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45-1098: The island has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant numbers of long-tailed ducks and velvet scoters , both wintering and on passage. [REDACTED] Bishopric of Courland at least 1341–1560 [REDACTED] Danish-controlled Bishopric 1560–1562 [REDACTED] Duchy of Courland and Semigallia 1562–1621 [REDACTED] Kingdom of Sweden 1621–1708 [REDACTED] Russian Empire 1708–1915 [REDACTED] German occupation 1915–1918   Unclear 1918–1919 [REDACTED]   Republic of Estonia 1919–1940 [REDACTED] Soviet occupation 1940–1941 [REDACTED] German occupation 1941–1944 [REDACTED]   Republic of Estonia 1944 [REDACTED] Soviet occupation 1944–1991 [REDACTED]   Republic of Estonia 1991–present The first archaeological artifacts of human activity in Ruhnu, assumed to be related to seasonal seal hunting, date back to around 5000 BC. The time of arrival of

90-638: A December 1994 directive, the 14th Independent Air Defence Army was reorganized as the 6th Independent Air Defence Corps ( ru:6-й_отдельный_корпус_ПВО ) with the 16th Guards, 20th, and 94th Mukden Air Defence Divisions). In 1998, the force groupings and headquarters of the PVO that had remained within Russia were merged with the Russian Air Force becoming part of the Moscow District of Air and Air Defence Forces , and

135-517: A Directorate of the Chief of Anti-Missile and Anti-Space Defence ( Управление командующего войсками противоракетной и противокосмической ( УКВ ПРО и ПКО )), under Lieutenant-General of Artillery Yuri Votintsev, was formed within the Air Defence Forces. In February 1971 the 1st Division for Warning Against Missile Attack (1st Division WAMA, 1-я Дивизия предупреждения о ракетном нападении ( 1-я дПРН ))

180-794: A Soviet Air Force Su-15 fired on it. Soviet government officials finally admitted their mistake much to the anger of the South Korean and the United States governments. It even resulted in the forced and sudden resignation of the then Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov , in the following year by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (leader of

225-596: A glimpse of the elusive bear outnumbered permanent residents. The bear is believed by authorities to have since returned to Latvia. Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area ( IBA ) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International . There are over 13,000 IBAs worldwide. These sites are small enough to be entirely conserved and differ in their character, habitat or ornithological importance from

270-551: A number of such aircraft shot down while operating around the Soviet borders, including MiG-17s downing a US reconnaissance Lockheed C-130 Hercules over Armenia, with 17 casualties in 1958. The PVO gained an important victory on May 1, 1960, when a S-75 Dvina missile downed Gary Powers 's U-2 , causing the short U-2 crisis of 1960 . (See Strategic Air Command#Strategic Reconnaissance ) The PVO had its own chain of command, schools, radar and sound director sites. On March 30, 1967,

315-521: A population of 282: 277 ethnic Swedes and 5 ethnic Estonians. During World War II , Ruhnu, along with the rest of Estonia, was first occupied by Soviet Union (1940–1941) and then Nazi Germany (1941–1944). In November 1943, the first group of about 75 islanders relocated to Sweden. In August 1944, shortly before the Red Army of the Soviet Union reoccupied Estonia, the remaining population of

360-474: A population of a species categorized by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered , Endangered or Vulnerable . In general, the regular presence of a Critical or Endangered species, irrespective of population size, at a site may be sufficient for a site to qualify as an IBA. For Vulnerable species, the presence of more than threshold numbers at a site is necessary to trigger selection. The site forms one of

405-534: A quadripod tower lighthouse , which stands on the highest point of the island, Haubjerre hill. It was prefabricated in France and shipped to Ruhnu for assembly in 1877. The structure is believed to have been designed by Gustave Eiffel . The Ruhnu wooden church, built in 1644, is one of the oldest wood constructed buildings in Estonia. The church's baroque -style tower was finished in 1755. The stone Lutheran church next to

450-726: A series of Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau jet fighters. In April 1950, the regiment received its first Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s . In May 1954, the PVO Strany was raised to a status equal to the other service branches of the Soviet Armed Forces, receiving its first commander-in-chief: Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov . The PVO's principal role was to shoot down United States Strategic Air Command bombers if they penetrated Soviet airspace. Secondary target were U.S. air reconnaissance aircraft. There were

495-429: A set selected to ensure that all restricted-range species of an Endemic Bird Area (EBA) or a Secondary Area (SA) are present in significant numbers in at least one site and preferably more. The site forms one of a set selected to ensure adequate representation of all species restricted to a given biome, both across the biome as a whole and for all of its species in each range state. The assessment by expert individuals

