Who should rightfully belong to the Svalbard archipelago? Polar archipelago Spitsbergen Cape Spitsbergen belongs to whom.
The question is, what did they need in this God-forsaken region? Blubber! Whale oil, which since the beginning of the 17th century has become one of the most sought-after goods in Europe. Blubber was, in fact, the oil of that time. It was the main lighting material for lamps almost until the end of the 19th century, until it was replaced by kerosene. Wealthy Europeans abandoned fire-hazardous wax candles and switched to more technologically “advanced” lamps. Surprisingly, this fact directly influenced the way of life of Europeans. Thanks to the blubber obtained in the distant Arctic, they began to go to bed later, read more, and most importantly, work more, since lighting in the artels using whale oil was cheaper than “wax” lighting.
Interestingly, the spread of blubber in Europe was extremely unprofitable for the Moscow state, which was one of the main exporters of wax. However, in Rus' at that time there were few officials who could think in terms of global economic strategy.
It all started with Willem Barents, who in the summer of 1596 discovered a rocky coast in the Arctic waters, which he named Spitsbergen (“sharp mountains”). It is curious that at that time the Dutch sailors considered that the land was part of Greenland, and therefore did not lay claim to the “great geographical discovery”. Probably, the name “Spitsbergen” would have “fallen asleep” in the Barents logbook if the Dutch had not discovered a huge pod of bowhead whales in the coastal waters. It was a billion-dollar discovery! And that's why...
Whaling in Europe by that time flourished in the Bay of Biscay. The main whalers in Europe were the Basques, who learned to use a harpoon in the early Middle Ages. When whale oil, in the second half of the 16th century, gained massive demand in Europe, the Biscay whale fishery turned into mass extermination. As a result, over several decades, the population of these marine mammals was on the verge of extinction. And now Barents opens a new rich “deposit”. Returning to their homeland (though without the tragically deceased Willem Barents), the expedition members find investors, and after some time the first Dutch whaling expedition is sent to the Arctic waters.
English vs Dutch
While the Dutch were gathering an expedition, the British made their discovery of Spitsbergen. In 1607, the archipelago was contemplated by Henry Hudson, who was then working for the British Muscovy Company (Moscow Company), which received a monopoly on trade with Russia from the Russian monarchs. Hudson also noted a large population of whales in coastal waters, which he reported on his return to Britain. And 3 years later, another employee of the Muscovy Company, Captain John Poole, noted the “incredible abundance of whales” in the waters of Spitsbergen.
Feeling gold mine, a British corporation with a Russian name in 1611 sent the first whaling expedition, reinforced by Basque harpooners. However, two ships suffer disaster. But the English “Muscovites” do not give up, and next year they are preparing a new expedition to Spitsbergen. And here a surprise awaits the British sailors: in the waters of the archipelago they meet Dutch and French whaling ships. In 1613, the Muscovy Company decided to end competition once and for all by sending 7 warships to the shores of Spitsbergen, which dispersed several dozen Dutch, Spanish and French ships. This led to international political conflict. The Dutch, Spanish, and French insisted that the waters of Spitsbergen (all participants called it Greenland) were neutral waters, and the British had no right to a monopoly. In addition, representatives of the Netherlands even declared their advantage, since it was Barents who discovered Spitsbergen. Representatives of the Muscovy Company, in turn, argued that they received exclusive rights from the “Moscow sovereign.” They say that since the end of the 15th century this land has belonged to the Russians, who even organized settlements there.
Indeed, there is even a letter from the German geographer Hieronymus Müntzer to the Portuguese King João II, written at the end of the 15th century, which talks about the recently discovered island of Grumland (as the Russian Pomors called Spitsbergen), which is part of the possessions of the Grand Duke of Moscow. Danish admiral Severin Norby, who visited Moscow in 1525 and 1528, reported to King Christian II about Grumland, which belongs to Vasily III.
But the king of Denmark and Norway, Christian IV, joined the dispute, who said that these Arctic territories from time immemorial belonged to the Norwegians and were called Svalbard. As an argument, an excerpt from an old Norwegian chronicle was cited that in 1194, not far from Iceland, Scandinavian sailors discovered a land that they called “Svalbard” (“cold shores”).
Already in the 20th century, researchers would question this fact. Perhaps someone sailed from Iceland at the end of the 12th century and came across some “cold shores”, however, most likely, brave sailors then called Svalbard the area in the east of Greenland or the island of Jan Mayen, which have nothing to do with Spitsbergen.
It is not known whether the British believed in the Norwegian legend, but in 1614 they offered the monarch of the Danish-Norwegian state to buy the monopoly right to the island. Christian IV rejects the offer, and in 1615 3 Scandinavian warriors land on Spitsbergen in order to collect tribute from the international whalers who settled there. True, the harpoon workers send the Norwegians home.
By this time, the Dutch whaling North Greenland Company had agreed with the British “Muscovites” to divide the archipelago into two spheres of influence. Minor “pieces” also went to the French and Danes. The Dutch took up the development of Spitsbergen with maximum intensity. Soon, the whalers' settlement of Smeerenburg grew up on the island of Amsterdam, where up to 200 people worked during the season. The British were more sluggish in their development, and then the Muscovy company found itself in a difficult financial situation, which allowed the Dutch to actually establish a monopoly over the fishery. And after Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich deprived the “Muscovites” of all privileges in Russia, only a few British remained in the archipelago.
Well, then the whales ended... Together with them, the British and Dutch disappeared. The archipelago fell into desolation.
What about the Pomors?
