Ostrov Bolshevik (, ) is an airfield on
Bolshevik Island
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Bolshevik Island (, ) is an island in Severnaya Zemlya, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian Arctic. The island is named after the political faction of the Soviet Union.
History
The island, together with the eastern coast of what was named Emp ...
in
Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Krasnoyarsk, the second-largest city in Siberia after ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
.
It is the fourth most northernmost airfield in Russia. It was probably constructed around 1960,
and is among several very large trans-polar airfields for Russia's strategic bomber force that were either abandoned during construction or served limited use.
Ostrov Bolshevik was created as one of several winter staging bases for the Soviet Union's
Tupolev Tu-95
The Tupolev Tu-95 (; NATO reporting name: "Bear") is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. Maiden flight, First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the Soviet Long Range Aviation, Long-Range Avia ...
bomber fleet. At this type of facility, each fall Army engineering teams would grade the airfield and repair runway markings. During the winter the airfield would receive aircraft on its packed snow surface during periods of increased military posture, then the facility would be abandoned in the spring. The facility appears to have been closed in the 1960s or 1970s as Russia's deterrence force shifted from bombers to
ICBM
An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...
s.
See also
*
Chekurovka
Chekurovka (; ) is a rural locality (a '' selo''), in Bulunsky National (Evenk) Rural Okrug of Bulunsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, located Kyusyur, the administrative centre of the rural okrug and from Tiksi, the administrative ce ...
, abandoned Arctic staging base
*
Aspidnoye (air base)
Aspidnoye, also referred to as Dresba and Krumaya, is an abandoned Russian military airfield , abandoned Arctic staging base
*
Tiksi North
Tiksi North is a former Russian military airfield located 41 km north of Tiksi in Bulunsky District, Sakha Republic. Described as a ghost airfield, its probable use was either as a diversion or dispersal airfield for Soviet bombers. It was l ...
, abandoned Arctic staging base
*
Tiksi West
Tiksi West (Tiksi-Zapadny) was a large air base in Sakha Republic, Russia, located about 7 km west of Tiksi. It appeared on Department of Defense navigation charts during the Cold War, and was listed as having a 13,500 ft (4100 metre ...
, abandoned Arctic staging base
References
Soviet Long Range Aviation Arctic staging bases
Populated places of Arctic Russia
Former populated places in Krasnoyarsk Krai
Airports in Krasnoyarsk Krai
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