Scientific studies of the Antarctic and the Arctic are of little interest to many, but many know the name of the conqueror of these icy lands of Arthur Chilingarov. He participated in all the famous expeditions to the Arctic. Chilingarov entered the Guinness Book of Records as the first person in the world who lived for six months at the South and North Poles.
Biography: childhood and adolescence
Arthur Nikolayevich Chilingarov is a native of Leningrad. He was born in the difficult pre-war time, September 25, 1939. His father is Armenian by nationality, and his mother is Russian. Initially bore the name Chilingaryan.
When Arthur was 2 years old, Leningrad was in a blockade. In an interview, he recalled the jelly from wood glue, which in those hard days seemed sweet, and drying oil instead of vegetable oil.
Chilingarov’s father went to the front. Two years after the start of the blockade, her mother lost her legs and was evacuated from the besieged city. And he and his sister and grandmother remained in the besieged Leningrad. Fleeing from frequent bombing, they hid in the basements. Chilingarov recalled that his grandmother then did not let go of the icon, despite religious prohibitions. Since then, Arthur himself began to carry the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Shortly before the blockade was lifted, he and his relatives were taken out of the city along Ladoga, and then sent to Ust-Kamenogorsk. Chilingarov has a medal "Resident of the besieged Leningrad."
After the war, father Arthur became assistant to the first secretary of the regional party committee, Petr Popkov. Soon, Chilingarov’s parents divorced. The future polar explorer began to live with his mother, who married a Jew. Chilingarov’s father also found a new family. However, at the end of the 40s he was a witness in the so-called “Leningrad case” together with his boss Popkov. Unlike him, Chilingarov’s father was not shot, but only repressed. Since by that time he was already divorced from his first wife, Arthur and his mother were not persecuted. In 1954, Chilingarov’s father was rehabilitated.
In an interview, Arthur himself described his youthful years as follows: “He grew up like everyone else. He fought, studied. " After graduation, he decided to enter the “Makarovka” (Higher Marine Engineering School named after Admiral Makarov). Chilingarov was accepted to the Arctic faculty. He began to master the profession of an oceanologist. However, when it first entered the Kara Sea, it turned out that Chilingarova was quickly rocking. He even thought about quitting school, but over time the body adapted.
Carier start
Before the end of the Makarovka, Chilingarov managed to work as a fitter and installer of the Baltic Shipyard. After completing his studies, he was assigned to Yakutia, the port of Tiksi by distribution. This is the coast of the cold Laptev Sea, where frosts of 40 degrees are the norm. Chilingarov’s career began as a junior research fellow at the Arctic and Antarctic Institute Observatory. He was engaged in piloting vessels along the Northern Sea Route. And in his spare time he participated in various sports competitions.
His initiative was quickly noticed, and unexpectedly for Chilingarov himself, two years later, they elected the first secretary of the Bulunsky district committee of the Komsomol of the Yakut ASSR. Then he turned 26 years old. He was the first and only secretary of the district committee, which was not a member of the party. For that time, this was a rare exception.
In 1969, Chilingarov stood at the helm of the Komsomol-youth expedition at the North Pole-19 scientific station. In its composition, he almost died in the open ocean, when one polar night the drifting ice floe split into pieces.
Work beyond the Arctic Circle
Chilingarov devoted most of his life to the Arctic. In 1979, he became the head of the local department of the USSR State Committee for Hydrometeorology in the polar village of Amderm. He was given a prize for participating in the scientific justification of the first experimental voyages in the winter-spring period along the Northern Sea Route. At that time it was not only prestigious, but also monetary.
For more than two decades, Arthur led the Russian Association of Polar Explorers. In parallel, he was a deputy, a public figure. However, the Arctic never left. Over the years of work there, he managed to do a lot, not only for science, but also for people living in such harsh conditions. Arthur Chilingarov was involved in the organization and supervision of the following programs in the Arctic:
- high-latitude expedition "North-21";
- expedition to the North Pole on the Sibir nuclear-powered submarine;
- transcontinental flight "IL-76" to Antarctica;
- conference “The Arctic on the threshold of the third millennium: new challenges”;
- flight of the single-engine An-3T aircraft to the South Pole;
- sinking to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole;
- long-term drifting station "North Pole-32"
Ranks
Arthur Chilingarov has many titles, including:
- President of the Association of Polar Explorers;
- Hero of the USSR and Russia;
- Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
- Member of the international Club of researchers;
- Member of the British Royal Geographical Society;
- Member of the society “Russia - Armenia”;
- Doctor of Geographical Sciences;
- President of the State Polar Academy.
