Researcher Nansen. Fridtjof Nansen is a Norwegian who saved hundreds of thousands of lives and almost conquered the North Pole. Theoretical basis. Planning

) in the Sture-Frön estate, owned by his father, the successful lawyer Baldur Nansen. The Nansen family is of Danish origin, they settled in Norway from the 17th century. From his youth he was an excellent skier and won the Norwegian championships several times. After graduating from high school, I seriously chose between painting and science, and as a result, I entered the university to study zoology. Already at the age of 20, he took part in a four-month voyage across the Arctic Ocean: he went on a ship of the Viking seal industry company to sail among the ice (as a biological practice). It was this journey that was decisive for the direction of all his subsequent activities. Upon returning from the voyage, he devoted himself to scientific studies. After graduating from Christiania University, Fridtjof was appointed curator of the zoology department at the Bergen Museum. In 1885-1886 worked at the University of Parma and at Europe's first marine biological station in Naples. In 1886 he was awarded a large gold medal from the Royal Academy of Sciences for his research on the structure of the cellular apparatus of nervous tissue. He received his doctorate a few months before leaving for Greenland.

Greenland Expedition 1888

Nansen set himself an extremely large and difficult task - crossing the entire ice plateau of Greenland from its eastern coast to its western one. He took on all the work of equipping the expedition; meager funding was provided by a sponsor from Denmark. Part of the funds was awarded to him with a gold medal: Nansen asked to be given a bronze duplicate, and the difference in cost went to equip the expedition.

The expedition included:

1. Fridtjof Nansen- head of the expedition.
2. Otto Neumann Sverdrup- experienced polar captain, Arctic survival specialist.
3. Olaf Dietrichson- an experienced skier.
4. Christian Christiansen Trana- Northern Norwegian peasant, experienced skier (his parents' farm was adjacent to the farm of Sverdrup's parents).
5. Samuel Johannesen Baltu- Sami musher (originally intended to be used as a pulling force for reindeer). In 1902 he emigrated to the USA and lived in Alaska. I met Nansen in 1882 while sailing on the seal-killing ship Viking.
6. Ole Nielsen Equal- Sami by nationality, reindeer herder and musher.

The expedition set off on May 5. Nansen, together with five comrades, reached the east coast of Greenland through Scotland and Iceland and on July 17 they landed on floating ice, 20 km from the coast. At the cost of incredible efforts, the group on boats passed through the floating ice and reached the coast on August 17. Further advancement was carried out on skis through unknown territory, with the people themselves serving as draft force. Frosts reached −40° C, woolen clothes provided little protection from the cold, and there was almost no fat in the diet (Sverdrup even asked Nansen for ski ointment for food). On October 3, the expedition reached the west coast, making the first crossing of the Greenland ice over a distance of about 660 km. Throughout the journey, Nansen and his companions conducted meteorological observations and collected scientific materials.

The expedition members missed the last ship heading home, but managed to deliver letters and telegrams. The six travelers returned to Norway in 1889 and were celebrated by the entire nation. Nansen was appointed curator of zoology at the University of Christiania (he received the position of professor without the obligation to lecture).

In 1890 and 1891 Books describing the Greenland expedition were published: Paa ski over Grønland(“Skiing across Greenland,” 2 vols., greatly abridged by the author in 1928) and Eskimoliv(“Life of the Eskimos”). These books testify to Nansen’s commitment at that time to the ideas of social Darwinism.

Expedition on the Fram 1893-1896

Having finished analyzing the results obtained, Nansen began preparing for an even more daring and ambitious expedition - to the North Pole region.

Previous observations convinced him of the existence of a strong east-west current, which should have been directed from Siberia to the North Pole and further to Greenland. This conclusion, in particular, is led by the fact that the remains of the unsuccessful American expedition on the ship “Jeanette” under the command of American Navy Lieutenant George De Long were found. This expedition crashed in 1881 northeast of the New Siberian Islands, and items from it were found off the southwestern coast of Greenland. Norwegian meteorologist, Professor G. Mohn published an article in 1884 that confirmed Nansen’s guesses and became the basis for an expedition to the Pole.

Deciding to test his theory, Nansen developed a design for a vessel ("Fram"), strong enough to withstand ice compression. The plan was for this ship to sail through the Northeast Passage to the New Siberian Islands, where it would be frozen into ice. The crew had to remain on board the ship while it drifted along with the ice towards the North Pole and the straits between Spitsbergen and Greenland.

The expedition plan caused sharp criticism in Great Britain (it was reported at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in the city), but was supported by the Norwegian parliament, which allocated in and. subsidies for the construction of the vessel in the amount of 250 thousand crowns, with the obligatory condition that the expedition will have a purely Norwegian national composition (Norway was part of Sweden from now on). Other expenses of 200 thousand crowns were covered by national subscriptions and subsidies from private investors, including foreign ones: O. Dixon supplied electrical equipment, and Baron E. Toll built evacuation bases on the New Siberian Islands in case of a disaster, and gave Nansen 35 West Siberian sled dogs . One of the sponsors of the expedition was the Ellef Ringnes brewing company, as well as the Knorr food concentrate production company and the Cadbury chocolate company.

