Russia and the United States are distant from each other only 3.8 km. This is the width of the arm of sea that separates Great Diomedes from Little Diomedestwo small islands located in the Bering Strait straddling Asia and America. Discovered in the 18th century, the islands were divided between the two countries in 1867when the Americans purchased Alaska from Russia. Furthermore, between the two islands change the date because they follow a different time zone: one follows the easternmost time zone of Siberia and the other that of Alaska. Let’s discover the history and characteristics of this singular context.
Physical and political geography of the Diomede Islands
The Diomede Islands are located in Bering Straitthe arm of the sea approximately wide 80km which separates US Alaska from Russian Siberia. I am the last remnant of the Beringiathe strip of land that before the end of the last ice age (about 11,000 years ago) connected the Eurasian mass to the American continent. The two islands have rather modest dimensions: Grande Diomede is large 28km2 and Little Diomedes alone 7.3km2. Politically, Great Diomede, also known as Ratmanov Island, belongs to Russia; Little Diomede, also called Krusenstern Island, belongs to the United States and is part of the State of Alaska.
The climate of the Diomede islands is polar, with temperatures dropping to over twenty degrees below zero and reach peaks of -40 degrees. In winter the arm of the sea that separates them freezesbut in recent years climate change has significantly reduced ice extent throughout the Bering Strait. Today only Little Diomede is inhabited: there is, in fact, a permanent settlement of Inupiatan Inuit ethnic group present in Alaska. The inhabitants, according to the 2020 census, are only 83decreasing compared to the past (there were around 170 in 2000). The settlement, simply called Diomede, has a store, a school, a post office, a heliport and an electricity system, but the inhabitants depend on Alaska for all their needs.
Grande Diomede is uninhabited because in 1948 the Soviet authorities relocated the natives who lived there in other parts of the state territory. The only human beings who reside there are members of a weather station and those of a Border Guard station of the FSB, the Russian secret service.
The discovery of the islands
The two islands were spotted for the first time in 1728 from Vitus Beringthe Danish navigator in the service of the Russians who first explored the coasts of Alaska. Perhaps they had already been sighted previously by another explorer, Semyon Dezhnev, but it is not certain. Since Bering the sighted on August 16ththe day on which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates day of Saint Diomedesgave them the name by which we know them. Both islands were inhabited by indigenous who lived by fishing, hunting and gathering. When they came into contact with the Russians, the natives learned to trade in furs and ivory made from walrus tusks and they showed themselves eager to exchange whatever they possessed.
In 1867, when Russia sold the territory of Alaska to the United States, which it had colonized in the previous century, it was decided to pass the border between the two countries halfway between the two islands.
The Diomede Islands during the Cold War
In the twentieth century the Diomede Islands had a certain importance because they are the closest point between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russiathe two countries that have competed for world domination for decades.
Already in 1941 the USSR established a military base on Grande Diomede, equipping it with wooden prefabs. The possibility of moving between the two islands therefore disappeared (only indigenous people were allowed in some periods, but those from Grande Diomede, as we have seen, were transferred in 1948). Between Great Diomede and Little Diomede there fell what has been called the “ice curtain”, by analogy with the “iron curtain” that divided Europe.
As is logical, the United States and the Soviet Union jealously guarded their small island in the Bering Strait. However, the strategic importance of the Diomede islands cannot be overestimated. They, in fact, are very distant from the heart of the area of the two Cold War rivals, that is, European Russia and the 48 contiguous states of the US territory. Furthermore, since the 1960s the two superpowers equipped themselves with weapons capable of hitting the enemy at great distances, such as intercontinental missiles.
Détente
During the Cold War the Diomede Islands also became a symbol of peacebecause they represented the closeness between the USA and the USSR. For this reason, on 7 August 1987 an American swimmer, Lynne Coxswam across the stretch of sea that separates the islands, starting from the American side and taking just over two hours to reach the Russian side.
The gesture was much appreciatedalso because it was a phase of détente in the Cold War, and the leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachevpublicly praised the swimmer on the occasion of the signing of a treaty with the President of the United States Ronald Reagan for missile limitation.
Furthermore, the Diomede islands have been assigned an important function in all plans to build a bridge across the Bering Strait. The bridge idea, however, is never seriously considered, because it would involve overcoming enormous engineering and political challenges.
The date change
The Diomede islands have another peculiarity: they do not share the same date. If in Grande Diomede it is, for example, the 10th of August, in Piccola Diomede it is still the 9th. In the arm of the sea between the two islands, in fact, passes the international date lineestablished in 1884 by the International Conference on Meridians held in Washington.
For this reason the islands are also called Island tomorrow (Great Diomedes) e Island yesterday (Little Diomedes). More precisely, the time difference is 21 hours. Great Diomede in fact follows Russian Kamchatka time, which is UTC +12 (i.e. 12 hours more than Greenwich Mean Time), while Little Diomede follows Alaska, which is UTC -9 and to UTC -8 when daylight saving time is in effect.
In short, if someone wants to swim for a couple of hours in the freezing waters of the Bering Strait, they can “go back in time” or “project themselves into the future”, depending on your point of view.
