YAKUTSK, December 17. /TASS/. The Expedition to Sannikov Land book about the project of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) was presented in Yakutsk. The event featured the author, the expedition leader, Honorary Polar Explorer of Russia, Chairman of the Council of the Russian Union of Rescuers' Yakutsk branch Nikolay Nakhodkin, a TASS correspondent reported.

The expedition, which continued from 2020 to 2022, featured a team of eight people - mostly rescuers from the Yakutsk branch. It was for the first time in the world that a team on inflatable vessels - a catamaran and a PVC trimaran - reached the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky and the Maly Lyakhovsky Islands and the Anzhu Islands (the Bunge Land, the Faddeyevsky Island, and the New Siberia Island).

"The impetus [for the project] emerged when I incidentally read on the Internet that American senators were discussing the ownership of the Wrangel Island and the De Long Archipelago, which includes the Bennett Island. So we, members of the Russian Union of Rescuers, talked and decided to apply to the Russian Geographical Society," Nikolay Nakhodkin said during the presentation. "We were strongly impressed by the fact that someone was claiming Yakutia's lands."

The book, published in 300 copies, is dedicated to Nakhodkin's parents, Maria and Alexander. In the preface, the author explained the book's name. After the expedition, after having analyzed all available archival literature and scientific data, the idea was the island needs to re-obtain its historically fair Russian name - the Sannikov Land, he said.

After the discovery, the Bennett Island has been known as the so-called Sannikov Land, an "oasis" amid the ice, a "ghost island" in the Arctic Ocean. The mythical island was named after a Russian merchant and explorer, Yakov Sannikov, who in 1810 was the first to talk about a continent with a favorable climate, to where migratory birds fly in the spring to return with their offspring in the fall. Sannikov was an experienced polar explorer, and before that he had discovered the Stolbovoy and the Faddeyevsky Islands.

The project's importance

The book contains information about preparations, expedition diaries, conducted scientific research, the participants, as well as the expedition's results.

The research included environmental observations, bird observations, herbarium collection, hydro-biology and paleontology observations, and testing of rescue technologies.

On the Bennett Island, the expedition built a Yakut tent-dwelling to act as a scientific hospital and rescue depot, and installed a 'serge' pole for tying horses. The Yakuts believe that hitching posts indicate the land has a master.

"The Academy of Sciences, institutes that study fisheries, and the Navy have taken our results very seriously. We hope that [the project] will draw attention to the Arctic," the book's author said. "We have opened a "window" showing there is a huge scope for research, and we hope that the Academy of Sciences and our government will pay attention to this, will have research continue. <...> I would also say that our expedition has stirred up interest in history."

The book contains an address by Yakutia's Governor Aisen Nikolaev. "The book is filled with the spirit strength of those who explore the harsh Arctic expanses, who overcome any difficulties for the sake of new discoveries. The vivid pictures show the northern island, shrouded in mists. Such books give a rare opportunity to learn how beautiful and wide our native land is, how much unexplored power it holds," the governor wrote.

The Bennett Island is one of the most inaccessible islands. It is almost 1,000 km northeast of Tiksi village. The island is part of the De Long Islands in the East Siberian Sea. It was discovered a century and a half ago, but still remains poorly studied.