The Empress Eugénie Archipelago (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ''Архипелаг императрицы Евгении''), commonly known as the Eugénie Archipelago, is an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

Peter the Great Gulf The Peter the Great Gulf (Russian: Залив Петра Великого) is a gulf on the southern coast of Primorsky Krai, Russia, and the largest gulf of the Sea of Japan. The gulf extends for from the Russian-North Korean border at the mout ...

in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

, along the southern coast of

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The population of the archipelago is 6,810 (2005), and is administratively part of the city of

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...

.Сборник «Муниципальные образования Приморского края»
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Name

The archipelago was named after Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, by a French sailor in the 1850s. The name was not used in the

Soviet period The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...

for ideological reasons, but began to be used again after 1994.Geonames Gazetteer
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Geography

The Eugénie Archipelago consists of five large islands:

Russky Island Russky Island (russian: Ру́сский о́стров, lit. ''Russian Island'') is an island in Peter the Great Gulf in the Sea of Japan, in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is the largest island in the Eugénie Archipelago, separated from the M ...

Popov Island Popov Island (Russian: ''Остров Попова'', ) is an island in the Eugénie de Montijo Archipelago. It lies in Peter the Great Gulf, 20 km to the south of Zolotoy Rog between Reyneke and Russky Islands. It is named after admiral ...

, Rikord Island,

Reyneke Island Reyneke Island (russian: Остров Рейнеке, ''Ostrov Reyneke'') is an island in the Eugénie Archipelago within the Peter the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan. It is administratively part of the city of Vladivostok in Primorsky Krai, Russ ...

and Shkot Island, and a large number of small islands, including Ushi Island and Yelena Island. A number of

islets An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

sea stacks A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology ...

and smaller

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

s dot the coastline of the islands. Russky, the largest and northernmost island of the archipelago, is located immediately south of

and separated from the city by the

Eastern Bosphorus The Eastern Bosphorus (Russian: Босфор Восточный, ''Bosfor Vostochny'') is a strait located in Primorsky Krai, Russia, that separates the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula and Russky Island, and connects Amur Bay and Ussuri Bay within ...

. In 2012, the

Russky Bridge The Russky Bridge (russian: Русский мост, ''Russian Bridge'') is a cable-stayed bridge in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia. The bridge connects the Russky Island and the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula sections of the city across the ...

was completed to connect Russky Island to the mainland, and in 2013 a new campus of

Far Eastern Federal University Far Eastern Federal University (russian: Дальневосто́чный федера́льный университе́т, ''Dalnevostochny federalny universitet'') is a university located in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia. In 2022 the u ...

was opened on the island as part of further development. Shkot is connected to Russky by a thin

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...

which forms a

land bridge In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regression, in which sea leve ...

during low tide. The highest point in the archipelago is Russkikh Mount (291 m) on Russky Island. Three of the four inhabited islands of Primorsky Krai are in this archipelago.

Gallery

File:Russkiy island.jpg,

File:Dotovaya inlet.jpg, Shkot Island File:Moorage on Isle of Popov.jpg,

File:Landscape of Reyneke Island.jpg,

File:Isle of Rikord.jpg, Rikord Island

References

Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Archipelagoes of Russia Islands of the Sea of Japan Islands of Vladivostok Peter the Great Gulf {{PrimorskyKrai-geo-stub