Island group in the Kara Sea, Russian Federation
The Kirov Islands or Sergey Kirov Islands (Russian: Острова Кирова, Ostrova Kirova or Aрхипелаг Сергея Кирова, Archipelag Sergeya Kirova) is an island group in the Kara Sea, Russian Federation. It is an archipelago of small islands covered with tundra vegetation located about 140 km (87 mi) from the coast of Siberia and 100 km (62 mi) northwest of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago.
Geography
This archipelago, as well as Kirov Island, its northernmost island which is located at the northeastern end somewhat detached from the main island cluster,[1] is named after Joseph Stalin's politburo member Sergey Kirov. All islands are quite flat, mostly with sandy spits and coastal lagoons in their shores.
The group's largest island is Isachenko (Russian: Остров Исаченко),[2] named after Boris Lavrent'evich Isachenko Russian microbiologist and botanist of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It has a surface of 180.6 km2 (69.7 sq mi) and the highest point in the archipelago.[3] There is an experiment station (Polyarnaya Stantsiya) on Isachenko Island.
The sea surrounding the Kirov Islands is covered with pack ice with some polynias in the winter and there are many ice floes even in the summer. The strait between Isachenko and Slozhnyy Island is known as Proliv Aeros"yëmki.[4]
This island group belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation. They are also part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve (Russian: Большой Арктический государственный природный заповедник), the largest nature reserve of the Russian Federation.[5]
The Kirov Archipelago is not to be confused with Kirovskiye Ostrova (Russian: Кировские Острова), a historic district of Saint Petersburg formed by a group of three coastal islands in the Gulf of Finland north of the Neva river delta.[6]
