Bolshevik Island

Bolshevik Island (Russian: о́стров Большеви́к, ) is the southernmost island of the Severnaya Zemlya group in the Russian Arctic, and the second largest island in the group. The island was discovered by Boris Vilkitsky in 1913, but its insularity wasn’t proven until 1931, when Georgy Ushakov and Nikolay Urvantsev charted the archipelago during their 1930–32 expedition.

The area of this island has been estimated at 11,270 km². The island is mountainous reaching a height of 935 m, and it houses an arctic base named Prima. About 30% of the island is covered by glaciers, while the coastal plains have a sparse vegetation of moss and lichen. Its northwestern shore has some fjords; the most important are: Fiord Tel'mana, Fiord Spartak and Fiord Partizan.

Bolshevik Island houses at least three glacier systems: Leningrad and Semenov-Tyan Shansky glaciers, as well as a smaller glacier, Kropotkin.

Ostrov Tash is a small island located on Bolshevik's southern shore. Lavrov Island is located off the NE shore and Ostrov Lishniy off its northern tip.

There has been a request to rename Bolshevik island Svyataya Olga (St. Olga).

Read more about Bolshevik Island:  Weather Conditions

Famous quotes containing the word island:

    “We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)