Alexander Kuchin
Encyclopedia
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya....
) was a young Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n oceanographer and Arctic explorer.
Hailing from a humble background, Alexander Kuchin became a seaman in a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
ship already when he was seventeen. The young man loved the Norwegian language
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, which he mastered in one year.
In 1907 Alexander Kuchin worked in Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
, at a Norwegian Biological Station, becoming a student of oceanography expert Professor Bjorn Helland-Hansen
Bjorn Helland-Hansen
Bjørn Helland-Hansen was a Norwegian pioneer in the field of modern oceanography. He studied the variation patterns of the weather in the northern Atlantic Ocean and of the atmosphere....
. Meanwhile his enthusiasm for the Norwegian language was such that he wrote a “Small Russian-Norwegian dictionary” («Малый русско-норвежский словарь») in order to share his knowledge with his compatriots.
In 1910–1911 Alexander Kuchin was the only Russian on Amundsen
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
’s expedition to the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
on the Fram
Fram
Fram is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912...
. He made numerous observations in the Southern Atlantic as an oceanographer and navigator. After his return to Norway, in December 1911, Alexander Kuchin married 18-year-old girl Aslaug Poulson, the daughter of a prominent Norwegian journalist.
In 1912 Kuchin returned to Russia, where he joined Vladimir Rusanov
Vladimir Rusanov
Vladimir Alexandrovich Rusanov was an experienced Russian geologist who specialized in the Arctic.In 1909–1911 V. A. Rusanov carried out explorations in Novaya Zemlya. He was helped by Tyko Vylka, his guide, who later became the Chairman of the Novaya Zemlya Soviet.In 1912 Rusanov had been...
’s expedition as captain of ship Gerkules to Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
. This expedition’s goal was to investigate the coal potential of the Archipelago.
He sailed from Aleksandrovsk-na-Murmane (now Polyarnyy, near Murmansk
Murmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...
) on 26 June. The personnel consisted of thirteen men and one woman, Rusanov's French fiancée. Apart from Rusanov there was another geologist and a zoologist.
At the end of a very successful summer’s field work, three members of the expedition (the geologist, the zoologist and the ship's bosun) returned to Russia via Grønfjorden
Grønfjorden
Grønfjorden is a 16km long fjord, separated from Isfjorden to the north by Festningsodden in the west and Heerodden in the east. It lies within the western portion of Nordenskiöld Land...
in Norway. The remaining ten, including Captain Alexander Kuchin, without consultation with the authorities in St. Petersburg, set off with Rusanov in an incredibly rash attempt at reaching the Pacific Ocean via the Northern Sea Route
Northern Sea Route
The Northern Sea Route is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic...
. However, their ship Gerkules was too small for the kind of expedition Rusanov had in mind.
The last to be heard of Rusanov's expedition was a telegram left at Matochkin Shar on Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...
, which reached St. Petersburg on 27 September 1912. In it, Rusanov indicated that he intended rounding the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, and heading east across the Kara Sea
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya....
but nothing was heard from the Gerkules thereafter. It disappeared without trace a year later in the Kara Sea
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya....
, off the northern coast of Siberia.
In 1914–15 the almost impossible task of searching for Rusanov’s expedition (as well as for similarly disappeared Captain Brusilov
Brusilov
Brusilov , or Brusilova , is a Russian last name and may refer to:People:* Aleksei Brusilov , a Russian cavalry general* Georgy Brusilov , a Russian naval officer and Arctic explorer...
from another expedition), was entrusted to Otto Sverdrup
Otto Sverdrup
Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup was a Norwegian sailor and Arctic explorer.-Early and personal life:...
with the ship Eklips. His efforts, however, were unsuccessful.
In 1937 the Arctic Institute
Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, or AARI is the oldest and largest Russian research institute in the field of comprehensive studies of Arctic and Antarctica...
of the USSR organized an expedition to the Nordenskiöld Archipelago
Nordenskiöld Archipelago
The Nordenskiöld Archipelago or Nordenskjold Archipelago is a very large and complex cluster of islands in the eastern region of the Kara Sea. Its eastern limit lies west of the Taymyr Peninsula....
on ship Toros. Relics of the ill-fated 1912–13 expedition on the Gerkules were found on one of the Mona Islands
Mona Islands
The Mona Islands is a group of a few scattered small islands covered with tundra vegetation. They are located in the Kara Sea, about 30 km north of the western coast of the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia, Russia....
and on Popova-Chukchina Island located at (74° 56'N, 86° 18'E) off Kolosovykh Island in the Kolosovykh
Kolosovykh Islands
The Kolosovykh Island is a island, in the Kara Sea off the coast of Siberia.This coastal archipelago, is located north of the small Kolosovykh peninsula, which is almost an island itself. This island group is located between 74° 45' and 75° N and between 85° and 87° 30'E...
group.
Two small islets off Salisbury Island
Salisbury Island (Russia)
Salisbury Island, is an island located in the central area of Franz Josef Land, Russia.Salisbury Island is relatively large and long, having a surface of 960 km²...
in Franz Josef Land
Franz Josef Land
Franz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land, or Francis Joseph's Land is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. It is found in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and east of Svalbard, and is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast. Franz Josef Land consists of 191 ice-covered islands with a...
have been named after Alexander Kuchin. Aslaug Poulson, Alexander Kuchin’s Norwegian wife, died in 1987.