Reindeer in Russia Reindeer in Russia Reindeer in Russia include tundra and forest reindeer and are subspecies of "Rangifer tarandus". Tundra reindeer include the Novaya Zemlya ("R.t.pearsoni") and Lapland ("R.t. tarandus") subspecies and the Siberian tundra reindeer ("R.t. sibiricus"). The subspecies of reindeer, the Novaya Zemlya ("R.t.pearsoni"). on the islands of the Novaya Zemlya, were herded by the Nenets. Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the North of Russia and the extreme Northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the Northern island. The indigenous population (from 1872 to the 1950s when it was
Novaya Zemlya numbering 298, was removed to the mainland in 1957 before nuclear testing began. In 1943, during World War II, Novaya Zemlya briefly served as a secret seaplane base for Nazi Germany's "Kriegsmarine", to provide German surveillance of Allied shipping en route to Siberia. The seaplane base was established by U-255 and U-711, which were operating along the Northern coast of Soviet Russia as part of "13th U-boat Flotilla". Seaplane sorties were flown in August and September 1943. In the months following Hitler’s June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain organized convoys of merchant ships