Nordvik (russian: Нордвик) was a settlement and a

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siber ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

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 ...

, located on the

Khatanga Gulf The Khatanga Gulf or Khatanga Bay (russian: Хатангский залив) is a large tidal estuary in the Laptev Sea. It is relatively narrow, its length being with a maximum width of . Geography The Bolshoy Begichev Island divides the gulf i ...

(

Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea ( rus, мо́ре Ла́птевых, r=more Laptevykh; sah, Лаптевтар байҕаллара, translit=Laptevtar baỹğallara) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, th ...

) at the mouth of the

Khatanga River The Khatanga (russian: Хатанга) is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia. The river is navigable. The river port of Khatanga is located on the river. Course It begins at the confluence of the rivers Kotuy and Kheta. The Khatanga is lo ...

, on the Uryung Tumus Peninsula, west of

Nordvik Bay Nordvik Bay ( rus, Бухта нордвик, r=Bukhta Nordvik; sah, Нордвик хомото, ''Nordvik xomoto'') is a gulf in the Laptev Sea in the north of Russia. Lat 73° 45' and long 112°. Nordvik Bay and most of its surrounding area ...

. A penal colony existed in the settlement. The climate is exceptionally severe, with prolonged, bitter winters. Near Nordvik there is a

paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

salt dome known as Tus-Takh on the Uryung Tumus Peninsula itself. It was suspected that the ground underneath would probably yield oil and gas. The remains of a

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria (; Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared ...

''(Plesiosaurus robustus)'' were also found on this peninsula.

History

The name literally means "North Bay" in Norwegian and refers to the

discovered by the Russian

Great Northern Expedition The Great Northern Expedition (russian: Великая Северная экспедиция) or Second Kamchatka Expedition (russian: Вторая Камчатская экспедиция) was one of the largest exploration enterprises in hi ...

in 1739. In 1933, the newly formed ''

Glavsevmorput The Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (russian: Главное Управление Северного Морского Пути , translit=Glavnoe upravlenie Severnogo morskogo puti), also known as Glavsevmorput or GUSMP (russian: ГУ� ...

'' (Chief Directorate of the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (russian: Се́верный морско́й путь, ''Severnyy morskoy put'', shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of Nov ...

) sent the freighter ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

'' to Nordvik with an

oil exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vis ...

expedition led by N. N. Urvantsev. By September 4, ''Pravda'' was close to Nordvik. Сaptain Belitskiy had decided to approach Nordvik Bay from the east, between Poluostrov Paksa and

Bolshoy Begichev Bolshoy Begichev (russian: Большой Бегичев, translation= Big Begichev) is an island in the Laptev Sea, in the Sakha Republic, Russia. Geography The area of the island is . Bolshoy Begichev is located within the Khatanga Gulf (russ ...

Island. Despite having no knowledge of the depth of the channel, Belitskiy went ahead without taking the elementary precaution of sounding, and ''Pravda'' twice ran aground in the centre of the channel. According to Urvantsev, drilling at Nordvik over the next few seasons revealed small, shallow oil pockets in connection with salt structures with little commercial significance. However the salt itself was extracted on a fairly massive scale by means of

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

ers in a penal colony. From the 1930s onwards Nordvik became an important source of salt supply for the northern fisheries. Although the original prospects for oil at Nordvik did not materialise, experience was gained in exploring for hydrocarbons within the continuous permafrost zones. This experience proved invaluable in the later exploration and exploitation of the massive oil and gas fields of Western

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. The penal colony was closed in the mid-1940s when Americans arrived at Nordvik as allies of the Soviet Union. The salt was extracted by internal deportees rather than prisoners after the camp closure. The settlement at Nordvik was closed in 1956.

Landscape

References

*
Memorial

Newspaper article about expedition
(in Russian)
Map marking plesiosaur findsNordvik entry from Dead Cities
{{in lang, ru Geography of Krasnoyarsk Krai Laptev Sea Camps of the Gulag Gulag industry North Siberian Lowland