What about the Pomors, you ask? Where were the discoverers of Grumant all this time? We answer: the sailors of the Russian North were always nearby... For example, in almost all Arctic expeditions of the Muscovy Company there was always a Russian guide, a pilot, or, as the Pomors themselves called it, a “ship leader.” After the British, the Dutch, French, and Danes began to hire Pomors. In addition, every year Pomeranian hunters went to the archipelago to kill walruses and seals - Pomors were not interested in whaling. Russian sailors also placed their famous wooden navigation crosses on the archipelago, which everyone relied on. In those days, it was the Pomeranian cross that was a kind of marker that “Grumant is Russian land, and you, whalers and skilled blubber traders, are just guests.”
Revival of interest
Interest in the archipelago received a new direction when, in 1800, the skipper of the fishing vessel Søren Tsachariassen, returning from a voyage, brought coal from the Isfjord area. High Quality. It became clear that Spitsbergen could have huge reserves of high-calorie coal. Then the Swedes, Norwegians, Americans and Russians began to fight for the archipelago. Active mining of “black gold” was put forward as a legal right to own territory.
Russia, in order to consolidate its presence in the Arctic, has outlined the following mechanism: first develop economic activity, support it with scientific study of the area of interest, and only then take political measures. And when in 1871 the Swedish-Norwegian government wanted a monopoly on the archipelago, Russia responded unequivocally against it. The Russian Foreign Ministry has always adhered to this fundamental position regarding the ownership of Spitsbergen: “the archipelago cannot be the object of exclusive ownership of any state, and citizens and companies of all states have equal rights here in socio-economic and scientific activities, which must be exclusively peaceful in nature.” "
Russia began to actively defend its rights to Spitsbergen only in 1905. Then the Russian Foreign Ministry decided: “to organize some Russian enterprise on the archipelago, not formally owned by the state, which would demonstrate our activities on Spitsbergen and would help the Russian government defend our ancient right to this territory.”
For this purpose, an expedition was organized led by Arctic explorer Vladimir Rusanov. In 1912, he discovered a number of coal deposits, which later helped protect Russian interests in the archipelago. As a result, at international meetings the priority rights to Spitsbergen of three countries - Russia, Norway and Sweden - have always been recognized.
While the First World War was first raging in Russia World War, and then Civil, Norway took advantage of the "busyness" of its main competitor to achieve sovereignty over Spitsbergen. For this purpose, the Council of Ten of the Paris Peace Conference formed a special committee consisting of representatives of Great Britain, France, the USA and Italy. And in 1920, they signed the Treaty of Spitsbergen, according to which Norway officially “received” the archipelago.
The treaty included a clarification on equal rights between the Soviet state and other countries party to the treaty. However, Russia was not only not invited to the Paris Conference, but was not even informed of Norway's intentions regarding Spitsbergen. It is interesting that at that time none of the parties to the agreement carried out any economic activity on the archipelago.
A revision of the Paris Treaty seemed unlikely to the Russian government. But Soviet Russia had a more important goal - diplomatic recognition and the conclusion of a trade agreement. Therefore, in the same 1920, Russia declared that “not a single international agreement in which it has not participated has any binding or political or legal force for it”:
“With the deepest amazement, the Russian Soviet Government learned from a Paris radiogram dated February 11 that the Governments of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, the North American United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway had concluded an agreement among themselves stipulating the annexation of the Spitsbergen Islands to Norway".
Norway understood that if Russia did not recognize the Treaty of Paris, the document would not have legal force. Therefore, it was necessary for Norway to secure the consent of the USSR, and in 1924 it recognized the Soviet state. After this, Russia signed the Treaty of Paris.
Spitsbergen Archipelago
(Norway)
This mountainous archipelago, lost in the icy expanses of the Arctic, is often called the “Top of Europe.” Some of its islands are located beyond the eightieth degree of northern latitude. Only northern Greenland and the Canadian island of Ellesmere are located even closer to the North Pole.
In the morning fog, sailors approaching the archipelago from the south seem to see the outlines of the towers of medieval castles emerge from the haze. The mountain peaks of Spitsbergen, reaching 1700 meters in height, darken through the gray veil.
But then the ship comes closer, the fog dissipates, and a panorama of intricately rugged black rocky shores, crowned with white glaciers, opens before your eyes. In some places, ice tongues descend straight to the sea, ending in ledges of transparent blue ice. Narrow winding bays are lined with foamy stripes of waterfalls. And in the depths of the largest bay - Isfjord - the houses of the capital of Spitsbergen - the village of Longyearbyen - glow welcomingly with bright red, green and blue cubes.
More than a thousand islands are part of the archipelago. True, almost all of them are small, only five of them deserve the epithet “large”. These are Western Spitsbergen, Northeast Land, Edge Island, Barents Island and Prince Charles Land. Spitsbergen is larger in area than Switzerland and could accommodate two Belgiums on its islands.
Since ancient times, the archipelago has had several names. The Dutch called it Spitsbergen, the Russians - Grumant, the Norwegians - Svalbard. Modern journalists often call this region the “Isles of Fogs.” Indeed, Spitsbergen is one of the most foggy places on Earth. Even the famous African Skeleton Coast - the Namib Desert and the Bering Sea, notorious for its rain and fog, cannot compare with it in this regard. More than 90 days a year (a quarter of the year!) there are fogs over the islands. And in June-October there are from 12 to 20 days with fogs every month.
The fogs on Spitsbergen are so dense that you can’t see anything even five steps away. Sounds are muffled, the outlines of objects are distorted, so that it is impossible to recognize even familiar terrain. All buildings and large stones are covered with a fluffy brush of frost.
In the spring, during fog, you can observe an unusual optical phenomenon, which in the language of scientists is called “gloria”. The low polar sun casts long shadows of objects surrounded by a rainbow outline onto the veil of fog and low clouds. The famous polar explorer Amundsen, who made an emergency landing on a plane in the ice north of Spitsbergen, describes Gloria as follows:
“Away from us, in the fog, I saw a complete reflection of our car, surrounded by a halo of all the colors of the rainbow. The spectacle is amazing, beautiful and unique.”
