CHUKOTKA, IT OIL WEALTH AND THE EASTERN SOVIET ARCTIC

EASTERN SOVIET ARCTIC

Eastern Soviet Arctic is a 5.2 million square kilometers (2 million square mile) expanse, underlain by permafrost. More than a dozen ethnic groups call it home. Tsarist Russia began making its presence known in the late 1600s. Indigenous people felt the impact of the Soviet Union when they became educated and their land was appropriated to gain access to natural resources — with the cost often being their traditional ways of life.

Eastern Soviet Arctic is bordered to the north by the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea, which are part of the Arctic Ocean; in the east by the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea, part of the Pacific Ocean. Chukotka is the primary region. But depending on how it is defined, the Eastern Soviet Arctic can also include parts of the Kamchatka peninsula, Magadan Oblast and Sakha Republic. The Chukchi Peninsula projects eastward forming the Bering Strait between Siberia and the Alaska Peninsula, and encloses the north side of the Gulf of Anadyr. The peninsula's easternmost point, Cape Dezhnev, is also the easternmost point of mainland Russia.

Ecologically, Eastern Soviet Arctic is divided into three distinct areas: the northern Arctic desert, the central tundra, and the taiga in the south. About half of Chukotka is above the Arctic Circle. This area is very mountainous, containing the Chukotsky Mountains (highest point Iskhodnaya) and the Anadyr Highlands. Large areas are covered with moss, lichen, and arctic plants, similar to those in western Alaska. Surrounding the Gulf of Anadyr and in the river valleys grow small larch, pine, birch, poplar, and willow trees. Large areas are still unexplored.

Bering Sea

Bering Sea is a body of water between the Russian Far East (Siberia) and Alaska. It is a rich fishery filled with king crab, halibut, sockeye salmon and pollack (the source of fish sticks and fake crab). Located in the North Pacific and comprising less than two percent of the Pacific, it is located mostly in United States territorial waters with a large chunk in Russian water and a small "donut hole" of international waters in the middle. The interaction between currents, sea ice, and severe makes it dynamic and rich ecosystem. It is also home to fur seals, polar bears, walruses and several species of whales.

The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, lying south of the Bering Strait (the Chukchi Sea is to the north of the strait). Comprised of a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves, it and the Bering Strait divide the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Americas.

The Bering Sea covers over 2,000,000 square kilometers (770,000 square miles) and is bordered on the east and northeast by Alaska, on the west by Russian Far East and the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the south by the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. The Bering Sea is named for Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator employed by Russians, who in 1728 was the first European to systematically explore it, sailing from the Pacific Ocean northward to the Arctic Ocean. Bering died in The Commander Islands (between the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean) in 1741.

During Ice Ages, when sea levels were lower than they are now, Eurasia and the Americas were connected by a land bridge called Beringia, or the Bering Land Bridge that is submerged when sea levels are as high as they are now but emerges when sea levels drop by several dozen meters. During the last ice age, roughly 38,000 to 11,700 year ago, the Bering Land Bridge was exposed and present-day Alaska was connected to the Russian Far East (Siberia). It has long been thought that the first people to inhabit the Americas were hunters who crossed this land bridge. This theory still holds true although many scholars now believe the first Americans were fishermen and mollusk collectors — not hunters in pursuit of mammoths and other animals — who traveled by boat along the coasts of the Russian Far East and Alaska.One of main points of contention these days is when these first Americans arrived: the general consensus seems to be around 20,000 years ago. See Separate Article MIGRATION OF EARLY HUMANS TO AMERICA factsanddetails.com

East Siberian Sea

The East Siberian Sea is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia and the Russian Far East to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukotka, and Wrangel Island to the east. This sea borders on the Laptev Sea to the west and the Chukchi Sea to the east. [Source: Wikipedia

This sea is one of the least studied in the Arctic area. It is characterized by severe climate, low water salinity, and a scarcity of flora, fauna and human population, as well as shallow depths (mostly less than 50 meter), slow sea currents, low tides (below 25 centimeters), frequent fogs, especially in summer, and an abundance of ice fields which fully melt only in August–September. The sea shores were inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous tribes of Yukaghirs, Chukchi and then Evens and Evenks, which were engaged in fishing, hunting and reindeer herding. They were then absorbed by Yakuts and later by Russians.

