Organizational activity of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in participation of the delegation of Soviet scholars in the First Plenum of the International Society for the Exploration of the Arctic Regions by Means of the Airship (Aeroarctic) and its results

Abstract

The subject of this research is the exploration of Arctic, its economic development, and use of resources on the scientific basis as the crucial policy avenue of the Soviet Union. The International Society for the Exploration of the Arctic Regions by Airship (Aeroarctic) made a significant contribution to the research of the Russian Arctic. The success and performance of the Soviet members of this society largely depended on the organizational and norm-setting measures taken by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and its commissions in the late 1920s. For elucidation of the role of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in organizing international cooperation of the Soviet scholars, the article employs the materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation and St. Petersburg Central State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation. Among noteworthy results of international cooperation within the framework of “Aeroarctic” are the following: 1) organization of the 2nd Congress of Aeroarctic Society held in Leningrad in 1928; 2) inclusion of the possibility of establishing trans-Arctic air routes between Europe and America in the five-year plan of research activity of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute for 1928 – 1933. In the activity of the Council of People's Commissars on the issues of Soviet participation in “Aeroarctic”, the author observes the proclivity for providing the procesude for recognition of the Arctic territories of the USSR by the global community; as well as protect the Soviet Arctic territories from the claims of foreign states. The second half of 1920s marks a major breakthrough in development of the Arctic in the USSR reflected in conduct of regular scientific research, acquisition of reliable knowledge on this remote part of the Earth, discovery of mineral deposits, which also allowed among strengthening defense potential of the country.