From afar, from aboard a motor ship heading towards Spitsbergen, you can see the intricately jagged peaks of the mountains, for which it was given its name (Spitsbergen - “Sharp Mountains” in Dutch). This name was given to the archipelago by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who discovered it in 1596. True, in fairness, it must be said that Russian Pomors, two centuries before the Dutchman, sailed their boats to the cold Grumant (as they called the archipelago).
One day, four Russian hunters, having landed here to hunt, did not find their ship crushed by ice the next morning. The Russian Robinsons lived on Spitsbergen for six whole years before they were rescued by another Russian ship that accidentally visited the islands.
After Barents, many famous navigators and explorers visited the archipelago. Hudson and Chichagov, Nordenskiöld and Nansen, Amundsen and Rusanov laid out their routes here. But the main contribution to the study of Spitsbergen, undoubtedly, was made by the brave Pomors, who mastered harsh islands. To this day, on the map of the archipelago you can find the Russian Islands and Russkaya Bay, Admiral Makarov Mountain and Cape Ermak, the Rusanov Valley and Solovetskaya Bay.
The unique nature of Spitsbergen is determined by the fact that one of the branches of the warm North Atlantic Current, a continuation of the Gulf Stream, approaches its western coast. Heated waters through the fjords penetrate deep into the islands and warm them. In February, the frost here does not exceed fifteen degrees, and the average annual temperature on the islands is six degrees above zero. (And this is at eightieth latitude!)
Therefore, in summer the coast of the islands is covered with a green carpet of tundra, full of bright colors. Purple saxifrage, yellow polar poppies, blue forget-me-nots and purple carnations delight the eyes of the residents of Logier and other Svalbard villages: Barentsburg, Pyramiden, Ny-Ålesund, Longyearbyen and Sveagruva during the long polar day. And the snow fields on the slopes at this time in some places turn pink - due to the appearance of microscopic algae on them.
Wide valleys going high into the mountains are filled with glaciers. Their silent, dirty-white rivers slowly (usually at a speed of a meter per day, no more) move towards the sea. Where glaciers flow into fjords, the ice slides into the water and breaks off. This is how icebergs form. In some Valleys, where the glaciers end before reaching the shore, short but turbulent rivers flow from under them, the longest of which is only 48 kilometers. In winter they all freeze to the bottom.
Worn down by glaciers Mountain peaks islands take on the most fantastic forms. So, Mount Skansen resembles ancient fortress, Mount Tempel is an ancient Indian temple, and Mount Pyramid looks like a stack of giant neatly stacked bales of hay. The most famous mountain, Tre Kruner, has three peaks. Their names: Svea, Nora and Dana - symbolize the brotherhood of the three Scandinavian countries - Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The truncated pyramidal contours of the three peaks are colored with clear horizontal stripes of yellow limestone and red sandstone.
Ancient Scandinavian legends imagined Spitsbergen as a gloomy land of cold, darkness, snow and ice. The Vikings believed that this was the most inhospitable region in the world. But it's not fair. Compared to other Arctic islands, such as Ellesmere or Severnaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, Svalbard looks like a real oasis in the icy polar desert. It is inhabited by three thousand people, mostly northern researchers and, oddly enough, miners. Coal deposits were formed here hundreds of millions of years ago, when Spitsbergen was one with Europe and its climate was incomparably warmer than now. Now Russian miners, in agreement with the Norwegians, are mining coal here.
But life on the islands can be found not only in human settlements. Here you can find reindeer and arctic foxes, nimble rodents - lemmings and white partridges. Silently circling over the valleys snowy owl, and in the summer thousands of migratory birds fly here: ducks, geese and swans.
Most of the noise and splashing is on the coast. With the warm current, flocks of cod and herring, halibut and haddock come to the island, and behind them come seals: harp and bearded seal. On pebble beaches under the rocks, fanged walruses make their rookeries, and in the open sea you can often see fountains of whales. There are still a lot of the latter in the waters of Spitsbergen, although whaling fleets have hunted in these places since the times of the Barents and Hudson. Most of them are beluga whales and killer whales, but the famous narwhal unicorn is also found. The head of this whale ends with a sharp two-meter bone growth, similar to a horn. They say that Ivan the Terrible had a staff made of a beautiful, twisted narwhal horn (apparently brought by Russian Pomors from Grumant). The main seal hunter, the polar bear, also comes to the islands. The largest predator in the polar basin is now protected by law and is not at all afraid of humans. Sometimes meetings with him end sadly for polar explorers, especially on distant islands.
And it happens that desperate radiograms like the following fly to Barentsburg or Longyearbyen from researchers working somewhere on the Prince Charles Islands: “Urgently send a helicopter for evacuation. Surrounded by nine hungry bears. We don’t risk leaving the house.”
The musk ox, brought here from Greenland in the 1920s, has also taken root on the archipelago. The herd of these powerful squat ungulates, covered with thick and long hair reaching to the ground, has grown noticeably over last years, fortunately, their main enemies - wolves - are not on Spitsbergen. In harsh winters, female musk oxen hide small cubs under their bellies, where, in any snowstorm, it is warm and cozy in a canopy of wool. Now there are more than a hundred musk oxen on Spitsbergen, but at the beginning there were only 17.
The highlight of Spitsbergen is its wonderful bird colonies. On the tiny ledges of steep cliffs that drop down to the sea, tens of thousands of kittiwakes, guillemots, guillemots, fulmars, puffins and cormorants buzz and fuss. And predatory glaucous gulls hover over the rocks, looking for prey.
