The Soviet Expedition to the North Pole

Abstract

THE institution of a station for scientific A research within a few miles of the North Pole marks a new phase in polar exploration, and is a development of the intensive exploration which the Soviet Union has pursued in Arctic regions during the last few years. The earliest attempts to penetrate high northern latitudes, away back in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, were inspired by the hope of direct trade routes with the Far East and were alternatives to the still older attempts to find the North-West and North-East Passages. The early nineteenth century saw a revival of the northern ventures, and the Franklin disaster in the middle of that century led to a focusing of interest in polar regions, and stimulated journeys that were more adventurous than scientific in their outlook. But in an age of exploration that relied on man-hauled sledges and preserved food, that feared low temperatures and had to reckon with inevitable scurvy, the inner polar regions maintained their isolation.