The Russian Revolution: The End of Foreign Exploration of the Russian Arctic

The 1917 October Revolution brought with it Communism and an end to not only the Tsarist order but to foreign voyages of exploration in the Russian Arctic. It opened an era in which Russia's efforts in the north focused on mapping the Arctic islands and identifying a more routinely viable (ice-free) passage through Northern Sea Route as well as protecting Russian use of northern waters in the region. In 1916, a number of boats were reassigned from the Baltic Sea to the Arctic Sea Flotilla in order to protect Russian use of the Northern Sea Route from German submarine and naval activity in the region. In 1926, the Soviet Republic invoked the sector theory, which was used by the Canadians in the North American Arctic, to claim sovereignty over Franz Josef Land as well as all lands lying within the sector to the north of the USSR.  However, it was not until 1930 that the Soviets expelled Norwegian hunters from the region and established a weather station at Hooker Island. While this aggression caused considerable anxiety among the Norwegians, they could do little given the limited international interest in the developing situation.   By 1933, the Soviets formed the Red Banner Northern Military Fleet, a naval division tasked with protecting Soviet territory north of the Arctic Circle.  Around this time, the Soviets also discovered and claimed Severnaya Zemlya, another northern Russian Arctic archipelago and a choke point in the Northern Sea Route. Russia’s grip on the Arctic territory to its north was tightening.

Prior to World War II, in 1937, the Soviet Union established the first of what was to become a series of permanent floating ice stations designed to capture scientific data in the Arctic region. These ice stations were established by the Soviet Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, founded in 1920, which continues to operate a number of drift stations in the Arctic today. The ice stations helped to further the Soviet's understanding of the region as well as cement their sovereignty claims over islands in the Arctic region north of the USSR. During 1937 and 1938, the Soviets, British, Americans, Canadians, Danish and Norwegians all also sent expeditions north to learn more about the Arctic. Contemporarily, the Soviets began practical mineral exploration, for instance mining coal on Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago, and sent the icebreaker Sedov to probe the region. Meanwhile, north of Canada the Canadian icebreaker St. Roch made the first west-east journey of the Northwest Passage between 1940 and 1942.

World War II, as World War I before it, caused global attention to turn towards Europe. As such, the Arctic was mostly neglected for a number of years. Even data from the second International Polar Year in 1937-1938 remained largely unassimilated until after the war. However, the Soviet’s Northern Fleet continued to operate, providing support for Allied Troops and safe passage to over four thousand ships while sinking or damaging over three hundred enemy transport and military ships.  Clearly, the Soviets were committed to maintaining a military presence in the Arctic and asserting their claim to the Northern Sea Route even if no other nations demonstrated a similar interest.