There are plenty of fish in the sea for both seals and seagulls, especially since west bank even in winter, under the influence of a warm current, the border floating ice forms a deep bend, like a bay with icy shores, facing north. In the old days it was called Whaler Bay, since it was here that the whaling center was located. In other winters west coast there is no ice at all, and Isfjord is covered with ice only for a month and a half.
However, the North is the North, and from October to February the polar night reigns over Spitsbergen. Nevertheless, the archipelago does not become a “land of eternal darkness” at this time. In clear weather it is illuminated by the moon.
As the great polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen wrote, “Instead of the sun, the most delightful radiance of the moon remains: it circles the sky day and night...”. Moonlight is reflected by myriads of snow and ice crystals and allows you not only to move freely without a flashlight, but also to distinguish distant mountains. It is especially bright during the full moon.
And in December-January, in frosty weather, auroras blaze in the sky. Against the background of the flaming sky, light patterns of the most fantastic kind appear, continuously changing their shape and color. You can stand for hours, forgetting to put on a hat, in the bitter cold, unable to take your eyes off the amazing play of colors in the cold sky. Words are powerless to describe this truly grandiose spectacle. What a pity that there are no tourists on the islands at this time! Just the opportunity to admire the sky's sparkles would make it worth coming to Spitsbergen in winter.
I have had the opportunity to communicate more than once with people who have visited this distant archipelago. And they all could not forget its harsh beauty, the dazzling white mountain peaks and the blue surface of the fjords, the deafening hubbub of bird colonies and the modest charm of tundra flowers, the greenish-transparent walls of coastal glacial cliffs and colors northern lights…
And when the winterers, returning to their native land, sail from the shore, they traditionally throw old boots into the water from board the ship - as a sign that someday they will return to this cold but beautiful land.
From the book Records in the Natural World author Lyakhova Kristina AlexandrovnaWestern Spitsbergen One of the largest glaciers on the planet is located in Norway, on the Spitsbergen archipelago, located in the Arctic Ocean, at a distance of no more than 600 km from the northern coast of this country. The archipelago consists of 5 large
From the book 100 great geographical discoveries author Balandin Rudolf Konstantinovich From the book Big Soviet Encyclopedia(AR) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (GO) by the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (ZA) by the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (CA) by the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (CHI) by the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (SH) by the author TSB From the book Stockholm. Guide by Kremer Birgit**SKJERGÅRDEN ARCHIPELAGO The Stockholm skerries belt stretches for 150 km along the coast and juts out into the Baltic Sea for 70 km. The number of islands, most of which are uninhabited, according to various estimates, ranges from 24 to 30 thousand. Only 6,000 people live here permanently. But in the summer
From book Geographical discoveries author Khvorostukhina Svetlana AlexandrovnaThe mysterious Spitsbergen archipelago Modern scientists have information that the discoverers of the Spitsbergen archipelago were the Vikings. It was they who named the discovered land Svalbard, which translated means “cold coast”. They still call him that to this day.
From the book 100 Great Mysteries of the Earth author Volkov Alexander ViktorovichSpitsbergen The Spitsbergen archipelago, although a large part of it is covered with glaciers, is considered a true Eldorado for geologists. Wherever there is no ice, Mother Earth appears here without embellishment, dressed only in a snow cover. In the summer, when the sun does not set beyond the horizon,
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The area of the archipelago is 61,022 km².
Consists of three large islands- Western Spitsbergen, North-Eastern Land and Edge Island; seven smaller islands - Barents Island, Bely Island, Prince Charles Land, Kongsøya (Royal Island), Bear Island, Svenskøya, Wilhelm Island; as well as groups of islands, small islets and skerries, with a total area of 621 km².
Largest islands:
Island Area (km²) Western Spitsbergen 37 673 Northeast Land 14 443 Edge 5074 Barents 1288 White 682 Land of Prince Charles 615 Kongsøya 191 Bearish 178 Svenskøya 137 Wilhelm 120 Others (total area) 621 Total 61 022 Natural conditions
Mountainous terrain. The most high point islands - Mount Newton (1712 m) in Western Spitsbergen. Glaciers occupy 35.1 thousand km² - more than half the area of the archipelago. The shores are indented by fjords. Permafrost rocks - layer thickness up to 200 m. Natural thawing of soils in summer ranges from 0.5 to 2.6 m.
Large deposits of high-calorie coal are estimated at 10 billion tons. A unique feature of Svalbard is also the significant number of rocks with fossilized remains of plants and animals. In 2007, a Norwegian group of paleontologists managed to discover the remains of the largest pliosaur on the archipelago Pliosaurus funkei. The high diversity of geological rocks of the archipelago is explained by its long migration through the Earth's mantle, during which Spitsbergen visited different climatic zones.
The archipelago is located in a seismically active zone, earthquakes measuring 4-5 points on the Richter scale have been recorded, and the possibility of earthquakes up to 6-7 points is expected.
Nature
The climate is harsh, the vegetation is not rich, the plants are short and cold-resistant. At the beginning of summer, the tundra is very swampy due to melting snow, and the rivers have high water levels. Mostly, South part Svalbard (zero zone) is free of snow in summer, although glaciers are found close to all populated areas. Red algae are often found on glaciers, giving the snow and ice a pinkish tint. Despite the 24-hour polar day, the temperature difference between day and night in summer is noticeable and can reach 5-10 degrees Celsius. The first snowfalls occur in September, although snow is not uncommon at the end of August. Due to its relatively mild climate, Svalbard is also popular with tourists during the polar night, when stable snow and ice coverage makes snowmobile travel possible.
