The Soviet Antarctic Expedition (SAE or SovAE) (, ''Sovetskaya antarkticheskaya ekspeditsiya'') was part of the

Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, or AARI (, abbreviated as ААНИИ) is the oldest and largest Russian research institute in the field of comprehensive studies of Arctic and Antarctica. It is located in Saint Petersburg. The AARI h ...

of the Soviet Committee on Antarctic Research of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

. It was succeeded by the

Russian Antarctic Expedition Russian Antarctic Expedition (; RAE) is a continuously operating expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia. The RAE involves winterers, who spend ab ...

. The

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's Ministry of Sea Transport was responsible for the administration, logistics and supply of the expeditions. The first Soviet contact with

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

was in January 1947 when the Slava

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

flotilla began whaling in Antarctic waters.

Stations

The first Soviet Antarctic station, '' Mirny'', was established near the

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

on February 13, 1956. In December 1957 another station, ''

Vostok Vostok () refers to east in Russian but may also refer to: Spaceflight * Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project * Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union * Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived ...

,'' was built inland near the

South geomagnetic pole The geomagnetic poles are antipodal points where the axis of a best-fitting dipole intersects the surface of Earth. This ''theoretical'' dipole is equivalent to a powerful bar magnet at the center of Earth, and comes closer than any other p ...

Year-round stations

* Mirny (established February 13, 1956) *

(established December 16, 1957) *

Novolazarevskaya Novolazarevskaya Station () is a Russian, formerly Soviet, Antarctic research station. The station is located at Schirmacher Oasis, Queen Maud Land, from the Antarctic coast, from which it is separated by Lazarev Ice Shelf. It was opened on Jan ...

(established January 18, 1961) * Molodyozhnaya (established January 14, 1963) * Bellingshausen (established February 22, 1968) * Leningradskaya (established February 25, 1971) * Russkaya (established March 9, 1980) *

Progress Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization effic ...

(established April 1, 1988)

Summer stations

* Komsomolskaya (established November 6, 1957) *Pionerskaya (established May 27, 1956) *Druzhnaya I (on the

Filchner Ice Shelf Wilhelm Filchner (13 September 1877 – 7 May 1957) was a German army officer, scientist and explorer. He conducted several surveys and scientific investigations in China, Tibet and surrounding regions, and led the Second German Antarctic Expediti ...

in the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha C ...

) *Druzhnaya II (on the Weddell Sea)

IGY stations

List of stations in use during the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

. * Sovetskaya * Pole of inaccessibility station

Expeditions

The Soviet Union engaged in expeditions to Antarctica from 1955 to its dissolution. After this, the Soviet Antarctic stations were taken over by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

References

* * Voronin, V. I. (1948) "The first Antarctic whaling expedition of the Slava flotilla" in ''Proceedings of the Soviet Geographical Society'', 80(3):213–222 * * Gan, I, Towards the great unknown: the Soviets prepare for their thrust into the Antarctic interior, National and transnational agendas in Antarctic Research from the 1950s and beyond. Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop of the SCAR Action Group on the History of Antarctic Research, BPRC Technical report no. 2011-01, Byrd Polar Research Centre, Columbus, Ohio, pp. 116–130. (2012) onference Edited* * * * * Gan, I, The Soviet Preparation for the IGY Antarctic Program and the Australian Response: Politics and Science, Boletín Antártico Chileno 2nd SCAR Workshop on the History of Antarctic Research, 22–22 September 2006, Santiago, Chile, pp. 60–70. (2009) on Refereed Conference Paper * Gan, I, The Soviet Preparation for the IGY Antarctic Program and the Australian Response: Politics and Science, 2nd SCAR Workshop on the History of Antarctic Research, 21–22 September 2006, Santiago, Chile, pp. 11–15. (2006) onference Extract * Gan, I, There was no cold war in Antarctica. Soviet-Australian contacts in 1950s, Russia in Antarctica Conference proceedings, April 2006, Saint Petersburg, pp. 77–78. (2006) onference Extract

External links

Map of biological data from the Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1955–1958)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soviet Antarctic Expedition Antarctica research agencies