Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen (Spitsbergen) (pomorskoe name Grumant, Norwegian Svalbard), possession Norway, occupying archipelago at Arctic ocean, northward from Scandinavian peninsula and the Polar circle. The largest islands: Spitsbergen (West Spitsbergen) and North East land. The archipelago Spitsbergen square - 62,7  thousand sq. km. The indigenous population on Spitsbergen is not present, on archipelago live 1,2  thousand Norwegians and one and a half thousand the Russian and Ukrainian citizens occupied with a coal mining. An administrative centre of Spitsbergen - settlement Longir. Besides Longira on Spitsbergen two Russian settlements are had: Barentsburg and the Tripod signal.

Spitsbergen has a mountainous landform (a climate - a mount Newton; 1712 , its shores are cut up by fjords. Icehouses occupy more than half of surface of islands (35,1  thousand sq. km). From minerals coal-fields have industrial significance. The cod, a halibut, a haddock, the Greenland seal, a seal, a white grampus live in archipelago waters, on islands - a polar bear, a polar fox, a deer.

Spitsbergen has been open Scandinavian and Russian morehodami in the Middle Ages, but the severe nature of islands interfered with its settling. Only in February, 1920 in Paris representatives of some the European countries, the USA and Japan have been signed the agreement (the Spitsbergen tract), the recognising sovereignty of Norway over Spitsbergen. Under terms and conditions of contract to citizens of the countries which have signed it, the right of economic and scientific activity to islands has been granted. Spitsbergen has been recognised by the demilitarised region. Officially Spitsbergen a part of the Norwegian terrain has been recognised in 1925.

In 1935 the USSR which later has begun working out of coal deposits on archipelago was affiliated to the Spitsbergen tract. In 1996 Russia has got on islands 300  thousand tons of coal, Norway - 350  thousand tons.

From June till November to Spitsbergen it is possible to reach by sea through Norwegian port Tromsyo and Russian - Murmansk. Norwegian airport Longir is used also by the Russian air courts.