Nagurskoye

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Nagurskaja (Russian Нагурская, formerly Nagurskoje, russ Нагурское ) is the northernmost border guard base of Russia. It is located on the island of Alexandra Land of Franz- Josef- Lands in the Arctic Ocean.

Nagurskaja is the only inhabited place on the island. The station consists among other things of barrack buildings, warehouses, garages, an airport and a small wooden church.

Location

Nagurskaja is located in the extreme northeast of the 1051 km ² large island Alexandra country. This is located in the west of the archipelago Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Ocean and belongs administratively to the Arkhangelsk Oblast. The station is located 18 meters above sea level and is 1000 km north from the nearest Russian mainland.

Climate

The climate is arctic to Nagurskaja rough with long harsh winters. The summers are very short, cold and damp. The mean annual temperature is -11.8 ° C. The warmest month with an average temperature of 0.9 ° C in July. The coldest month is -23 ° C in March. The maximum temperature is 13 ° C, the minimum temperature at -54 ° C. During the year covered 295 mm of rainfall on average. The wind blows predominantly from the south with an average of 5.6 meters per second. From mid- September to mid- July, the island is covered by a blanket of snow. Due to its location more than 1500 km north of the Arctic Circle, the midnight sun in Nagorskaja from April 11 to August 30. In winter, the polar night lasts for several months.

History

During the Second World War, a secret weather observatory was built on the island in 1943 for the first time by the Germans. This weather station treasure hunter called station, however, had to be evacuated in 1944 after the crew had been infected with Trichinella from tainted bear meat.

After the end of World War II was 1947 Alexandra country the Russian airfield Nagurskoje, which was named after the Polish- Russian aviation pioneer and polar explorer January Nagórski ( 1888-1976 ), in search of the lost North Pole expeditions Sedov, Brusilov and Russanows the Novaya 1914 Zemlya from starting flew in the direction of Franz Josef Land. Early 1960s, was founded near the airfield a settlement. Here was a polar station named Nagurskaja. In the 1980s, there were next to border guards also meteorologists, zoologists, geologists and one department of the air defense and the Soviet Navy at the station.

On December 23, 1996, a Russian Antonov An-72 crashed while landing on the runway in Nagurskoje. The aircraft was destroyed. All 24 crew members survived.

In 1997, the hydro-meteorological weather station was closed. After the resurgence of the Russian interest in the development of the Arctic, a memorial was inaugurated in 2004 on the station, which is intended to represent a sign of the creation of the first Russian base for the appropriation of the Arctic in the 21st century. In the following years it came to the further expansion of the station. In September 2008, a meeting of the Russian Security Council was held in the base. The meeting, in which, among other things, the Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Transport Minister Igor Levitin and were present in addition to the Head of the Security Nikolai Patrushev, had the use of the Arctic as a future strategic raw materials to the content. In 2009, the station including soldiers, scientists and meteorologists was inhabited by about 50 people. The employees are subject to all of the Russian secret service FSB.