Soviet Antarctic plans after the International Geophysical Year: changes in policy

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Gan, I
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Univ Press 2009
• Subjects: History and Archaeology; Historical Studies; Historical Studies not elsewhere classified; Antarctic; Arctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://journals.cambridge.org; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247409008456; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/62622

The final months of the International Geophysical Year of 19571958 were a period when the politicaland scientific future of the Antarctic was being shaped, with many of the participating countries reassessing theirpolicies regarding the South Polar region. This paper explores the thinking of both political and scientific figures inthe USSR that helped mould Soviet Antarctic policy during this time and demonstrates that the two perspectives didnot necessarily coincide. The political perspective is exemplified by the deputy chairman of the USSR council ofministers and member of the central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Aleksei Kosygin, and thescientific perspective by the deputy director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Mikhail Somov. The factthat there was interplay between both viewpoints when planning the Soviet post IGY Antarctic programmes showsthat political considerations did not always prevail over the scientific, with national prestige being an area in whichtheir interests overlapped. Ultimately, Somov was instrumental in reducing to some extent the effects of the Sovietgovernments attempts to curtail Soviet Antarctic research operations when it was reassessing its policy in the light ofnew international initiatives regarding future collaboration in the Antarctic.