ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the emergence of field stations in the western part of the Russian Arctic and sub-Arctic in the period between the first and second IPY. It focuses on the roots of the large-scale activity in the Arctic in the late 1930s and post-war period, the success of which was based on hard preliminary work as well as ideas and enthusiasm expressed previously. A highly coordinated network of polar stations in the Russian Arctic was created in the 1930s under the main administration of the Northern Sea Route, a manifestation of the overall process of the centralization of scientific research under Soviet power. The typical paths in Russia for these different kinds of field study are quite apparent from the examples of activities of scientists from earlier generations, such as the founding father of the Russian Geographical Society, zoologist Karl Ernst von Baer. The Russian government's interest in studies of northern areas increased significantly during the First World War.
