How they live at the polar station: interview with polar explorer Sergey Nikitin

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If in your youth you read about Sanin and Kaverin and still think that there is no profession more romantic than a polar explorer, find out how life is actually arranged at the Antarctic station.

From October 29 to November 8, 2016 took place in Antarctica. Its participants met and talked with the administrator of the Bellingshausen polar station, Sergei Mikhailovich Nikitin.

Who are the polar explorers?

The profession of a polar explorer does not exist. According to our legislation, a person working in the polar regions is not a polar explorer. Such people simply receive certain benefits in connection with the working conditions.

I don't know what a polar explorer is. Diesel operators, mechanics, electricians, and cooks work at the station, according to the staffing table.

There will be many more scientists in the summer. They collect information in various fields: meteorology, geology, satellite data reception. Now we have German ornithologists working here. Big pedants - strictly control the breeding areas of birds.

Who is in charge of all this?

Administration. More precisely, the administrator of the polar station. Officially, the position is called the administrator, not the boss. But usually everyone says "boss".

I don’t think this is a calling. A station administrator is a must.

Any person who has some experience of working in the polar regions, especially at remote stations, can become one. There is such a thing as hard-to-reach stations. These include, for example, our stations in Antarctica.

Where are they taught for polar explorers?

Nowhere.

There is the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, founded back in 1920. But nobody is taught there. The Institute simply selects people of certain qualifications to work at polar stations.

A person with a chef or mechanic diploma comes to the personnel department of the institute and says that he wants to work at the station. If there is a need for this specialist, he is enrolled in the reserve, and when the time comes, he is sent to Antarctica.

Special attention is paid to newcomers to the station. We look at how a person settles in. After wintering, the head of the station writes whether he is suitable for work in the conditions of polar stations and subsequent expeditions.

How did your journey to Antarctica begin?

I'm not a lyricist. I did not dream of Antarctica, but I really wanted to get here, as I heard many stories about it from friends and acquaintances.

In Soviet times, it was impossible to visit Antarctica as a tourist. Therefore, I went to work as a doctor (by education I am an anesthesiologist-resuscitator).

In 1985, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute recommended me for the expedition. Two years later, I found myself in Antarctica for the first time.

I got to the Soviet Antarctic station "Progress" under construction. Now it is the most technologically advanced Russian base, but then it was literally put together from cardboard boxes. Just a three-by-four boardwalk. You open the door and you are already in Antarctica.

It was tough. We were told: "Guys, will you spend the winter or want to go home?" We stayed.

I spent 13 months on Progress without going out into the world. Then everything ended well for everyone - we overwintered normally. But it was a real school of the North and South, where the South turned out to be more dangerous than the North.

Then I came back and worked in medicine. But in the 1990s, the prose of life was such that the family could not be provided with a doctor's salary. Yes, and I was bored on the mainland. After 11 years, I returned to Antarctica. The only one from the previous composition.

What is your current expedition?

I have the eighth winter and the eleventh expedition.

Expeditions are usually seasonal. They last from four to six months, depending on the amount of work that is planned to be carried out. The works are divided into seasonal and wintering ones.

Going to the station, people sign a contract (even full-time employees), and upon their return they leave or go on a long vacation until the next expedition.

There are people who fly in for a month to do some specific work. After all, the institute receives applications from various organizations. For example, in early February next year, we expect aerogeodesists. We are also waiting for technical specialists who will prepare the station equipment for operation. We will be visited by a paleobiologist and glaciologist (a glacier specialist who studies ice movements).

What are your daily responsibilities?

The station manager is responsible for everything: from purchasing necessities for life to scientific activities.

There is a general program for all specialists, which describes the mission, tasks and scope of work that each member of the expedition must complete.

In the office of Sergei Nikitin

For example, there is a task - monitoring the sea level. In the event of ice formation, we must set up landmarks, set up instruments, and remove information. All this is scheduled inside and out.

The administrator is responsible for the execution of all scientific programs, and if some process does not go on, the demand is from me.

Do polar explorers have social benefits and privileges?

There are currently no benefits for polar explorers as such. There are simply norms governing work in the Far North.

Three years ago, when the Polar Explorer Day holiday was established, all employees of the polar stations were equated with the workers of the Far North. What does it mean?

Take, for example, cities in the Arctic Circle. Their inhabitants also work in difficult conditions, but at the same time enjoy all the benefits of civilization, come home, lie down in a warm bath, sleep with their wives, see their children.

The gentlemen who develop the laws, for some reason decided that Antarctica, where the height is four kilometers, where hypoxia and -80 degrees, is Murmansk. I think this is unfair.

Previously, we had small privileges: the vacation was longer, the experience went on. All this was possible from the moment we crossed 50 degrees south latitude on the ship.

Now the minimum wage for an employee of the polar station is 60,000 rubles. The maximum is 150,000.

I'm already retired. My pension is huge - 15,000 rubles.

If we compare your work with the office, what are its features?

You can't fire a person at a polar station. It's very scary.

In Antarctica, everything that happened at the station is the problem of the station. And everything happens. It's like a submarine. But submarines are now only sailing for a month (before four), and there are special isolators for sailors or officers. Because even strong people have deviations.

Bellingshausen is a good base in this respect, open to the outside world. It's scary at hard-to-reach stations. Illness, interpersonal discord can be a huge problem. The life of the entire station may be in jeopardy.

The most important principle is not to teach others. If an adult senses that you are trying to remake him, there will be conflict. It is better to think well of people here than to think badly.

The atmosphere at the station is immediately visible. When everything is fine, the administrator has established relations with everyone and between everyone, everyone walks around, smiling. You can sit in a company with a person and not notice him, and this is wonderful. When the situation is tense, people are agitated, walk alert, look around.

How is life at the station arranged?

In comparison with the first Antarctica, where I got, life is now at a rather high level. We have the Internet and television - what can I say.

On the kitchen

Room

Hallway

Of course, I would like us to have state-of-the-art stations. If Bellingshausen looks like a spaceship, I will be proud of our mission in Antarctica.

After all, tourists from all over the world come to us. We are like a mirror. If the people who come to us will see that everything is fine here, they will consider that our country is also good.

Is it very cold there?

There are no critically low temperatures at coastal stations. This is the section between the sea and the huge Antarctic dome, where there are billions of tons of ice. On the one hand, you have a mountain of ice, and on the other, a relatively warm sea.

Church of the Holy Trinity near Bellingshausen

But there is a serious stock wind here. Cold air, accelerating over the ice dome, where the temperature is -50 ° C, goes to the sea. Accelerating, it heats up somewhere down to –30 ° С. But this katabatic wind reaches a speed of 56 m / s, which is approximately 250 km / h. This is the most unpleasant natural phenomenon in Antarctica.

How do polar explorers rest at the station?

There is a saying: "Polar explorers are afraid of cold, hunger and work." But this is more of a joke. We are not afraid of work. Sometimes we do it in emergency mode and in extreme conditions, because everyone wants to live.

Rest is a purely personal matter. All people are different. Someone likes to read, someone goes in for sports.

We have a tennis table, a good gym, where bodybuilding fans work on themselves. Sometimes we organize tennis tournaments. It can be a lot of fun.

We also try to celebrate birthdays and other holidays cheerfully. But without consequences.

What is the station missing the most?

When a normal person goes away for a long time, he only misses home.