The East Siberian Sea covers 987,000 square kilometers (381,000 square miles). The average depth is 58 meters (190 feet) and the maximum depth is 155 meter (509 feet). Major industrial activities in the area are mining and navigation within the Northern Sea Route; commercial fishing is poorly developed. The largest city and port is Pevek, the northernmost city of mainland Russia.

Flora and fauna are relatively scarce due to the harsh climate. The summer plankton bloom is short but intense, producing 5 million tonnes of plankton in August and September, whereas the annual production is 7 million tonnes. The nutrients in water are mostly provided by river discharges and coastal erosion. The plankton species are dominated by the Pacific species of copepods. The sea shores and icefields are to to ringed seals, bearded seals, walruses and polar bears. Birds include seagulls, uria and cormorants. Bowhead whales, gray whales, beluga whales and narwhals are seen there. Major fish species are grayling, whitefishe), such as muksun broad whitefish and omul, polar smelt, saffron cod, polar cod, flounder and Arctic char.

Chukchi Sea

The Chukchi Sea is also called the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea and the Sea of Chukotsk. A marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, it is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The principal port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia.The International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea from northwest to southeast. It is displaced eastwards to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland.

The Chukchi Sea covers 620,000 square kilometers (240,000 square miles). Frozen much of the year, it only navigable in June, July, August and September. The main geological feature of the Chukchi Sea bottom is the 700-kilometer-long (430 mile) Hope Basin, which is bound to the northeast by the Herald Arch. The average depth is 80 meter (260 feet) Depths less than 50 meters (160 feet) occupy 56 percent of the total area.

The sea is named after the Chukchi people, who reside on its shores and on the Chukotka Peninsula. The coastal Chukchi traditionally engaged in fishing, whaling and the hunting of walrus in this cold sea. Among the places along the coast in Russia are: Cape Billings, Cape Schmidt, Amguyema River, Cape Vankarem, the large Kolyuchinskaya Bay, Neskynpil'gyn Lagoon, Cape Serdtse-Kamen, Enurmino, Chegitun River, Inchoun, Uelen and Cape Dezhnev. The Chukchi Sea has very few islands compared to other seas of the Arctic. Wrangel Island lies at the northwestern limit of the sea, Herald Island is located off Wrangel Island's Waring Point, near the northern limit of the sea. A few small islands lie along the Siberian and Alaskan coasts. Of rivers flowing in from its Siberian side, the Amguyema, Ioniveyem, and the Chegitun are the most important.

The Chukchi shelf is believed to hold oil and gas reserves as high as 30 billion barrels. Several oil companies have competed for leases on the area. In February 2008, the U.S. government announced the successful bidders would pay US$2.6 billion for extraction rights. The auction drew considerable criticism from environmentalists. In 2015, conditional approval was given to Shell Oil to drill in shallow (43 meter deep) Chukchi Sea waters. In September 2015, Shell announced that it was ending its oil exploration in the region, citing tremendous cost and declining oil prices. Shell vowed to return, but eventually gave up all but one of the corporation's leases in the Arctic.

International Date Line and the 180th Meridian

The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852. The International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea from northwest to southeast. It is displaced eastwards to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland.

In the valley of the river Tadleonan 46 kilometers from the village Egvekinot in Chukotka, there is a monument with an inscription that reads: "The sign of the sun in the infinite movement, symbolizing the end of the old, the beginning of a new day." The three-meter-in-diameter, eight-ton monuments sits at the intersection of the Arctic Circle and 180th meridian (180 degrees longitude). Located on Cape Dezhnev (East Cape), the closest point of the Russian mainland to Alaska, it is only place where the 180th meridian touches land. Everywhere else it is in the sea, or Antarctica, except on Wrangel Island in a place called Devil's ravine, where there is also a sign.

The 180th Meridian Monument was placed where it is 2014 by a group of enthusiasts that paid for and installed of the monument themselves. Before the monumnet was placed there there was a pillar that labeled the directions and distances to Egvekinot, Moscow, South Pole and Anadyr. Among the rituals that people do at the 180th Meridian Monument, are join hands, walk, run or jump from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere, or from yesterday to today, and vice versa. To add a twist, you can do all this while crossing the Arctic Circle.

