THE ROAD ALONG THE FACADE

ANNOUNCEMENT

The road along the facade

A. Brechalov
Advisor to the State Duma
Committee for the North and Far East

        Spring for the North only begins at the end of May and beginning of June, with the drifting of ice. In fact, only the calendar proves that other seasons exist aside from the nine month long winter. Yet at the end of April the sun is already so bright that going out without sunglasses is not recommended. Little by little the unsetting sun and the spring wind begin to gnaw the snow-drifts, sharpening its ice plates to the slimmest in the open areas, sharp enough as they already are, especially on the vast white smooth, mirror-like surface of the frozen northern rivers, like the Yenisei, where the author has lived nearly a quarter of the century.
        In one such day at the end of April, more than twenty years ago, I happened to admire the frozen Yenisei from the captain's bridge on the Captain Sorokin icebreaker, which led a convoy of two ships (of the first Arctic winter expedition) from Murmansk to Dudinka. The ice in the Yenisei Bay of the Kara Sea and on the river itself was unmeasurably thick. The icebreaker was followed by a stream of clear water slightly smoking in the frost, a dark band cut from the ice along a ruler, blackening the endless whiteness that surrounded them. Two big ships and a beautiful icebreaker sailed along slowly. More than two months after this historic event came the long expected ice drifts on the Yenisei, beginning the usual "open water" navigation season.
        Northerners wait for the ice drifting and prepare for it. The docks at the unique Dudinka seaport, the only one of its kind, are fully cleared from cargo and the huge cranes are lifted onto higher banks to protect them from high waters. Rails are detached and part of the crane and railways are covered with gravel. All this is performed to somewhat protect the docks from the devastating power of ice-flows. Once the drifting passes, everything is restored as soon as possible in order to open the navigational season.
        In the first days of June, the water from the great Siberian river begins to increase irrepressibly. The ice reaches the same level as the docks. Finally, the mass of ice sets into motion sweeping everything on its way. Even the most powerful icebreakers cannot resist it. This is the most majestic and unforgettable spectacle - the drifting of ice on the Yenisei. The air above the river seems to thicken. Foreign sounds permeate the air. Yet you can hear the quietest rustles, peals and sighs from the ice-flows. They climb on each other, collapse with crystal-clear rings and hisses, as if angered, crawling onto the bank. The water in the river rises 16-18 meters. Somewhere at the bottom, deep under, are the port docks, covered with dirty, turbulent greenish foam.
        One always remembers the drifting of ice and the Arctic winter navigation as a miracle, as symbols of the power of nature and at the same time, of man's reason. The Northern Sea Route was justly considered our biggest inner sea corridor in the 70s and 80s, and Dudino, its most important port. Unfortunately, this is already history. Until quite recently our world leadership in ice navigation was indisputable.
        Russian travellers and sailors from time immemorial risked their lives to discover the northern lands and seas. Their efforts to strengthen Russia have now fallen into oblivion. The government's interest in the Far North seems to have vanished. And northern romanticism has also dried away. There is no time for romanticism when the pressing issue is the survival of the whole region and its population. We must not forget the five most important benefits the North offers Russia, strongly influencing the destiny of its government:

Economic: the North provides two thirds of the currency and nearly 20 percent of the national income.
Defensive: the North is the state's sea "facade", comprising nearly one half of its borders and it is a free outlet to the world waters.
Ethnocultural: thirty native minority groups live there.
Physical: our North is the territorial, ecological and resource reserve not only for Russia but also for the whole planet.
Geopolitical: the North is crucial for transportation.

        The Northern Sea Route is practically inactive in winter. The number of hydrological and meteorological stations has decreased sharply and the route cannot operate without them. Not long ago the Northern Sea Route (NSR) was the main vital artery for the northern districts, an indissoluble part of their economy and culture. Sea shipping reached 6.5 million tons in 1987. A real possibility for transferring the NSR into an international route has recently emerged. The NSR covers 7323 sea miles from Yokohama (Japan) to London while the traditional route through the Suez Canal is 4332 sea miles longer. We have the unique experience of working on the Arctic Ocean as well as the infrastructure and a modern fleet (icebreakers and strengthened ships). In addition to working for the benefit of the country, the NSR would also provide it with considerable income. In 1991 the author of this article, a member of the Supreme Soviet of RSFSR at that time, suggested creating a state commercial transportation company "The Northern Sea Route" which would centralize the fleet and the infrastructure of the NSR and would protect Russia's monopoly over it.
        However, that proposal, as well as many others of kind, remained abandoned. Because of fuel deficiency, the coastal infrastructure that services the Northern Sea Route is falling into decay and airplanes have stopped flying on ice reconnaissance. Radio-navigational stations don't work. The network of meteorological stations is collapsing because no more than ten stations out of thirty, and two observatories are presently in operation in the West Arctic (in the Dixon regional hydro-meteorological department). Unique icebreakers and polar ships have been abandoned forever. It is distressing and offensive that in the first decade of the new century, Russia may be loosing its monopoly over the Arctic Ocean, as the existing icebreaker fleet will soon recede. Even now, five out of six working atomic icebreakers need either major repairs or refueling. The six electric diesel icebreakers have been in use for over twenty years and need repairs or replacement by new modern ones.
        The XX century will pass into the history as the era of Arctic and space exploration. Our Motherland has great supremacy in both fields. We were the first to enter outer space and the first to sail the arctic seas on the specially constructed icebreaker "Ermak" one hundred years ago, making true the foresight of our famous fellow countryman Mikhail Lomonosov.
        It is sad to think that the events I witnessed which filled me with such pride for my Motherland may remain only on history's pages, and the Great Northern Route along Russia's facade might become the road to nowhere. In recent years, a number of well-known Russian politicians have seriously examined the idea of reviving the Northern Sea Route. Among them, I consider the presence of the renowned Arctic explorer, vice-chairman of Russia's State Duma, A. N. Chilingarov especially important. This is why it seems to me that everything will come full circle and convoys will sail again through the Arctic ice as punctual as trains, from Murmansk to Dudinka, from London to Yokohama or San Francisco.