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540-525: A total of 140 officer commissioning schools, drawn from a Krasnaya Zvezda list of 17 January 1980. That total included 15 Air Defence Forces schools (four Fighter Aviation, five radio-electronics, and six Anti-Aircraft Rocket). On 1 September 1983 the PVO shot down Korean Air Flight 007 after the civilian airliner had crossed into restricted Soviet airspace and was mistaken for a spy plane. Previously Korean Air Flight 902 had once crossed into Murmansk airspace, and had to make an emergency landing when

585-567: Is a 1341 letter sent by the Bishop of Courland which confirmed the islanders' right to reside and manage their property in accordance with Swedish law. Ruhnu was controlled by the Kingdom of Sweden (1621–1708, formally until 1721) and after that by the Russian Empire until World War I , when it was occupied by Imperial German armed forces (1915–1918). Under the tsarist Russian rule in

630-593: Is completely lacking. In 1985, following a specific request from the European Economic Community , Birdlife International drew up a list of sites to be protected as a matter of priority. In 1989, a repertoire of IBAs of Europe was released. At first the official name of this type of site was Important Bird Area , hence the acronym IBA, then at the BirdLife World Congress held in Canada in 2014 it

675-620: Is however not entirely reliable and a study in South America found that the coverage needed for at-risk bird conservation as chosen by computational algorithms rarely overlapped with IBAs and suggested that such methods should be used to complement expert driven IBA site choices. Soviet Air Defence Forces The Soviet Air Defence Forces ( Russian : войска ПВО , voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony , voyska PVO , V-PVO , lit. Anti-Air Defence Troops ; and formerly protivovozdushnaya oborona strany , PVO strany , lit. Anti-Air Defence of

720-763: The Leningrad and Baku Air Defence Armies were later raised. These were the first operational formations of the Air Defence Forces. In June 1943, the Office of the Commander of Air Defence Forces of the country was disbanded. Following the reorganization in April 1944 that created the Western and Eastern Air Defence Fronts , and caused the division of the Transcaucasian Air Defence Area, which this year have been reorganized as

765-487: The 18th–19th century the island had de facto independence in most affairs, though designated as crown land. The island's Lutheran clergyman served as gutsverwalter (estate custodian) in matters of state. In the middle of the 19th century, a majority of the islanders sought to leave Lutheranism and join the Russian Orthodox Church , and formal steps in this direction took place in 1866 with papers exchanged with

810-697: The 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, and 14th Armies of VVS and PVO. The Day of Air Defence Forces ( Den' Voysk PVO ) was initially established in 1975, to be celebrated on April 11. In 1980 this was changed to the second Sunday of April. It is still celebrated in the Russian Federation even after the 1998 merger of the Air Defence Forces with the Air Force. The unofficial motto of the PVO is 'Сами не летаем – другим не дадим'('Sami ne letaem – drugim ne dadim'), which can be translated as "Don't fly – don't let others" / "If we can't fly – we won't let anyone else either". The post

855-653: The Air Force. During the 1980s, the PVO interceptor units were re-equipped with the Mikoyan MiG-31 and Sukhoi Su-27P , while missile units received new electronic countermeasures systems and the S-300 surface-to-air missile system . The modernization of the PVO prioritized units in the High North and the Far East due to the threat from American spyplane missions and United States Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft. Shelton lists

900-778: The Baltic states and the Leningrad Oblast (a trial run for the larger re-organisation in 1980 covering the whole country). All fighter units in the PVO were transferred to the VVS, the PVO only retaining the anti-aircraft missile units and radar units – the 6th Independent Air Defence Army was disbanded, and the 15th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Baltic Military District . By 1981, the now Voyska PVO had been stripped of many command and control and training assets, which were moved to

945-583: The Baltics and Central Asia. However, in 1960 it appears that most of the PVO regions/areas were reorganised into seven separate armies of the Air Defence Forces – the 2nd , 4th , 6th , 8th , 10th , 11th , 14th , and 19th Air Defence Army . In 1963 the 30th independent Air Defence Corps in Tashkent became the 12th Independent Air Defence Army . In 1977, the Air Forces and Air Defence Forces were re-organised in

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990-694: The Country ) was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces . Formed in 1941, it continued being a service branch of the Russian Armed Forces after 1991 until it was merged into the Air Force in 1998. Unlike Western air defence forces, V-PVO was a branch of the military unto itself, separate from the Soviet Air Force (VVS) and Air Defence Troops of Ground Forces. During the Soviet period it

