Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

History Russia & The Former Soviet Union

Arctic Scientist, Gulag Survivor

The Biography of Mikhail Mikhailovich Ermolaev, 1905-1991

original author Aleksei Mikhailovich Ermolaev & V.D. Dibner

edited and translated by William Barr

Publisher
University of Calgary Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2009
Category
Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Science & Technology, Survival
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781552382561
    Publish Date
    Nov 2009
    List Price
    $44.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781552384916
    Publish Date
    Sep 2009
    List Price
    $44.95

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

One of the most prominent Soviet Arctic scientists of the 1920s and 1930s, Mikhail Mikhailovich Ermolaev was a geologist, physicist, and oceanographer. After working in the Arctic for some thirteen years, he was arrested by the NKVD, convicted on a trumped-up charge of "sabotage," and sent to the Gulag for ten years. After barely surviving a year of correctional hard labour in a lumber camp, Ermolaev was appointed to a sharashka, or professional team, which was charged with extending the railroad to the coal mines of Vorkuta in the farthest reaches of northeast Russia. Still later, he and his family were exiled to Syktyvkar and Arkhangel'sk. Remarkably, Ermolaev was eventually able to resume his academic career, ultimately establishing a new Department of the Geography of the Oceans at Kaliningrad State University.

Translated from the original Russian and edited by William Barr, this biography is a fascinating personal account typical of the experiences of so many Soviet citizens who were unjustly banished to the infamous Gulag. Because Ermolaev was part of a specialist team, the conditions he and his family endured were better than most, with reasonably comfortable quarters and relatively adequate food. However, his story still clearly illustrates the brutality and inhumanity of the system.

Ermolaev's son, Aleksei, was one of the authors of the original Russian-language biography published in 2005. His own recollections of his father's arrest and of the family's experiences while his father was in the Gulag, along with an excellent selection of family photographs, infuse Arctic Scientist, Gulag Survivor with a sense of immediacy and personal connection. Thanks to the expertise of William Barr, Ermolaev's story is now available in English for the first time.

About the authors

Aleksei Mikhailovich Ermolaev's profile page

V.D. Dibner's profile page

William Barr specializes in geomorphology and has, for the past thirty years, focused his research on the history of Arctic exploration. He has published fourteen books, including translations from German, French, and Russian, and more than a hundred articles. He is author of From Barrow to Boothia: The Arctic Journal of Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease 1836-1839.

William Barr's profile page

Other titles by

Other titles by

Other titles by