Belushya Guba is an urban locality (a work settlement

Urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...

) and the administrative center of Novaya Zemlya District of Arkhangelsk Oblast

Arkhangelsk Oblast

Arkhangelsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It includes the Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, as well as the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea....

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located in the southwestern portion of the Southern Island of the Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...

 arctic archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

. Population:

It is the main permanent settlement and the administrative center of the island territory of Novaya Zemlya. It lies around 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) southwest of the Rogachevo

Rogachevo

Rogachevo is a military air base on Novaya Zemlya, Russia located 9 km northeast of Belushya Guba. It was originally used as a staging base for intercontinental Long Range Aviation bomber flights...

 airbase. A large proportion of its population is made up of military personnel associated with the nuclear test sites located on the island.

The whole Novaya Zemlya archipelago, including Belushya Guba, is an area of restricted access (formally, as part of border security zone

Border Security Zone of Russia

The Border Security Zone in Russia is the designation of a strip of land where economic activity and access are restricted without permission of the FSB. In order to visit the zone, a permit issued by the local FSB department is required. The restricted access zone The Border Security Zone in...

), and a special permit is needed to visit the archipelago.

History

Upon visiting Novaya Zemlya in 1894, Arkhangelsk Governor Engelhard decided to create a new encampment. In 1896, an expedition conducted a survey of the west coast of Novaya Zemlya. The following year Belushya Guba was founded.

The settlement started to flourish in 1954, when Novaya Zemlya became established as a nuclear test site. In 1956, the whole civil (indigenous) population of Novaya Zemlya, mostly Nenets

Nenets people

The Nenets are an indigenous people in Russia. According to the latest census in 2002, there are 41,302 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Nenets Autonomous Okrug...

, were resettled from the islands.

Geography and climate

Belushya Guba is located in a deep bay, within a geographical area that is influenced by warm ocean currents. The natural conditions allow year-round sailing of all types and classes of vessels with minimal cost for icebreaking support. The bay is well protected from high surf and drifting ice.

The area of the southern island of Novaya Zemlya experiences from 8 to 10 cyclones per month during the winter, with the main direction of the cyclone trajectories from the west and south-west to north-east.

Economy

Belushya Guba has schools, apartment buildings, three hotels, shops, a television station, a 200-bed Naval Hospital, a polyclinic, military officers' center with a base sailor's club, 25-meter pool, recreational center, and an Orthodox church.

In the long term, Belushya Guba may become an important transport hub. There is currently a construction project for a major oil port, for the transshipment of oil, as well as a plan for a facility to produce liquefied natural gas from fields in the Yamal Peninsula. In developing the nearby manganese and polymetallic deposits, the port will also handle ore shipments. It is expected that the prospective port will reduce the cost of hydrocarbon shipments.

Transportation

There are two regular flights weekly from Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...

 to Rogachevo Airport

Rogachevo

Rogachevo is a military air base on Novaya Zemlya, Russia located 9 km northeast of Belushya Guba. It was originally used as a staging base for intercontinental Long Range Aviation bomber flights...

, located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) north-east of the settlement (in the time-tables, Rogachyovo is designated as Amderma-2, though the settlement of Amderma

Amderma

Amderma is an urban-type settlement in Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located 490 km from Naryan-Mar on the coast of Kara Sea. It was established in 1933. Population: 650 ; 5,100 ; 2,900 . Fluorite deposits are located in the vicinity of Amderma, but the mines have been abandoned since...

is not even located on Novaya Zemlya). There is no regular passenger navigation.