Medvyezhi Islands

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The Medvyezhi Islands or Bear Islands (Russian: Медвежьи острова) is an uninhabited group of islands covered with tundra vegetation.

On September 3d 1878, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld recorded that he sailed close to the Bear Islands in the steamship "Vega". This was during the famous expedition that made the whole length of the Northeast passage for the first time in history.

This island group belongs to the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic.

These islands should not be confused with Bear Island, which is an arctic island of Norway south of Svalbard. There are also a further two small Russian islands called Ostrova Medvezh'i in the Kara Sea off Dikson and off the southern tip of Novaya Zemlya respectively. Besides those, there are quite a number of islets in the White Sea, in the Baltic and in lakes and rivers in different parts of Russia called Ostrov Medvezh'i.