As a rule, the Caledonides participate in the structure of the archipelago. But they are more similar to the Caledonides of Greenland than of Scandinavia. However, both of them are the product of the Early Paleozoic Iapetus Ocean, which opened around the beginning of the Cambrian about 550 million years ago. This ancient ocean was located in near-equatorial latitudes in the submeridional direction from 30° south. w. (ancient coordinates) to the north, between the ancient continents of Baltic and Canada-Greenland. Spitsbergen also includes more ancient rocks (Baikal folding). Apparently, this is part of the Barents Sea plate, which is Proterozoic-Early Cambrian in age. Much of Svalbard's basement formed somewhere on the active margin of the ancient Iapetus Ocean about 500 million years ago in the Early Ordovician and represents island-arc igneous formations that were severely crushed during the continental collision of the Silurian. By the beginning of the Silurian, the Iapetus Ocean began to shrink, carrying Baltica towards Canada-Greenland, (450-440 million years ago) the British Isles, Newfoundland and Spitsbergen, which experienced strong uplift and volcanic eruptions towards the middle-end of the Silurian. Then came the final collision of the Baltic (Scandinavia), the British Isles, Greenland, Newfoundland and North America (Laurentia). The remains of ancient island arcs, limestones, and clastic ocean rocks of the Iapetus Ocean were crushed and raised up to 9-11 thousand meters. Where these parts of the world collided, a mountain range rose higher than today's Himalayas. 400 million years ago, Scandinavia was already connected to Greenland and Spitsbergen was located somewhere between them. The British Isles, Newfoundland and North America were also joined together. In the late Paleozoic, intrusion of granitoids occurred in places. Current deposits of copper, chromium, nickel, titanium, iron, zinc, uranium and other metals, which are now located on the Kola Peninsula, in Scandinavia, Greenland, Spitsbergen, British Isles and on east coast North America were formed precisely in that era.
Legal status of Spitsbergen
In 1920, as part of the peace conference of Paris, the Spitsbergen Treaty was concluded, which secured Norway's sovereignty over the archipelago, but at the same time all states party to the Treaty had the right to carry out commercial and scientific research activities on the basis of full equality and the demilitarized status of the archipelago (Article 3). According to Article 2 of the Treaty, Norway received the right to protect and restore flora and fauna, although concern for the environmental situation was not typical for that time. In Article 8, Norway pledged to create a Mining Charter regulating economic activities on Spitsbergen, while the charter was not supposed to give privileges, monopolies or benefits to any country, including Norway. In 1925, the Mining Charter for Spitsbergen was adopted together with the National Spitsbergen Law.
Story
Presumably, Russian Pomors and Vikings discovered the archipelago in the 12th century. Since 1194, Svalbard has been mentioned in Norwegian chronicles. [ ] Svalbard translates to “cold shores.”
Since the mid-1920s, Spitsbergen has become world famous as a base for polar aviation - for example, Roald Amundsen's seaplane flights with the money of the American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth. On May 21, 1925, Amundsen sets off from Spitsbergen to Alaska via the North Pole, but does not make it and returns to Spitsbergen. May 11, 1926 starts from Spitsbergen Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile expedition on an airship designed by Umberto Nobile. Having flown over the pole (piloted by the airship Nobile), the expedition landed in Alaska. Under Mussolini, Umberto Nobile, already a general and an honorary member of the ruling fascist party, decided on May 23, 1928 to repeat the flight to the North Pole. Starting from Spitsbergen, he reached the Pole, but on the way back the airship crashed. Amundsen, who flew out in search of Nobile, died, and the surviving members of the airship crew were rescued on July 12 by the Soviet icebreaker Krasin.
In the post-war years, coal mining on the archipelago was resumed by Norwegian companies and Arktikugol, which also acted as the main representative of the Soviet Union in the Arctic. The gradual depletion of proven reserves in the mines of the archipelago has led to a reduction in production everywhere except the Norwegian Sveagruva. As a result, the Norwegian government began to orient Spitsbergen towards the development of tourism and an expeditionary scientific base. Arktikugol could not cope with the task of diversifying economic activity and in the post-Soviet period is subsidized from the state budget. Costs for maintaining the activities of former Soviet concessions in Spitsbergen in 2006 alone amounted to 395.6 million rubles.
Also, since 1949, Soviet fishing voyages to Spitsbergen for fish were resumed. The first major expedition in 1949 caught 462 tons of herring.
Current state
Although the Svalbard archipelago is controlled by the Kingdom of Norway and has officially been part of it since 1925, there are differences related to taxation (tax-free zone), environmental protection, protection of the rights of the local population and military activities (demilitarized zone).
There are two islands official languages- Norwegian and Russian; Russian citizens do not need a visa to visit the archipelago.
Coal production in the mines is carried out by the Norwegian company Store Norske, as well as under a concession by the Russian state trust Arktikugol (formerly a Soviet trust). Here (the Barentsburg mine) is the world's northernmost operating railway, which is almost entirely underground. Previously railways there were several and they passed along the surface. All mined coal is used to heat Barentsburg itself, that is, the Russian enterprise is a planned loss-making and partly an image project.
Currently, Spitsbergen is one of the centers of polar and subpolar tourism; both large cruise ships from northern Europe and specialized ice-class tourist ships for excursions in the Arctic regularly stop at the port of Longyearbyen. The city has several hotels (including SAS Radisson), bars and restaurants with Arctic cuisine (for example, the Kroa restaurant “At the End of the Earth”). There is a polar museum and the Svalbard International University, and significant scientific work in the study of climate, geology and glaciology. In summer and winter time Hiking, water (kayak and boat), snowmobile excursions and expeditions depart from the city daily.
