On October 27-28, 2022, the III International Scientific and Practical Conference “Security of Arctic Frontiers: ecology, history, images of the future” was held at the Murmansk State Technical University. The conference was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Murmansk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society celebrated in 2022. The event was held in a mixed mode of both offline and online participation. It was broadcasted online and the recordings were posted on the YouTube video hosting platform.
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The conference opened with welcoming speeches by the Rector of Murmansk State Technical University Maria Knyazeva,
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Director of the Production Center “Northern Character", member of the RGS Svetlana Soldatova,
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Chairman of the Ryazan Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, Honorary Doctor of the MSTU, Hero of Russia Mikhail Malakhov (online).
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Chairman of the Murmansk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, Deputy Director for Science of the MMBI RAS Denis Moiseev.
“This is the third conference under this name. For the first time, we organized it in the Murmansk Arctic State University during the coronavirus restrictions, so it was mostly online. The second conference was held in the KSC RAS, again with restrictions, so most speakers participated via Zoom. And finally, this year the conference is being held in a mostly face-to-face mode, there are quite a lot of us here in the Murmansk State Technical University although some speakers take part online thanks to modern technologies. It's great! Thus, we are finishing the triangle of the largest educational and scientific organizations in the region. And, of course, the conference is organized with the participation of the MMBI, which is the base of our Branch of the Russian Geographical Society,” Denis Moiseev said in his speech.
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“In my experience, all competent and enthusiastic people in Murmansk find each other and unite to implement complex, multi-element projects, whether they concern culture, science or education. And so we all managed to unite within the framework of this project,” said the Director of the Production Center “Northern Character", member of the RGS Svetlana Soldatova.
On the first day, October 27, the scientific and practical part of the events took place. The conference on October 27 was attended by speakers from Russia, Norway, Finland, China and Belarus, including representatives of the KSC RAS, MASU, the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, Wuhan University, a number of environmental and public organizations, etc.
The conference included 2 sections: “The Arctic – a region of sustainable development, dialogue and cooperation” and “Topical issues of the history of the Arctic”.
The first section addressed the following issues: issues of science and environmental protection in the Arctic, Russia and Norway in a changing world, issues of peace, stability and sustainable international development in the Arctic, environmental protection in the Arctic.
Representatives of MSTU, MMBI, MASU and KSC RAS spoke about international cooperation in Arctic, its successes and possible ways to resume it, as well as about their scientific research in the field of environmental protection. Deputy Director of the AARI Yuri Ugryumov spoke about the expedition “North Pole-41” and the sea ice-resistant self-propelled platform "North Pole". Deputy Head of the Republican Center for Polar Research of Belarus talked about the activities of the Center. Professor Kuang Zengjun of Wuhan University made a report on China's policy in the Arctic.
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Founder of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Studies, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jan Oberg, as well as graduate student of the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University Ekaterina Serova, social scientist and publicist Johan Bäckman and director and journalist Janus Putkonen discussed issues of peace and stability in the Arctic, as well as the consequences of Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
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Yulia Bardileva, Head of the Department of History and Law of Murmansk State Arctic University, spoke about the experience of inter-confessional relations and religious tolerance in the Murmansk region.
Within the framework of the subsection “Russia and Norway in a changing world”, the Director of the Production Сenter “Northern Character” Svetlana Soldatova made a report on the following topic: “The cultural layer. Starting points for the resumption of international cooperation between Russia and Norway". She spoke about the possibilities of restoring cooperation between the two countries, taking into account the political situation. Creative Director of the Production Center “Northern Character” Yuri Yerofeyev spoke about the "The North Without Borders" project. "History lessons" of Russian-Norwegian relations. Tatiana Bazanova, a consultant on cross-border cooperation of the Pechenga Municipal District Administration, traced the history of cooperation between the Pechenga district and the Sør-Varanger commune from establishment to suspension.
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“Despite the fact that our relations are in many ways now, if not completely non-existent, but reducted to a minimum, we, as scientists, philosophers and diplomats, still foresee the points of their resumption and growth,” said Svetlana Soldatova.
The main topics of the second section were: history of the discovery and development of the Arctic, issues of preserving the historical memory of the victory over fascism during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The section opened with a report by Denis Moiseev, Chairman of the Murmansk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, Sergey Goncharov, a member of the Council of the Murmansk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, as well as Sergey Zinchenko, a representative of the Northern Fleet Headquarters. They spoke about the results of the Complex Expedition of the Northern Fleet, RGS and 12th Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation to Novaya Zemlya in July-August 2022.
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Master's student of Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov Anna Bakina made a report on the fate of prisoners of war in the Finnish camp of Kolosijoki No. 8 in Petsamo, and the head of the non-profit fund “Shield” Gennady Gurylev told about the social work of the organization.
Commander of the search team "Vaenga" Eduard Mironov made a report on the regional project "Search teams: on guard of Memory", dedicated to the patriotic education of young people.
Captain 2nd rank Dmitry Novikov summed up the results of the joint search expedition of the 12th Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the RGS "Zapadnaya Litsa Frontier". During this expedition a German fighter was lifted from the bottom of a lake in the Murmansk region.
The conference concluded with the Chairman of the MRB RGS Denis Moiseev thanking all the participants and handing a membership card to a new member of the RGS in the Murmansk region – Ph.D., senior researcher of the Polar Geophysical Institute Vladimir Belakhovsky.
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On October 28, MSTU hosted film screenings dedicated to the history of the Great Patriotic War and the development of the Arctic. The audience got to enjoy Mikhail Malakhov's feature film “Archipelago”, based on the story of the feat of Russian scientists who went to Svalbard as part of a Russian-Swedish expedition to measure the real size and shape of the globe, as well as Daria Khrenova's documentary “The Ice-free Port of Hope”, dedicated to the heroic defense of the Arctic during the Great Patriotic War.
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Conference proceedings are now being prepared for publication. Soon, they will be available both online and in print.
Recordings of the conference in Russian, Norwegian and English can be found on the MRB RGS official YouTube channel. Follow the links to watch the conference: