Maltese people Maltese people The Maltese (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Malta, and identified with the Maltese language. Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Included within the ethnic group defined by the Maltese people are the "Gozitans" (, ) who inhabit Malta's sister island, Gozo. The current Maltese people, characterised by the use of the Maltese language and by Roman Catholicism, are the descendants – through much mixing and hybridisation – of colonists from Sicily and Calabria who repopulated the Maltese islands in the beginning of the second millennium after a two-century lapse of
Nordenskiöld Archipelago On 25 August 1942, during Operation Wunderland, Kriegsmarine cruiser "Admiral Scheer" fell upon the Russian icebreaker "Sibiryakov" (under the command of Captain Kacharev) off the northwest coast of Russky Island at the northern end of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago. The "Sibiryakov" resisted but was sunk by the German warship. Then "Admiral Scheer" headed southwest in order to attack the Soviet military installations at Dikson. Since May 1993 the Nordenskiöld Archipelago is part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest nature reserve of Russia. The Arctic station at Russky Island was closed in 1999. Nordenskiöld Archipelago The Nordenskiöld Archipelago or