The Conquest of the Russian Arctic

454 Pages·2014·3.4 MB·English

by  Paul R. Josephson

The Conquest of the Russian Arctic

The Conquest
of the Russian Arctic
Paul R. Josephson
Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England
2014
Copyright © 2014 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Josephson, Paul R.
The conquest of the Russian Arctic / Paul R. Josephson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 72890- 5
1. Arctic regions— Politics and government. 2. Arctic regions— Strategic aspects.
3. Soviet Union— Territorial expansion. 4. Soviet Union— Relations— Arctic
regions. 5. Arctic regions— Relations— Soviet Union. 6. Arctic regions—
Environmental conditions. 7. Natural resources— Arctic regions— History.
8. Environmental degradation— Arctic regions— History. 9. Indigenous
peoples— Arctic regions— History. 10. Political persecution— Arctic
regions— History. I. Title.
G615.J67 2014
947'.1084— dc23
2013046803
Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables vii
Note on Transliteration ix
Introduction 1
1. Charting the Arctic Landscape 21
2. Neither Cod nor Coal 64
3. The Role of the Gulag in Arctic Conquest 115
4. The Arctic Sciences of Places and People 170
5. The Nickel That Broke the Reindeer’s Back 238
6. Transformation of Taiga and Tundra 285
7. Rediscovering the Arctic 331
Notes 385
Acknowledgments 433
Index 435

Illustrations and Tables
Illustrations
Map: Russia’s western Arctic Circle xii
Map: The White Sea 70
Mikhail Vodopianov flying over the North Pole 102
Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin, and Otto Shmidt
welcoming pilots from the Arctic, ca. 1938 103
The Akademic Fedorov research ship 176
Hydrological research on drift station, ca. 1937 181
Krenkel, Papinin, and Shmidt at polar research station,
ca. 1937 182
Map: Nenets Autonomous Region and Arkhangelsk Province 222
Red Teepee, Bolshezemelskaia tundra, 1960s 235
Russian school age girl, in Bolshezemelskaia tundra, 1960s 236
Monchegorsk industrial pollution, June 2010 243
Closed mine, Kirovsk 244
Construction of Lenin Square, Severodvinsk 268
Winter municipal construction, Severodvinsk 269
Map: Kola Peninsula 297
viii Illustrations and Tables
Artur Chilingarov 332
Artkika nuclear icebreaker 349
Sengeiskii Island Meteorological Station, Nenets
Autonomous Region 364
An Arctic graveyard on Kolguev Island 365
Tables
1.1. Early Russian/Soviet icebreakers of British manufacture 37
3.1. Leading personnel repressed, “Enemies of the People”
in the Soviet Arctic, 1920–54 161
4.1. Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute scientific fleet
ships placed into operation, 1967–87 175
4.2. Growth of Kola Science Center, 1951–57 197
5.1. Population of circumpolar Soviet cities, 1926–present 242
Note on Transliteration
In rendering Russian names, I have adopted a modified version of the Library
of Congress system of transliteration, dropping many soft signs and adopting
more common “western” spellings for some names and places (Glavsevmor-
put, not Glavsevmorput’; Trotsky, not Trotskii; Naryan- Mar, not Nar’ian-
Mar; Yamal, not Iamal; and so on).