Red Arctic: Polar Exploration and the Myth of the North in the Soviet Union, 1932-1939

by John McCannon

Overview

A work of refreshing originality and vivid appeal, Red Arctic tells the story of Stalinist Russia's massive campaign to explore and develop its Northern territories during the 1930s. Author John McCannon recounts the dramatic stories of the polar expeditions—conducted by foot, ship, and plane—that were the pride of Stalinist Russia, in order to expose the reality behind them: chaotic blunders, bureaucratic competition, and the eventual rise of the Gulag as the dominant force in the North. Red Arctic also traces the development of the polar-based popular culture of the decade, making use of memoirs, films, radio broadcasts, children's books, and cultural ephemera ranging from placards to postage stamps to show how Russia's "Arctic Myth" became an integral part of the overall socialist-realist aesthetic that animated Stalinist culture throughout the 1930s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195114362
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/09/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	9.32(w) x 6.28(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

John McCannon is Assistant Professor of History at Norwich University.

Table of Contents

	A Note on Transliteration	ix
	Abbreviations	xi
	Introduction	3
	Polar Exploration and Soviet Political Economy	5
	The Arctic as Popular Culture	8
	Defining the Arctic	9
1	Footholds in the North: The Russians in the Arctic, 1500-1932	12
	First Steps: Opening the North, 1500-1800	13
	The Arctic in the Late Imperial Period, 1800-1917	16
	Building the North: The Soviet Arctic, 1917-1932	19
2	The Commissariat of Ice: The Rise of Glavsevmorput, 1932-1936	33
	The Growing Giant: GUSMP's Central Apparatus, 1933-1935	36
	Science, Economic Development, and the State	40
	On the Periphery: Glavsevmorput in the Field	45
3	Days of Glory: The Major Expeditions, 1932-1939	59
	The Sibiriakov Voyage (1932)	60
	The Cheliuskin Epic (1933-1934)	61
	Chkalov, Gromov, and Levanevsky: The Arctic Flights (1936-1937)	68
	"The Pole Is Ours!": SP-1 and the North Pole Landing (1937-1938)	73
	The Passing of an Era	78
4	From Victory To Victory: The Myth of the Arctic in Soviet Culture	81
	Outlooks toward Nature: The Arctic as Adversary	82
	Cosmographies: Perceptions of the USSR and the World	89
	A Nation of Heroes: The Individual and the State	98
	Living the Great Dream	108
5	Between Rhetoric and Reality: Manufacturing the Arctic Myth	110
	Engineering Human Souls: The Arctic Myth as State Policy	111
	Crafting the Myth: The Media and the Arctic	117
	Consuming the Myth: The Public Responds	134
	Propaganda: Effects and Limitations	143
6	Polestar Descending: Glavsevmorput In Decline, 1936-1939	145
	Glavsevmorput in Crisis	146
	Glavsevmorput and the Great Purges	149
	A New Primacy in the North: Dalstroi and the Demotion of GUSMP	168
	Conclusion
	Epilogue	174
	Parting Thoughts	176
	Notes	182
	Select Bibliography	211
	Index	226

Editorial Reviews

"A probing and thoroughly engrossing account. Professor McCannon makes judicious use of once secret Russian archives to produce a fascinating study of one of the most neglected aspects of Soviet history in the pre-World War II Stalin era."—Bruce Lincoln, Distinguished Research Professor, Northern Illinois University

"Red Arctic is a richly constructed and conceived work of history, populated by heroic northern explorers, dashing aviators, grim Stalin bureaucrats, polar bears, shamans, and class enemies. In this engagingly written narrative based on an impressive array of archival and published sources, John McCannon examines the Arctic myth in reality and legend, documenting the history of arctic exploration under Stalin as well as delving into the still relatively uncharted arena of Stalinist popular culture. Red Arctic is an original piece of work, representative of a new generation of historical scholarship on the Soviet Union."—Lynne Viola, Professor of History, University of Toronto

"John McCannon's book is about both the actual and the symbolic Arctic, a place where heroes were made while real men and women slaved away in labor camps. Combining social and cultural history in a vivid narrative, the author explores how explorers became icons in a Stalinist dream factory. The central characters are as tall as the legendary Otto Shmidt but are dwarfed by Stalin and his minions who in doctored photographs towered over the heroes they made. This book is about Soviet celebrity and the ways in which the state and society conspired to create a post-revolutionary cultural hegemony."—Ronald Grigor Suny, University of Chicago

"[A] scholarly bureaucratic history of Soviet efforts to exploit the Arctic."—The New York Times Book Review

"McCannon's book is the first in any language to chronicle and analyze the heroic era of exploration and development in the Soviet Arctic. Drawing heavily on newly opened Soviet archives and a great variety of other sources, it combines solid scholarship, clear writing, and a deep understanding of the Russian and Soviet cultures to illuminate a subject, a region, and a period well known through rough sketches but for which there have been no detailed pictures."—CHOICE

"[N]o one has examined [the Cheliuskin and polar flights] as extensively as McCannon. Anyone interested in Soviet history will find his story engaging."—Slavic Review

"...Red Arctic is a very rich and enjoyable study which will appeal to historians, scholars of Soviet popular culture and anyone interested in the history of polar exploration."—Slavic and East European Journal

From the Publisher