1035-885: The North, the South and the Transcaucasian Air Defence Fronts, air defence forces in the vicinity of Moscow were renamed the Moscow Air Defence Army . In the Far East in March 1945, three air defence armies were established: Maritime, Amur and Baikal. During the Second World War, the Air Defence Forces provided defensive cover to defense industry complexes and vital communication elements, and successfully minimized aerial damage to Soviet industrial and transportation capacity. In

1080-562: The Orthodox dean of Saaremaa in anticipation of Orthodox chrismation . But the planned conversion did not proceed. After World War I, despite some local initiatives to rejoin Sweden, and territorial claims by Latvia , the islanders agreed to become part of newly independent Estonia in 1919 (possibly due to the existence of a Swedish minority in Estonia). According to a census taken in 1934, Ruhnu had

1125-442: The PVO. During the war PVO formations were organised as Air Defence Fronts and Air Defence Armies. PVO Fronts normally covered airspace over several ground Army Fronts ; these should not be confused with each other. The Air Defence Fronts ( Russian : Фронты ПВО ) had the following service history: All the possible air components were divided (as of 1945, before the 1949 reforms of the Soviet Armed Forces ) into: The PVO Strany

1170-677: The Soviet Union) Konstantin Chernenko . Mathias Rust 's flight to Moscow in May 1987 caused a massive shakeup within the PVO. It seems that after the KAL 007 shootdown of 1983, no one was willing to give an order to bring Rust's tiny Cessna 172 down, and modernization programmes within the PVO had led to the installation of radar and communications systems at the state border that could not effectively pass tracking data to systems closer to Moscow. PVO Commander-in-Chief Marshal A. I. Koldunov

1215-507: The Soviet occupation of Estonia, or to their descendants. In case of Ruhnu, those descendants were mostly resident in Sweden. Most of them did not return to Ruhnu, but they still occasionally visit the land of their ancestors. Ruhnu is served by the Ruhnu Airfield which has scheduled flights from Pärnu and Kuressaare from October to April. Passenger ferries operate from May to October from Pärnu, Roomassaare and Munalaid. The island has

1260-817: The Volga. To this end, the formation of parts of the IA, IN, anti-aircraft machine gun and searchlight units were accelerated. A classic example of a major political organization of defence and industrial center was the defence of Moscow. It was carried out by the 1st Air Defence Corps and the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps PVO . As part of these formations at the beginning of German air raids had more than 600 fighters; more than 1,000 guns of small and medium calibers; 350 machine guns; 124 fixed anti-aircraft barrage balloons; 612 stations and 600 anti-aircraft searchlights. The presence of such large forces and their skilful management foiled enemy attempts to inflict massive air strikes. Only 2.6 percent of

1305-560: The course of the war, the PVO destroyed 7,313 German aircraft, of which 4,168 and 3,145 were targeted by the IA antiaircraft artillery, machine guns and barrage balloons. More than 80,000 soldiers, sergeants, officers and generals of the Country Air Defence Forces were awarded state orders and medals, and 92 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and one was twice awarded the Gold Star Medal in service with

1350-601: The first ancient Scandinavians in Ruhnu and the beginning of a permanent Swedish-speaking settlement is not known. It probably did not precede the Northern Crusades at the beginning of the 13th century, when the indigenous peoples of all the lands surrounding the Gulf of Riga were converted to Christianity and subjugated to the Teutonic Order . The first documented record of the island of Ruhnu, and of its Swedish population,

1395-455: The impact of the loss was reduced by the relocation of some units back to Russia. The Russian Air Defence Forces ultimately inherited about 65% of final Soviet PVO assets. In December 1994, the 4th Independent Air Defence Army at Ekaterinberg in the Urals was transformed into the 5th Independent Air Defence Corps, which in 1998 became the 5th Air and Air Defence Forces Army . In accordance with

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1440-468: The island, except for two families, fled by ship to Sweden. The islanders in Sweden established an association, Runöbornas förening , to preserve the history and culture of Ruhnu's original population. During the period of Soviet occupation after 1944, the island was repopulated by Estonian civilians and also hosted a unit of the Soviet Air Defence Forces . The property of the former islanders

1485-553: The latest 37 mm automatic and 85 mm guns. Moreover, the troops were deficient in Yak-1s and MiG-3s; 46 percent of the fleet were obsolete aircraft. Increased rates of production were initiated to provide the troops with new equipment. In July 1941, the National Defence Committee took several measures to strengthen the forces guarding Moscow and Leningrad, Yaroslavl and Gorky industrial areas, and strategic bridges across

