How to live in the polar stations: an interview with a polar explorer Sergei Nikitin

From 29 October to 8 November 2016 in Antarctica took place First Antarctic summit of entrepreneurs. Its members met and talked with the administrator of the polar station "Bellingshausen" Sergei Mikhailovich Nikitin.

Who are the explorers?

Polar profession does not exist. According to our legislation, a person working in the polar regions, is not a polar explorer. Such people simply get certain benefits in relation to working conditions.

I do not know what it is polar. At the station, according to staffing, operating technician, mechanics, electricians, cooks.

In the summer there will be many more scientists. They collect information on various areas: meteorology, geology, reception of satellite information. Now we have German ornithologists working here. Large pedants - strictly controlled breeding areas.

Who manages all this?

Administration. More precisely, the administrator of the polar station. Officially, the position is called an administrator, not a boss. But usually all say "boss."

I do not think it's a calling. An administrator at the station - it is a necessity.

They can be any person who has a certain experience in the polar regions, especially in remote stations. There is such a thing as a remote station. These include, for example, our stations in Antarctica.

Where they teach at the polar?

Nowhere.

There are Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, founded as early as 1920. But there was no one taught. The Institute selects only certain people qualified to work at polar stations.

Man with diploma cook or a mechanic comes to the personnel department of the Institute, and says he wants to work at the station. If there is a demand for the specialist, he enrolled in the reserve, and when the time comes, sent to Antarctica.

For newcomers to the station special attention. We look like a man settles. After wintering station chief writes whether he is fit to work in conditions of polar stations and subsequent expeditions.

What started your way to Antarctica?

I'm not a lyricist. The Antarctic has not dreamed, but to get here really wanted, because he had heard many stories about it from friends and acquaintances.

In Soviet times it was impossible to visit Antarctica as a tourist. So I went to work as a doctor (the education I anesthesiologist).

In 1985, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute recommended me to participate in the expedition. Two years later, the first time I was in Antarctica.

I got on the newly built Soviet Antarctic station "Progress". Who is the most tech Russian base, and then it just knocked together out of cardboard boxes. Simple wooden house three four. You open the door and you're in Antarctica.

It was tough. We were told: "Guys, will want to hibernate or home?". We stayed.

I spent at the "progress" without going into the world 13 months. Then everything all ended well - wintered normally. But it was a real school of the North and the South, where the South proved to be more dangerous than the North.

Then I came back and worked in medicine. But in the 1990s, the prose of life was such that it was unable to provide a doctor salary family. Yes, and I was bored on the mainland. 11 years later I went back to Antarctica. Only one of the former structure.

What is on the account forwarding you now?

I wintering eighth and eleventh expedition.

Expeditions usually seasonal. It lasts from four to six months, depending on the amount of work that is scheduled. The works are divided into seasonal and wintering.

Going to the station, people sign a contract (even full-time employees), and on his return resign or go into a long vacation until the next expedition.

There are people who arrive in the month to perform some specific operations. After all, the institute receives requests from a variety of organizations. For example, in early February next year, we expect aerogeodezistov. Still waiting for technical specialists who will prepare the station equipment to work. We were coming paleobiologist and glaciologist (glacier expert who studies the progress of ice).

What is included in your daily responsibilities?

Head of the station is responsible for everything from the purchase of necessities of life to scientific research.

There is a common program for all professionals, which describes the mission, objectives and scope of work, which must comply with every member of the expedition.

For example, there is a task - to monitor the sea level. In the case of the formation of ice, we must expose the pylon, supply devices, remove the information. All this is painted inside and out.

The administrator is responsible for the execution of all scientific programs, and if some process does not go, the demand from me.

Do polar social benefits and privileges?

Benefits for polar explorers, as such, is now absent. There are simply the rules governing work in the Far North.

About three years ago, when established the feast day of the polar explorer, all employees of polar stations equated to the workers of the Far North. What does it mean?

Take, for example, a city in the Arctic Circle. Their inhabitants are working in difficult conditions, but at the same time enjoy all the benefits of civilization, come home, lie down in a warm bath, sleep with their wives, their children see.

Lord, who develop laws for some reason decided that Antarctica, where the height of four kilometers, where hypoxia and -80 degrees - is Murmansk. I believe that this is unfair.

We used to have small benefits: vacation was longer, the experience went. All this was possible since, as we crossed the ship 50 degrees south latitude.

Now the minimum salary of the employee of the polar station - 60 000 rubles. Maximum - 150 thousand.

I'm already retired. I have a huge pension - 15 000 rubles.

If you compare your work with the office, what its characteristics?

Polar station can not fire the person. It's very scary.

In Antarctica, all that happened at the station - a station problem. And sometimes everything. It is like a submarine. But submarines are now going to sea only a month (previously four), and there are special insulators for sailors or officers. Because even strong people there are deviations.

"Bellingshausen" in this regard, a successful base, open to the outside world. On remote stations scary. Illness, interpersonal differences can become a huge problem. Can threaten the life of the entire station.

The most important principle - not to teach others. If an adult will feel that you are trying to alter it, will be a conflict. About the people here think better good than bad.

The atmosphere at the station can be seen at once. When all is well, the administrator has established relations with all and by all, they all go, smiling. You can sit in the company of a man, and did not notice, and it is wonderful. When the situation is tense, people are excited, walking warily, looking around.

How is life at the station?

Compared with the first Antarctica, where I was, life is now at a fairly high level. We have internet and TV - what can I say.

Of course, I would like us to have ultra-modern station. If "Bellingshausen" will look like a spaceship, I'm proud of our mission in Antarctica.

After all, tourists come to us from around the world. We are like a mirror. If the people who come to us, will be to see that everything here is good, they will assume that we have a good country.

You have very cold there?

Critical low temperatures at coastal stations do not exist. This is the section between the sea and the huge dome of the Antarctic, where billions of tons of ice. On the one hand you have ice mountain, and on the other - a relatively warm sea.

But here a serious katabatic wind. Cold air, dispersed on an ice dome, where the temperature is -50 ° C and goes to the sea. Dispersed, it is heated until about -30 ° C. But this stock reaches a wind speed of 56 m / s, which is about 250 km / h. This is the most unpleasant natural phenomenon Antarctica.

How to rest on polar stations?

There is a saying: "Polar afraid of cold, hunger and work." But it's more than a joke. we are not afraid of work. Sometimes we do it in an emergency mode and extreme conditions, because I want to live everything.

Rest - a purely personal matter. All people are different. Someone who likes to read, someone engaged in sports.

We have a table tennis table, a good gym, where fans of bodybuilding are working on themselves. Sometimes we organize tournaments in tennis. It can be very fun.

Birthdays and other celebrations are also trying to celebrate the fun. But without consequences.

What is most lacking at the station?

When a normal person goes somewhere for a long time, he missed only home.