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Revision as of 10:04, 7 August 2026
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The Diomede Islands[1] are two small islands sitting in the middle of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia. Despite being only about 3.8 km (2.4 miles) apart, the islands are separated by the Russia-United States border and the International Date Line, meaning that looking from one island to the other is basically looking into tomorrow[HOLY SHIT TIME TRAVEL IS REAL].
The western island, Big Diomede, belongs to Russia, while the eastern island, Little Diomede, belongs to the United States.
Big Diomede is sometimes called Tomorrow Island while Little Diomede is called Yesterday Isle because there is roughly a 21-hour difference between their official local times.
This is perhaps the greatest amount of administrative bullshit ever concentrated into 3.8 kilometres of ocean.
Geography
The islands are located approximately halfway between mainland Alaska and Siberia.
There are two of them:
- Big Diomede: Russian, larger, mostly uninhabited, tomorrow.
- Little Diomede: American, smaller, inhabited, yesterday.
The islands are separated by an approximately 3.8 km-wide channel.
During winter, sea ice can form between them, creating the extremely cursed possibility of being geographically capable of walking from the United States to Russia while simultaneously walking into the next day.
[DO NOT ACTUALLY TRY THIS YOU WILL PROBABLY FUCKING DIE]
Tomorrow Island
Big Diomede (Russian: Остров Ратманова) is the western and larger island.
It belongs to Russia and sits west of the International Date Line.
Unlike Little Diomede, Big Diomede has no permanent civilian population. The Soviet government relocated its indigenous population to mainland Russia during the twentieth century, partly because the island became a sensitive border location.
Today the island hosts Russian infrastructure including a weather station and border-related facilities.
Thus, from Little Diomede, you can stare approximately four kilometres west and see:
- Russia
- another continent
- another country
- another time zone
- another calendar day
- probably some guy freezing his ass off at a weather station
Yesterday Isle
Little Diomede belongs to Alaska, United States.
Unlike its Russian counterpart, Little Diomede actually has a settlement called Diomede, whose population is only around several dozen people.
The settlement is squeezed onto the western side of the island between steep terrain and the Bering Sea.
There are no normal roads connecting it to anywhere because there is nowhere for the roads to fucking go.
Transportation traditionally depends on helicopters, boats, and seasonal access conditions.
The island has a school, houses, basic community facilities, and one of the most absurd views available from American territory.
The Ice Curtain
During the Cold War, the gap between the islands became known as the Ice Curtain, because the Soviet-American border ran directly between them.
This was basically the Arctic version of the Iron Curtain except instead of walls, tanks, and checkpoints there was just:
- water
- ice
- fog
- two rocks
- the possibility of causing an international incident by owning a sufficiently determined kayak
Families and communities in the Bering Strait region had historically travelled between areas that became divided by the international border.
Once Cold War border controls tightened, movement became heavily restricted.
The International Date Line
The International Date Line passes between the islands.
However, official time zones make the practical difference between Big Diomede and Little Diomede approximately 21 hours rather than exactly 24.
For example, when it is Monday afternoon on Little Diomede, it may already be Tuesday on Big Diomede.
This has produced their nicknames:
- Big Diomede: Tomorrow Island
- Little Diomede: Yesterday Isle
Unfortunately, tomorrow appears to mostly contain another frozen rock.
History
- 1648: Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnyov sailed through the region, although surviving accounts make identification of specific islands complicated.
- 1728: Vitus Bering encountered the islands on August 16, the feast day of Saint Diomedes, giving them their modern collective name.
- 1867: The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire. The new international boundary placed Little Diomede on the American side and Big Diomede on the Russian side.
- 1940s: The Soviet Union relocated the native population of Big Diomede to mainland Siberia.
- Cold War: Congratulations, the 3.8 km gap between the islands is now geopolitically terrifying.
- 1987: American swimmer Lynne Cox swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede in freezing water as a symbolic Cold War peace gesture.
Lynne Cox incident
In 1987, long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox decided that normal swimming was apparently insufficiently interesting and swam across the border from Little Diomede to Big Diomede.
The swim covered roughly 4 km through extremely cold water.
Soviet and American authorities approved the crossing, and Cox was greeted on the Soviet side.
The event received international attention and was later praised by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
This means one of the more wholesome moments of late Cold War diplomacy involved an American woman simply swimming to the Soviet Union.
Can you walk between them?
Technically, sea ice may form in the channel during winter.
This has led the internet to repeatedly claim that you can simply walk from America to Russia.
In practical terms, this is an extremely bad tourism strategy.
The area has:
- dangerous sea ice
- extreme cold
- strong currents
- rapidly changing weather
- an international border
- Russian border security
- no McDonald's
Population
Little Diomede has a small predominantly Iñupiat community whose population has declined substantially from historical levels.
Big Diomede has no permanent indigenous civilian settlement today.
This creates the bizarre situation where two neighbouring islands that were historically connected by indigenous travel and kinship networks are now separated by one of the most politically significant borders on Earth.
Economy
The economy of Little Diomede is constrained by its isolation, tiny population, weather, and limited transportation.
Traditional subsistence activities remain culturally and economically important.
Big Diomede's economy consists primarily of being Russian government property and sitting there menacingly.
Strategic importance
The islands themselves are tiny, but their location is extremely significant.
The Bering Strait is the narrow maritime passage separating Asia and North America, meaning the broader region sits directly between the United States and Russia.
At their closest mainland points, Russia and Alaska are separated by roughly 82 km (51 miles).
The Diomede Islands make the geopolitical distance look even more ridiculous because the two countries' territories come within approximately 3.8 km of each other.
Therefore the answer to:
“How far is America from Russia?”
is technically:
“About two and a half miles.”[DOCTOOOOOS]
See also
Notes
- ↑ THAT'S WHAT (((THEY))) WANT YOU TO THINK.
