Does anyone live on the Islands of Zemlya

...asked Marco. First of all let's find out a bit more about this soviet outpost:

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Where is Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago of islands in Northwest Russia lying in the Arctic Ocean and separating the Barents and Kara seas. It consists of two large islands, Severny (northern) and Yuzhny (southern), plus several other smaller islands. One third of the land area is permanently covered by ice and the temperature is severe.�

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How cold does it get

The temperature varies from -16 to -24�C in the winter to 2 to 7�C in the summer.

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When were they first inhabited

The islands were first settled by seventeen Dutch mariners lead by Willem Barents. They became the first Europeans to successfully winter in the Arctic, wintering between August 1596 and June 1597 in a cabin constructed from driftwood.�

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What are the islands most famous for

Novaya Zemlya is most infamous as being one of two nuclear test fields used by the Russian's since 1955. The first nuclear detonation on Novaya Zemlya took place on 21st September 1955. The bomb (Joe 17, named after Joseph Stalin) was detonated 100 feet below the surface in Chernaya bay on the south-western coast of Novaya Zemlya. Between 1955 and 1990, 132 nuclear bombs have been detonated on the islands, 86 of these were atmospheric test explosions the rest done underground. The combined explosive force of these explosions was around 470 megatons.�

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How many people live there today

There are two major military settlements on the islands today. There is a town of around 4,000 people at Belochaya bay and slightly smaller town at Rossanaya Bay on the southern tip. The inhabitants are mostly military personnel employed at the test fields, and their families. There was also a one stage a number of domesticated reindeer, however, they managed to escape and mix with the wild reindeer flock.