Controversial and Fascinating ISLANDS OF RUSSIA || Solovetsky || Severny || Olkhon || Kunashir

Russia is more than just one giant chunk of land. In fact, it has 104 islands. Let's look at some of them and see where they are! Solovetsky, Severny, Olkhon, Kunashir.

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Looking over the vastness of the Russian landscape on a map you would be forgiven for missing the fact that Russia is quite a bit more than just one giant chunk of land roughly equal to Pluto in its size.

Certainly, Russia has very few islands for its size and most definitely very few when compared to countries like Sweden, Norway or Indonesia.

Officially, Russia has 104 islands, while Sweden has 267,570 islands( a number constantly growing) which means Sweden has more islands than the Philippines, Indonesia,Norway, Canada and Australia combined.

But while Russia lacks in numbers, it makes up for in character. Usually, soviet character. *Soviet Music Historic footage Explosions and war Flash*

Let's start with the westernmost example on this list

Tucked away in Russia's distant North West far above the arctic circle some 200 kilometers from the Finish border in the white sea lies the Solovetsky archipelago.

An island chain with a very polarizing history.

It is the home of Solovetsky Monastery which was founded in 1436 hosting one of the first Russian sites to have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List and still has practicing monks living inside.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the monastery extended its commercial activities, becoming an economic and political center of the White Sea region.

Solovetsky also served as a fortress armed with cannons and held a large army garrison with the intention of protecting the region. It has seen attacks from Livonians, Swedes and even British ships that bombarded the islands during the Crimean War.

The picture changed somewhat In 1923 after the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War, the Soviet authorities gently closed down the monastery by burning all the wooden buildings and killing or sending the monks away to central Russia.

The remaining buildings were incorporated into a prison camp primarily intended for opponents of Soviet Russia's new Bolshevik regime.

It became one of the earliest examples of the infamous Soviet Gulag system considered by some to be the "mother of the GULAG”

The canal never served any practical purpose as it was dug too shallow to accommodate larger vessels. Between 12,000 and 25,000 laborers died in its creation, many of whom would have been from Solovki Gulag.

The Gulag had to be closed in 1939. It was situated too close to the border with Finland providing a means of escape and with imminent Second World War the Island was turned into a naval base.

Today it is one of the main tourist attractions in Russia's northern territories.

Moving some 1,300 km kilometers to the North East we find Severny Island.

It lies approximately 400 km north of the Russian mainland in the arctic ocean. It has an area of 48,904 square kilometres (18,882 sq mi), making it the 30th-largest island in the world.

Forty percent of it is covered by the Severny Island ice cap, which is the largest glacier by area and by volume in Europe.

But it is not the incredible beauty and landscape that makes this island so interesting as much as its remoteness which meant that it was used for Soviet nuclear weapons testing between 1958 and 1961.
Moving east again and stepping far away from Russia's soviet legacy we come to a much more pristine place where politics and history seem to not matter so much

Situated some 550km north of UlanBaatar the capital of Mongolia and North West of the Russian city of Irkutsk you will find Olkhon Island

Видео Controversial and Fascinating ISLANDS OF RUSSIA || Solovetsky || Severny || Olkhon || Kunashir канала Geo Perspective