MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Every year, the Mikhail Somov research/survey vessel departs from Arkhangelsk, carrying food, construction materials, equipment and personnel. People working at hard-to-reach meteorology stations know the ship very well. Getting to a "polar shift," or leaving for a holiday, or to receive supplies once in 12 months - this is what the ship is used for. A TASS correspondent was on the seventh voyage over 2021 - to the Wrangel Island. We publish a series of feature stories: more than 30 meteorology stations and six Arctic seas.
The Kara Sea / "Why would I need it?"
Freshwater is a problem at many weather stations - it does not exist there in the regular form, to which we are used. Only from melted snow. Here, on the Troinoi Island (an archipelago in the Kara Sea’s south), people working at the Izvestiya TsIK station approached the issue seriously and made a system, which solves the "drought" problem for the personnel.
Right behind the accommodation module we can see three 25 m3 containers, galvanized inside. Two of the containers are insulated. The insulated containers are used in cold weather, and the other - in the summer time.
- The frost-resistant containers are wrapped into a net of pipes, which heat the fresh water inside, forcing it to circulate all the time. The water moves constantly, - the station’s manager Vadim Plotnikov described the system.
The Plotnikovs, Olga and Vadim, have been working on the Troinoi for many years. Once, they have attempted to leave the island "for good," but did return.
- Vadim kept saying: "I miss the sea so much!" On the return trip, onboard [the Mikhail] Somov, when we passed the Barents and then the Kara Gates, he said: "Can you feel, it’s the smell of our sea!" The Kara Sea has a very specific odor. Not that it’s watermelon-fresh, sure not. But anyway, something chilly and pure," - Olga said.
On the day [the Mikhail] Somov arrived, the island was free from snow. Around us was the red tundra, the black shore and the turquoise water.
Meteorologists say - the Arctic gives the freedom of action, and this is why people work here and return here. A lot depends on a person, and what matters is - to feel you are needed.
- One day, shortly before we were about to leave, I was returning from the site. I carried a barrel, with which we measure precipitation. The wind was 17 mps, the frost. I walk and ask myself: why would I need it? I’m a retiree already. I could not find an answer, - Olga said. - A month before our departure, the bears were hanging around the station all the time. We could walk to the meteorology site only in a team of the entire personnel, with the gun and hand flares. We were practically running.
One day, at a time, on the island there were 14 bears. Four predators were permanently wandering near the station. When a bear is lying some 300 meters away, Olga said, it’s nothing, but when it’s just a hundred meters away - it’s scary.
Mother bears with cubs often stay near the station. The people’s houses act as a certain protection from grownup bears, which may attack the babies. Recently, a bear mother has brought her babies real close to the module, and arranged a playing ground for them there.
- No, we do not have that feeling that we are working somewhere on the edge of the world. We do have the Internet, the satellite telephone. In the past, we could communicate with Morse only. Well, when the polar night comes - in the silence and darkness develops the feeling you are somewhere far from people, - Olga told us.
At the end of the polar night, the Sun’s tiny spot appears in the sky on February 6. The station’s personnel always celebrate that day. Like on the Easter Day: they would cut "eggs" of snow and compete in egg cracking.
- On the New Year night, after the chimes strike, we go to the mechanics shop, where Prokhor, our house-elf, "lives." The diesel room is the station’s heart. If the diesel [generator] doesn’t work, it’ll be a disaster. This is why we all treat Prohor with candies, - Olga said smiling.
It was time ago that people working at the station used coal for heating or kerosene lamps. Nowadays, they live in module houses and do not have to use Morse. According to Olga, information has lost its novelty and importance because it is easily available now. "When we used Morse, communication with other stations was heartfelt. We knew everything about the other people, we had a community."
A polar bear is wandering along the coastline edge - a reminder about on whose territory these people live. The moment it appears - the dog wakes up. We double check hand flares in the pockets.
The North is a mirror to every person: look in it, don’t turn away. The North is ruthless, pure and aloof. Its snow washes your face, its fog wraps you up. The North welcomes all, but only a few will stay.
- Here, people understand about themselves two things: how big your heart is and how professional you are, - Olga said.
The Kara Sea / City living is on hold
Somewhere between the Franz Josef Land Archipelago and the Severnaya Zemlya (Northern Land) Archipelago in the Kara Sea lies a small island - the Wiese Island. A hydrometeorology station on the island has been working since 1945. It is one of the northernmost weather stations in the world.
The island is not big, just 35 km long, and its widest part is only 9 km. The island’s coastline has been receding gradually.
Viktor Soldatenkov, a technician, came to the station a few years ago, right after he graduated from a college in Moscow. Has got tired of noise, polluted air, fuss and pressure, he said. The man had been looking for a profession to leave for the North. Among his year’s graduates, only he went to work at a hard-to-reach station. Viktor is the first graduate over seven years to have chosen working in high latitudes. Out of his 26 mates, only six do jobs using the received skills.
