A Brief Historical Overview of Studies in the Russian Arctic

by V. Radionov

The documented studies of the territories called the Russian Arctic began in the 11th and 12th centuries when Novgorodians came to the White Sea coast and reached the lower reaches of the Pechora River. In 1596, the Dutchman W. Barents discovered Spitsbergen, and with his crew became the first Europeans to over-winter in the Arctic, on the coast of Novaya Zemlya. In the 15th and 16th centuries Russian traders sailed in wooden vessels from the White Sea to the islands of Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and to the east beyond the mouths of the Ob and Yenisey Rivers. In the middle of the 17th century, explorations by Russian navigators led to the discovery of the mouths of all Siberian rivers flowing to the Arctic Ocean.

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In August and September of 1648, Cossack chieftain F. Popov lead a party of boats (of a type called koches) to the easternmost point of the Asian continent: a point only 80 kilometers from the continent of North America. This discovery proved that the New World was not connected with Asia. The point of land was named Cape Dezhnev after a participant in the expedition.

The First Kamchatka Expedition was undertaken from 1725 to 1734. The Great Northern Expedition operated in the European North and Far East and in the Arctic and Pacific Ocean waters during 1733 to 1743. The main goals of this venture were to describe and survey the shores and to find the Northeast Passage and other routes to America. In 1728, V. Bering sailed onboard the vessel Svyatoy Gavriil (St. Gavriil) north to the Chukchi Sea through a strait that was later named after him. St. Lawrence Island and one of the Diomede Islands were discovered by Bering. The names of the other expedition participants are also imprinted on the map of the Arctic: S. Malygin, D. Ovtsyn, D. Sterlegov, F. Minin, V. Pronchishchev, S. Chelyuskin, D. Laptev, and several others. The main achievements of this expedition were the description and mapping of the northern shores of Europe and Asia from the White Sea to the Kolyma River mouth and the exploration of the Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka and Siberia.

Active studies of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, Vaigach and Kolguyev islands and the eastern arctic seas were carried out in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From 1821 to 1824, the expedition of F.P. Litke onboard the brigantine Novaya Zemlya compiled charts of the western and southern shore of Novaya Zemlya and Matochkin Shar Strait. Investigation of the New Siberian Islands was initiated, supplemented by studies of North Yakutiya and Chukotka at the end of the century. Wrangel Island and the De Long archipelago were discovered in this time period. The Taimyr Peninsula, the New Siberian Islands and Bennet Island were actively explored at the threshold of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The joint Russian-Swedish expedition of A. Nordenskiöld onboard the Vega made an exceptionally large contribution to Arctic studies. This expedition sailed through the Northeast Passage between 1878 and 1879, becoming the first expedition to make the passage from west to east. The passage took two navigation (summer) seasons, however. From 1893 to 1896 the Norwegian North Polar Expedition headed by Fridtjof Nansen onboard the Fram made a voyage along the northern shores of Siberia, and then drifted in the ice from the New Siberian Islands to the northern Greenland Sea. (Meteorological observations from the Norwegian North Polar Expedition are included on this Atlas). The islands of Sverdrup, Scott-Hansen, Mon, the Nordenskiöld archipelago, and others were discovered by the Nansen expedition when sailing in the Kara Sea. A suite of meteorological and oceanographic observations in the Arctic Ocean was carried out for the first time during this expedition.

The need for systematic meteorological observations in polar regions was substantiated at the Hamburg International Polar Conference in October 1879, where delegates from Austria, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Russia, France and Sweden participated. The Conference set up the International Polar Commission. Its president, G. I. Vild, organized the First International Polar Expedition. Subsequently, in August 1881 the Petersburg Conference of the International Polar Expedition adopted an observation program and identified observation locations. This program was implemented in 1882 to 1883 within the framework of the First International Polar Year with the participation of 12 countries (Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Holland, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria-Hungary and France). A wide range of observations was carried out at the newly established stations in the Arctic (Table 1).

 

Table 1. Polar stations of the First International Polar Year (IPY), 1882-1883

Station Name, Location Country administering station Administration Head
Sagastyr (Russia), 73° 23' N, 124°05'E Russia Russian Geographical Society N.D. Yurgens
Malyye Karmakuly (Novaya Zemlya), 72°23' N, 52° 44' E Russia Russian Geographical Society K.P. Andreyev
Sodankyla (Finnish Lapland), 67° 29' N, 26° 36' E Finland Finland Scientific Society Selim Lemström, then Ernest Biese
Bossekop (Alten Fiord), 69° 58' N, 23° 15'E Norway Meteorological Institute Aksel Steen
Cape Thordsen (Spitsbergen), 78° 28' N, 15° 42' E Sweden Academy of Science N.G. Ekholm
Jan-Mayen, 71° 00 N, 8° 28' W Austria Count Wilczek Emil von Wohlgemuth
Godthâb (West coast of Greenland), 64° 11' N, 51° 43' W Denmark Meteorological Institute, Danish Polar Commission Adam Paulsen
Kingua Fjord (now called Clearwater Fjord, Shilmilk Bay, Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island), 66° 36' N, 67° 19' W Germany German polar commission W. Giese
Fort Conger (Discovery Harbor, Lady Franklin Bay, Greenland), 81° 44' N, 64° 45' W United States Signal Survey A.W. Greely
Fort Rae (Great Slave Lake), 62° 39' N, 115° 44' W United Kingdom and Canada London Meteorological Committee Henry P. Dawson
Uglaamie (south-west of Point Barrow), 71° 18' N, 156° 29' W United States Signal Survey Patrick Henry Ray

