Severnaya Zemlya but currently there are no human inhabitants in Severnaya Zemlya except for the Prima Polar Station near Cape Baranov. The largest glacier in the Russian Federation, the Academy of Sciences Glacier, is located in Severnaya Zemlya. The archipelago is notable as well in connection with the ongoing multiyear Arctic sea ice decline. Until recently, ice joined the islands to Eurasia, even at its smallest extent during the late summer melt season, blocking the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. By the late summer of 2012, however, the permanent ice had reached a record low extent and open water
Tyko Vylka Novaya Zemlya archipelago. In 1956, the whole civil (indigenous) population of Novaya Zemlya was forcedly relocated to enable the usage of the islands as a military base and a nuclear bomb testing ground. After the resettlement, Tyko Vylka lived in Arkhangelsk, where he died in 1960s. There is a street named in his name in Arkhangelsk. In 1981, a film "The Great Sami" () appeared, featuring the career of Vylka. After one of the Rusanov's expeditions, Vylka created a report as an album of drawings, which was presented to Tsar Nicholas II. It is generally accepted however that he produced