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Maly Taymyr Island

Russian island in the Arctic Ocean

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ1096928 ↗
Source-derived summary

Maly Taymyr Island (Russian: Малый Таймыр, or Little Taymyr Island) is an island in the Laptev Sea, Russian Arctic.

Geography

It is located off the southeastern end of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago and northeast of the Taymyr Peninsula and has a smaller island, Starokadomsky Island, close by on its northwestern side.

The area of Maly Taymyr Island is 232 km2 (90 sq mi) and its location is 78°7′N 107°15′E.

The Vilkitsky Strait runs south of Maly Taymyr Island and its waters, as well as the waters surrounding the two islands, are covered with pack ice during the long and bitter winters. There are many ice floes even in the short summer, between June and September.

Maly Taymyr Island belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative division of the Russian Federation and is part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve – the largest nature reserve of Russia and one of the biggest in the world.

On the northern shores of Maly Taymyr there is a small island named Ostrov Oktyabrenok.

History

The island was discovered by Boris Vilkitsky during the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition in 1913 and was named Tsesarevich Alexei Island (Russian: Остров Цесаревича Алексея), after Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, the son of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Following the 1917 October Revolution the island was renamed "Maly Taymyr". In 2005 a request was forwarded to the local government in Krasnoyarsk Krai in order to reinstate its former name to the island.

Editorial summary

“Maly Taymyr Island” enters the record as russian island in the Arctic Ocean. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maly, Taymyr and Island can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1913, 1917, 2005—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Maly, Taymyr and Island.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Maly Taymyr Island” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Maly, Taymyr and Island provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1096928. Authority coordinates are 78.117, 107.217. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1917 and 2005.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Maly Taymyr Island”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Maly Taymyr Island primary sources, Maly Taymyr Island archive and Maly research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Maly Taymyr Island”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Maly Taymyr Island” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.