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition (1910 to 1915) headed initially by I. S. Sergeyev and later by B. A. Vilkitsky, accomplished the largest undertaking of research activities in the Arctic to date. The expedition made a survey of the Siberian shores from Cape Dezhnev to Cape Chelyuskin, and an inventory of the Medvezhiy, Large and Small Lyachovsky, Stolbovoy, Vasilyevsky, Semenovsky, Begichev and Bennet islands. Wrangel Island was explored and Zhokhov Island was discovered. The discovery in 1913 of the Nikolay II Zemlya archipelago (named Severnaya Zemlya after 1926) and the description of the general contours of its eastern and southern coasts were the most important results of this expedition. The expedition members also carried out extensive studies of the oceanography and ice regimes of the northern seas in the fields of marine and river biology, meteorology, aerology and geomagnetism. Major geological, zoological and botanical collections were gathered that are still of scientific importance. The expedition of H. Sverdrup onboard the Maud (1918 to 1925) made a considerable contribution to the study of the Arctic Seas. (Meteorological observations from the Maud are included in this Atlas.)

Beginning in the 1920s the scope and number of Arctic investigations increased. New technical capabilities, primarily in the field of aviation, were used. In 1924 to 1926, after the first arctic flight of Ya. I. Nagursky in 1914, B. G. Chukhnovsky, O. A. Kalvits and M. S. Babushkin made the first airborne ice reconnaissance flights in the Kara Sea.

In 1925, the Norwegian, R. Amundsen, and the American, L. Ellsworth, onboard two hydro-aeroplanes (Dornier "flying boats" piloted by Ya. Riiser-Larsen and Ditrikson) attempted a transarctic flight from Spitsbergen. The attempt failed, and after landing north of 80 degrees latitude on open water in a sea ice lead, they returned to the base in one airplane. Americans, R. Bird and F. Bennett, flew over the North Pole in 1926 during a nonstop flight from Spitsbergen. The airship Norge with R. Amundsen and U. Nobile (Italian) onboard took off from the same Kingsbay base at Spitsbergen in the summer of 1926. The airship crossed the Arctic Ocean, flew over the Pole, and landed in Alaska.

The next arctic airship flight had a tragic end. The expedition of the Italia headed by U. Nobile took off from Spitsbergen on May 11, 1928, flew over Franz-Josef Land and reached the North Pole. On return the airship encountered meteorological conditions that led to icing, and the airship crashed on May 25. Some of the crew died in the accident, with the rest, including Nobile, stranded on drifting ice. A Soviet committee to aid the crew of the Italia was created in the USSR on May 29, with the specific purpose of rescuing the survivors. In June, the rescue expedition started. It included the icebreaking vessel Malygin (with V. Yu. Vize as the expedition head, D. T. Chertkov, Captain, and M. S. Babushkin, pilot) and the icebreaker Krasin (with R. L. Samoilovich as the expedition head, Captain K. P. Eggi and pilot B. G. Chukhnovsky). In July the icebreaking vessel G. Sedov (under Captain V. I. Voronin) joined the search. While attempting to find the expedition participants, an airplane with R. Amundsen onboard crashed in the vicinity of Medvezhiy Island, killing Amundsen. Eventually the coordinated efforts of the international rescue expedition participants succeeded and on July 6, 1928, Nobile, who was ill, was flown to Kingsbay after a successful landing on the ice by the Swedish pilot Lundborg. The remaining two groups (the original group had split) were rescued from drifting ice by the crew of the Krasin on July 12, 1928.

The doomed flight of the Italia, and the subsequent rescue, was dramatized in the film The Red Tent. The film takes its name from the tent the group erected after the crash, which they painted red for better visibility to would-be rescuers. Red paint was available because red paint was used as a crude altimeter. Altitude was calculated by using the time it took for a salvo of red paint dropped from the airship to appear on the ice.

An airborne scientific expedition of an international group of scientists including Russian scientist R. L. Samoilovich onboard the Graf Zeppelin embarked July 24, 1931 and travelled from Friedrichshaven (Germany) to Leningrad, Franz-Josef Land (Tikhaya Bay), Severnaya Zemlya, Taimyr Peninsula, Dikson Island, Novaya Zemlya, Arkhangelsk, Leningrad, and returned to Germany July 30.

