Vladimir Alexandrovich Rusanov (; – c. 1913) was a Russian

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

explorer.

Early life

Rusanov was born in a merchant's family in

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

, Russia. His early life was marred by hardship when his father went bankrupt before dying while Rusanov was still a child. Rusanov's widowed mother struggled to bring up the family but managed to send her son to the Oryol Gymnasium (Grammar School). Rusanov however began to be involved with Marxist revolutionaries. He was arrested by the police who while they could not prove anything informed the gymnasium leading to his expulsion. Rusanov therefore joined a theological seminary. Rusanov entered the natural sciences faculty at Kiev University in 1897. At Kiev he was involved in Marxist activities and was again expelled and briefly imprisoned. While in jail he was inspired by books about

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and co-founded the ...

's Arctic voyages and resolved to become a polar explorer. Rusanov was released in 1899 but subject to police over watch. Sent into internal exile in Siberia, Rusanov became a statistician for the local council in Ust Syslosk (renamed

Syktyvkar Syktyvkar (, , ; , ) is the capital city of the Komi Republic in Russia, as well as its largest city. It is also the administrative center of the Syktyvkar Urban Okrug. Until 1930, it was known as Ust-Sysolsk after the Sysola, Sysola River. Ety ...

in 1930), where he conducted scientific observations in addition to his duties. At the end of his term he was not allowed to reside in any major Russian city, depriving him of a chance to further his education, he therefore went to study in Paris at the Sorbonne. Russanov specialised in geology and wrote his thesis on the geology of Novaya Zemlya. He was allowed to return to Russia in 1907.

Arctic Exploration

In 1909–1911 V. A. Rusanov carried out explorations in

Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; , ; ), also spelled , is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, considered the extreme points of Europe ...

. He was helped by Tyko Vylka, his guide, who later became the Chairman of the Novaya Zemlya Soviet (local Council). In 1912 Rusanov had been appointed to command a government expedition to

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

to investigate the coal potential. He sailed from Aleksandrovsk-na-Murmane (now Polyarnyy, near

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

) on 26 June on ship ''Gerkules'' under Captain Alexander Kuchin,

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Am ...

's South Pole navigator. The personnel consisted of thirteen men and one woman, Rusanov's French fiancée Julie Jean. Apart from Rusanov there was another geologist and a zoologist. At the end of a very successful summer's field work, three members of the expedition (the geologist, the zoologist and the ship's bosun) returned to Russia via Grønfjorden in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

.Pinkhenson, D.M., (1962). "Istoriia otkrytyia i osveniia Severnogo Morskogo Puti". Vol.2 ''Problemy severnogo mor-skogo puti v epohu kapitalizma'' 'The problems of the Northern Sea Route in capitalism epoch'' Leningrad, Mor-skoi transport. p. 492 The remaining ten, however, without consultation with the authorities in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, set off with Rusanov in an incredibly rash attempt at reaching the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

via the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...

. Their ship ''Gerkules'' was too small for the kind of expedition Rusanov had in mind. The last to be heard of Rusanov's expedition was a telegram left at Matochkin Shar on

, which reached St. Petersburg on 27 September 1912. In it, Rusanov indicated that he intended rounding the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya and heading east across the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

but nothing was heard from the ''Gerkules'' thereafter. He and his 11-man team, including Alexander Kuchin, disappeared without trace a year later in the

, off the northern coast of Siberia. Hercules schooner Rusanov

In 1914–15 the almost impossible task of searching for Rusanov (as well as for the similarly disappeared Captain Georgy Brusilov and the Brusilov Expedition), was entrusted to

Otto Sverdrup Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup (31 October 1854 – 26 November 1930) was a Norwegian sailor and Arctic explorer. Early and personal life He was born in Bindal Municipality as a son of farmer Ulrik Frederik Suhm Sverdrup (1833–1914) and his w ...

with the ship ''Eklips''. His efforts, however, were unsuccessful. In 1937, the Arctic Institute of 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 ...

organized an expedition to the

Nordenskiöld Archipelago The Nordenskiöld Archipelago or Nordenskjold Archipelago () is a large and complex cluster of about 90 islands in the eastern region of the Kara Sea. Its eastern limit lies west of the Taymyr Peninsula. The archipelago is part of the Taymyrsk ...

on the ship ''Toros''. Relics of the ill-fated Rusanov's expedition were found on Popova-Chukchina Island, located at (74° 56'N, 86° 18'E) off Kolosovykh Island in the Kolosovykh group.

Commemoration

A glacier in October Revolution Island, in the

Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya (, ) is a archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Kara Sea i ...

group has been named after Vladimir Rusanov. Rusanov is dutifully remembered in the city of his birth,

, where the Rusanova Street is named after him. There is also a museum in the house where he spent his childhood and youth at no. 43 Rusanova Street. The cabin Rusanov built on Svalbard in 1912 (''Rusanovodden'') was turned into a small self-guided museum. The Soviet-era

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

''Vladimir Rusanov'' and the

Yamalmax Yamalmax is a class of ice navigation tankers for the transportation of LNG with maximum dimensions that allow passing through the approach channel of the port of Sabetta located on the Yamal Peninsula (channel width , depth ). The project wa ...

LNG carrier An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). Overview The first oceangoing liquified natural gas tanker in the world was '' Methane Pioneer'', which entered service in 1959 with a carrying capacity of ...

have been named after him. Soviet coal mining on

began in 1932.

References

Sources

William Barr William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney General, United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the first adminis ...

, ''Otto Sverdrup to the rescue of the Russian Imperial Navy''. * William Barr, ''The First Tourist Cruise in the Soviet Arctic''.

External links

Short biography

Webpage of Rusanov's museum in Oryol
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rusanov, Vladimir 1875 births 1910s deaths 1910s missing person cases Missing Russian people People from Oryol People from Orlovsky Uyezd (Oryol Governorate) Explorers of the Arctic Geologists from the Russian Empire 19th-century explorers from the Russian Empire Russian polar explorers Lost explorers Year of death unknown