The expedition set out from Christiania on June 24, having a supply of provisions for five years and fuel for six months at full speed. More than 600 people applied for participation in the expedition; ultimately the team included 13 people:

1. Fridtjof Nansen- head of the expedition, zoologist, hydrologist and oceanologist.
2. Otto Neumann Sverdrup- commander of the Fram, acting head of the expedition since March 14, 1895.
3. Sigurd Scott-Hansen- assistant commander, senior lieutenant of the Norwegian Navy. On the expedition he was the chief meteorologist, astronomer and specialist in magnetic and gravitational research.
4. Henrik Greve Blessing, candidate of medicine - doctor, veterinarian and botanist of the expedition.
5. Theodor Claudius Jacobsen- navigator of the Fram. Navigator of the Norwegian and New Zealand fleets.
6. Anton Amundsen- senior driver of the Fram. Machinist of the Norwegian Navy.
7. Adolph Ewell- provisions master and cook of the expedition. From 1879 he served as a navigator in the Norwegian fleet.
8. Lars Peterssen- second driver and blacksmith of the expedition. Served in the Norwegian Navy. Since 1895, he also served as a cook and meteorologist. Already on board it turned out that he was a Swede by nationality (real name - Petersson), posing as a Norwegian in order to take part in the expedition. Nansen's book states that his parents are Norwegians living in Sweden.
9. Frederik Hjalmar Johansen- fireman and meteorologist. Lieutenant in the Norwegian Army.
10. Peder Leonard Hendriksen- sailor and harpooner. Skipper of the Norwegian fleet, took part in the Sverdrup expedition in 1898-1902.
11. Bernard Noordahl- fireman, electrician and sailor. He also served as a meteorologist. Non-commissioned officer of the Norwegian Navy.
12. Ivar Otto Irgens Mugstadt- sailor, musher and watchmaker. Before the expedition, he changed many professions, including a forester and a warden at a psychiatric hospital.
13. Bernt Bentsen- sailor. Since 1890, he served as a navigator in the Norwegian Arctic fishing fleet. He joined the expedition half an hour before departure from Tromsø. Died during an expedition to Spitsbergen in 1899.

The Fram proceeded along the northern coast of Siberia. About 100 miles short of the New Siberian Islands, Nansen changed course to a more northerly one. By September 22, reaching 79º N. latitude. , "Fram" was firmly frozen into the pack ice. Nansen and his crew prepared to drift west towards Greenland.

The Fram's drift was not as close to the pole as Nansen had hoped. He decided to attempt a throw to the Pole, taking with him one of the strongest and most resilient members of the expedition, Hjalmar Johansen. On March 14, 1895, Nansen, accompanied by Johansen, left the ship, which at that time was at north latitude 84°05" and east longitude 101°35". Their attempt was unsuccessful. Conditions turned out to be more difficult than expected - their path was often blocked by ice ridges or areas of open water, which created obstacles. Finally, having reached 86º14'N, they decided to turn back and went to Franz Josef Land. Nansen and Johansen did not reach the Pole, but they came closer to it than all previous travelers.

Three months later, Nansen and Johansen managed to reach Franz Josef Land, where they spent the winter in a dugout they built from walrus skins and stones (September 28, 1895 - May 19, 1896). This wintering of Nansen, during which he led the life of a real Robinson, is a striking example of how courage and the ability to adapt to the harsh conditions of the Arctic allow a person to emerge victorious even in extremely difficult circumstances.

In the summer of 1896, Nansen unexpectedly met on Franz Josef Land with the English expedition of Jackson, on whose ship “Windward” he returned to Vardø on August 13, having spent three years in the Arctic. Exactly a week later, the Fram also returned to Norway, having brilliantly completed its historical drift. Nansen's theory was confirmed - the ship followed the current, the existence of which he assumed. In addition, the expedition collected valuable data on currents, winds and temperatures and confidently proved that on the Eurasian side in the subpolar region there is not land, but a deep, ice-covered ocean. The voyage of the Fram was of particular importance for the young science of oceanology. For Nansen, this marked a significant turn in his activities. Oceanography became the main subject of his research.

For several years Nansen processed the results of the expedition and wrote several works, including a popular description of the expedition in two volumes Fram over Polhavet. Den norske polarfærd 1893-1896(1897). This book was immediately translated into German, English and Russian, but was published under different titles: In Nacht und Eis: Die norwegische Polarexpedition 1893-96("Into Night and Ice: The Norwegian Polar Expedition 1893-1896") Farthest North(“Further North”). Russian pre-revolutionary translations were usually called “In the Land of Ice and Night” (1898, 1902), and Soviet-era translations were usually called “Fram in the Polar Sea” (1940, 1956, reprint 2007).

Further activities

Without stopping his oceanographic research, Nansen became involved in social activities. B - was appointed Ambassador of Norway to Great Britain. At the end of the First World War, he was Norway's representative to the United States and the League of Nations High Commissioner for the Repatriation of Prisoners of War from Russia. In 1921, on behalf of the International Red Cross, he created the “Nansen Help” committee to save the starving people of the Volga region. He was one of the few public figures in the West who was loyal to Bolshevik Russia and the young USSR. The following year he became High Commissioner for Refugees and established the Nansen Passport Bureau. In was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in Nobel Prize peace was awarded to the Nansen International Refugee Agency in Geneva, founded in.

Nansen did not interrupt and scientific activity: in 1900 he made an expedition to Spitsbergen, and in 1913 he sailed on the steamship “Correct” to the mouth of the Lena, and made a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway. He also planned an expedition to the Antarctic on the Fram, but in 1905, due to his wife’s illness, he abandoned this idea, transferring the ship to Amundsen. Since 1928, he participated in the preparation of the German expedition to the Arctic on the airship “Graf Zeppelin”, but it took place after his death. In the last years of his life he suffered from cardiovascular diseases. Nansen died in Lysaker near Oslo on May 13, 1930, playing with his granddaughter on the veranda of his estate. At his request, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Oslofjord. The cenotaph is located in his estate "Pulhögda".

The annual human rights award of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Nansen Medal, is named in his honor.