Chukotka

Located in the northeast corner of Russia across the Bering Strait from Alaska, the Chukotka Peninsula—or Chukchi Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula or simply Chukotka—is a sparsely populated region about twice the size of Germany. Most of the people that live there are reindeer herders, fishermen or miners. Chukotka is rich in minerals but many of them lie deep under the ice or the permafrost and are expensive to extract. In the Soviet era, the economy was propped up. Even basic goods were flown in from Moscow. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the bottom fell out of the Chukotka economy and life became a matter of simple survival. Food was in short supply and many people didn’t have heat in the long winters. Things improved when the oligarch Roman Abramovich was elected governor in 2000.

Russia's seventh largest state-like entity and the 2nd least populated one and the least densely populated., Chukotka Autonomous Okrug has a population of 50,526 (2010 Census) and covers an area of 737,700 square kilometers (284,800 sq mi). Since the sale of Alaska to the United States, it has been the only part of Russia lying partially in the Western Hemisphere (east of the 180th meridian). It is about six percent larger than Texasand has a population density of 0.068 people per square kilometer. About 65 percent of the population live in urban areas. Anadyr is the capital and largest settlement, with about 13,000 people, and the easternmost town in Russia. An autonomous okrug autonomous okrug is more or less the same as an "autonomous region” set up for an indigenous group, in this case the Chukchi people.

Chukotka has large reserves of oil, natural gas, coal, gold, and tungsten, which are slowly being exploited, but much of the rural population survives on subsistence reindeer herding, whale hunting, and fishing. The urban population is employed in mining, administration, construction, cultural work, education, medicine, and other occupations. Chukotka is mostly roadless and air travel is the main mode of passenger transport. There are local permanent roads between some settlements, for example Egvekinot-Iultin (200 km). When cold enough, winter roads are constructed on the frozen rivers to connect region settlements in a uniform network. The main airport is Ugolny Airport near Anadyr. Coastal shipping also takes place, but the ice situation is too severe for at least half the year

Chukotka is home to Elgygytgyn Lake, an impact crater lake and the Anyuyskiy, an extinct volcano. The village of Uelen is the easternmost settlement in Russia and the closest substantial settlement to the United States (Alaska). The okrug is only part of Russia lying partially in the Western Hemisphere (east of the 180th meridian). Chukotka shares a border with the Sakha Republic to the west, Magadan Oblast to the south-west, and Kamchatka Krai to the south.

Chukotka is primarily populated by ethnic Russians, Chukchis, and other indigenous peoples. It is the only autonomous okrug in Russia that is not included in, or subordinate to, another federal subject, having separated from Magadan Oblast in 1993. Chukotka has large reserves of oil, natural gas, coal, gold, and tungsten, which are slowly being exploited, but much of the rural population survives on subsistence reindeer herding, whale hunting, and fishing.

Getting to Chukotka

For now, air travel is the main mode of passenger transport. The main airport is Anadyr International Airport (also known as Ugolny or Coal airport) Ugolny near Anadyr. There are flights there from Moscow and Anadyr. From Anadyr you can fly to Lavrentiya and a few other destinations.

Anadyr International Airport is in the town of Ugolnye Kopi on the other side of the river from Anadyr . The way you get there depends on the time of the year and whether or not there is snow on the ground. In the summer, between July and late September, you've got two options. Option one is to go on a Kamchatka passenger ferry that you can get to on a free shuttle bus. Option two is door-to-door and may seem to be the more comfortable one: you get into a special taxi that drives onto barges, which then take it across the river where the taxi then takes you to a hotel or to your home. During the winter, the river freezes over and taxis just drive across the ice between the airport and Anadyr. In the spring and fall, the only way to get from the airport to the city is on a helicopter that flies every hour. The helipad is outside the city, and there's a free shuttle service there.

