Tyko Vylka Vylka investigated the coast of Novaya Zemlya and created a map of the coast. In 1909, he participated in Vladimir Rusanov's Arctic expedition around Novaya Zemlya, and created the map of the archipelago. For his role in the Rusanov's expedition, Vylka was decorated by a medal. He was initially self-taught painting, and then he left for one year (1910–1911) for Moscow where he studied with Abram Arkhipov and Vasily Pereplyotchikov. In 1918, Vylka became the Chairman of Belushya Guba settlement Soviet, and from 1925 to 1956 he served as the Chairman of Novaya Zemlya Island Soviet, the governing body of
Novaya Zemlya lost more than three-fourths of the merchant ships committed to the convoy — more than one fourth of the losses to American shipping in all convoys to northern Russia. The destruction of PQ-17 significantly affected the people dependent on supplies carried by the ill-fated merchant ships. Karlo Stajner, a Gulag prisoner in Norilsk in 1942, wrote “the German cruiser’s attack on Novaya Zemlya and the sinking of the food transports had catastrophic consequences…the population was left without provisions…supplies in the warehouses of Norilsk [were] distributed among the NKVD, the guards, and the few free civilians that lived in the town.”