Personal life

Nansen was married to Eva Sars (1868-1907), daughter of the famous zoologist Michael Sars, from 1890. It was Eva who dedicated the Fram when it was launched in 1892; the epigraph of Nansen’s journey description is dedicated to her “ She who gave the ship a name and had the courage to wait" In 1893, their daughter Liv was born, who saw her father for the first time at the age of three. During Nansen's absence, Eva made a musical career, performing professionally as a singer.

In honor of Eva and Liv, Nansen named the islands on Franz Josef Land (it has now turned out that this is one island, so on the maps it is called Evaliv). After 1898, the Nansens had four more children: Kore, Irmelin, Odd and Osmund. Odd Nansen (1901-1973) was a famous Norwegian architect, writer and philanthropist who created a foundation during the war to help Jewish refugees from European countries occupied by Nazi Germany.

Eva Nansen died in 1907 while Nansen was ambassador to London. He married for the second time in 1919 to Sigrun Munta. Daughter Liv left memoirs about her father and mother.

Sources

• Professor V. Yu. Wiese “FRITJOF NANSEN” (to the book by F. Nansen “Fram in the Polar Sea”)]
• H. Sides, Drifting between life and death: National Geographic Russia, January 2009, p. 142-153.
• Brogger, V. G., Rolfsen N. Fridtjof Nansen. Per. from date SPb: Publishing house. Devriena. 1896 365 pp.
• A. Talanov. Nansen. Series: ZhZL. M.: Young Guard, 1960. 304 p.
• Liv Nansen-Heyer. A book about a father. M. Gidrometeoizdat 1973. 390 p.

Russian editions of Nansen's books

• Frithiof Nansen. In the darkness of the night and in the ice. The journey of the Norwegian expedition on the ship Fram to the North Pole. 31 drawings on separate sheets and in the text. Travel map in color. St. Petersburg: Wolf, 1897. 337 p.
• Nansen F. In the land of ice and night, vol. 1-2 St. Petersburg. Type. Br. Panteleev, 1897. 320, 344 pp.
• Nansen Fridtjof (compiled by Annenskaya A.) Skiing across Greenland. Library of Vkhodov St. Petersburg: Ed. magazine for children Shoots 1897. 198 p.
• Nansen Frithiof. In the darkness of the night and in the ice. The journey of the Norwegian expedition on the ship Fram to the North Pole. 2 vols. Full translation, edited by N. Berezin. St. Petersburg Publishing house O. N. Popova. 1901
• Nansen Fridtjof. To the land of the future. The Great Northern Route from Europe to Siberia through the Kara Sea. With a portrait of the author, 155 drawings and 3 maps. Authorized translation from Norwegian by A. and P. Hansen. Petrograd Published by K. I. Ksido. 1915 454 s (Modern edition 2004)
• Frithiof Nansen. Russia and the world. Translation from French S. Bronsky. With a foreword by N. Meshcheryakov. M.-Pg. State publishing house. 1923 147 p.
• Nansen F. Collected Works. In 5 vols. M.: Geographgiz, 1939-1940.
• Nansen F. Fram in the Polar Sea. In 2 volumes. M.: Geographgiz, 1956. 368, 352 p.
• Nansen F. “Fram” in the Polar Sea. Per. from norwegian Lopukhina Z.I., introductory article Glushkova V.V. Series: Travel Library. M.: Bustard, 2007. 992 p.

Full list | (1901-1925) | (1926-1950) | (1951-1975) | (1976-2000) | (2001-2025)

Norwegian explorer and philanthropist Fridtjof Nansen(October 10, 1861 - May 13, 1930) was born in the suburb of Christiania (now Oslo). His father, a lawyer by profession, was strict with the children, but did not interfere with their games and walks. Fridtjof's mother, who loved skiing, instilled in him a love of nature. As a child, he spent a lot of time in the wooded hills, and he and his brother lived in the forest for several days at a time. In winter they fished through holes in the ice and hunted. Nansen's childhood experience was very useful later, during Arctic expeditions.
In 1880 He entered the University of Oslo, choosing zoology as a specialty, which attracted him with the possibility of expeditionary work. Two years later, he joined the Viking fishing vessel heading to the Arctic, and soon saw the icy mountains of Greenland with his own eyes. This sight gave him the idea of ​​his own expedition - the first crossing of Greenland on foot.

Developing a plan for the transition, Nansen decided to sail as close as possible to the uninhabited east coast of Greenland, leave the ship at the edge of the ice fields and then walk west through glaciers and mountains. For a long time, Nansen could not find enough funds to implement his plan, but then he managed to impress a philanthropist from Copenhagen.

In May 1888 Nansen and five crew members began sailing. Upon reaching the ice fields, they left the ship, but it turned out that the ice had moved many miles to the south. The expedition members had to move north, which took a lot of time and made it impossible for them to reach their goal before the onset of the Arctic winter. Mountains, glaciers and low temperatures made travel very difficult, but after 37 days the expedition reached an Eskimo village on the west coast. However, it was the end of September, and navigation had already ended. Left to spend the winter in the village, Nansen devoted his forced leisure to studying the life of the Eskimos. Combining his own experience with observations, he developed the classic method of polar crossings on skis and dog sleds. In May 1889 The expedition returned to Norway, where the explorer was received as a hero.

In the same year, Nansen became curator of the zoological collection of the University of Oslo and wrote two books about his adventures: “The First Crossing of Greenland” (“Pa ski over Gronland”, 1890) and “The Life of the Eskimos” (“Eskimoliv”, 1891). At the same time, he began planning a new expedition, as a result of which he hoped to be the first to reach the North Pole and determine whether there was land there. Reading reports about an American research vessel that drifted in the Arctic ice for more than a year, Nansen came to the conclusion that a specially designed vessel could get to the pole with ice. With funds received from the Norwegian government, he built a round-bottomed ship, Fram (Forward), designed to withstand strong ice pressure.

