The Arctic – the world’s natural resource store, which Russia owns, a tidbit for all powerful countries and the subject of possible political disputes for the future – is for the time being safely guarded by natural watchmen: a harsh climate and extreme cold for the human body. Nevertheless, recently Russia is building up its military power in the Arctic zone and preparing special troops whose mission is not to survive, but to live and carry service in the Far North. Alexander Peterman, an Arctic traveler, member of the Russian Society of Information Technologies, the leader of the Northern Destination expedition and the partnership for the development of the Arctic territories, announced plans for the creation of a special training center near Nizhnevartovsk for the Federal News Agency.
Since 2008, the “Northern Troopers” annually go on a trip to the Arctic and a whole month on the road tests snowmobiles, expedition clothes, food and equipment. A unique experience of survival in the Far North, obtained not from textbooks, but from stories and personal stories of travelers, will now be needed for the defenders of the Arctic. In February, near Nizhnevartovsk, where each expedition starts, the participants of the Northern Assault conducted a test week seminar on the peculiarities of the actions of small autonomous groups in the Far North and the Arctic for officers of the airborne troops and the Main Intelligence Directorate.
“The guys were very experienced, specially prepared, passed more than one hot spot, it was very easy to work with them,” said Alexander Peterman. – Everyone realized that training for the service in the Arctic should be taken very seriously, although everything went in quite comfortable conditions of Nizhnevartovsk. For example, they found out that the clothes they are given in the warehouse are not suitable for these conditions, because they are developed not by people with experience of polar travel, but by cabinet employees. It’s one thing to unbutton a button on clothes in a warm garage, and quite another – in the frost -45 degrees. The officers carefully studied our equipment, food, sledges, all equipment, recorded and photographed a lot, and I was generally surprised by their attention to detail. It’s very important – to understand all the subtleties of movement in the Arctic and to fulfill them. ”
The participants of the Northern Assault, at the cost of their mistakes, frostbite, critical situations, the hardest trials of their capabilities, can today be honestly considered the world’s best connoisseurs of Taimyr, through which they every year pave the way to Northern land and the Arctic cape as their dream has not yet come true. “Taimyr is the most interesting, the richest in resources and at the same time unprotected place,” says Peterman. “There is gold, platinum, coal, salt, oil, the whole pantry that Russia owns and which one must be able to protect.”
In detailed details, special military officers were told how to navigate in the conditions of the Far North; what to do when all the navigators in the anomalous zone are shown in different directions; how to change clothes in the cold and learn the first signs of frostbite; the better to eat in the fierce Arctic frost; than to stove the stove and how to make a sleigh, which will pass through the ice hummocks.
This year another officer from the special operations center will join the next expedition of the Northern Assault, and the next year two more military groups with their tasks can join the expedition. The route for such an “expedition of special purpose” will have to be reduced: if now the travelers pass 6000 km in both directions, then 3000 km will be enough for a test departure together with the military. In all expeditions, its participants specify the routes and maps of the Russian Far North, in which so far the land is confused with the land, and the flat terrain is with canyons. Each specified route is a chance to save people in those conditions when helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations can not come to the rescue and special services will go to desert lands on snowmobiles.
In parallel with the preparation of joint expeditions of experienced travelers and military, there is an active discussion of the base for the training of special armed forces and the Ministry of Emergency Situations near Nizhnevartovsk. Its creation has already been announced by the famous Russian polar explorer, the outstanding traveler of Russia Vladimir Chukov, but Alexander Peterman has so far spoken out more cautiously. “Until the document is signed, a final decision is not made,” says the leader of the Northern Assault. – But the discussion is underway, and if we talk from the point of view of business and economy, the most convenient place to create such a base is Nizhnevartovsk. He accepts any aircraft, here comes the railway, motorways. The prices here are less than in the Far North. Six to seven months a year here, winter, frosts to 42 degrees, you can test any technique, clothing, equipment. Near Moscow you will not experience anything for the Far North. Here there can be an elementary school, and further training should take place already in real conditions in Taimyr, Yamal, where it is also most convenient to get from Nizhnevartovsk. ”
The beautiful and harsh Far North can belong only to the very strong and courageous masters of their land. Those who are not afraid of its cold and polar nights, who are ready to test themselves and study every kilometer of it, who will be able to clear it of old garbage and not clog up a new one who learns not to survive in the Arctic, but to live and serve fully in it.
In the middle of March the expedition “Northern landing” for the first time together with the Russian military will again go to the northern expanses – to expand its human horizons and to visit the far lands of the Motherland, so that they do not forget who cares about them and who protects them.
Evgenia Avramenko, RIA FAN http://riafan.ru/507081-arktika-osobogo-naznacheniya-kak-rossiya-budet-zashchishchat-svoi-krainii-sever