ARKHANGELSK, January 27. /TASS/. Experts of the Russian Arctic National Park named the author of the movie about the Molodezhnaya station in the Antarctic. Strangely, the film had been found in the Arctic — on the Franz Josef Land’s Heiss Island. Its creator turned out to be engineer and artist Nikolai Shvyrkov, the national park’s representative Evgeny Yermolov told TASS.
Explorers had found an old film, which consisted of glued black-and-white and colored fragments, in an abandoned house of the polar station on Heiss Island. The national park’s experts guessed the film was dedicated to the polar explorers' life and work at the Ernst Krenkel observatory on the island. However, as the film was restored, experts saw on the digital copy that it portrayed the Antarctic’s Molodezhnaya station, not the Arctic. The movie dated back to the 1970s.
"So, we began searching: it was almost a detective story, as when we took the film, nobody could define anything — neither the year, nor the place, nor the author. Later on, we learned that the author was Nikolai Shvyrkov. It was specialists from the Museum of Arctic and Antarctic in St. Petersburg who helped us to find it out," the national park’s head of the Department of Historical Heritage, Yevgeny Yermolov revealed.
The movie’s rather big part is devoted to the artist, depicting paintings of the Northern Lights, polar views, unloading of vessels in the ice, penguins and polar bears. Some fragments showed the artist working. The artist is actually the movie creator.
"There works a wonderful man in the Museum of Arctic and Antarctic — Valery Ippolitov. He is a prominent polar explorer, who has repeatedly travelled to the Arctic and Antarctic, spending many winters there, and who led North Pole 19 and North Pole 30 drifting stations, as well as Antarctic stations," the historian commented. "When he saw the movie, he established that the artist was Nikolai Shvyrkov. They used to work together, including at the Molodezhnaya station."
The experts concluded that a part of the movie was shot in 1972-1974.
"It was the Eighteenth Soviet Antarctic expedition, which used to work at many stations, including at the Molodezhnaya station where Nikolai Shvyrkov was an engineer," he added.
'A physicist and a lyricist'
The movie’s author was engaged in launching sounding rockets. The M-100 rockets, whose blast-offs were depicted in the movie, went as high as 100 kilometers, much higher than weather balloons. The rocket registered temperature, humidity, air pressure and other parameters. Lift-offs took place across the globe, including off Heiss Island and from the Molodezhnaya station.
"Shvyrkov, as Ippolitov says, was a launcher at the meteorology station," the national park’s representative clarified. "His responsibility was the rockets, he prepared them for launches."
Shvyrkov was also a good artist. His works are kept at the Museum of Arctic and Antarctic.
"He spent seven winters in the Antarctic and a few winters on Heiss Island," he continued. "He was a high-class specialist and a very talented person: an artist, an athlete, and a very good scientist, engineer, very creative and versatile. Just like a man of the Renaissance era: a physicist and a lyricist, as we put it."
Nikolai Shvyrkov passed away in 2010. The national park’s experts are searching for his family.
The park will use the movie in its projects, as research works in the Arctic and in the Antarctic were similar.
"At first, we were rather disappointed, when we realized that the movie was about the Antarctic, but on the other hand, the same people used to work in the Arctic and in the Antarctic," he continued. "It is remarkable that the news came on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Antarctic’s discovery — we shall mark that event on January 28."
National Park and polar stations
The Ernst Krenkel Geophysical Polar Observatory (formerly Druzhnaya) is located on the Franz Josef Land Archipelago’s Heiss Island. The station was opened in 1957. It could accommodate about 200 people at a time. After the fire of 2001, the station was closed and resumed its activities in 2004. Currently, there are some 5-6 staff there.
The Molodezhnaya station, which could accommodate 150 people at a time, went into operation in the Antarctic in 1962. In 1999, work at the station was suspended, and since 2006 it has been operational only in summer.
The Russian Arctic National Park is Russia’s northernmost and biggest nature reserve, which occupies an area of 8.8 million hectares. It was established on June 15, 2009. The Park includes a northern part of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago’s Severny Island and the entire Franz Josef Land Archipelago.