In the 2000s, with money from the Norwegian government, the World Seed Vault, the so-called “Doomsday Vault,” was built on the island. This storage facility contains a seed bank of both cultivated and wild plants, designed for survival even in nuclear war. In addition, on the Berget plateau there are antennas of the SvalSAT satellite station, an incoherent scatter radar EISCAT, as well as the KHO Northern Lights Observatory. Svalbard is connected to the mainland by an undersea fiber optic cable; it operates within Barentsburg, Colesbukhta and Longyearbyen cellular both Russian (MegaFon) and Norwegian operators.
Population
The population of the archipelago is about 2,600 people (as of January 1, 2009). Of these, 69.9% are Norwegians, 18.3% are Russians and Ukrainians, 0.4% are Poles. The island has a completely visa-free regime, that is, representatives of all nations that signed the Spitsbergen Treaty of 1920 have the right to live and work. In practical terms, despite the lack of immigration and customs controls, Longyearbyen's harsh climate and high cost of living effectively limit labor migration among service and tourism workers. After the collapse of the USSR, a certain amount former employees Arktikugol moved permanently to Longyearbyen, while the population of Russian mining towns continued to decline in proportion to the decline in coal production.
The largest settlement is Longyearbyen, about 2,000 people, the majority are Norwegians. It is also administrative center archipelago. Other settlements:
- Russian mining villages: Barentsburg (470 people), Pyramida (3-4 people in winter, about 15 in summer, mostly mothballed) and Grumant (mothballed);
- Norwegian international research center Ny-Ålesund (about 30 people, in the summer more than 100);
- the Norwegian mining village of Sveagruva (90 people, with more than 300 workers from Longyearbyen);
- Polish research station Hornsund (10 people).
There is also a mothballed port village of Kolesbukhta, which was previously connected to Grumant by railway along the coast. Currently, the road has fallen into disrepair, and the tunnel near the village of Grumant is filled in as a result of soil movements.
Religion
In Longyearbyen there is the only functioning Lutheran church with its own clergyman. There is an Orthodox chapel in Barentsburg. In agreement with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Norway, the Lutheran pastor ministers to the believers of these churches.
Economy
Since the beginning of the 20th century, coal mining has become the basis of the economy on Spitsbergen. At the same time, local coal seams, as a rule, have access directly from the mountain slope and many places where coal occurs are visible to the naked eye. This geological formation has led to the emergence of numerous small mines and coal mines along coastline, which opened and closed as the reservoirs were exhausted and explored. The size of settlements on Svalbard generally corresponded to the thickness of nearby coal mines.
As coal reserves depleted, the Norwegian authorities tried to diversify the island's economy by developing tourism, in order to reduce subsidies in the region, and expanding the research sector. Due to the collapse of the USSR, a similar diversification of the Russian segment of the economy began belatedly due to financial difficulties.
Spitsbergen - unique place on the planet. It is often called the archipelago of polar bears, the “polar desert”, “no man’s land”, “glacial Eldorado”...
Whatever Spitsbergen is called, it is worth remembering the most important thing - this is perhaps the only unpolluted place on the planet. There is an amazing polar summer here, when it is light all day and night and the sun, due to the special transparency and purity of the air, shines brighter at midnight than at noon near Moscow or near Paris.
The name Spitsbergen, which means “sharp mountains,” was given to the islands by the Dutchman Willem Barents in 1596, and he was the first to put them on European maps. The Norwegians call them Svalbard (Cold Land).
Norway and Russia are recognized as the main “host” countries of the archipelago. The Russian Federation has a “special” status on Spitsbergen.
Due to the fact that the USSR, and then the Russian Federation, was the only country maintaining a noticeable presence in the region with the exception of Norway itself (until 1995, the number of Soviet and then Russian citizens in the archipelago exceeded the number of Norwegians), relations between the two countries were quite tense. .
The concerns of the Norwegian side largely led to Norway becoming a member of NATO. After a certain decline in tension, due primarily to the outflow of the Russian population from the archipelago and the closure of several Russian settlements, a new period of aggravation followed. In December 2011, the Russian government adopted a new strategy for the development of the Russian presence in Svalbard, which includes the construction of several facilities in the city of Barentsburg. This caused a protest from the Norwegian side, which is not interested in increasing the Russian presence. But the protest for the Russian Federation remained a protest.
Russia on Spitsbergen
The history of Russian presence on Spitsbergen goes back more than 500 years. According to various scientific studies, Russian Pomors appeared on Spitsbergen at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, that is, a hundred years before the official discovery of Spitsbergen by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents. This is evidenced by both written sources and data from archaeological expeditions. Starting from the 16th century, Pomeranian fishermen regularly went not only for the summer fishery (for “fish tooth” - as walrus tusk was called in the old days), but also stayed for the winter. Archaeologists still find numerous Pomeranian camps along all the shores of Western Spitsbergen.
Between the 18th and 20th centuries, Russia sent several scientific expeditions. In the toponymy of Spitsbergen Russian history development is reflected by more than 150 toponyms with the names of Russian scientists, travelers and fishermen.
In the 20-30s of the 20th century, Russia (USSR) bought land plots from various companies with the aim of developing coal mining. Currently, the following territories are assigned to Russia in Spitsbergen: the village of Barentsburg, which is the Russian “capital” of Spitsbergen, the territories of the Grumant and Colsbey mines mothballed in the 60s, reopened in 2011, the village of Pyramid. Russia also owns another area - the Bogeman Tundra, located on the border of one of the many specially protected natural areas.
The main economic entity Russian Federation is the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "GT "Arktikugol", founded and operating in Spitsbergen since 1931.
Spitsbergen itself includes over a thousand islands, large and small, with a total area of 62,700 square kilometers. The main part of its territory is occupied by five islands: Western Spitsbergen, Edge, Barents, North-East Land and Prince Charles Land.
