Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya ( (Northern Land), ) is a archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Kara Sea in the west and the Laptev Sea in the east. Severnaya Zemlya was first noted in 1913 and first charted in 1930–32, making it the last sizeable archipelago on Earth to be explored. Administratively, the islands form part of Russia's Krasnoyarsk Krai federal subject. In Soviet times there were a number of research stations in different locations,
12th Chief Directorate Kazakhstan) and on Novaya Zemlya Archipelago. Unlike the GRU (Chief Directorate of Intelligence), the 12th GU MO is not a chief directorate of the General Staff, but a chief directorate of the Ministry of Defense. As such it is not subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet/Russian Armed Forces, but directly to the Minister of Defense, which makes it higher in status compared to the GRU. Position of the Chief of the 12th GU MO is equal to that of the commander of a military district, and supposed to be occupied by a 4-star General or