The Mikhailov Peninsula (Russian ''Poluostrov Mikhailova'') is a small peninsula in the eastern shores of the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipela ...

on the western side of the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula (russian: Таймырский полуостров, Taymyrsky poluostrov) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administrat ...

. Its latitude is 75° 05' N and its longitude 87° 15' E. The Mikhailov Peninsula is covered with tundra and it lies north of the

Minina Skerries The Minina Skerries (Russian: Шхеры Минина; ''Shkhery Minina'') are located in the Kara Sea, in the northwestern shores of Siberia. They stretch between the Mikhailov Peninsula and the mouths of the river Pyasina. Their latitude is ...

. It belongs to the

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in ...

administrative division of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographic ...

. It is also part of the

Great Arctic State Nature Reserve The Great Arctic State Nature Reserve (russian: Большой Арктический государственный природный заповедник) is a nature reserve in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. With an area of , it is the largest res ...

, the largest nature reserve of Russia. The climate in the area is cold with long bitter winters. The sea surrounding the Mikhailov Peninsula is frozen most of the year. It begins to thaw towards mid June and already by mid September it freezes again.

History

In 1921, a Soviet-Norwegian expedition led by

Nikifor Begichev Nikifor Alekseevich Begichev (Bigichev) (russian: Никифор Алексеевич Бегичев (Бигичев); February 7 ( N.S. February 19), 1874 – May 18, 1927) was a Soviet seaman and polar explorer. He was twice awarded gold medal ...

looking for

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amu ...

's men

Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen were two young men from Norway who went with fellow Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen on his 1918 Arctic expedition aboard ship ''Maud''. Peter Tessem was a carpenter and Paul Knutsen was an able-bodied seaman. One y ...

, found the remains of a campfire with charred bones near the Mikhailov Peninsula. These were initially assumed to be the remains of one of the Norwegian men. Recent evidence, however, points out that this campfire had been probably left behind by the ill-fated

Rusanov expedition The Rusanov expedition, led by geologist Vladimir Rusanov, was a 1912 Russian expedition to the Arctic, with an initial objective of establishing mineral claims on Spitsbergen. Following completion of its official programme, Rusanov expanded t ...

William Barr William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as the 77th and 85th United States attorney general in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump. Born and raised in New York City, Barr ...

, ''The Last Journey of Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen'', 1919.

References

Peninsulas of Russia Landforms of Krasnoyarsk Krai {{KrasnoyarskKrai-geo-stub