Kildin is a small 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...

n island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the Barents Sea

Barents Sea

The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...

, off the Russian shore and about 120 km from Norway. Administratively, Kildin belongs to the Murmansk Oblast

Murmansk Oblast

Murmansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in the northwestern part of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Murmansk.-Geography:...

 of the Russian Federation.

Kildin Island is a plateau, up to 900 feet in elevation; it drops sharply to the sea on the north. Great granite masses rise from the sea and are carved into broad terraces. In the interior there is a relict lake, Lake Mogil'noe, which is separated from Kildin Strait by an isthmus through which seawater filters that replenishes the lake. The brackish lake holds a unique species of cod (Gadus morhua kildinensis) that has adapted to it.

The island is ten miles long by three and a half miles wide at the widest part. Kildin Strait, which separates it from the mainland, is ten miles long and varies in width from two miles to about half a mile. The water is deep so anchorage is only possible near the shore. The only safe anchorage is in Monastery Bay, at the South East end of the island. The bay gets its name from a fortified monastery that used to stand there but that the British destroyed in 1809 and of which no trace remains.

According to the Norwegian Organization for the Protection of the Environment, there is a deposit of expended reactors from Soviet nuclear submarines on the island.

Lighthouses

There are three lighthouses on the island.

1) Kildinskiy Zapadnny (West Kildinsky) is built near the southwest corner of the island and marks the western entrance to the strait between the island and the mainland.

2) Kildinskiy Severnny (North Kildinsky) is built on the north side of the island, about 25 km (15 mi) east of the entrance to Kola Bay.

3) Kildinskiy Vostochny (East Kildinsky) is on the southeastern side of the island, near the settlement of Vostochny Kildin

Vostochny Kildin

Vostochny Kildin is the rural locality in Kolsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. The village is located beyond the Arctic circle, on the Kildin Island. Located at a height of 1 m above sea level....

.

Notable incidents

• 2003, 21 August: The Russian submarine K-159 sank off Kildin Island while she was being towed to a scrap yard. She sank about three nautical miles northwest of island, near the entrance to Kola Bay.The sinking, which claimed the lives of nine of her ten crew, occurred during a gale.
• 1992, 11 February: The USS Baton Rouge
  USS Baton Rouge (SSN-689)
  USS Baton Rouge , a Los Angeles-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 8 January 1971 and her keel was laid down on 18...
  
  , a Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine, collided with a Russian Sierra class submarine K-276 Kostroma
  Soviet submarine K-276
  B-276 Kostroma is a Russian Sierra class submarine. She was launched in 1986, commissioned in 1987, and named K-276 Crab until 1992. The Kostroma was built at Gorky and later towed to Severodvinsk for completion...
  
   some 4.7 miles from the line that connects Tsypnavolok Cape and Kildin Island. The US Navy stated that the collision occurred more than 12 miles from the shore, i.e., in international waters. However, Russia uses a different set of rules for defining the boundary between territorial and international waters, and maintains that the collision took place within Russian territorial waters. Fortunately, the accident caused no injuries or deaths on either vessel.

• 1943, 24 July: The British merchant vessel SS Llandaff (4,825 grt) was part of a three-vessel convoy bringing timber from the White Sea
  White Sea
  The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
  
   to Kola Inlet on behalf of the Russians. The vessels were some 20 miles NE of the island when a flight of four ME-109
  Messerschmitt Bf 109
  The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
  
  s attacked them, hitting Llandaff aft and starting a fire. HMS Britomart
  HMS Britomart (J22)
  HMS Britomart was a of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War and was sunk in 1944 in a friendly fire incident.-Construction and commissioning:...
  
   helped to get the fire under control. Llandaff eventually entered harbour; there were no casualties.
• 1943, 2 January: While part of Convoy JW51B from Loch Ewe for Murmansk with military cargo, the American freighter Ballot (6,131gt) ran aground on the island in fog and was a total loss. Her crew abandoned her on 13 January.
• 1917, 22 October: The German submarine U-46 fired a torpedo that sank the Zillah (3,788grt), which was en route from Archangel, Russia, to Lerwick, Shetland Islands, with a cargo of timber. Although the Zillah was defensively armed, the attack occurred without warning, 25 miles NE of Kildin Island. The entire crew of 18 men lost their lives.
• 1809, June 6: During the Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812)
  Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812)
  The Anglo-Russian War occurred during the Napoleonic Wars. Hostilities were limited primarily to a small number of naval actions in the Baltic, though there were also attacks in the Barents Sea...
  
  , boats from HMS Nyaden
  HDMS Najaden (1796)
  HDMS Najaden was a frigate of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy, which she served from 1796 to 1807 until the British captured her in 1807. While in Dano-Norwegian service she participated in an action at Tripoli, North Africa. She served the Royal Navy as the fifth rate HMS Nyaden from 1808 until...
  
   attacked a fort on the island, capturing it and 22-3 vessels that were sheltering under its protection. The landing party took away some of the guns of the fort or threw them in the river.
• 1594, 23-29 June: The Dutch explorer, Willem Barentsz visited Kildin Island on his first voyage while on his way to 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...
  
  .