(Arctic Institute of North America, 2 November 2009) -- One of the most prominent Soviet Arctic scientists of the 1920s and 1930s, Mikhail Mikhailovich Ermolaev was a geologist, physicist, and oceanographer. After working in the Arctic for some 13 years, he was arrested by the Russian police force (NKVD), convicted on a trumped-up charge of "sabotage," and sent to the Gulag for ten years.

The original Russian biography of this fascinating man was written by Ermolaev's son, Sleksei Mikhailovich Ermolaev, and V.M. Diber. Translated from the original Russian and edited by William Barr, Arctic Scientist, Gulag Survivor: The Biography of Mikhail Mikhailovich Ermolaev, 1905-1991 (University of Calgary Press, 2009, $44.95) is a fascinating personal account typical of the experiences of so many Soviet citizens who were unjustly banished to the infamous Gulag. Because Ermolaev was part of a specialist team, the conditions he endured were better than most, with reasonably comfortable quarters and relatively adequate food. However, his story still clearly illustrates the brutality and inhumanity of the system.

After barely surviving a year of correctional hard labour in a lumber camp, Ermolaev was appointed to a sharashka, or professional team, which was charged with extending the railroad to the coal mines of Vorkuta in the farthest reaches of northeastern European Russia. Still later, he and his family were exiled to Syktyvkar and Arkhangel'sk. Remarkably, Ermolaev was eventually able to resume his academic career, ultimately establishing a new Department of the Geography of the Oceans at Kaliningrad State University.

Aleksei's recollections of his father's arrest and of the family's experiences while his father was in the Gulag, along with an excellent selection of family photographs, infuse Arctic Scientist, Gulag Survivor with a sense of immediacy and personal connection. Thanks to the expertise of William Barr, Ermolaev's story is now available in English for the first time.

Tagged: Arctic, History, News, Polar research: Reports and findings

(BarentsObserver, 2 November 2009) -- Russia’s fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers will lead research vessels into the Arctic in a series of missions to detail geological analysis of the seabed. The aim of the research is to support Russia’s claim to the energy-rich continental shelf beneath the Arctic Sea, Andrei Smirnov, deputy director of the icebreaker fleet told the Associated Press. Over the next three years a detailed geological analysis of the seabed will be made. Next mission to include an nuclear powered icebreaker and a research vessel will be in June 2010.

Tagged: Arctic, News, Research