Provideniya near Alaska is sometimes referred to as the Doorway to the Arctic, The town is served by the Provideniya Bay Airport, the closest Russian airport to the United States. Tourism from nearby Alaska has given the local economy a boost. Bering Air, an Alaskan airline, offers charter services to the Provideniya Bay Airport from both Nome and Anchorage. Alaska Airlines made a Friendship Flight to Provideniya in July 1988. Chukotavia provides flights to Anadyr.

Travel in Chukotka

There few roads or railways in Chukotka Construction of the Anadyr Highway — from the Kolyma Highway (Road of Bones) in Magadan Oblast to Anadyr in Chukotka — has begun. The road will pass Omsukchan, Omolon and Ilirney. There will also be branch roads to Bilibino and Egvekinot. These roads will cover 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles and take eight years to finish, with the opening expected to be in 2025. The construction of the first 50 kilometers of the road started in 2011–2012. The road will be a gravel road.

There is some boat travel and coastal shipping, but ice prevents this for at least half the year. The Captain Sotnikov steamer travels between Anadyr and Lavrentiya in the summer. There are a few local permanent roads between some settlements, such the 200-kilometer Egvekinot-Iultin road. When it is cold enough, winter roads are constructed on the frozen rivers to connect regional settlements in a uniform network. The construction of a permanent bridge over the Loren River on the busy 40-kilometer-long local road from Lavrentiya to Lorino was a major event in Chukotka.

Roman Abramovich and Chukotka

The Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug from 2000 to 2008. According to Forbes, Abramovich's net worth was US$12.9 billion in 2019, making him the 11th-richest person in Russia, and the 120th-richest person in the world. He has donated more money than any other living Russian, with donations between the years 1999 and 2013 of more than US$2.5 billion to build schools, hospitals and infrastructure in Chukotka.

Little is known about Abramovich. Based in London and an Israeli citizen as well as a Russian one, he born in the Volga port of Saratov was orphaned at five and for a while was the richest person in Britain and Russia and the 25th richest man in the world. He is known for his beautiful girlfriends, super yachts and the purchase of the Chelsea soccer club, which he poured a lot of money into and turned into a Premier League winner.

Abramovich acquired his wealth when Boris Yeltsin was President of Russia. Exactly how he did it is still a mystery. A protégée of the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, he made his fortune by obtaining large amounts of shares of Russian oil, airline and pharmaceutical companies, including Sibneft and a 26 percent share of Aeroflot previously owned by Berezovsky. He befriended Yeltsin’s daughter and was closely linked with the Yeltsin “Family.” As of 2002, Abramovich and fellow oligarch Oleg Deripaska controlled 75 percent of Russia’s aluminum industry. Abramovich owned a major stake in Sibneft, Russia’s 5th largest oil company in the 2000s. He and Berovsjy obtained it in 1995 for $250 million. In 2005, Roman Abramovich sold 72 percent of Sibneft to Gazprom for $13.1 billion.

Before Abramovich became governor of Chukotka he represented Chukotka in the Russian Duma (parliament). He won high marks for his work in Chukotka. He brought in staff members from Sibneft to develop the region economically. He invested some of his own money to develop tourism and drill for oil. The result: per capita income jumped from one of the lowest in Russia to forth, double the per capita income for the country as a whole.

One third of the tax revenues in Chukotka either came from Abramovich himself or one of his companies. He helped bring foreign investor to the region from Turkey and Canada, made sure people were paid their salaries, increased pensions to $350 and initiated a debit card system that people could use to pay for food and supplies.

Not everything he has done has been altruistic, The Chukotka government has granted his companies generous tax breaks and provided a means for him to hide his companies’ profits and keep them out of the hands of shareholders in his companies.

Early History of Chukotka

Chukotka was among the first Arctic territories to be freed from glaciers during the Ice Age. Based on current archaeological evidence, people first settled in Chukotka about 25,000 years ago. The most ancient inhabitants of the region came from present-day Central Asia, Mongolia and China. They hunted mammoths, bisons, wild horses and reindeer. Since one had to pass through Chukotka and skirt its shores, it can be assume the first people in the Americas either came from waht is now Chukotka or at least passed through it.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation (official Russia tourism website russiatourism.ru ), Russian government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Yomiuri Shimbun and various books and other publications.

Updated in September 2020