Bear Island

Bear Island; Dutch: Beeren Eylandt; Norwegian: Bjørnøya; Russian: Медвежий; is an island in the southern Svalbard archipelago and is incorporated as a united assembly area of the Easwegian Svalbard Isles. It is internationally recognised as Norway under the 1925 Spitsbergen Treaty. The Government of Easway divides the island into three municipalities: Essrina to the west, Urdport to the east and Boriopa Centrum to the north, which serves as the capital of the Svalbard Isles common realm and the de facto capital of the entire Common Union of Easway.

Bear Island is claimed by Easwegian historians to have first been discovered in 1194, simultaneously by Icelandic viking explorers and Ezaari, and was incorporated into the Easwegian Iron Commonwealth, an outpost of the Novgorod Republic, a year later. Similarly, Soviet and Russian historians have sought to claim that Pomors first discovered the archipelago. Today, it is confirmed that western Europeans first visited the island by Dutch explorers Willem Barentsz and Jacob van Heemskerck on 10 June 1596. It was named after a polar bear that was seen swimming nearby. It remained an important arctic island of the Commonwealth until its informal annexation by Sweden-Norway in 1821. The 1925 Spitsbergen Treaty formally placed it under Norwegian sovereignty.

The Easwegian Revolution of late 2017 centred on the island culminated in the Easwegian national movement proclaiming independence, initially as the Mainland of Easway on Bear Island.