MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic environmental project will dedicate most of its expeditions in the coming summer to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. Cleanup missions are planned in the Murmansk, Krasnoyarsk Regions. On Novaya Zemlya volunteers will lift a combat aircraft out of water, the project's press service told TASS.
"Most complicated expeditions will be in the Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Krasnoyarsk Regions," the press service said. "Clean Arctic volunteers will arrive in the Arkhangelsk Region in mid-July. A team of volunteers will go to the first Russian settlement on Novaya Zemlya - on the Maly Karmakuly [station]. This is one of the most inaccessible locations, and they will have to get there by helicopter. We have a special reason to go there. During the Great Patriotic War, there were an airfield and an artillery battery. In July, 1942, in a battle with the German submarine U-601, the Catalina aircraft's crew was killed. Volunteers will collect wreckage of the fallen aircraft, will do landscaping and will install a memorial pillar."
In June, volunteers will go to Karelia to work in the village of Novoe Mashezero, the Belomorsky District, and in the city of Segezha - to do landscaping at memorial complexes to those who died in the Great Patriotic War. Also in June will begin large-scale reconnaissance work in the Murmansk Region in places of the Great Patriotic War's fierce fighting, where search for mass graves is still underway. In late July or early August, in Komi, volunteers will do landscaping in Vorkuta and Inta: Victory Boulevard, the Victory Monument, the monument to the locomotive, as well as the area near the Oath memorial composition, and the monument of sorrow to victorious soldiers.
In August, volunteers will go to the Krasnoyarsk Region's village of Dixon. This is the only settlement east the Urals where military operations took place during the Great Patriotic War. The work is due on August 25-28 - it was on these dates in 1942 that only 80 defenders heroically defended the port and disrupted the Nazis' Wunderland operation. This mission defended the Northern Sea Route for lend-lease caravans. Clean Arctic's volunteers will clean territory around the Mass Grave of seven North Sea sailors who died in the battle with Germany's Admiral Scheer battleship, and the area by the Memorial to Glory on the Yuzhnaya Mountain.
Another most challenging expedition will be in the Krasnoyarsk Region - this time on Cape Chelyuskin. It is also scheduled for August. Volunteers will begin cleaning the area. According to preliminary estimates, there are up to 40,000 fuel barrels on the peninsula. Additionally, volunteers will clean the memorial to fallen polar explorers, which is in a poor condition now. As part of the 500th anniversary of the Northern Sea Route, they will install an obelisk in honor of the cape's discoverer Semen Chelyuskin. Other cleanup missions are planned in Yakutia, Chukotka and the Nenets Autonomous Region.
"Volunteers, who want to get to Eurasia's northernmost point, will undergo a special selection process. The main criteria will be endurance, the ability to cope with physical exertion, teamwork experience, and stress tolerance. They will also undergo psychology tests. Thus, the best of best will join the wonderful trip," the press service quoted the project's leader Andrey Nagibin as saying.
About the project
The Clean Arctic project began in 2021 and has developed significantly since then. Over four years, 7,700 volunteers from across the country have joined its missions. They have collected 19,800 tons of waste and cleaned 791 hectares of Arctic land.