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
Administrative divisions of Arkhangelsk Oblast Administrative divisions of Arkhangelsk Oblast Within the framework of administrative divisions, Arkhangelsk Oblast is divided into six cities and towns of oblast significance, twenty-one districts, and two island territories (Franz Joseph Land and Victoria Island). Besides, Mirny is a town under the federal government management. In terms of the area, the biggest administrative districts are Novaya Zemlya () and Mezensky District (). The smallest one is Solovetsky District. In terms of the population, the biggest administrative district is Velsky District (61,819 in 2002), the smallest ones are Solovetsky District (968), Novaya Zemlya (2716), and Leshukonsky District (10,708). Most of the