Russian Empire Bolsheviks followed in 1918. The administrative boundaries of European Russia, apart from Finland and its portion of Poland, coincided approximately with the natural limits of the East-European plains. In the North it met the Arctic Ocean. Novaya Zemlya and the Kolguyev and Vaygach Islands also belonged to it, but the Kara Sea was referred to Siberia. To the East it had the Asiatic territories of the Empire, Siberia and the Kyrgyz steppes, from both of which it was separated by the Ural Mountains, the Ural River and the Caspian Sea — the administrative boundary, however, partly extending into Asia on
Belaya Zemlya Belaya Zemlya Belaya Zemlya (, literally "White Land") is a group of three cold, glaciated islands. It is a geographical subgroup of Franz Josef Land, Russian Federation. This area was named Hvidtenland (Norwegian: "White Land") by Fridtjof Nansen, who reached this desolate place on August 5, 1895 during his polar expedition. In his map he drew four islands. Since the limit of permanent ice crosses Belaya Zemlya, it is often difficult to distinguish between land and sea. However, as the cartography of the Franz Josef Archipelago became more accurate, it became apparent that it was a group of three islands.