The Minina Skerries (Russian: Шхеры Минина; ''Shkhery Minina'') are located 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. ...

, in the northwestern shores of

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

. They stretch between the

Mikhailov Peninsula The Mikhailov Peninsula (Russian ''Poluostrov Mikhailova'') is a small peninsula in the eastern shores of the Kara Sea on the western side of the Taymyr Peninsula. Its latitude is 75° 05' N and its longitude 87° 15' E. The Mikhailov Peninsula i ...

and the mouths of the river

Pyasina The Pyasina (russian: Пясина) is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. The river is long, and its basin covers . The Pyasina River originates in Lake Pyasino and flows into the Pyasino Gulf of the Kara Sea. There are more than 60,000&nb ...

. Their latitude is between 74° and 75° N, and their longitude between 84° and 87° 30' E. These skerries are a complex system of islands, channels and small peninsulas on the bleak

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

coast 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 ...

. Winters are long and bitter, so the coast and the islands are merged as an icy whole for the greatest part of the year. The summer thaw typically lasts only about two months in an average season. The Minina Skerries include the

Kolosovykh Islands Kolosovykh Island (russian: остров Колосовых; Ostrov Kolosovykh) is an island, in the Kara Sea off the coast of Siberia. Geography Kolosovykh Island is located north of the Kolosovykh Peninsula, which is almost an island itself. T ...

, the Kolosovykh Peninsula, and the Plavnikovyye Islands, as well as other minor coastal islands and deep inlets. They all belong 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 ...

. There is a great variety of Arctic fauna in the Minina Skerries and the whole area 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 cold region was first explored by Fridtjof Nansen and then, more in depth, by Baron Eduard von Toll during his last venture, the Russian Arctic Expedition of 1900–1903 on ship '' Zarya''. Eduard Toll and ''Zaryas captain

Nikolai Nikolaevich Kolomeitsev Nikolai Nikolaevich Kolomeitsev, also spelt Kolomeytsev (russian: Николай Николаевич Коломейцев) (16 July 1867 – 6 October 1944) was a naval officer of the Russian Empire and Arctic explorer. Early life Nikolai K ...

were quite frustrated with the navigation through the tortuous waters of these skerries. In his writings Toll described this whole area as a labyrinth. The ''Zarya'' took a week to negotiate these complicated waters and it ran aground three times. Despite some inaccuracies in the measurements of positions and identification of islands, Toll and the scientists of his expedition went ashore at many islands and headlands, naming them and contributing useful scientific data on this relatively unknown area of the Arctic. The name of the entire Minina Skerries was first given by Toll and his expedition members. They were named after Russian polar explorer Fedor Alekseyevich Minin.

References

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. * William Barr, ''Baron Eduard von Toll’s Last Expedition''.
Great Arctic State Nature Reserve (Russian language)
Archipelagoes of the Kara Sea Archipelagoes of Krasnoyarsk Krai Skerries {{KrasnoyarskKrai-geo-stub