Maly Vysotsky Island or Malyj Vysotskij Island (, ) is an island in northwest

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, that was

leased A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. It is located in

Vyborg Bay Vyborg Bay (, , ) is a deep inlet running northeastward near the eastern end of Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. The city of Vyborg is located near the head of the gulf. The Monrepos Park is considered a jewel of the bay and a major draw f ...

, next to

Vysotsk Vysotsk (russian: Высо́цк; fi, Uuras; sv, Trångsund) is a coastal town and a seaport in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Karelian Isthmus, on the eastern shore of the Vyborg Bay, southwest of Vyborg and nor ...

, 12 km (7 miles) southwest of

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

. Between 1918 and 1940, the island was a part of Finnish territory, and was called ''Ravansaari''. It was inhabited by nearly one thousand Finns, who earned their livelihood mainly from the

timber industry Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production Lumber and wood products, including timber for framing, plywood, and woodworking, are create ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in 1940, it was annexed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(along with the surrounding territory) and became a part of the Karelo-Finnish SSR. In 1941, it was recaptured by Finnish troops and returned to Finland. In June 1944, the island fell to the Red Army, and once again became part of the Soviet Union, eventually a small part of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The island was renamed ''Malyj Vysotsky''. A treaty was signed in 1963 to lease the island and the nearby

Saimaa Canal The Saimaa Canal ( fi, Saimaan kanava; sv, Saima kanal; russian: Сайменский канал) is a transportation canal that connects lake Saimaa with the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg, Russia. The canal was built from 1845 to 1856 and opened ...

to Finland for fifty years. Because of the treaty and the island's isolation from both Finland and Russia,

radio amateurs An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way communication, two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on Frequency, radio frequencies Amateur radio frequency allocatio ...

made Maly Vysotsky Island an entity of its own, much like

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. This and the fact that

Alexander Stepanovich Popov Alexander Stepanovich Popov (sometimes spelled Popoff; russian: Алекса́ндр Степа́нович Попо́в; – ) was a Russian physicist, who was one of the first persons to invent a radio receiving device. declassified 8 Januar ...

did his first radio experiments in the area at the turn of the 20th century made the island an attractive destination for

DX-pedition A DX-pedition is an expedition to what is considered an exotic place by amateur radio operators and DX listeners, typically because of its remoteness, access restrictions, or simply because there are very few radio amateurs active from that pl ...

ers. All such expeditions were organized by a Finnish-Russian group, the first of which occurred in 1988. Under the new Saimaa Canal lease treaty signed by the Finnish and Russian governments in 2010, the island was to be managed again by Russian authorities. On the 17th of February 2012 the treaty went into effect, and Malyj Vysotsky was deleted from the

DXCC An amateur radio operating award is earned by an amateur radio operator for establishing two-way communication (or "working") with other amateur radio stations. Awards are sponsored by national amateur radio societies, radio enthusiast magazine ...

list of current amateur radio entities.Malyj Vysotskij Island Added to DXCC Deleted Entities List
/ref>

References

Russian islands in the Baltic Vyborg Finland–Soviet Union relations Islands of Leningrad Oblast {{LeningradOblast-geo-stub