TASS, June 20. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic movement’s volunteers collected about 25 tonnes of waste near the Novodvinsk Fortress (founded by Peter the Great in 1701) in the Arkhangelsk Region, the mission organizers told TASS.

"More than 150 people have collected household and wood waste near Russia’s first stone bastion fortress in the Arkhangelsk Region," they said in a release. "A team of Clean Arctic volunteers, student teams, employees of the Arkhangelsk Local History Museum, representatives of the regional Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, as well as of the Ministry of Culture have participated in this large-scale environmental event by the walls of Peter the Great’s first military fortress. The participants have collected about 25 tonnes of waste at the ancient fort and on the path leading to it."

In 2021, Clean Arctic’s volunteers and local residents cleaned another ancient fort on the Linsky Priluk Island. They collected tonnes of waste and prepared concrete panels for further transportation. The Clean Arctic’s missions make the historical monument look tidy, the organization’s Chairman of the Management Board Ruslan Gubaidullin said.

"We as a public project realize the importance of cleaning territories of this country’s historical heritage," the press service quoted him as saying. "The Novodvinsk Fortress is a landmark location, it is Russia’s first stone bastion fortress, the first military fortress of Peter the Great."

"We are proud to be able to participate in its preservation," he added.

Clean Arctic’s second season kicked off in the Murmansk Region in late May, when hundreds of volunteers collected 12 tonnes of waste along the coastlines of Murmansk, Kandalaksha and Kirovsk. In May, other missions were organized in the Arkhangelsk Region, Karelia, as well as in the Krasnoyarsk Region, where the cleanup continues under Norilsk Nickel’s Clean Norilsk program, implemented under the Clean Arctic project.

Clean Arctic is a large-scale project to clean the Arctic territory from the waste, accumulated since the Soviet times. Captain of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear-powered Arctic class icebreaker Dmitry Lobusov and Gennady Antokhin, Captain on FESCO’s ships from 1982 to 2012 are the project’s authors. Clean Arctic has developed into a platform, which unites public and volunteer organizations, scientists, officials and businesses. The project’s partners are Norilsk Nickel, RZD, PhosAgro, and others.