« ... oткладывается до более благоприятного времени»: О Кольской экспедиции Фритьофа Нансена

Abstract

In spring 1926 the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture in Norway appointed Fridtjof Nansen as project leader of a scientific expedition to the Kola Peninsula for comparative study of its indigenous population. Nansen himself worked out the plan of the expedition. According to the plan, it was a Norwegian expedition with international participants: Four Norwegians, two Finns, two Russians, one Swede and one American. Under these conditions, the expedition got the financial support of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. The main difficulty of the project was that the expedition had to take place on the territory of the newly-built Soviet state. In view of this, when appointing Nansen as leader, one was hoping that his authority and friendly relationship with the Soviet government would help to solve foreseeable problems. Nevertheless, despite all efforts, Nansen was refused by the Soviet government, and the expedition was not realised. The present article is based on previously unknown materials found in Russian archives and highlights the way in which the Soviet side dealt with the issue of Nansen’s expedition. Several newly found documents have been analysed, including Nansen’s letter to Čičerin, the project description made by Nansen and then corrected for the Soviet side, and several Soviet documents classified as secret.