Kolchak Island or Kolchaka Island (russian: остров Колчака, ''ostrov Kolchaka''), is an island in 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 archipelago. ...

located in a coastal area of skerries NE of the Shturmanov Peninsula. It is near the southern end of the

Nordenskiöld Archipelago The Nordenskiöld Archipelago or Nordenskjold Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Норденшельда, Arkhipelag Nordenshel'da) is a large and complex cluster of islands in the eastern region of the Kara Sea. Its eastern limit lies ...

, but not geographically part of it. It was known as Rastorguyev Island (russian: остров Расторгуева, ''ostrov Rastorguyeva'') in the period between 1937 and 2005 .

Description

Compared to other large islands in the area Kolchak has a quite regular shape. Its length is 21 km and its maximum width 6.5 km. It is covered with tundra vegetation in the summer, but most of the year it lies under a shroud of snow. Kolchaka Island is located 40 km from the western end of the

Taymyr Gulf The Taymyr Gulf (russian: Таймырская губа, Taymyrskaya guba; also known as ''Taymyr Bay'', russian: Таймырский залив, Taymyrsky zaliv, link=no) is a gulf in the Kara Sea that includes the estuary of the Lower Taymyra ...

and only 14 km southeast of

Taymyr Island Taymyr Island () is a large island in the coast of the Kara Sea. Its length is and its average width about . This island is located west of the Taymyr Gulf in an area of skerries right off the western coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. The narrow str ...

. It separated from the nearest coast by a narrow sound that is about one km in width in its narrowest stretch. The climate in the area is severe, with long and bitter winters and frequent blizzards and gales. The sea surrounding Kolchak Island is covered with pack ice in the winter and there are numerous ice floes even in the summer, so that most of the year it is merged with the mainland. Kolchaka Island 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 Si ...

administrative division of the

Russian Federation 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 ...

and is part of the

Great Arctic State Nature Reserve The Great Arctic State Nature Reserve (russian: Большой Арктический государственный природный заповедник) is a nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife san ...

, the largest nature reserve of Russia.

History

This island is named after Alexander Kolchak, its discoverer and explorer. He had joined

Eduard Toll Eduard Gustav Freiherr von Toll (russian: Эдуа́рд Васи́льевич Толль, translit=Eduárd Vasíl'evič Toll'; 1902), better known in Russia as Eduard Vasilyevich Toll and often referred to as Baron von Toll, was a Russian ge ...

's 1900-1902 arctic expedition (The Russian Polar Expedition), which explored many little-known islands of the Kara Sea. The main aim of the expedition was to find the legendary

Sannikov Land Sannikov Land (russian: Земля Санникова) was a phantom island in the Arctic Ocean. Its supposed existence became something of a myth in 19th-century Russia. History Yakov Sannikov and Matvei Gedenschtrom claimed to have seen the ...

. Kolchak Island was first depicted on a map in 1901. In 1937 the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

government renamed it after

Stepan Rastorguyev Stepan Innokentyevich Rastorguyev (russian: Степа́н Инноке́нтьевич Расторгу́ев; 1864 in Yakutsk – after 1904) was an officer of the Cossack, Yakut Cossack Regiment and an explorer. As Rastorguyev's parents died e ...

and for a few decades there were two

Rastorguyev Island Rastorguyev Island or Rastorguyeva Island (russian: остров Расторгуева, ''ostrov Rastorguyeva'') is an island in the Kara Sea, Russian Federation. Geography It is the third largest island of the Kamennyye Islands. It is located c ...

s in the Kara Sea, the other of which was in the Kamennyye group. Finally, on July 15, 2005 the island was renamed to Kolchaka Island.On the name change of a geographical object in the Kara Sea
"…rename the Rastorguyev Island located in the Taymyr Gulf of the Kara Sea to Kolchaka Island…" (''«…переименовать расположенный в Таймырском заливе Карского моря остров Расторгуева в остров Колчака…»'') However, one occasionally encounters confusion about ''which'' of the former Rastorguyev Islands was renamed; e.g. a former revision of this article was written about the wrong island. In 2009, a monument to Kolchak was erected in the northern part of the island.

References

{{coord, 76, 07, N, 97, 01, E, display=title Islands of Krasnoyarsk Krai Islands of the Kara Sea

Description

History

See also

References