Severnaya Zemlya appeared to the north of the archipelago. Although located not far off the northern coast of Russia, nested among Arctic ice-locked waters, the archipelago that is now known as Severnaya Zemlya was not formally recorded until the 20th century. Earlier explorers deemed that there was a land mass in the general area of the archipelago, such as in the report by Matvei Gedenschtrom and Yakov Sannikov made in 1810 at the time of their exploration of the New Siberian Islands. Later in the 19th century Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld during the Vega Expedition sailed very close to this land in 1878
Belushya Guba area of restricted access (formally, as part of border security zone), and a special permit is needed to visit the archipelago. About northeast of Belushya Guba is the settlement of Rogachevo, the second largest in the archipelago, along with the Rogachevo airbase. Upon visiting Novaya Zemlya in 1894, Arkhangelsk Governor decided to create a new encampment. In 1896, an expedition conducted a survey of the west coast of Novaya Zemlya. The following year Belushya Guba was founded. During World War II, Belushya Guba was a focus of both German and Soviet attention. German U-boats used Belushya Bay as a resting