Strategic point in the Arctic
The Arctic is a zone of strategic interests of the Russian Federation. Up to 25% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated in this territory, and the melting of glaciers in the future may allow Russia to use new shipping routes. The development of a remote region is unthinkable without a network of settlements that would allow logistics by air and water, and also act as vacation spots for specialists working in the Arctic.
Mining
Spitsbergen contains 10 billion tons of high-calorie coal (this is only five times less than in the entire territory of Russia). Semi-precious stones can also be mined on the archipelago. The Russian Federation intends in the future to carry out exploration and assessment of mineral resource reserves in Spitsbergen. In addition, there was oil in the depths of the archipelago. Russian geologists from Arktikugol found it back in 1992 and hid it from the Norwegians for a long time. Geologists believe that the amount of hydrocarbons in the archipelago is comparable to the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province.
Fishing
There are fishing areas in the archipelago area. Cod, herring, sea bass, catfish, flounder, halibut, etc. are caught. There are projects to build a fish processing factory and a plant for the extraction and processing of algae on the archipelago (including for the needs of poultry farming).
Tourism
“There’s a lot to see here, and you can get a taste of the Arctic for life.” (D.O. Rogozin)
Spitsbergen Archipelago. Norwegian Svalbard. Russian Grumant. The very heart of the Arctic. One step to the North Pole.
The tourism business in Svalbard has shown steady growth over the past decade. Thus, in the late 2000s, the number of cruise ship passengers increased from 20 thousand in 2005 to 30 thousand in 2008. 93 thousand guests were registered in the hotels of the archipelago at a fairly high cost of hotel rooms (from 120 US dollars).
Most tourists arrive in the archipelago from March to August. Snowmobile trails and ski trails are most popular in the spring, followed by hiking expeditions in July–August.
In 2014, the Grumant Arctic Tourism Center served about 20,000 tourists and sightseers from all over the world.
However, d about 2014 Russian tourists there were very few and the vast majority of them visited Svalbard in transit, as part of tour programs to the North Pole, and a very small number on foreign cruise ships. “Over the past year, we hosted only about a hundred Russians as part of 5-8-day tours...”(!) Out of 20,000 tourists from all over the world, only about 100 people are Russian tourists.
Nature of Spitsbergen
The nature of Spitsbergen is incredibly diverse and beautiful, despite the apparent Arctic desert. Jagged mountains (from which Svalbard got its name from Willem Barents), waterfalls, glacial lakes and countless glaciers, some of which are accessible in summer and winter. The shores of the Spitsbergen archipelago are washed by three seas at once: the Barents, Norwegian and Greenland.
More than 60% of the entire territory of the Svalbard archipelago and more than 80% of the marine areas around the archipelago are specially protected natural areas and are part of various reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and natural parks.
Spitsbergen is an area of wild nature. In addition to polar bears, here you can see reindeer, arctic foxes, seals, walruses, whales and admire bird colonies. It is forbidden to scare animals, but you can often see them.
There are 4,000 polar bears for every 3,000 people in the archipelago.
On Spitsbergen, the polar night lasts 120 days (from November to February) and the polar day lasts 127 days (from late April to early September).
Despite its high-latitude Arctic location, the island of Western Spitsbergen has a very moderate and comfortable climate (for the local latitudes) thanks to one of the branches of the warm Gulf Stream current, which passes near the shores of the archipelago. In winter, the air temperature rarely drops below 25 degrees below zero. Despite the huge volumes of water around, there is low relative humidity, little precipitation and a lot of clear, sunny days.
Tourist routes in Spitsbergen are very limited by territory. Partly, nature has worked to overcome the inaccessibility of a number of places; partly, the strict environmental legislation of Norway protects the very vulnerable nature of the Arctic from anthropogenic influence.
Spitsbergen is interesting not only for the “wild” nature of the Arctic, but also for its history of development. The culture and traditions of people of different nationalities and professions are closely intertwined here. Vikings-Norwegians, Russian Pomors, Dutch, Swedes; whalers and hunters, travelers, Arctic adventurers, participants in scientific expeditions, miners...
Barents, Nansen, Amundsen, Nordenskiöld, Rusanov, Samoilovich, Nobil, Starostin, Longyearbyen - these and many other names of researchers, pioneers, and industrialists are closely connected with the history of the development of Spitsbergen. “Fram”, “Ermak”, “Hercules”, “Perseus”, “Krasin” and the names of many other ships are also associated with Arctic voyages to Spitsbergen.
So, most of the information can be summarized in 9 interesting facts about the Spitsbergen archipelago.
9 interesting facts
Here the polar night lasts 120 days and the polar day lasts 127 days!
Spitsbergen is a visa-free zone.
A visa is not required to travel here if the flight is non-stop. Otherwise, you need a Schengen visa, but only for transit.
Until 1920, Spitsbergen was a “no man's land”. In 1920, the Treaty of Paris on Spitsbergen granted Norway the right to administer the territory, and from 1925 Svalbard became part of the Kingdom of Norway. However, according to the treaty, all countries that signed it have the right to conduct economic activities here.
The main means of transportation in winter is a snowmobile, in summer - boats!
For over 100 years in Svalbard there has been a tradition of removing shoes indoors. This tradition was started by the first miners to avoid bringing coal dust into the house.
The guides carry weapons with them in case of aggression from a polar bear.
Weapons here can be found of all types and calibers, from the Mauser carbine to modern rifles.
In restaurants and hotels you can see signs in the spirit of the Wild West and cabinets for storing weapons.
There are 4,000 polar bears for every 3,000 inhabitants of Svalbard!
The archipelago has three names: Svalbard, Spitsbergen and Grumant.