- Quite many find an escape from civilization in traveling, tourism, spending big money. And I have an opportunity to see for free the Arctic. The impressions are beyond words. I have been told nothing grows on the Wiese Island. However, in reality the island does have plants. It is not as cold here as I have expected. The air is clean. On the way here, we’ve passed the Novaya Zemlya - it’s the best place I have ever seen, - Viktor said.
His friends reacted differently to the choice. Many supported him. "You’re tough! It’s truly interesting."
- The parents were shocked. They did get used to my traveling, knew I could leave hitchhiking any moment. And yet, they could not expect I would go to this dangerous and unusual place. Nobody in my family has worked in the North, - Viktor told us.
He has met a polar bear already.
- When I saw the predator, and having heard all those stories - I got frightened. In the polar night, in a snow storm it’s not easy to see the beast - it’s quiet and quick. People must be cautious. Not to go too far from the station, to have protection on you at all times.
Viktor has time to read much. A half of his luggage space was taken by books, he said.
The plans are to continue education and, possibly, to work in the Antarctic.
- It’s been quite a time I learned from people, who have been working in the Arctic for long, what the profession used to be. Here, it matters greatly what people are like. Everything depends on with whom you communicate and work, on relations in the team. If the people are good, if they can compromise, then working inside a limited team is not complicated, - Viktor said.
The city living has been on hold, he continued, adding his view on the present lack of information is that he has been taking a necessary diet.
- Loneliness, of course, is what everyone feels here. But it may be enjoyable. At the same time, it’s a good test: you will see who really cares for you. Everyone must remember always: somebody is waiting for you, - he said. - Here people often are one on one with themselves. It gives a strong psychological jolt. Remembering the entire life. Including the bad in it. Deep reflections. And there’s nowhere to run, to escape it. Just be there looking inside yourself.
Viktor fears that after this work at the station he may find it complicated to get adapted to living in the city. He knows stories about people who have failed to find themselves on the mainland and returned to the North.
"I hope love in me will prevail. No matter, what people are like, I’ll love them, because I can understand - why."
The Kara Sea / Life without Mainland
The Georgy Ushakov MG-2 station on the Golomyanny Island is well-known. It used to be a starting point for many Russian and foreign expeditions. Stickers, flyers and pictures of travelers and researchers cover all the walls inside the house.
The Blizzard polar female team opens the station’s guest book. "We keep coming here again and again, like returning home, because here our friends have always welcomed us. In the cozy Moscow flats we dream about snow-covered islands and we again want to go to the country rich in snows, hummocks, icebergs and snow-white gulls. We worry about the screaming blizzard outside and remember our sincere chitchats. We again take a flight to the beautiful Arctic, where only courageous, strong and kind people live and work. Thank you! May 14, 1987."
That very Blizzard nowadays is a charity organization - the only non-governmental organization which cares for those who suffer complex spinal injuries.
The snow around the station is covered with many footprints - of people and of bears. The weather does not favor us: the fog keeps fading away only to return very soon and hide everything around. This is very dangerous - polar bears live on the island. One of them, like always, unexpectedly showed up when the technicians were installing new equipment on the site. Luckily, a truck was nearby. The engine sound repelled the animal.
- The bears are unpredictable and very different. Some are cautious, others would practically climb into the window. Some are aggressive, some are indifferent. Safety is above all, - technician Viktoria Zhuravleva told us. - As for me, probably only for the last two years I am not afraid. Before that, I used to wake up from nightmares with bears.
Dogs at the stations are team members. People cannot do without them. On the Golomyanny Island, only one dog has remained. Four others have been missing. Two of them drifted away on an ice flow in a rush after a bear. Such stories happen every year.
- In the beginning of our work, we did not have communication. No Internet to 2014. We sent our notes through Marina, a radio operator on [the] Dikson [Island]. We sit, and press those keys - "tic-tic-tic." She received them, and then texted the notes to her mother’s cell. They did talk on the phone. Responses traveled to me by the same route. It was a problem to receive messages. Sometimes I had to ask to repeat - couldn’t make out from the first time, - Victoria said.
Viktoria comes from Altai. She graduated from a college in Novosibirsk. There, she met future husband Anton. Together, they left for the first station - the Sterlegov - where they worked for eight years. Then, they changed that station for the Golomyanny Island.
- Every year, we return to the station to work "for the last season" - this has continued for 13 years now. We don’t like it in the city: too much fuss, problems. Here we work, and everything is quiet. It is the lifestyle we’ve got used to. We do not really miss the mainland. We do not miss the civilization, - Viktoria said.
Looking at the map, we can see how high from the mainland we have traveled - to the 79th degree north. The ship moves downwards, we are sailing towards the Vilkisky Strait and the Laptev Sea.