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Home , Cape Zhelaniya, Fram, Pole of Cold, Sadko (icebreaker)

april 1936

The Soviet Conquest of the

Bruce Hopper

Volume 14 • Number 3

The contents of Foreign Affairs are copyrighted.©1936 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this material is permitted only with the express written consent of Foreign Affairs. Visit www.foreignaffairs.com/permissions for more information. THE SOVIET CONQUEST OF THE FAR NORTH

By Bruce Hopper

THE search for the Northeast Passage to Cathay, which for four centuries stirred the imagination of European mari seem at ners, has at last ended in triumph. We the beginning a new of phase of man's relations with the North. are to In this great polar saga three historic dates. The first seek the short-cut route from the Atlantic to the Pacific was Sir on , who in 1553 perished with all hands the coast. In centuries of of Murman the ensuing navigators many the seafaring nations resumed the search. Some turned back be were to fore being caught; others lured eastward their doom in the ice. In 1878-79, A. E. Nordenski?ld made the first through passage by "freezing in" for the winter. The only other expedi to ? of on tions subsequently pass those Vil'kitsky, Amundsen on ? the , Toll, and Nansen the celebrated pursued the same method. It remained for the Soviet ice-breaker, Sibiry akov, from to Vladivostok in 1932, to sailing Arkhangelsk ? complete a season first the through-passage in single navigating the time in history. was not an was This feat accident of Soviet exploration. It pre movement ceded by years of studies, especially of the and are matters behavior of ice. In the sequel of high potential im to portance. of the through-passage has given impetus vast Soviet schemes for the exploitation of northern Asia hitherto for never trod civilized nor remote; populating regions by man, as a even by savages; and for developing the Arctic normal artery commerce. new of sea and air The program introduces factors as into the politics of the Pacific Ocean which America, close neighbor of the Soviets in the Arctic, cannot afford to ignore. While the details of Soviet achievements in the Arctic are not yet available, the following facts may be gleaned from recent crea Russian materials. Soviet scientific studies began with the tion of the Commission for Study of the North in 1919. The first was stage in opening the passage the expedition of 1921, a consisting of fleet of ten sent to the mouth of the Ob River to to areas bring Siberian wheat the famine of European . an annual These trading expeditions became feature, widening

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were into the large scale operations of today. Geological surveys on undertaken , Severnaya Zemlya, etc., during which uncharted islands were discovered, and the horizon of the known gradually pushed eastward and north, beyond the barriers of ice. In 1926, a group of "winterers" colonized Wrangel Island to warn contestants to in order off possible the Soviet claim of possession. Then, the ice-breaker Krassin, returning from the rescue of the ill-fated dirigible crew in 1928, touched at , north of 8o?, where the first permanent polar station was set subsequently up. Two years later the All-Union Arctic Institute was created to coordinate the work of developing the "Soviet Sector of the a Arctic." The Institute laid out five-year program of research, meanwhile training Arctic specialists in five main branches: hydrology, geophysics, geodesy, geology, and "bio-industry." were Seamen with experience in northern waters recruited from as other work and schooled polar navigators. The first public new was notice of the program of development the appearance in a 1930 of sailing instructions and chart of the Kara Sea. The now east. work is proceeding further Information is being collected about the sea floor, the currents, the formation and movement of at ice, the salinity various depths, the declinations of the compass, as well as the migration of fish and other matter of economic significance. The discovery of the through-passage by the Sibiry akov in 1932 made apparent the possibilities of tapping the rich regions of Yakutia and Central from the north. Scientific work in the Arctic was transformed almost over into a ? night great national objective of the the conquest of Russia's frozen domain. A chain of radio and meterological sta was tions rushed into existence. And by decree of December 17, 1932, the Central Administration of the was to ("Glavsevmorput") founded, attached the Council of an Peoples Commissars, but actually wielding the powers of in dependent commissariat. One of the assistant-chiefs of this organ ization is appointed by the Commissar of the Army and Navy, two on who likewise has representatives its Collegium. The im portance for defense is obvious. With this last step began the systematic conquest of the Arctic, as a of which the Soviets may rightly claim preeminence in modern science. polar The Northern Sea Route is divided into a western section, SOVIET CONQUEST OF THE FAR NORTH 501 or from the Baltic-White Sea Canal through the Kara an Sea (formerly considered "ice-bound mantrap") to the Enisei an delta; and eastern section, from Pacific ports through Bering Strait to the Khatanga River. The middle section, around Cape as are Cheliuskin, is yet less developed. There actually four routes west: in the 1, through Yugor Strait south of Vaigach Island; 2, through Kara Strait north of that island; 3, through Matochkin Strait, which bisects Novaya Zemlya (the shortest route for sea through-passage) ; and 4, around Cape Zhelaniya in the open north of Novaya Zemlya, used when the other routes are blocked move by ice. Airplanes fly the route, reporting and predicting the

