Dikson
| Dikson | ||
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| Waters | Kara Sea | |
| Geographical location | 73 ° 31 ′ 0 ″ N , 80 ° 20 ′ 0 ″ E | |
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| length | 8 kilometers | |
| width | 6 km | |
| Residents | 2500 | |
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Dikson ( Russian Диксон ) is the name of a 6 by 8 kilometer Russian island in the Kara Sea . It is located on the eastern edge of the Yenisei Bay at the mouth of the Yenisei . Dikson is only 2 kilometers from the mainland and administratively belongs to the Taimyr Autonomous County .
After the island was originally named Kuskin , it was named in 1875 by the Finnish-Swedish polar explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld after Oscar Dickson (one of the sponsors of his expedition); the name was Russified to Dikson . Dikson has been the official Russian name since 1884.
In 1915, the first Russian radio station in the Arctic was put into operation on the island. In the 1930s, settlements emerged on the island and on the opposite mainland, as well as a port, which was expanded into a naval base by the early 1940s. Many prisoners, including political ones, were used for this purpose. On August 27, 1942, the port was attacked by the German warship Admiral Scheer as part of the so-called Operation Wunderland , and some ships were sunk.
During the Cold War was in 1952 on the island an air base set up from which modified Tu-4 Tupolev - Bomber anflogen regular US bases in Canada and Greenland.
Since 1957, the settlements on the island and mainland have been merged to form the municipality of Dikson . The settlement was supported financially for strategic reasons as well as for reasons of prestige - promotion of the sea route on the Northeast Passage . The population rose to about 10,000. In the meantime, the city has lost importance after the collapse of the Soviet Union due to the lack of economic viability of the sea route. In 2007 it had only about 2,500 inhabitants, in 2019 the unknown number of inhabitants on the island was estimated at a few hundred. Obviously, consideration was given to not providing any further support to the civilians and only to keep one border guard station.
The oil from the Wankor area is to be loaded into Dikson through a 750-kilometer pipeline.
Web links
- Decision for pipeline from Vankor to Dikson instead of Ust-Port ( Memento from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )