DOI: 10.25136/2409-8744.2023.6.69272

Abstract: The purpose of the article is to identify the main directions and reconstruct the practices of using cryogenic resources (cold, snow, ice, permafrost) and, in general, the "domestication" of cold by the Russian population of Yakutia during the mid XIX century and the twentieth century. The source base for writing the work was a set of disparate ethnographic information presented by published works and documents from the collections of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region (Irkutsk), the Scientific Archive of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk), the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and its St. Petersburg branch. In addition, a number of information was obtained during the author's empirical research in a number of rural settlements of Yakutia during 2017-2023. The methodological basis for the preparation of the article is the principles laid down in cryosophy, which involve the study of the cold matter of the Earth through the prism of their role as an active element of the universe, as well as in the Cryoanthropology. Within the framework of the Cryoanthropology, the formation of the traditional culture of the indigenous ethnic groups of the Arctic and Subarctic is considered through the prism of the dominance of natural cold in the region, cryogenic processes and phenomena as fundamental, environmental factors. In this regard, the article shows the practices of the exploitation of cryogenic resources by the Russian population of Yakutia in cattle and horse breeding, agriculture, in ensuring the functioning of residential and outbuildings, organization of storage and preparation of food, etc. It is noted that they had certain specifics within various groups of Russian settlers caused by specific natural and geographical features of their areas of residence, as well as characteristics of interethnic ties. In this regard, differences between, for example, the Prilensky and Arctic groups of the Russian old-timers have been recorded. The key vectors of the "domestication" of cold by the Russian population of Yakutia are highlighted.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2023.3.40671

Abstract: The historical analysis of the research carried out during 1928-1934 within the framework of the Kola peninsula expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences is presented. The initial boundary is due to the creation of the expedition, the final one is due to its reformatting into a stationary structure – the Kola base of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The sources for the preparation of the article are archival materials identified by the authors from the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, published expedition reports, as well as scientific literature prepared based on the results of the research under consideration. It is noted that the drivers of the Kola complex expedition were both purely cognitive interest and the needs of industrial development of high latitudes. The work carried out made it possible to show significant activity of researchers in studying the natural resources of the Kola Peninsula, identifying promising mineral deposits, determining various patterns of their distribution and searching for the optimal development methodology. Along with this, a certain place in the work of the expedition was given to other areas of research, both related to ensuring the possibility of developing the extractive industry (geocryological, partly ecological and biological), and having an indirect connection with this problem. In this regard, the importance of conducting research within the expedition aimed, among other things, at studying the traditional culture of the aboriginal ethnic groups of the Kola Peninsula is noted.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-8922.2023.1.39874

Abstract: The historical analysis of the studies carried out during the 1950s-1980s by the staff of the Yakutsk Permafrost Research Station of the Obruchev Permafrost Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and since 1962 – organized on its basis by the Permafrost Institute of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences and aimed at studying the coastal-shelf zone of the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea. The sources for the preparation of the article were the archival materials identified by the author from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Economics and the Archive of the Melnikov Permafrost Institute of SB RAS, as well as scientific literature data. The work carried out made it possible to show the significant activity of researchers in the study of subbottom permafrost. Its drivers were both purely cognitive interest and the needs of the industrial development of high latitudes. In the course of the surveys carried out, data were obtained characterizing the prevalence and thickness of subpermafrost, its temperature regime, composition and other properties.