Northern Sea Route Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (, "Severnyy morskoy put", shortened to Севморпуть, "Sevmorput") is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of Novaya Zemlya and specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait. The entire route lies in Arctic waters and within Russia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Parts are free of ice for only two months per year. The overall route on Russia's side of the Arctic between North Cape and the Bering Strait has been called the Northeast Passage, analogous to the Northwest Passage
Severnaya Zemlya Sea Route in what was seen as the culmination of the Great Northern Expedition, an ambitious enterprise initially conceived by emperor Peter I the Great in order to map the whole of the northern coast of Russia to the east. On 3 September 1913 (22 August 1913 in the Julian calendar used by Russia at the time), members of Vilkitsky's expedition landed on what is now known as Cape Berg on October Revolution Island. They raised the Russian flag on the shore and named the new territory Tayvay Land (, "Zemlya Tayway"), after the first syllable of their icebreakers' names.