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Soviet Antarctic plans after the International Geophysical Year: changes in policy
Citation
Gan, I, Soviet Antarctic plans after the International Geophysical Year: changes in policy, Polar Record, 46, (3) pp. 244-256. ISSN 0032-2474 (2009) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009
Official URL: http://journals.cambridge.org
DOI: doi:10.1017/S0032247409008456
Abstract
The final months of the International Geophysical Year of 1957–1958 were a period when the political
and scientific future of the Antarctic was being shaped, with many of the participating countries reassessing their
policies regarding the South Polar region. This paper explores the thinking of both political and scientific figures in
the USSR that helped mould Soviet Antarctic policy during this time and demonstrates that the two perspectives did
not necessarily coincide. The political perspective is exemplified by the deputy chairman of the USSR council of
ministers and member of the central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Aleksei Kosygin, and the
scientific perspective by the deputy director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Mikhail Somov. The fact
that there was interplay between both viewpoints when planning the Soviet post IGY Antarctic programmes shows
that political considerations did not always prevail over the scientific, with national prestige being an area in which
their interests overlapped. Ultimately, Somov was instrumental in reducing to some extent the effects of the Soviet
government’s attempts to curtail Soviet Antarctic research operations when it was reassessing its policy in the light of
new international initiatives regarding future collaboration in the Antarctic.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Research Division: | History, Heritage and Archaeology |
Research Group: | Historical studies |
Research Field: | Historical studies not elsewhere classified |
Objective Division: | Law, Politics and Community Services |
Objective Group: | International relations |
Objective Field: | International relations not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Gan, I (Dr Irina Gan) |
ID Code: | 62622 |
Year Published: | 2009 |
Deposited By: | IASOS |
Deposited On: | 2010-03-12 |
Last Modified: | 2017-04-11 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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