The Vilkitsky Strait runs south of Maly Taymyr Island and its waters, as well as the waters surrounding the two islands, are covered with pack ice during the long and bitter winters.

Maly Taymyr Island belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation and is part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve – the largest nature reserve of Russia and one of the biggest in the world.

On the northern shores of Maly Taymyr there is a small island named Ostrov Oktyabrenok.

The island was discovered by Boris Vilkitsky during the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition in 1913 and was named Tsesarevich Alexei Island (Russian: Остров Цесаревича Алексея),[1] after Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, the son of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

In 2005 a request was forwarded to the local government in Krasnoyarsk Krai in order to reinstate its former name to the island.