[12] The convoy was able to sail north of Bear Island but encountered ice floes on June 30; a ship was damaged too badly to carry on and broke radio silence.

[13] On the night of July 2/3, the German battleship Tirpitz and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, sortied from Trondheim with four destroyers and two smaller vessels.

In August 1942, the German Navy commenced Operation Wunderland, to enter the Kara Sea and sink as many Soviet ships as possible.

Admiral Scheer and other warships rounded Cape Desire, entered the Kara Sea and attacked a shore station on Dikson Island, badly damaging the Soviet ships Dezhnev and Revolutionist.

[citation needed] Later that year, Karlo Štajner made the acquaintance of a new prisoner, a Captain Menshikov, who told him that: "In August 1942, another…transport arrived in Novaya Zemlya.

"Whether the attack on Menshikov's battery occurred on Dikson Island or on Novaya Zemlya, Stajner's account illuminated the fate of a Soviet officer imprisoned by his countrymen for the "crime" of suffering defeat at the hands of the enemy.

In 1943, Novaya Zemlya briefly served as a secret seaplane base for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, to provide German surveillance of Allied shipping en route to Siberia.

[15] In July 1954, Novaya Zemlya was designated as the nuclear weapons testing venue, construction of which began in October[16] and existed during much of the Cold War.

In September 1961, two propelled thermonuclear warheads were launched from Vorkuta Sovetsky and Salekhard to target areas on Novaya Zemlya.

[18] The largest underground test in Novaya Zemlya took place on September 12, 1973, involving four nuclear devices of 4.2 megatons total yield.

In the case of the September 12, 1973 test, a seismic magnitude of 6.97 on the Richter scale was reached, setting off an 80-million-ton avalanche that blocked two glacial streams and created a lake 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in length.

[18] In 1988–1989, glasnost helped make the Novaya Zemlya testing activities public knowledge,[16] and in 1990 Greenpeace activists staged a protest at the site.

The Ministry for Atomic Energy has performed a series of subcritical underwater nuclear experiments near Matochkin Shar each autumn since 1998.

In spring 2013, construction of what would become a new tunnel and four buildings[22] was initiated near the Severny settlement, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west-northwest to the Mount Lazarev.

[25] A 17th-century traveller to the North, ship surgeon Pierre Martin de La Martinière,[26] gave a description of the indigenous population of the archipelago, whom he called Zembliens, from Nova Zembla or Nouvelle Zemble for "Novaya Zemlya".

[29] In 1870s several Nenets families were resettled from elsewhere as part of the colonization of the territory by the Russian Empire, which established a settlement of Malye Karmakuly (Малые Кармакулы).

[40] Compared to other regions that were under large ice sheets during the last glacial period, Novaya Zemlya shows relatively little isostatic rebound.

Due to some effect from the Gulf Stream and its offshore position, winters are much less severe than in inland areas on a lot lower latitudes in Siberia, but instead last up to eight months a year.

Due to latitudinal differences, the temperatures and daylight varies quite a bit throughout the archipelago, with the Malye Karmakuly station being located in the southern part.

Dozens of polar bears were seen entering homes, public buildings, and inhabited areas, so Arkhangelsk region authorities declared a state of emergency on Saturday, February 16, 2019.