Nansen sailed in the summer of 1893. with a crew of 12 people. The Fram advanced 450 miles toward the pole, but then got stuck. In March, Nansen and one of the crew moved on by dog ​​sled. Despite incredible difficulties, they reached the point of latitude 86° 13.6’ north for the first time. Not knowing where the Fram was located, the polar explorers decided to spend the winter on Franz Josef Land, they hunted walruses and polar bears and lived in a tent made of walrus skins. In May 1896 they met the English expedition and returned to the Fram in August. N. described the history of the expedition in a two-volume work, which was published in English translation under the title “Far North” (1897).

The experience gained aroused the Norwegian's interest in the ocean, and in 1908. He took over the newly created department of oceanography at the University of Oslo. While in this position, he helped found the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, directed its laboratories in Oslo, and participated in several Arctic expeditions.

Having gained international fame by that time, Nansen participated in negotiations on the separation of Norway from Sweden in 1905. Many Swedes strongly opposed the dissolution of the union of the two peoples. Nansen went to London, where he defended Norway's right to independent existence. After Norway's peaceful secession, he became its first ambassador to Great Britain, holding this post in 1906...1908. At the same time, he was working on the book “Among the Northern Mists” (“Nord i tackenheimen”, 1910...1911). Being the world's largest polar explorer, Nansen advised the English traveler Robert Falcon Scott, who, unfortunately, did not take his advice on the way to the South Pole. However, Roald Amundsen (also a Norwegian), thanks to the ship Fram and the advice of his mentor, reached the South Pole at the end of 1911.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Nansen again entered public service. In 1917 he was sent to the United States to negotiate the supply of basic necessities to Norway. Norway spoke out strongly in favor of the League of Nations, and Nansen, who headed the Norwegian Society for the Support of the League, became in 1920. the first representative of Norway in it.

In the same year, Philip Noel-Baker invited Nansen to take part in overseeing the repatriation of 500 thousand German and Austrian prisoners of war from Russia. The task was complicated by the chaos surrounding the Russian Revolution and the Soviet government's decision not to recognize the League of Nations. However, the international authority of the famous researcher allowed him to gain access to the prisoners. Having neither transport nor food supplies for the repatriates, he turned to the League of Nations with a request for funds for these purposes. Nansen convinced the Bolshevik authorities to deliver prisoners of war to the border and, with the help of captured German ships located in England, removed them from Soviet ports. By September, almost 437 thousand prisoners returned to their homeland.

At the same time, he was engaged in solving another problem - providing housing for 1.5 million Russian emigrants who fled from the revolution. Many of them had no identity cards and moved from country to country, settling in squalid camps where thousands died of hunger and typhoid. Nansen developed international agreements on documents for refugees. Gradually, 52 countries recognized these documents, which were called “Nansen passports.” It was thanks to the efforts of the Norwegian that most of the emigrants found shelter.

During the famine that struck Soviet Russia in the summer of 1921, Nansen, who had been appointed High Commissioner of the League for Refugees in June, appealed to governments for help, setting aside political differences with the Soviets. The League of Nations rejected his request for a loan, but the United States, for example, allocated $20 million for this purpose. Funds raised by governments and charities helped save 10 million lives. He also took care of the refugees during the Greco-Turkish War of 1922: a million Greeks living in Turkey and half a million Turks living in Greece swapped places.

For his many years of efforts to help refugees and war victims, Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. “The Nobel Prize has been awarded to a variety of people,” wrote the Danish journalist, “but for the first time it went to a person who achieved such outstanding success in the practice of the world in such a short time.” The representative of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Fredrik Stang, said in his speech: “What is most striking about him is his ability to devote his life to one idea, one thought and to carry others with him.”

In his Nobel lecture, Nansen outlined the desperate conditions resulting from the world war and spoke of the League of Nations as the only means of preventing future tragedies. “It is the blind fanaticism of both sides that takes conflicts to the level of struggle and destruction, while discussion, mutual understanding and tolerance can bring much greater success,” said Nansen. He donated the funds received from the Nobel Committee to help refugees.

In 1925, the League of Nations instructed Nansen to study the possibility of settling Armenian refugees, for which a special commission was formed with Nansen at its head. During the World War, the persecution of Armenians in Turkey reached monstrous proportions. Of the 1,845,450 Armenians living in Turkey, more than one million were killed in 1915 and 1916; the rest, some fled abroad, some took refuge in the mountains. Nansen traveled to Armenia in 1925, mainly for the purpose of investigating locally the possibility of artificial irrigation. The work of the Nansen commission proceeded in close cooperation with the Soviet land management committee located in Erivan [Yerevan]. Returning through the Caucasus and Volga to Western Europe, Nansen reported to the League of Nations on the results of his trip. “The only place,” he said, “where it is currently possible to accommodate poor Armenian refugees is Soviet Armenia. Here, where a few years ago there was devastation, poverty and hunger, now, thanks to the care of the Soviet government, peace and order have been established and the population has even become prosperous to a certain extent.” Several tens of thousands of Armenian refugees were managed to settle in Syria.

Upon returning to his homeland, he wrote a book full of sympathy and respect for the Armenian people, “Armenia and the Middle East,” which was published in Norwegian, English, French, German and Armenian.
Nansen also described his trip to Armenia in the book “Gjennern Armenia” (“Across Armenia”), published in 1927. Two years later, another of his books was published, also related to the 1925 trip: “Gjennern Kaukasus til Volga” (“Through the Caucasus to the Volga”). Nansen did not give up caring for the Armenian people until the end of his life. In 1928, he toured America, during which he gave lectures to raise funds for the benefit of Armenians.

