‘From icy backwater to nuclear waste ground’: The Russian arctic ocean in the twentieth century

Abstract

This chapter provides a ‘technological narrative’ of Russian exploration of the Arctic Ocean, arguing that in contrast to previous centuries when sailing ships struggled with the masses of ice, technology of the twentieth century offered another imagery of the Arctic Ocean associated with the breakthroughs by crews of icebreakers and Arctic pilots. This chapter falls into two parts: the first tells of the advance of the Arctic frontier by technology under Stalin (1930s to 1950s), and the second enlightens a new epoch after the Second World War, the atomic age in the Arctic Ocean. The chapter demonstrates how Soviet propaganda turned the former icy backwater into a site at the forefront of Soviet technological modernisation.