From Northeast Passage to Northern Sea Route A History of the Waterway North of Eurasia

About this book

The notion of a waterway north of Eurasia, conceived in the first half of the sixteenth century, remained only a dream for centuries, due to ice, unmapped coastlines and a lack of geographical knowledge. This volume is the first comprehensive, scholarly account in English of the slow but steady exploration and commercial exploitation of the Siberian coastal waters, and it proves that this was a truly international endeavour. However, in the end, the Northern Sea Route as a through traverse route came to be used primarily by the Soviet Union, for which it became a crucial vehicle for the geopolitical and economic integration of its vast territories. As an international trade route, the Northern Sea Route is only today about to win its way, essentially as a result of global warming. This being the case, should we rejoice or despair?

Contents

Introduction / Edwin Okhuizen and Jens Petter Nielsen  1–11
Part 1. Out of the Northern Mist (Late Ninth–Mid Sixteenth Century)
Chapter 1. The Early Navigation of the Western Section of the Northeast Passage/Northern Sea Route   15–24

Part 2. The West-European Search for a Northeast Passage and the Russian Navigation of the Eurasian Maritime Arctic (Mid Sixteenth–Mid Eighteenth Century)
Introduction to Part 2   27
Chapter 2. The West-European Search for an Alternative Trade Route to the Orient   29–56
Chapter 3. The Russian Exploration and Commercial Use of the Eurasian Maritime Arctic   57–64
Chapter 4. The First Kamchatka Expedition, 1725–30   65–72
Chapter 5. The Great Northern (Second Kamchatka) Expedition, 1733–43   73–80

Part 3. The ‘Non-heroic Exploration’ of the Eurasian Maritime Arctic (Mid Eighteenth–Mid Nineteenth Century)
Introduction to Part 3   83
Chapter 6. Transpolar Expeditions and the Concept of an ‘Open Polar Sea’   85–92
Chapter 7. The Siberian Maritime Arctic   93–105
Chapter 8. The European Maritime Arctic   106–127
Chapter 9. The Bering Strait Region   128–165
Chapter 10. The North-Eastern Extremity of Asia   166–178

Part 4. The Opening Up of the Northern Sea Route to Siberia (Mid Nineteenth Century until 1917)
Introduction to Part 4   181–182
Chapter 11. Early Exploration and Navigations to the Estuaries of the Ob and the Yenisey   183–219
Chapter 12. Russian-Norwegian Relations from the Crimean War until the Russian Revolution   220–223
Chapter 13. Navigating the Northeast Passage   224–230
Chapter 14. Safeguarding of the Northern Sea Route until 1905   231–240
Chapter 15. The Russo-Japanese War and the Potential Military and Strategic Importance of the Northern Sea Route   241–254
Chapter 16. The Northern Sea Route on the Eve of the Russian Revolution   255–268

Part 5. The Northern Sea Route during the Soviet Epoch: From the October Revolution to the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1917–91)
Introduction to Part 5   271–273
Chapter 17. Through Revolution and Civil War, 1917 to the Early 1920s   275–289
Chapter 18. Establishing Navigation on the Western Sector of the Northern Sea Route   290–303
Chapter 19. Development of the Eastern Sector of the Northern Sea Route   304–309
Chapter 20. Soviet Arctic Exploration beyond the Northern Sea Route   310–317
Chapter 21. The Soviet Opening Up of the Northeast Passage: The Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (GUSMP)   318–332
Chapter 22. The Northern Sea Route During the Great Patriotic War, 1941–45   333–341
Chapter 23. The Post-war Period, 1945 to the Mid 1950s   342–348
Chapter 24. The Northern Sea Route in a Changing Era, from the Mid 1950s to the 1960s: Adding a Human Touch to the Arctic   349–356
Chapter 25. A Return to the Days of Glory, 1970s to 1991   357–368
Chapter 26. Soviet Polar Science and the Northern Sea Route   369–376

Part 6. From Break-Up to New Optimism: The Northern Sea Route in Post-Soviet Russia
Introduction to Part 6   379
Chapter 27. The Northern Sea Route as an International Transit Route: Discussions and Experiments   381–390
Chapter 28. Development, Challenges and Contradictions in the Use of the Northern Sea Route   391–402
Summary and Conclusion of Parts 1–6 / Edwin Okhuizen, Jens Petter Nielsen, and Alexander Ye. Goncharov   403–415

Part 7. The Past and Present in Shaping the Future of the Northern Sea Route and the Northeast Passage
Introduction to Part 7   419
Chapter 29. Permanent Drivers Affecting the Use of the Northern Sea Route/Northeast Passage   421–429
Chapter 30. Changeable Drivers Affecting the Use of the Northern Sea Route   430–438
Chapter 31. Permanent Impediments Affecting the Use of the Northern Sea Route   439–440
Chapter 32. Changeable Impediments Affecting the Use of the Northern Sea Route   441–448
Chapter 33. A Scenario Discussion of Subjective Predictions   449–455
Chapter 34. The Long-Term Future of the Northern Sea Route: A Fresh Prediction   456–460

The History of the Book Project and Its Authors / Victoria V. Tevlina   461–464

Bibliography
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Index of Geographical Names
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Index of Personal Names

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Biography

Jens Petter Nielsen, Professor emeritus of Northern Studies, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He has published extensively on Russian and Soviet history and Russian-Norwegian relations, including Sblizhenie: Rossiya i Norvegiya v 1814-1917 Godakh ('Getting closer. Russia and Norway 1914-1917') (Ves mir, 2017).

Edwin Okhuizen is a Dutch historian specialized in Arctic and Russian history, more specifically in the history of geographical discovery and maritime exploration, the history of cartography, as well as commercial exploitation and international political relations. Formerly connected to Utrecht University, he is currently acting as an independent researcher preparing his PhD.