Nansen had no family.* He died in Oslo, overworked after a ski trip; His funeral took place on May 17, 1930, the anniversary of Norwegian independence.

*Note from ArmenianHouse.org: This information is incorrect. Nansen was married and had five children. Cm.

Page:

Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (October 10, 1861 - May 13, 1930) - Norwegian polar explorer, scientist - Doctor of Zoology, founder of the new science - physical oceanography, political and public figure, humanist, philanthropist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 1922, awarded many countries, including Russia. Geographical and astronomical objects are named after Nansen, including a crater at the North Pole of the Moon.

In his youth he became known as a skier and speed skater. At the age of 27, for the first time in history, he crossed the Greenland ice sheet on skis, which was perceived by the general public as a grandiose sporting achievement. During the attempt to reach the North Pole - an expedition on the ship "Fram" - reached 86° 13' 36" N on April 8, 1895. Although Nansen did not participate in pioneering enterprises after this, the methods of movement and survival in ice and the equipment he used became A role model for many world-class polar explorers, Nansen regularly advised polar researchers from different countries.

Romance is necessary in a person’s life. It is this that gives a person divine strength to travel beyond the ordinary...

Nansen Fridtjof

Nansen studied zoology at the University of Christiania, worked at the Bergen Museum; his research in the field of the structure of the central nervous system invertebrates were summarized in a doctoral dissertation in 1888. After 1897, Nansen's main scientific interests switched to the newly created science of oceanography; the researcher participated in several oceanographic expeditions in the North Atlantic.

As a patriot of Norway, Nansen in 1905 advocated the dissolution of the union of Norway and Sweden, after which politics became his main occupation for many years. Between 1905 and 1908 he served as Norway's envoy to London, helping to establish Norway's high international status.

The last decade of Nansen's life was associated with the League of Nations. From 1921 he was its High Commissioner for Refugees. His contribution to establishing ties between Europe and Soviet Russia and providing assistance to the famine-stricken in the Volga region was great. In 1922, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the repatriation and naturalization of persons displaced by the First World War and the resolution of related conflicts. His most important initiative was the Nansen passports, which allowed stateless refugees to find shelter in other countries. After Nansen's death, his work was continued by the Nansen Refugee Organization, whose central office received the Nobel Prize in 1938 for its efforts to distribute Nansen's passport.

(1861-1930)Norwegian navigator and oceanographer, Arctic explorer

Fridtjof Nansen was born in the Sture-Frøen estate near the Norwegian capital, in a surprisingly picturesque area. Parents, despite their financial well-being, raised their children in Spartan conditions and encouraged them to play sports. In the summer, Fridtjof attended a swimming school, and in the winter he was fond of skiing, being considered the best among his peers. Often he and his comrades went on long hikes in the Scandinavian mountains, sometimes lasting more than two weeks. Returning from such trips, he took up his studies with great zeal, reading books with the same enthusiasm as he traveled.

Having graduated from university and then received a doctorate in zoology, Nansen does not want to be an armchair scientist - he is attracted to travel in the high latitudes of the Earth. He dreams of traveling through Greenland from its east coast to its west.

On July 17, 1888, Fridtjof Nansen and his companions disembarked from the ship onto boats and began to make their way through the floating ice to the eastern shores of Greenland. On August 16, they reached the starting point of their journey and moved west on skis. This campaign lasted almost two months. It was very difficult, since the frosts reached -45 degrees Celsius, you had to carry provisions and tools on yourself, eat cold food, and melt snow with the heat of your body for drinking. In early October, Fridtjof Nansen and his companions went to the western coast of the island, spent the winter and returned home with the first spring steamer in May 1889.

The travelers were given a ceremonial welcome. During the journey, Fridtjof Nansen kept notes, which later formed the basis of his books “Skiing across Greenland” and “Life of the Eskimos”. Now his plans included penetration into the center of the Arctic, to the North Pole. Studying the currents of the Arctic Ocean, he came to the conclusion that they were heading from the shores of Siberia to the Pole.

Fridtjof began to implement his plan in 1893. On the ship Fram, specially built for this purpose, Nansen sailed from Norway. Having passed the Kara Sea and rounded Cape Chelyuskin, he froze the ship in drifting ice north of the New Siberian Islands, hoping “that the current and ice would carry the Fram to the center of the Arctic, and there the North Pole itself was close.” During the journey, members of the expedition conducted scientific observations of the earth's magnetism, plant and animal life of the ocean, constantly carried out meteorological observations, measured the depth of the ocean, monitored the speed and direction of ice drift and the force of ice compression.

It soon became clear that the ship's drift was south of the circumpolar space, and Fridtjof Nansen decided to reach the desired pole on skis and dogs. On March 14, 1895, he and his young navigator J. Johansen left the Fram, which at that time was at 84° north latitude, and headed towards the Pole. The path turned out to be more difficult than Fridtjof had expected. They had to overcome huge ice holes, piles of ice, and had nowhere to dry their frozen clothes. They walked about 200 km and rose to a latitude of 86°14", however, due to weather conditions, they were forced to return back to Franz Josef Land, where they built a hut and decided to spend the winter. They warmed themselves by a lamp, which they filled with bear fat, and from they ate only polar bear meat.During the winter on the Franz Josef Land archipelago, Nansen and his companion studied the climate, rocks and minerals, the sparse arctic vegetation of the island, and conducted observations of the fauna of the islands.

Unexpectedly, in the summer of 1896, Fridtjof Nansen met an English polar expedition on the island, which gave him and his companion the warmest welcome. A month later, an English steamer delivered the travelers to their homeland, and a week later the Fram also returned safely. Nansen began to be called “polar explorer number one.”

