For the first time, a member of the Russian Geographical Society Mika Petrov delivered a lecture at the Murmansk Regional Scientific Library. He is not only a traveler, a photographer and a northern lights hunter, he is also a researcher of the northern lighthouses.
His love for lighthouses began when he saw one of them on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland in December 2017. Lighthouses give Mika a sense of freedom and security. He believes that they guide everyone, not just sailors.
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After that, lighthouses became the purpose of Mika Petrov's travels. As of now he has visited more than a hundred lighthouses, taken thousands of photos, and authored several articles. He spends a huge amount of time not only on field expeditions, but also in archives, studying Russian and Finnish articles, exchanging knowledge with other specialists. Mika Petrov is now a true expert on lighthouses.
The lecture at the Murmansk Regional Scientific Library was dedicated to the expedition to the historical lighthouses of the Winter Coast of the White Sea – after all, it is the northern lighthouses, as Mika Petrov notes, that his heart belongs to. During the lecture, Mika Petrov spoke about the interesting moments of the expedition and the difficulties that its participants had to face, showed unique photos of Russian lighthouses and shared detailed information about each of them.
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The expedition followed the route: Arkhangelsk – Mudyug Island – skiing along the Winter coast of the White Sea through Cape Kerets, Zimnegorsky Lighthouse and Veprevsky Cape – moving by snowmobiles from the village of Zimnyaya Zolotitsa to the lighthouse of Cape Intsy, and then to the oldest Pomor village Ruchi –returning to Arkhangelsk by an Antonov An-2 plane.
In summer, it would have been impossible to follow this route, so the expedition took place in winter. The participants had to endure a difficult ski crossing with heavy sleds with equipment. A group of four people skied from Mudyug Island to the village of Ruchi in ten days.