ARCTIC CHRONOLOGY

 

A Postal History Gallery of Related Events

1991





Tourist Voyage to the North Pole
1991


The first voyage in 1991 sailed in the icebreaker SOYUZ, leaving Murmansk on July 27th using the code name TRANSPOLAR BRIDGE. They visited Franz Josef Land, Bennet and Wrangel Islands, before reaching the North Pole on August 4th. The Diomede Islands were visited on the final leg to Providenia on August 16th.

 

Closing the Russian Ice Station 31

After serving as North Pole Station 31, the ice floe moved southward and began to break up. An MI-8 helicopter evacuated the base on July 25-29, 1991.

This ended the continuity of Russian ice research programs started in 1954.

 

The Tourist Cruise of the Northeast Passage
1991

The aggressive Lindblad cruise promoters introduced this virtually unique passage through the Arctic incorporating the Port of Murmansk as the basing point. The passage was first plotted in the middle 1935 period and makes it possible to sustain a number of communities along the forbidding coastline.

The icebreaker SOVETSKIY SOYUZ was adapted to accommodate tourist passengers.

 

International Symposium on Global Ocean Monitoring
1991


The Second International Symposium was convened in Leningrad in April, 1991.

(Exhibition pieces courtesy of George Hall)