Moscow, July 25, 2014
Wrangel Island
Two mobile military churches will be brought by trains to the Arctic Circle, where bases of the Russian Army will be deployed, reported the head of the Eastern Military District press service Colonel Alexander Gordeyev to RIA-Novosti.
“Two churches will be erected on Cape Schmidt and Wrangel Island.[i] Such a decision was made following a working tour to the region by army general Arkady Bakhin, First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.” said Gordeyev.
At the present time two 40-ton containers with the churches have arrived by rail from the western part of Russia to Port Vanino (Khabarovsk Territory). The churches are to be erected in September.
In recent years Russia has actively started development of its northern territories, including hydrocarbon production, as well as development of the North Sea Route which is more and more becoming an alternative to the traditional routes from Europe to Asia. A complex of measures, including those of military character, are intended for the defense of Russia’s interests in the Arctic, given the increased attention to the region by NATO member countries.
According to the Russian Federation’s Ministry for Extraordinary Situations, the total value of the mineral resources concentrated in the Arctic region of Russia exceeds 30 trillion dollars. Ministry experts believe that the center of gravity of Russia’s oil and gas production will gradually move to the shelf of the Arctic seas.
Cape (Otto) Schmidt (“Mys Shmidta”) is a cape on the shore of the Chukchi Sea, near the De Long Strait. Wrangel Island is situated in the Arctic Ocean between the East Siberian and the Chukchi seas. Administratively, they belong to the Iultin District of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (District). Wrangel Island is a part of a nature reserve with the same name and is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Government. Bennett Island has a Russian Orthodox Cross at it North East Point.
Thomas Long was an Hawaiian sea captain of the bark Nile
that first mapped the southern coast of Wrangell Land in August, 1867. It is the Long Strait and not the “DeLong Strait”. There is no “DeLong Strait”. The first landing at Wrangell Island took place on August 17, 1866 by the ship
“W. C. Talbot”’at the mouth of the Nasha (Our) River by Cape Hawai’i. Cape Hawai’i is one of the two location that
STOL airplane can land at Wrangell Island. Wrangell Island (formerly New Columbia Land) was annexed by the US Government on August 12, 1881. It entered the District of Alaska on May 17, 1884 by resolution of the Alaska Board st the United States Department of the Treasury on May 17, 1884 under the authority of the Harrison Alaska Organic Act.
The Senate Bill 153 introduced on December 18, 1883 was
the bill that became the Harrison Alaska Organic Act on May 17, 1884. Major Ezra W. Clark, Jr. was the person that
drafted SB 153 at the request of U.S. Senator Benj. Harrison, who at that time was Chairman of the Committee
of thevTerritories of the United States Senate. The Clark River on Wrangell Island was named after Ezra W. Clark Jr.
Note Admiral F. P. Wrangell spelt his own name with two l’s
when he wrote in German. Therefore the Island name is
“Wrangell Island” When not writing in Russian.
Question where did they set up the Russian Orthodox Church on Wrangell Island? Any picture of the church after it was erected?
My email is <hakohen3@yahoo.com>