His expedition was very great importance. It was found that in the Central Arctic there are seas with a depth of more than 3000 meters, weather data made it possible to draw a conclusion about the climate of high latitudes, observations of ice drift provided rich material, ideas about the animal and plant world of the ocean expanded, it was found that at a depth of A layer of warm water passes 200 to 800 meters, which enters the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic.

In Norway, Fridtjof Nansen became involved in social activities. He was appointed Norway's envoy in London, but he always dreamed of returning to science and hoped to visit the Arctic. However, his wife suddenly died, and soon he lost his youngest son. Nansen finds solace in work and writes several books. After some time, he managed to cope with the troubles that befell him, and gradually regained his former self-confidence.

More and more often he remembers the Arctic and begins to prepare for a new expedition. But the First World War began and it had to be postponed. After the end of the war, Fridtjof devotes all his time to people, trying to help them. Representatives of the mission worked in areas affected by plague, cholera, and malaria. The scientist organized a collection of donations for the starving Volga region, which came from all over the world, and helped emigrants who were forced to leave their homeland. For his achievements, the Norwegian navigator was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

All this long time, Fridtjof Nansen did not stop desperately yearning for the Arctic. However, he could no longer return to the life of a polar explorer, although shortly before his death he was preparing an expedition to the North Pole on an airship. He died in 1930.

The greatest Norwegian scientist, Harald Sverdrup, subsequently wrote about Fridtjof Nansen: “He was great as a polar explorer, greater as a scientist, even greater as a person.”

At the end of September, Nansen visited Krasnoyarsk. He visited the city park and museum, met with high school students and teachers, with representatives of local authorities and ordinary Krasnoyarsk residents.

The trip to Siberia left deep impressions on the famous Norwegian. A year later, his diary book “To the Land of Tomorrow” is published. Below is an excerpt from this book, where the author described in detail his impressions of three days conducted by him in Krasnoyarsk.

About the author: Fridtjof Nansen - Norwegian polar explorer, zoologist, founder of a new science - physical oceanography, political figure, humanist, philanthropist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 1922.

«... Thursday, September 25th. On the horizon, beyond the hilly plain in the south, the mountains are already turning blue; You can even distinguish individual ridges and peaks. This is the northern part of the Sayan Mountains near Krasnoyarsk, or rather, the Gremyachinsky ridge.

At many stations we were greeted with honor by village elders, elected by the peasants themselves. At the penultimate station before Krasnoyarsk, we were met, in addition to the headman, by the police officer, the head of the telegraph department and two or three more representatives of the peasants. The head of the telegraph station conveyed to us the request of the Krasnoyarsk mayor - to try to come to the city during the day. It was still morning, but there was no hope of getting to Krasnoyarsk before evening. To get there in the afternoon, we would have to wait until the next morning at the last station. But we were running out of time, and I still had to settle some matters in Krasnoyarsk before moving on, and besides, letters were waiting for me there, so, no matter how sorry it was to upset the Krasnoyarsk people, to delay us, according to their wishes , it turned out to be decidedly unaffordable. But we decided to make every effort to arrive as early as possible in the evening.

So, we had to hurry, and we rushed at full speed, past arable fields and meadows, through villages and hamlets, without slowing down. We were shaken and tossed even worse; It was especially hard in the villages; in one village the road turned out to be so impossible that we had to go around it.

We left the last, thirteenth station at half past five in the afternoon; there were still 35 miles left to Krasnoyarsk, and we had to work hard so as not to arrive too late. The coachman tirelessly lashed the horses with a whip and urged them on either with the prolonged plaintive howl of a dying dog or with abrupt cheerful calls.

Before our departure from Yeniseisk, one cautious official, and many others, warned us not to take the last stage before Krasnoyarsk at dusk: it was unsafe there. Due to the amnesty on the occasion of the Romanov anniversary, many criminals were released before their term, and now they began to “play pranks” at night. Just recently there was an attack on the post office; the horse and postman were killed and the money mail was stolen. The robbers, of course, were not caught. This is rarely possible here. We passed the scene of the attack before dark. Indeed, the place was quite suitable for robbery - deserted, hilly. They say that a wooden cross was erected there, as is customary in Siberia, at the places where the murder took place, so that passers-by could pray for the souls of the murdered. We, however, did not see the cross.

These stories did not intimidate us, and we laughed more at the possibility of an attack. Visitors, and even foreigners, are rarely attacked in Siberia, presumably assuming that they are well armed. We did not justify this assumption: I personally had nothing with me except a pocket knife. I sent the guns by ship. And, in fact, we shouldn’t have laughed: when we arrived in Krasnoyarsk, all the ropes that tied up our luggage, which was placed behind the body of the carriage, were cut, and their ends were dragging on the ground. Fortunately, the prudent Mrs. Kytmanova also took care to tie our things into bags, which protected them from falling out. Loris-Melikov and I, however, noticed on the road that some ropes were dragging along the ground and swamping the wheels, and we even talked to each other about this, but that was all. We heard the rustling of ropes soon after we passed the dangerous place, and then it was already quite dark. The thieves apparently jumped onto the tarantass from behind and cut the ropes, but were frightened by oncoming passers-by and jumped off. While driving, behind the noise and shaking, there is no way to hear what is happening behind.

Soon it started to rain. We came across police Cossacks, sent ahead to find out where we were and how soon we could be expected. From this we understood that they were preparing a meeting for us in Krasnoyarsk.

Finally, around half past eight in the evening, we arrived in a drizzling rain. The city, illuminated by electricity, presented a spectacular spectacle from the top of the hill we drove up; In addition, in the steppes, at the entrance to the city, fires and torches were burning. When we drove closer, we could make out, by the light of the fires, a dark mass of people and an arch decorated with Russian and Norwegian flags; dark figures moved back and forth and waved torches.