Svalbard is one of the largest European territories with untouched wildlife. About 65% of the land is under protection, the purpose of which is to maintain its original condition.
The article uses materials from the following sources: , goarctica.ru, Wikipedia.
The Spitsbergen archipelago is a harsh northern region, lying beyond the Arctic Circle just a thousand kilometers from the North Pole. The archipelago is under the jurisdiction of Norway, but most countries, including Russia, do not require a visa to enter here.
Spitsbergen attracts many people who want to get acquainted with the pristine nature of the Arctic. A significant part of the archipelago has been given the status national park. The landscapes of the archipelago are astounding, with snow-covered plains ending in majestic fjords at the sea, and mighty glaciers rising on spiky mountains.
Extraordinarily rich and animal world Spitsbergen. There are noisy bird markets here on the coastal rocks, reindeer roam the tundra, and of course, here you can meet the polar bear - the symbol of Spitsbergen.
There are practically no roads on the archipelago, so tourists are usually offered a cruise around the archipelago by boat.
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is one of the smallest oceans on Earth. It is located in the northern hemisphere of the earth between North America and Eurasia. The ocean covers an area of 14.75 million square kilometers. The average ocean depth is 1,225 meters, and the greatest is 5,527 meters in the Grenada Sea. The volume of water in the ocean is 18.07 million square kilometers.
Visually, the ocean can be divided into three natural waters: the Arctic Basin, the North European Basin and the Canadian Basin. Thanks to favorable geographical location In the central part of the ocean, the ice cover remains intact throughout the year, while being in a mobile state. Considering that the water in the ocean is very cold, only marine inhabitants that are resistant to cold temperatures can live here - such as whales, penguins, fur seals and many others.
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Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen is the largest locality on the island of Spitsbergen in Norway. Founded in 1906 as a mining town, the town took its name from the owner of a coal mining company, John Longyear. Today, coal has ceased to play an important role in the life of the city; Longyearbyen has become a research and tourist center.
Longyearbyen's rows of one-story houses, painted in bright colors, look almost festive against the backdrop of the monochrome nature of Svalbard. There is a University Center in the city, and a satellite station has been built that receives and processes data from orbiting satellites. It is also home to the Global Seed Vault - millions of crop seeds are stored here in case of worldwide disaster.
Longyearbyen attracts many tourists who want to get to know the unique polar nature of Spitsbergen. The city has several hotels and a city museum.
This island with stunning natural landscape is located in the eastern part of the Spitsbergen archipelago between the Edge and Western Spitsbergen islands. It is named after the famous Dutch navigator William Barents. Experts say that the island was created by rocks of Paleozoic age with the predominant rocks being limestone and shale.
Its total area is 1288 km². Most of the island, approximately 558 km², is covered by glacier, while the rest of the island is arctic tundra. Barents Island provides a unique natural ecosystem for scientific research on climate change and possible glacier movements. But, according to recent research, one should not expect general melting and change of glaciers on this island.
Svalbard Airport
Svalbard Airport is the world's northernmost civil airport serving Svalbard. The airport is located at the foot of the Platoberg mountain.
In 2009, the airport's passenger traffic amounted to about 139 thousand people. From this airport you can fly to Oslo, Tromsø, Ny-Ålesund, Svea and even Barentsburg, so the airport is considered international. Since Norway is part of the Schengen zone, Russians flying to Barentsburg do not go through passport control.
Svalbard is the largest structure, on the territory of which there are 200 parking spaces, taxi rank and car rental. The airport has one paved runway 2,323 meters long and 45 meters wide. Under the strip there are two culverts that drain melt water from the mountain.
Abandoned mining village Pyramid
Pyramid is an abandoned Soviet mining village located on the island of Spitsbergen in Norway. The village was built in the second half of the twentieth century near the world's northernmost coal mine. Its population reached a thousand people. But in the nineties, coal production fell sharply and the village was mothballed.
Now the Pyramid is a ghost village, which has preserved not only the buildings, but also many personal belongings of its inhabitants, left here as if in a hurry. The territory of the village is open to visitors, but it is not recommended to enter its buildings without an escort - in order to avoid accidents. The pyramid still holds the record for many of the most northern things in the world - among such records are a monument to Lenin, a swimming pool and even a piano.
The unusual disturbing and sad atmosphere of the abandoned city, as well as the unusual beautiful nature, surrounding the village, attracts tourists here in the summer. A small hotel has been set up in the village especially for them and there is a tour guide.
Barentsburg
Barentsburg is a mining town on the Norwegian island of West Spitsbergen, in the Spitsbergen archipelago. It was named after the Dutch navigator V. Barents. Now more than 300 Russians and Ukrainians live and work in this settlement.
The village is isolated, with autonomous life support. The industrial and social complex of Barentsburg includes a mine, a thermal power plant, a hospital, a kindergarten and other facilities. The residential village, housing and communal services and subsidiary farming are maintained by the Arktikugol company. The coal mined in the mine is used for the village’s own needs and is also exported. A hotel with a bar and a souvenir shop is open for tourists in the village.
Here you can visit the Pomor Museum, founded in 1995. The museum, which tells the history of the Svalbard archipelago from ancient times to the present day, contains a geological exhibition containing more than 33 types of minerals and rocks, the age of which ranges from 1-2 billion years to 5-6 thousand years.
Northeast Land
Northeast land is desert island in the Spitsbergen archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean. Belongs to the territory of Norway. It occupies an area of 14.5 thousand square kilometers.
The surface of the island is a plateau, up to 637 meters high. Of the entire surface of the island, 11,135 square kilometers are occupied by glaciers. Mosses and lichens grow in ice-free areas. There are a significant number of fjords on the northern coast of Northeastland.