The Yugorsky Strait or Yugor Strait (, or Yugorsky Shar) is a narrow sound between the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea 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. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

and the

Pechora Sea The Pechora Sea (, ) is an Arctic sea to the north-west of European Russia, forming the south-eastern portion of the Barents Sea. It is bordered to the west by Kolguyev Island; to the east by Vaygach Island's western coasts and the Yugorsky ...

. Its maximum width is 10 km and its minimum width only 3 km. Ostrov Storozhevoy, an island 1.6 km in length, lies in the middle of the strait. This sound separates

Vaygach Island Vaygach Island () is an island in the Arctic Sea between the Pechora Sea and the Kara Sea. Geography Vaygach Island is separated from the Yugorsky Peninsula in the mainland by the Yugorsky Strait and from Novaya Zemlya by the Kara Strait. ...

from the

Yugorsky Peninsula The Yugorsky Peninsula () is a large peninsula in Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is limited by the Khaypudyr Bay in the Pechora Sea to the west and by the Baydaratsk Bay in the Kara Sea to the north and east. Compared to the Barents Sea, w ...

on the

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 ...

n mainland. The name is derived from Yugaria, an old name for the region to the south of Yugorsky Strait.

History

The earliest recorded voyage through the Yugorsky Shar, traditionally known as the Arctic "Iron Gateway", into the Kara Sea was made from

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

by early Russian explorer Uleb in 1032. Russian

Pomors The Pomors (, ) are an ethnographic group traditionally thought to be descended from Russian settlers (primarily from Veliky Novgorod) living on the White Sea coasts and nearby regions, with their southern boundary marked by a watershed dividi ...

, the coastal dwellers of the

White Sea The White Sea (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; ) is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the nort ...

shores, had been exploring this strait since the 11th century. The Arctic's first shipping line, the Great Mangazea Route, from the

to the

Ob River The Ob (; ) is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia, and with its tributary the Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . The Ob forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins in the Alta ...

and the

Yenisei Gulf The Yenisei Gulf (, ''Yeniseysky zaliv'') is a large and long estuary through which the lower Yenisei flows into the Kara Sea. The Yenisei Gulf and its islands belong to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation and ...

began operating in the latter part of the 16th century. This line opened up the way to Siberia's riches and worked until 1619, when it was closed for military and political reasons, for fear of possible penetration by Europeans into

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. The Yugorsky Strait was an important waterway in the early exploration of the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...

and for the traffic of Soviet maritime convoys during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

* Encyclopædia Britannica * RUSSIAN NAVAL OFFICERS AND GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION IN NORTHERN RUSSIA, by Leonid Sverdlov, Member of the Russian Geographic Society Straits of Russia Bodies of water of the Barents Sea Straits of the Kara Sea Straits of the Arctic Ocean {{NenetsAutonomousOkrug-geo-stub

History

See also

References