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Nature on Ice: Russia's Northernmost Territory - Franz Josef Land

07:00 GMT, 30 August 2023
On August 30, Russia celebrates the 150th anniversary of the discovery of a land later to become its northernmost archipelago, Franz Josef Land. More than 200 separate islands constitute this enigmatic land covered by centuries-old glaciers and paralyzed by permafrost.
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In 1873, a group of explorers from Austro-Hungarian Empire, aiming to reach the North Pole, discovered a new land which they named in honor of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I who ruled at that time.
In 1926, the archipelago became a part of the USSR's Arkhangelsk region, having been Russian since 1901. The Soviet Union created infrastructure, established a polar station, an airfield and an observatory there.
Although after the Soviet Union collapse in 1991, the land was almost completely abandoned, nowadays the land is flourishing: since 2012 the territory of the archipelago has been a part of the Russian Arctic National Park where polar bears, walruses, Arctic vixen, dovekies and other fauna rule.
Check out Sputnik's gallery to enjoy the natural beauty of Russia's northernmost point!
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Landscape of Bell Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Ilya Timin
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A polar bear with her cub near the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Barents Sea.

© Sputnik / Valery Melnikov
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An iceberg and the yacht Alter Ego off the coast of an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Ilya Timin
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A group of buildings of the polar station in Tikhaya Bay on Gukera Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Pavel Lvov
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A polar bear at the polar station on the shore of Tikhaya Bay on Gukera Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Vera Kostamo
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A walrus rookery on the shore of an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Ilya Timin
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One of the islands in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Pavel Lvov
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An Arctic fox on an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Vera Kostamo
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Brosh Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Ilya Timin
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A group of buildings of the polar station Tikhaya Bay on Gukera Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Pavel Lvov
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Dovekies on an ice floe off the coast of one of the islands in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

© Sputnik / Ilya Timin
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Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Ocean.

© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich
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MultimediaRussiaFranz Josef LandPhotonaturenational parkArctic OceanArcticArctic Circle
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