ments to of ice radio stations and ships, thus enabling expedition commanders to sail the route most feasible at the moment, with ice-breakers clearing the way if necessary. The Second Five Year Plan (1933-37) made an allocation of 250,000,000 rubles to the Northern Sea Route Administration. The navigation season is short. In the Kara Sea it averages 100 Farther east the conditions are less favorable. days. However, season the has been systematically lengthened year by year. At on was Novy Port, the Ob, it 16 days in 1927, 40 in 1929, 46 in 1932, and 54 in 1934. The latest reports indicate that over a hundred ships used the Northern Sea Route during the 1935 two season, operating from both ends, with ships each way mak ing the complete through-passage. The ice-breakers are now sta 502 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

tioned in four zones, being responsible for convoy only in the zones to are which they assigned. The ports, which have sprung up like mushrooms, are for the most part situated at the mouths are of the great Siberian rivers where fuel and supplies stored. At these points river craft, operating from deep Siberia, exchange products of the interior for the manufactured goods and industrial sea. equipment brought by One striking exception is the deep water port of Igarka, 725 kilometers up the Enisei, which in five years has been converted from frozen waste into a town of 14,000 inhabitants, possessing the largest timber combine between the now Urals and the Pacific. Igarka, that it is visited by ocean seems to vessels, destined become the metropolis of the strange world within the Arctic Circle. The most obvious economic significance of the Northern Sea Route is the development made possible of Yakutia and other are regions in high latitudes which rich in natural resources and which are not yet reached by the railroads. Yakutia, called the a narrow to "big bottle with neck," has hitherto had rely solely on the long connection by trail with Irkutsk. But the coast-land to itself is also expected yield profits. The geological chart pre pared by the Arctic Institute in 1934 reveals valuable mineral at at deposits 228 points: coal 73 points, peat in fair quantity, 26 on also graphite, gold (at points the Chutkotsk peninsula), and on various non-ferrous-metals (lead and zinc Vaigach Island, on as as copper Novaya Zemlya), well sulphites and iron. Coal and oil have been found on the Pechora, Enisei and Lena Rivers in sufficient quantities to justify the expectation that the fuel commerce met needs of Arctic will be by local supplies. With ex perience gained in the Murman area, the Soviet agricultural ex perts have established Arctic farms, the northern-most in the season world, which lengthen the growing by artificial thawing of are the frozen soil. Garden crops being successfully produced. trusts To insure local food supply, the three of the Northern Sea are Route Administration operating factories for preserving fish as as and game, the chief exports, well developing the oil, salt trusts are and fur industries. These also occupied with building up the river fleets and maintaining the supply of fuel. In the matter of recruitment for service in the North, the on Soviet Government has relied largely volunteers, granting them special rewards and privileges. By decree of July 7, 1933, one members of family may work together in the Arctic; wages SOVIET CONQUEST OF THE FAR NORTH 503 are on to and pensions the relatively high scale given miners; are as disabilities rated those of professional labor; and, quite are to important, the rations those served the Red Army. The per or sta sonnel of the polar radio stations, three four persons per are a are at tion, supplied with food for whole year, and relieved the end of that period. By decree of July 21, 1935, the Northern Sea Route Administration assumed control of all economic and a cultural functions in the North. It thus becomes political agency, with considerable power in Soviet affairs. In keeping with this "Arctic fever," it is natural that the Soviet to Government should raise the question of possible future claims what has been considered terra nullius.1 On November 4, 1924, a the Commissar for Foreign Affairs (repeating claims set forth in similar note by the Tsarist Government in 1916) notified all gov ernments that the islands between the Russian coast and the to on belong the territory of the U. S. S. R. And April 15, 1926, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee decreed that "all lands already discovered, as well as those which are to be discovered in the future . . . north of the coast of the U. S. S. R. up to the North Pole, within the limits of . . . 32?4'35" east from Greenwich and i68?49'32" west from come Greenwich" under Soviet jurisdiction. Further, the Soviet experts in international law2 declare that the doctrine of "dis covery, effective occupation, and notification" as the basis of territorial claim must be superseded by the doctrine of "region of attraction," by which newly discovered land ipsofacto becomes state. the polar territory of the subjacent The "Soviet Sector of the Arctic" thus carries certain political connotations. Within the area defined above, Soviet sovereignty is presumed to exist not over over only lands which may yet be discovered, but also the "more or less immovable ice formations." Floating ice may be as seas. considered part of the high Further peculiarity arises from the Soviet contention that each subjacent state (U. S. S. R., United States, Canada, Denmark, , Finland) "exercises over the aerial above the whole of at sovereignty space region traction of its sector." The North Pole, however, does not belong to as an any state, and may be represented "hexahedral frontier on post the sides of which might be painted the national colors of a matter the state of the corresponding sector." As of fact, the i Cf. David Hunter Miller: "Political Rights in the Arctic," Foreign Affairs, October 1925. 2 na See W. L. Lakhtine, "Prava Severnye Polyarnye Prostranstva," NKID, 1928. 5o4 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

