Medny Island

Map showing position of Commander Islands to the east of Kamchatka. The smaller island in the east is Medny and the larger island is Bering Island.

Medny Island (also spelled Mednyy, Template:Lang-ru, sometimes called Copper Island in English), is the second largest island (after Bering Island) in the Komandorski Islands east of Russia. (The other islands are much smaller.)

The island was uninhabited until the early 20th century, when Aleuts came from Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands to Medny Island.

The island is 56 km long and between 5 and 7 km wide. The area is 186 km². The maximum elevation reaches 640 m. Average annual temperature is +2.8 °C. About 100 meters off the northwestern end of the islands are the Beaver Stones (Бобровые камни in Russian), two islets connected by an isthmus, with a combined length of 1 km.

1966 Soviet postage stamp depicting Medny Island.

History

The island was explored by Bering during his 1741 expedition. Towards the end of the 19th century, the settlement of Preobrazhenskiy was established by Aleuts who were moved from Attu Island.

In 1970, all citizens of the island were moved to neighboring Bering Island. Until 2001, the island was occupied as a frontier post. Since then, the island is completely uninhabited. Scientific studies of the fauna and flora are conducted annually.