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,
Malaya Zemlya Malaya Zemlya Malaya Zemlya (, lit. "Minor Land") was a Soviet uphill outpost on Cape Myskhako () that was recaptured after fierce, bloody battles with the Germans during the Battle of the Caucasus, on the night of 4 February 1943. The episode paved way for a Soviet attack on German forces in Novorossiysk. Cape Myskhako is still associated with a heroic stand made by the 800-strong contingent of the Soviet Naval Infantry against the Germans during the Second World War. The special forces were dropped during winter high storms by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, after the unsuccessful landing attempt