The crew, one might say, crashed into the crowd and got stuck in it amid cries of “hurray.” We had to go out and listen to the greetings of the mayor, the chairman of the Geographical Society, the representative of the governor, who himself was away, etc., etc. The speeches were covered with enthusiastic “hurray,” the rain continued to drizzle, and the torches and fires burned brightly. The picture turned out fantastic. All these people stood in the rain and waited for us since three o'clock in the afternoon. It's a shame, but it wasn't our fault.

Then Vostrotin and I were put into a carriage drawn by a pair of beautiful black horses, and Lorns-Melikov in another, and driven downhill into the city, along streets illuminated by electricity, to the luxurious house of the merchant Pyotr Ivanovich Gadalov, where we were cordially received by the owner himself and his wife, daughter and son.

So, we reached Krasnoyarsk - the goal we had been striving for for so long - just on time, September 25, and could praise ourselves for our accuracy, taking into account how many thousands of miles we had to travel from Christiania, and in such a variety of ways. I even had three whole days left before leaving for the East with engineer Wurzel. But the hospitable townspeople decided to make good use of these days. Such an “event” as our arrival had to be celebrated; and besides, I was asked to read a report about our trip, which I promised. But first of all, I had to thoroughly wash off the dirt and road dust, change clothes and eat with my companions at a festively laid table in the house of our dear hosts, who did not know how to please us. At such moments it always seems to me that nothing can compare with the pleasure of a traveler who, after long ordeals in frost and blizzard or fog and rain, reaches a hut or a warm fire, or, as we now do, after a long jolt along country roads - to such palace

Friday, September 26th. The next day, the first thing I did was put in order my photographs needed for the report. I developed most of the negatives on board the Correct and Omul, where the bathtub served as a dark room for Vostrotin and me. One of the curators of the museum in Krasnoyarsk undertook to make transparencies from the photographs I selected and did an excellent job. Then I had to go to the store and buy a new supply of film rolls and plates for my photographic camera. Then go to the bank for money and start tidying up your wardrobe, which has suffered somewhat during the trip.

Vostrotin took me around the city and showed me all the sights, including the Cathedral of the Nativity, whose high bell towers and golden domes were visible from all over the city. Krasnoyarsk gold mine owners began building the cathedral in 1843, but in 1849 the temple vaults collapsed. Then the gold miner Shchegolev took upon himself the construction and decoration of the temple, and it cost him about half a million rubles. In general, if some rich Siberian wants to make a sacrifice from his abundance on the altar of his fatherland, he builds a church. Then we visited the city park, which is considered the best in all of Siberia. It was autumn time, and the flowers had already withered, but judging by the trees, coniferous and deciduous, one could imagine that in the summer the park is a wonderful place for walks. The streets in the city are wide and straight; The main streets have stone houses, but most of the buildings are made of wood. Krasnoyarsk is beautifully located on the left bank of the Yenisei, in a valley surrounded by mountains. On the western side are the hills over which we crossed the night before. The steep mountain closest to the city consists of red sandstone with a layer of red marl, from which the city owes its name. On the eastern bank of the Yenisei the terrain is even higher and more rugged; the hills here are partly of volcanic origin and overgrown with sparse forest.

Somewhat higher than Krasnoyarsk, the Yenisei makes its way through a rocky gorge and sometimes narrows to 300-400 meters in width, but the speed of the current reaches 7-9 versts per hour. Further on, the river floods again and reaches more than a mile in width, and near the city it divides into two branches and flows around beautiful low-lying islands overgrown with birch forest.

Here, as elsewhere, there is a big difference in water levels during the spring flood and in the summer. This difference reaches 10 meters and this is what determines the peculiar structure of the banks - “bare sandy slopes gently sloping down to the water.”

In the afternoon my hospitable host placed a saddle horse at my disposal, as he heard that I wanted to familiarize myself with the surroundings. Together with the owner's son, I took a wonderful walk into the mountains to the west of Krasnoyarsk. The area was hilly and deserted. The mountains are mostly composed of loose red sandstone, but, apparently, these are only the upper layers, as elsewhere, formed by the process of weathering over long periods of time. Since there apparently was no ice age here - at least in later geological eras - all these weathering products remained in place. The area is cut by water-eroded valleys; Here and there springs emerged from the sandstone and formed deep narrow gorges.

Once, perhaps, these spaces were covered with forest, although I did not find any traces of this. It must have burned out in time immemorial, and the whole area became a meadow plain, almost nowhere under cultivation except in the river valleys, and even there there is little.

Saturday, September 27. My incomparable host guessed that I really wanted to get acquainted with the mountains of the other, eastern bank of the Yenisei, and the next morning he again provided us with riding horses. This time I went accompanied by young Gadalov and the museum curator.

Somewhat higher than Krasnoyarsk, there is a railway bridge across the Yenisei, almost 900 meters long; there is no other bridge across the river, and ferries are used to cross. Even the main ferry is very primitively constructed and is driven by the force of the current itself. An anchor is attached to one end of a long rope and lowered to the bottom of the river above the crossing point; the rope itself rests on boats or barges; its other end is attached to a ferry equipped with a large rudder. If you use the rudder to set the ferry diagonally across the current, it will be carried to the other side, to the pier. There the people and horses disembark, the ferry is loaded again, the rudder is moved, and the ferry is again carried back by the current. Thus, the crossing takes a whole day, and the whole job of the carriers is to move the rudder.

We had to wait here too. Today turned out to be a big holiday (September 14, old style), and yesterday was market day, and a lot of people gathered at the crossing. It was interesting to look at the people, so cheerful, joyful and happy in appearance. They all went home to the villages, the carts were empty, and the women and girls were in their best clothes. The ferry landed on the shore, loaded with people, horses and carts, and as soon as they all got out, a new mass of carts, horses and people poured onto it! We soon set sail and very quickly found ourselves on the opposite bank. But it turned out that we had only reached the island, and on the other side of it another ferry was waiting for us.

