Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, located at the far northeastern edge of Europe. Its northernmost point, Cape Flissingsky, is regarded as Europe’s easternmost extremity. The Barents Sea lies to the west, the Kara Sea to the east. The name means “new land” or “new Earth” in Russian. The archipelago has two main islands—Severny (northern) and Yuzhny (southern)—divided by the Matochkin Strait. It forms the Novaya Zemlya District, one of twenty-one districts in Arkhangelsk Oblast, and is also a municipal urban okrug.

During the Cold War, the area was a sensitive military zone, and some parts still host airfields. The Soviet Air Force operated from Rogachevo, on the southern island’s westernmost peninsula, mainly for interceptor aircraft but also to support nearby nuclear testing. Along with the Semipalatinsk Test Site, Novaya Zemlya was one of the USSR’s two primary nuclear test sites. It was used for air drops and underground tests of the largest Soviet nuclear bombs, most notably the 30 October 1961 air burst of Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.

Russian hunters from Novgorod knew of Novaya Zemlya as early as the 11th century. Western Europeans first encountered it in the 16th century while searching for the Northern Sea Route. Hugh Willoughby made the first Western European visit in 1553. Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz reached the west coast in 1594; during a 1596 expedition, he rounded the northern cape and wintered on the northeastern coast, dying there (possibly buried on Severny Island). Fyodor Litke mapped the western coast between 1821 and 1824. Henry Hudson also passed through while seeking the Northeast Passage. Pyotr Pakhtusov and Avgust Tsivolko systematically surveyed the islands in the early 1830s. The first permanent settlement, Malye Karmakuly, was founded in 1870 and served as the capital until 1924. The administrative center later moved to Belushya Guba, then to Lagernoe in 1935, before returning to Belushya Guba.

After Hitler’s June 1941 invasion of the USSR, the United States and Britain organized merchant convoys under naval escort to deliver Lend-Lease supplies to northern Soviet ports. Early convoys (up to PQ 12) arrived safely, but Germany then sent aircraft, ships, and U-boats to northern Norway and Finland to attack them. Convoy PQ 17, consisting of 36 merchant ships carrying 297 aircraft, 596 tanks, 4,286 other vehicles, and over 150,000 long tons of other cargo, plus six destroyer escorts, fifteen additional armed ships (including two Free-French corvettes), and three rescue craft, left Iceland on 27 June 1942. One ship ran aground and dropped out. The convoy sailed north of Bear Island but hit ice on 30 June; a damaged ship broke radio silence. On 1 July, German U-boats and reconnaissance aircraft detected the convoy, and torpedo bomber attacks began on 2 July. On the night of 2–3 July, the German battleship Tirpitz and heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper sortied from Trondheim with four destroyers and two smaller vessels. The pocket battleships Admiral Scheer and Lützow and six destroyers sailed from Narvik, but Lützow and three destroyers ran aground. The British Admiralty responded on 4 July by diverting the escorts westward to meet the Home Fleet and ordering the merchant ships to scatter. Several ships headed toward Novaya Zemlya, seeking safety in the Matochkin Strait.

In August 1942, the German Navy launched Operation Wunderland, aiming to enter the Kara Sea and sink Soviet ships. Admiral Scheer and other warships rounded Cape Desire, entered the Kara Sea, and attacked a shore station on Dikson Island, badly damaging the Soviet ships Dezhnev and Revolutionist. Later that year, prisoner Karlo Štajner met a Captain Menshikov, who described an incident: in August 1942, a transport arrived at Novaya Zemlya, its escort ships departed, and a watchman spotted an approaching ship. Assuming it was Allied, no alarm was raised. When the ship neared the bay, Menshikov realized it was a German cruiser and gave the alarm too late. The German guns fired a direct hit on an Allied freighter trying to escape through the narrow bay mouth. Soviet coastal batteries opened fire but could not reach the enemy. The cruiser then closed in and destroyed all ships in the bay, much of the harbor, and left a hundred dead and wounded. Whether this attack occurred on Dikson Island or Novaya Zemlya, Štajner’s account revealed the fate of a Soviet officer imprisoned for losing to the enemy.