1530-527: The post of the Commander of the Air Defence Forces was created and Major General Mikhail Gromadin ( ru:Громадин, Михаил Степанович ) was appointed. In January 1942, to improve the interaction of forces and air defence systems, the fighter aircraft and crews manning them were ordered to be subordinated to the Air Defence Command. In April 1942, the Moscow Air Defence Front was founded, and

1575-686: The semi-natural coastal meadows in the southwestern part of the island. In the spring of 2006, a 150-kilogram (330 lb) brown bear arrived on Ruhnu via an ice floe across the Gulf of Riga from the mainland of Latvia , some 40 km (25 mi) away. The bear's journey and resettlement on the island became a highly publicized media sensation in both the Estonian and Latvian press, as Ruhnu has been devoid of any large carnivores for many centuries. The bear continued to evade capture for months and environment ministry officials reported that tourists hoping to catch

1620-505: The surrounding habitat. In the United States the program is administered by the National Audubon Society . Often IBAs form part of a country's existing protected area network, and so are protected under national legislation. Legal recognition and protection of IBAs that are not within existing protected areas varies within different countries. Some countries have a National IBA Conservation Strategy, whereas in others protection

1665-486: The total number of Axis aircraft flew in the outskirts of Moscow as a result of their efforts. Air defence forces defending Moscow destroyed 738 enemy aircraft. Assaults by the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps inflicted heavy blows, destroying 567 enemy aircraft on the ground. The Air Defence Forces destroyed 1,305 aircraft and in combat with the armies of Nazi Germany and its allies, alongside the Air Force, destroyed 450 tanks and 5,000 military vehicles. On November 9, 1941,

1710-584: The wooden one was built in 1912 and is currently where services are held. Limo beach is one of the island's most popular and accessible beaches for tourists. Geologically the island is the higher part of a submarine drumlin-like ridge. Ruhnu is home to a rare native breed of sheep called the Estonian Ruhnu ( Estonian : eesti maalammas ). The breed numbers approximately 33 individuals and are used primarily for wool. A herd of fifty highland cattle were introduced to Ruhnu in 2013, in an attempt to restore

1755-408: Was decided to adopt the name Important Bird and Biodiversity Area , without changing the acronym. IBAs are determined by an internationally agreed set of criteria. Specific IBA thresholds are set by regional and national governing organizations. To be listed as an IBA, a site must satisfy at least one of the following rating criteria: The site qualifies if it is known, estimated or thought to hold

1800-506: Was declared property of the state and a collective farm was established. In 1965 the first Ruhnu- Kihnu Games were held, this cultural and sports festival attracting attention throughout Estonia. Following a severe storm in 1969 and the closure of the local fishery collective in 1970, the population declined from 222 to only 58. After Estonia regained independence in 1991, buildings, land, and other property on Ruhnu Island were returned to those with ownership claims that went back to before to

1845-707: Was formed with HQ in Solnechnegorsk, the 57th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast and the 129th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Skrunda, Latvian SSR. Organisationally, there were two main PVO districts for most of the USSR's postwar history, the Moscow Air Defence District (formed 1950) and Baku (formed 1954). The rest of the country was initially divided into PVO regions covering Belarus, Ukraine,

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1890-550: Was generally ranked third in importance of the Soviet services, behind the Strategic Rocket Forces and the Ground Forces. Preparations for creation of the air defence forces started in 1932, and by the beginning of Operation Barbarossa , June 1941, there were 13 PVO zones within the military districts . At the outbreak of war, air defence forces were in the midst of rearmament. Anti-aircraft artillery teams had few of

1935-442: Was only among the first to be removed from his position. Over 150 officers, mostly from the PVO, were tried in court and removed from their posts. A large-scale changeover of senior officers of the force more generally followed as well. When the Soviet Union dissolved , the air fleet of the PVO included roughly 2,200 fighters and interceptors. The personnel and equipment of many units were left in newly independent republics, although

1980-463: Was separated from the other Soviet Armed Forces services in 1949. In June 1949, the 15th Guards Fighter Aviation Division and 180th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO , among its regiments, were transferred to the PVO Strany, becoming part of the 20th Fighter Air Defence Army at Oryol . There, the regiment became one of the first equipped with the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 , the first of

2025-564: Was then disestablished with the merger of the PVO and VVS in 1998. The PVO structure during the Cold War and in Russia until 1998 consisted of three specialized branches: the Radiotechnical Troops (радиотехнические войска), Surface-to-Air Missile Troops (зенитно-ракетные войска), and Fighter Aviation (истребительная авиация; istrebitel'naya aviatsiya; IA-PVO ). Armies, corps, and divisions of

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