Maly Vysotsky is an island in northwest Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, currently leased

Concession (territory)

In international law, a concession is a territory within a country that is administered by an entity other than the state which holds sovereignty over it. This is usually a colonizing power, or at least mandated by one, as in the case of colonial chartered companies.Usually, it is conceded, that...

 to Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. It is located in Vyborg Bay

Vyborg Bay

The Bay of Vyborg is a deep inlet running northeastward near the eastern end of Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. The city of Vyborg is located near the head of the gulf.The bay is connected by the Saimaa Canal to the lake Saimaa in Finland....

, next to Vysotsk

Vysotsk

Vysotsk is a coastal town and a seaport in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Karelian Isthmus, on the eastern shore of the Bay of Vyborg, southwest of Vyborg and northwest of St. Petersburg. It hosts a base of the Russian Baltic Fleet and an oil terminal...

, 12 km southwest of Vyborg

Vyborg

Vyborg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Bay of Vyborg, to the northwest of St. Petersburg and south from Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland...

.

Between 1918 and 1940, the island was a part of Finnish territory, and was called Ravansaari. It was inhabited by nearly one thousand Finns, who earned their livelihood mainly from the timber industry

Logging

Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...

. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, in 1940, it was annexed by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 (along with the surrounding territory) and became a part of the Karelo-Finnish SSR

Karelo-Finnish SSR

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was a short-lived republic that was a part of the former Soviet Union. The republic existed from 1940 until it was merged back into the Russian SFSR in 1956 ....

. In 1941, it was recaptured by Finnish troops and returned to Finland. In June 1944, the island fell to the Red Army, and once again became part of the Soviet Union. The island was renamed Maly Vysotsky. A treaty was signed in 1963 to lease the island and the nearby Saimaa Canal

Saimaa Canal

The Saimaa Canal is a transportation canal that connects lake Saimaa with the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg, Russia. The canal was built from 1845 to 1856 and opened on 7 September 1856 .It was overhauled and widened in 1963–1968....

 to Finland for fifty years.

Because of the treaty and the island's isolation from both Finland and Russia, radio amateurs

Amateur radio

Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...

 have made the Maly Vysotsky island an entity of its own, much like Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 or Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. This and the fact that Alexander Stepanovich Popov

Alexander Stepanovich Popov

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist who was the first person to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic waves....

 did his first radio experiments in the area at the turn of the 20th century makes the island an attractive destination for DX-pedition

DX-pedition

A DX-pedition is an expedition to what is considered an exotic place by amateur radio operators, perhaps because of its remoteness or because there are very few radio amateurs active from that place. This could be an island, a country, or even a particular spot on a geographical grid.The activity...

ers. All such expeditions are organized by a Finnish-Russian group, the first of which occurred in 1988. Under the new treaty signed by Finnish and Russian governments in 2010, the island will be managed by Russian authorities.