From June to October 1932, the icebreaker Sibiryakov made the first through-voyage in one navigation season from Arkhangelsk to the Far East along the entire Northern Sea Route (with O. Yu. Schmidt as the expedition head and Captain V. I. Voronin). In addition to Schmidt, the scientists of the All-Union Arctic Institute (renamed the Arctic Research Institute in 1939, and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in 1958) participated in this cruise. These were V. Yu. Vize, P. P. Shirshov, Ya. Ya. Gakkel and A. F. Laktionov, who carried out a series of hydrological, hydrobiological, meteorological and geophysical studies.

The next attempt at a through-voyage along the Northern Sea Route, onboard the vessel Chelyuskin (O. Yu. Schmidt, expedition head, with Captain V. I. Voronin) failed. Due to the severe ice conditions in the Chukchi Sea, the vessel drifted in the ice from November 17, 1933 to February 13, 1934 when, beset in ice, it sank. The expedition participants remained on the drifting ice until they were rescued by aircraft on April 13, 1934. Schmidt, who was ill, was evacuated from the ice camp by an airplane piloted by V. S. Molokov and subsequently delivered to Alaska April 11 by an airplane piloted by M. T. Slepnev, together with G. A. Ushakov and physician K. A. Nikitin. The specialists of the All-Union Arctic Institute, P. P. Shirshov, Ya. Ya.Gakkel, P. K. Khmyznikov, N. N. Shpakovsky, V. S. Stakhanov and P. G. Lobza, made scientific observations throughout entire expedition.

Seven pilots (A. V. Lyapidevsky, S. A. Levanevsky, V. S. Molokov, N. P. Kamanin, M. T. Slepnev, M. V. Vodop'yanov and I. V. Doronin) were the first to be awarded with the title, "Hero of the Soviet Union" for rescuing expedition participants.

In spite of the tragic aspect of the Chelyuskin expedition, the possibility of long-term, active studies of the Arctic from bases on drifting ice was demonstrated for the first time. On May 21, 1937, an airplane landed in the vicinity of the North Pole (M. V. Vodopyanov, pilot) and organization of the first scientific drifting station "North Pole" began. The scientific studies at the station were undertaken by I. D. Papanin, P. P. Shirshov, Ye. K. Fedorov and E. T. Krenkel from June 6, 1937 to February 1937. These men laid the foundation for systematic geophysical studies from drifting ice stations in the otherwise inaccessible northern polar region.

In 1937 to 1939, the icebreaker Georgy Sedov, frozen in the ice, drifted in a trajectory more northerly than that taken by the Fram, and crossed previously unknown regions of the central Arctic Basin. As a result, unique scientific data were obtained that significantly supplemented the results of studies of F. Nansen onboard the Fram.

In spring, 1941, a successful research expedition was undertaken onboard the aircraft USSR - N - 169 to what was termed the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility. This conceptual point is the region of the Arctic Ocean most distant from all land. The 1941 expedition revealed the potential of Arctic Ocean studies using successive landings of aircraft with research teams on the ice.

Unfortunately, World War II interrupted these activities. In 1948 the method of airborne research began to be widely used in the Sever expeditions. It was continued for many years. The operation of arctic drifting stations was resumed in 1950. The scientific expedition headed by M. M. Somov worked at the drifting station North Pole 2 from April 2, 1950 to April 11, 1951. A wide range of research studies at the drifting stations North Pole 3 through North Pole 31 was continuously and successively carried out from April 15, 1954 to July 25, 1991. (Meteorological observations from the North Pole program of drifting stations are included in this Atlas.)

The leading role in these studies belonged to scientists and specialists of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. An enormous amount of data on the meteorology, oceanography, and biology of the Arctic Basin, as well as research on the geophysics of sea ice, and in many other branches of science, is presented in thousands of scientific articles, monographs, atlases, handbooks and manuals. One major result was the discovery of the underwater Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean.

These data are still of scientific importance. The studies of Russian investigators outlined above are, to date, one of the most important components of international efforts to investigate the Arctic.

Bibliography

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Armstrong, T. E. 1995. The Soviet Northern Sea Route. The Geographical Journal, 121(2):136-148.

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Baskakov and others. 1995. The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute - Center of Russian Polar science. Problemy Arktiki i Antarktiki. St. Petersburg: Gidrometeoizdat, Jubilee issue 70:6-32.

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Sverdrup, H. U. 1930. The Norwegian North Polar Expedition with the Maud, 1918-1925, Scientific Results. Ed. H.U. Sverdrup, Geophysical Institute, Bergen. 331 pp.

Vize, V. Yu. 1948. Seas of the Soviet Arctic. Izd. Glavsevmorput'. 415 pp.