as "post" really should probably be five-sided, the Finnish sector at not to ends Spitzbergen, and does reach the North Pole. man In the larger sense, this victory of over the ice which has as crushed him in the past may be viewed part of the large general scheme for the redistribution of the productive forces of moves to the Soviet Union. Soviet construction up the polar a frontier. One may doubt the feasibility of making permanent habitation north of the earth's "Pole of " (). are new Still, economic objectives within reach, the opening of on markets for European goods, relief of the strain Siberian etc. or railways, And whether not the Northern Sea Route be comes a "normal" of artery safe navigation for commerce, its to meet strategic importance leaps the eye. In the summer of 1935, Soviet scientists on the ice-breakers and Krassin, accompanied by airplanes, sought to deter seas mine the influence of the Gulf Stream in polar north of 82o. a warm near They reported current 650 feet wide Franz Josef Land, and one far to the east, north of Wrangel Island. It is pre are a warm current sumed that these part of which supposedly flows from the Atlantic to the northern entrance of the Pacific. are If these expectations substantiated, the Northern Sea Route a may play world r?le, especially in connection with the short cut to European ports via the Baltic-White Sea Canal. an The air service has especially important function along the Northern Sea Route: ice com reporting movements, maintaining munication with isolated and polar stations, conducting photo graphic surveys of all the main river systems from the southern to to bases the northern ports. In addition the trans-continental now lines from the European centers, there is regular air service to along the Ob River from Tyumen Obdorsk and Novy Port ;along the Enisei River from Krasnoyarsk through Igarka and Dudinka toDickson Island ;and along the Lena River from Yakutsk to Tiksi Bay. Other air lines, which began operations only in 1935, include ones the important in the Far Eastern zone, the Khabarovsk Anadyr-Cape Schmidt-Wrangel Island line, and the Kamchatka lines connecting Petropavlovsk with Bolsheretsk, and with Ust, Kamchatsk, and Zhupanovo. Soviet planes regularly fly along the coast of Bering Sea. A main coastal line for the Northern Sea to Route from Murmansk and Archangel Vladivostok, is planned next a for operation year, with time schedule of 60 flying hours for the entire length. This last winter, a new type of Arctic SOVIETCONQUEST OF THE FAR NORTH 505 and skis on made airplane, equipped with wheels floats, possible for regular year-round connections with the polar stations the to was first time. The mail and parcel air service such stations to which given special stamps, "Per Airplane the Arctic," appeals to the Russian sense of the dramatic. Aerial communications across the Arctic are beset with dif ficulties, but their establishment may be less remote in point of than we are wont to are al time suppose. Preparations over ready well advanced for the flight the North Pole, from Moscow to San Francisco, in the summer of 1936. In 1817 the United States and Canada permanently demilita common to rized their frontier. The Soviet water and air approach the Pacific is a reminder that America also has an Arctic frontier. to enter an It may prove expedient for the United States into agreement with Soviet Russia for the demilitarization of Bering so no matter Strait, that what happens in the wider reaches of the war Pacific the possibility of shall be excluded from the Arctic and Alaska.