The Polar Year Is Going On
September 11, 2007
Russian arctic expedition “NP-35” is going to land on the North Pole ices one of these days. It will become a logical continuation of an unprecedented Akademik Fedorov crew’s polar expedition. This event was well highlighted in media but “Vechernyaya Moskva Daily” promised to tell its readers about this unique expedition “from the inside”, so to say. Today we are going to fulfill the promise. Nataliya Yurchenko, MVK employee and “Vechernyaya Moskva Daily” journalist, has taken part in the expedition.
International polar year was declared to commemorate the first polar expedition “North Pole-1” which had lasted for more than 9 months and became the symbol of Soviet people’s heroism and great power.
There are such people in modern Russia as well who care about and value hounorable history of their country. Alexey Shaburov, the Executive vice-president of MVK, has become the Head of the project “North Pole: The role of History in Life and Business”. With his assistance there was organized the Polar Museum which contains everything concerning Papanin’s expedition and the first flights of Russian pilots over the polar spaces.
“The project’s significance is increasing greatly. The Museum is becoming more popular with the public and is awaking echoes in people’s hearts. Common people send us unique exponents and the Museum is becoming really nation-wide. It is no more a museum but it is our life”, said Alexey Shaburov.
The Polar Museum’s portable display is going to be demonstrated in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinbourg, Rostov-on-Don: all these are the cities where there are MVK’s representations. In summer it was presented in the State Duma. During one year the museum might be visited by 1.5 million people!
However, Alexey Shaburov’s most interesting idea was to organize the museum display in the North Pole, the place it is actually dedicated to. And on those historic days when Otto Schmidt and the papaninites came ashore there.
Only 70 years later. A lot of people liked the unusual and intricate idea.
Viktor Boyarsky, the co-coordinator of the expedition and the Head of St.Petersburg Museum of Arctic and Antarctic, famous Russian Polar explorer shares his reminiscences:
-I have been to the North Pole many times, may be I’ve been there even more often than any other person on the planet, but it was for the first time that I saw such well organized work and the team. Alexey Shaburov called me and shared his idea. And I liked it. We discussed the terms and the steps of the expedition. Usually after that we come across all kinds of delays and problems, but this time we stuck to the schedule.
Alexey Shaburov, the Head of the project “The North Pole: The Role of History in Life and Business” and the Head of MVK’s Portable Polar Museum stated: “We realize the importance of the project for the country and for the development of Arctic. Arktika-2007 has already become a part of history. The expedition and all the materials were included into the MVK’s Polar Museum. Our aim is to tell the descendants about the heroic polar explorers and their deeds which enriched scientific knowledge and added one more outstanding achievement to human history. It showed what abilities modern Russian men possess! Life in Arctic can be romantic and hard; full of beauty and extreme; it can be lonely but at the same time lit up with human communication, friendship and assistance”.
Sergey GONCHAROV
Source: "Vechernyaya Moskva Daily"
