History
Russian scholars deem that Vladimir Rusanov and his ill-fated party disappeared somewhere around the area of the Mona Islands. Relics were found in 1934 in Gerkules Island, including a wooden pole with the inscription "Gerkules 1913", broken old sledges and a fragment of a cartridge box. Other remainders were found in Popova Chukchina, an island of another group not far away (Kolosovykh Islands) during and expedition organized in 1937 by the Arctic Institute of the Soviet Union.
During the Second World War there was much activity near these lonely islands. Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, under Commander Wilhelm Meendsen-Bohlken, destroyers Friedrich Eckoldt, Erich Steinbrinck and Richard Beitzen, entered the Kara Sea along with submarines U 601 (Captain Grau) and U 251 (Lt. Captain Timm) in August 1942, in order to destroy Soviet warships.
The Germans knew that many ships of the USSR fleet had sought refuge in the Kara Sea because of the protection that its icy pack provided during ten months in a year. The large-scale naval operation in order to enter the Kara Sea and destroy as many Russian vessels as possible was named Operation Wunderland.
Since May 1993 the Mona Islands are part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest nature reserve of Russia.
Read more about this topic: Mona Islands
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