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
Vladimir Rusanov Ocean via the Northern Sea Route. Their ship "Gerkules" was too small for the kind of expedition Rusanov had in mind. The last to be heard of Rusanov's expedition was a telegram left at Matochkin Shar on Novaya Zemlya, which reached St. Petersburg on 27 September 1912. In it, Rusanov indicated that he intended rounding the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, and heading east across the Kara Sea but nothing was heard from the "Gerkules" thereafter. He and his 11-man team, including Alexander Kuchin, disappeared without trace a year later in the Kara Sea, off the northern coast of Siberia.