Bookvica

[SOVIET ARCTIC] Po sovetskoi Arktike [i.e. Around Soviet Arctic]

Item #2151

Moscow: n.p., 1933. 16 pp.: ill. 20x29 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Tears of edges, otherwise very good.
Very rare.

A brochure supplemented to an early issue of
the magazine ‘The USSR on Construction’ (#9
for 1933). It is illustrated throughout with the first
photographs of the newly explored Severnaya
Zemlya archipelago.
The expedition was headed by well-known
explorer Georgy Ushakov (1901-1963) and
occurred in 1930-1932. Discovered in 1913, the
archipelago Severnaya Zemlya was the only piece
of still unexplored land at that time.
Ushakov himself wrote, “I have seen Godforsaken
Chukotka Peninsula, blizzard-ridden
Wrangel Island, twice visited fog-enshrouded
Novaya Zemlya, and I have seen Franz Josef Land
with its enamel sky and proud cliffs garbed in
blue, hardened glacial streams, but nowhere I did
witness such grimness or such depressing, lifeless
relief…”
The album showcases photographs by
participants: G. Ushakov himself, zoologist
L. Portenko, geologist S. Obruchev, camera
operator M. Troianovskii, G. Donets, L. Restovskii.
Among contributors was the only professional
photographer, Mark Troianovskii (1907-1967) who
created pictures and documentary movies for
about 40 years. He recorded tapes about great
events in the Soviet history: the construction of
Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, the Aswan
Dam, the expeditions of Sibiryakov, Chelyuskin,
the landing Papanin’s group to the North Pole,
the launch of Soviet liners to Antarctica; as well
as tragic events of the Great War, in which he
participated as a front-line operator.

The photographs depict the working team and
its sled dogs, icebreaker ‘Krasin’, Arctic views and
some dwellers. Contrary to Ushakov’s words, the
pictures feature life and work in this place.

Worldcat shows a copy located
in Amherst College.

Price: $350.00