From the History of Science
The USSR Academy of Sciences and Studies of Permafrost in Northern Asia, 1930–1941
Suleymanov A. A.
The author analyzes the development of geocryology (the study of permafrost) and the organization of research in this field during the period from 1930 to 1941, when the USSR Academy of Sciences’ newly established special Commission initiated and conducted an active program of research of the world’s largest permafrost areal in Northern Siberia. In 1939, the Commission was reorganized into the V. A. Obruchev Permafrost Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which developed and coordinated a network of regional stations. With the help of archival data and published sources, the article describes the history of academic expeditions, the participation of the Academy of Sciences’ researchers in the work of permafrost stations, and the importance of permafrost studies for scientific exploration of the Asian Arctic.
Key words: Arctic science, expeditions, geocryology, Northern Asia, permafrost, The USSR Academy of Sciences, Yakutia
eLIBRARY.RU: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=23815390
REFERENCES →
Alekseev, V. R. (2013) Mikhail Ivanovich Sumgin (1873–1942 gg.). Zhizn’ i nauchnaia deiatel’nost’ [Mikhail Ivanovich Sumgin (1873–1942). Life and Scientific Work]. http://mpi.ysn.ru/index.php/ ru/publikatsii/сумгин-м-и.html.
Anisimova, N. P. (1997) Iakutskaia nauchno-issledovatel’skaia merzlotnaia stantsiia [The Yakutsk Permafrost Station], in: Kamenskii, R. M. (ed.) Akademicheskoe merzlotovedenie v Iakutii [Academic Geocryology in Yakutia]. Yakutsk: Izdatel’stvo IMZ SO RAN, pp. 23–27.
Boiakova, S. I. (1995) Glavsevmorput’ v osvoenii i razvitii Severa Iakutii (1932 – Iiun’ 1941 g.) [The Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route in Exploration and Development of Northern Yakutia (1932 – June 1941)]. Novosibirsk: Izdatel’stvo Nauka.
Fedosov, A. E., Mel’nikov, P. I., Shimanovskii, S. V. et al. (1942) Issledovanie vechnoi merzloty v Yakutskoi respublike [Permafrost research in the Yakut Republic]. Iakutsk: Iakutskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, vol. 1.
Ianovskii, V. K. (1932) Ekspeditsiia na Pechoru dlia opredeleniia iuzhnoi granitsy vechnoi merzloty [Expedition to the Pechora for the Determination of the Permafrost Southern Boundary], Vestnik Akademii nauk SSSR, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 46–48.
Il’in, A. V. (2002) Promyshlennoe osvoenie Taimyra [Industrial Development of Taimyr]. http://www. memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/Golgofa/02.htm.
Kamenskii, R. M. (2007) Chto my znaem o vechnoi merzlote [What Do We Know about the Permafrost], Vestnik Rossiiskoi akademii nauk, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 164–168.
Shepelev, V. V. (1997) Mikhail Ivanovich Sumgin – osnovopolozhnik merzlotovedeniia [Mikhail Ivanovich Sumgin – The Founder of Geocryology], in: Kamenskii, R. M. (ed.) Akademicheskoe merzlotovedenie v Iakutii [Academic Geocryology in Yakutia]. Iakutsk: Izdatel’stvo IMZ SO RAN, pp. 8–13.
Shirina, D. A. (1994) Peterburgskaia akademiia nauk i Severo-Vostok. 1725–1917 gg. [Saint- Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the Northeast. 1725–1917]. Novosibirsk: Izdatel’stvo Nauka.
Shvetsov, P. F. and Sedov, V. P. (1941) Gigantskie naledi i podzemnye vody khrebta Tas-Khaiakhatakh [Giant frazil and Groundwater of Tas-Hayahatah ridge]. Moskva and Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo AN SSSR.
Sumgin, M. I. (1932) Vechnaia merzlota na Kol’skom poluostrove [Permafrost on the Kola Peninsula], in: Fersman, A. E. (ed.) Za Poliarnym krugom. Raboty Akademii nauk na Kol’skom poluostrove za gody Sovetskoi vlasti. 1920–1932 gg. [Within the Arctic Circle. The Academy of Sciences’ Activities on the Kola Peninsula in the Soviet period. 1920–1932]. Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo AN SSSR, pp. 57–61.
Sumgin, M. I. (1940) K voprosu o perspektivakh izucheniia vechnoi merzloty v Iakutskoi respublike [On the Perspectives of Permafrost Studies in the Yakut Republic], in: Trudy Komiteta po vechnoi merzlote [Proceedings of the Permafrost Committee], vol. 9. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo AN SSSR, pp. 5–26.
Recommended bibliographic description
Suleymanov A. A., The USSR Academy of Sciences and Studies of Permafrost in Northern Asia, 1930–1941,
Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki [Studies in History of Science and Technology],
2015, vol. 36, no. 2, p. 239–249
© Studies in the History of Science and Technology: Quarterly scientific journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2015)
ISSN 0205-9606. Индекс 70143