Finally we crossed the second branch of the river and found ourselves on solid ground, mounted our horses and at a fast trot set off south along the river, first through the steppe, and then through a valley between the mountains, until we reached the granite ridge that particularly interested me.

For someone who is accustomed to our round, ice-polished Scandinavian rocks, it is strange to see the local mountain forms.

The valleys clearly show that they owe their origin to water, and not to glaciers, like ours. And the jagged weathered mountain ridges of granite, towering above the surrounding mountains, clearly indicate that the area from time immemorial was subjected to severe weathering and destruction under the influence of precipitation, as a result of which only the harder rocks survived, forming something like ruins, while the looser ones were washed away by rains, carried away by waters and winds. Subsequently, I often saw in Siberia and the Amur region similar sharp, torn and jagged ridges of granite or other hard rock that rose high above the surrounding area. They point out that there could not have been an ice age here with its glaciers, otherwise they would have been wiped off the face of the earth. The surrounding soil was strewn with a thick layer of gravel and sand, owing to the same weathering process. At the base of these covered cliffs there were not even rocky scatterings, which would certainly be found here in Norway. Even the soil here is subject to weathering and is mostly covered with gravel, black soil and vegetation. The forest soil is often covered with growth, but the forest itself is sparse, the trees are medium-sized and mostly deciduous.

In the afternoon, the Krasnoyarsk sports society and schools organized a football competition in our honor on the city parade ground. IN last years in Russia there is a strong passion for the so-called falconry, which got its start in the Czech Republic, where it celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1912. This hobby was supported by the government, and Sokol societies began to be organized throughout Russia, as well as here in Siberia. Russian speed skaters, who were our most dangerous rivals in the world championship competition, also belong to the “falcons”. At the sports parade ground we were very warmly received by the Krasnoyarsk youth in beautiful light suits, and it was a great pleasure to watch their lively and skillful play. Having said goodbye to these lovely young men and their helpful leaders, we went to the city museum, where we had a formal meeting with the employees and management of the museum. The museum contains valuable collections of various kinds - natural science, archaeological, ethnographic, etc. For me, the most interesting were the latter, especially the collections relating to the Yenisei Ostyaks, Tungus, Samoyeds and others. I also learned a lot of new things about the historical past and present of Siberia from oral explanations from the knowledgeable owners of the museum.

Sunday, September 28. The next day a meeting was held at the Geographical Society. I talked about our journey and showed slides, and also developed a plan for possible navigation through the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Yenisei. Vostrotin was kind enough to take on the duties of translator again. The heartfelt participation and deep interest shown by the crowded meeting made me understand how important the Siberians attach to the possibilities of sea communication between their country and Europe. This is not surprising: despite the railway, local industrialists feel as if locked in with their products, and the hope of selling them by sea opens up brilliant prospects for them. The huge Siberian rivers seem to have been created for the purpose of such communication; transport downstream is extremely convenient, and all these rivers point north, to the Arctic Ocean, as a way out of this situation. It was probably due to this that the city received us so cordially, although we were only invited guests on this sea voyage and did not suspect any special merits behind us.

In the evening the mayor and the Geographical Society gave us dinner; I made heartfelt speeches and showed a lot of enthusiasm; even greeting telegrams arrived from Irkutsk and other regions of Siberia.

Monday, September 29. The next morning, at five o'clock, my kind hosts took me to the station railway. There we were met, which we certainly did not expect, by the hospitable and cordial host of yesterday's dinner, the mayor, as well as the chairman of the Geographical Society and many others who wished to bid me farewell once again. Loris-Melikov and Vostrotin, in turn, decided to accompany me to Irkutsk, but there were no more tickets for this train - all the seats were taken back in Russia. At 5:35 am an express train arrived, covered in snow, reminding us that we were in Siberia. Here we finally met engineer Wurzel, who very cordially welcomed me into his coupe-salon. In his kind company, I now had to begin a new journey to the East, through a country completely unknown to me until now. There was plenty of space in his large carriage, and he immediately invited Vostrotin and Loris-Melikov to travel with us.

Then we said goodbye to the dear residents of Krasnoyarsk, the train started moving, and we rushed east along the endless rail track. Beyond the long bridge over the Yenisei, the road ran through the steppe for quite a long time, for the most part quite suitable for arable land and, it seemed, not even in need of fertilization; Here and there there were cultivated fields. The fact that in Siberia, even along the railway line, there are so many land plots lying in vain is probably explained by the fact that Siberians do not fertilize the land, but, having used it, sometimes leave it fallow for twenty years.

The first large station was the city of Kansk, located on the Kan, a tributary of the Yenisei, and numbering 10,000 inhabitants. The mayor of Kansk, who met us back in Krasnoyarsk, again greeted us at the station at the head of a deputation from the city; During the few minutes of the stop, several speeches of welcome and response were again made. Everywhere there was a keen interest in establishing a sea route through the Kara Sea. The need for it becomes more and more noticeable from year to year.

And then we raced east again over slightly undulating terrain, with endless expanses of fertile land, but also a lot of forest. Wurtzel's carriage was the last one on the train, and the salon was located at the end of the carriage, and there were windows both on the side and in the back wall, and we had a clear view of the entire railway line and in all directions..."

(Fridtjof Nansen “To the Land of the Future. The Great Northern Route from Europe to Siberia through the Kara Sea”, translation from Norwegian by A. and P. Hansen; Krasnoyarsk Book Publishing House, 1982)