

Due to its volcanic origin, the coast around the rock is very steep. Therefore, even such a huge ship as our nuclear icebreaker is capable of approaching it almost closely. This is a very impressive sight. In order to supervise such a delicate operation, one of the sailors with a walkie-talkie is located on the bow. It constantly reports the distance to the rock and the movement trend.

Rock Rubini, Russia // dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

The basalt slopes of the island are all dotted with birds. It is also interesting to observe the structure of the rock, which seems to be assembled from individual even columns.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

But the main goal of our return call was Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island. It was here that the first Soviet research station on the archipelago was opened in 1929.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

Unfortunately, by the time of our visit, no one had lived at the station for several years. All buildings on the territory were mothballed and the only inhabitants here were polar bears. On board our icebreaker were members of the first expedition to this island in all this time. They had to land ashore and assess the possibility of restoring this polar base. Before disembarking, they were most concerned about the presence of uninvited guests from among the bears. Therefore, all the time before heading ashore, they carefully studied the shore and buildings with binoculars. Because of the ice, it was not possible to approach the shore by boat. Therefore, the landing was carried out again by helicopter. During the trip to the Pole, the ship's mechanics managed to repair the winglet and the MI-8 was ready to fly again. The remaining passengers did not disembark on the island. Unfortunately, visibility that day was not very good. Therefore, as soon as the weather cleared up a little, everyone immediately boarded a helicopter and flew to the island.

// dmytrocherkasov.livejournal.com

This is how my visit to Franz Josef Land turned out during the expedition to the North Pole.

dmytrocherkasov
30/11/2013

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