OE) SS ee

Several Canadian union leaders hoist a
toast with some of the 19 members of
a delegation of Soviet unionists at a
reception hosted by the Canada-USSR
Association June 14. The Soviet union-
ists, representing steelworkers, auto-
workers, doctors, teachers, longshore-
men, cultural workers and the All-Union
Central Council of Trade Unions wasin
Vancouver as part of a cross country
tour which included meetings with
provincial labor federations and various
Canadian unions. They also took part in
this province's first-ever inter-country
union symposium for peace (report
next week). From left to right, Harvey
Elder, New Westminster Labor Coun-
cil; Larry Kuehn, past president, B.C.
Teachers’ Federation; Lorne Robson,
Provincial Council of Carpenters; Vla-
dimir Gantman, member USSR Acad-
emy of Sciences; Frank Kennedy,
Vancouver Labor Council; Galina
Batsounova, Teachers Union, Volgo-
grad; Reuben Gregorian, Central
Council of Trade Unions; Jim Foulkes,
Canadian University Teachers; Lev
Yakoviev, group leader and chairman
of Central Council of Trade Unions;
George Legebokoff, Canada-USSR
Association.

. By ELIAS STAVRIDES

Canada and the USSR are two of the
largest countries on earth which share an
unfriendly northern neighbor: the Arctic
Ocean.

Largely untamed by man, the Arctic con-
tains a major portion of the planet’s mineral
wealth. Vast deposits of coal, oil, gas,
copper and nickel are some of the most
valuable minerals which, until recently,
were beyond the reach of man. They lay
buried under protective layers of thick ice
accumulated on top of the earth’s northern
pole for thousands of years.

The advent of icebreakers in the mid-
1880s, however, was a major breakthrough.
Large areas of an otherwise impassable
Arctic became navigable. Icebreakers
ploughed through solid ice to conquer the
northern pole (and Antarctica in the south,)
while communication and supply lines
between the earth’s northernmost commun-
ities increased:

Canadians, for instance, installed huge
oil rigs in the Beaufort Sea for oil and gas
extraction and subsequent shipment to the
energy-hungry south. Today, the Tuk-
toyaktuk oil reserves by the Mackenzie
River have become a year-round operation
providing southern Canada with large
amounts of energy. But although such pro-
jects accelerated the rate of growth of the
Canadian north, they have not resulted in
the permanent development and flourishing
of large communities in the area, which is
the case in the USSR.

This was perhaps due, among other rea-
sons, to a timely recognition by the Soviets
of the steadily depleting non-renewable
resources of the planet. Backed by research
data which proved the Arctic’s vast wealth,
the Soviets embarked on a major develop-
ment program of the Arctic in the years
following World War II. Their research
pro-ed not only that the Soviet Arctic was
even richer in deposits that most research
scientists thought but also that its subsoil
contained a variety of minerals, including
oil, gas, coal, combustible shale and bitu-
men, tin, tungsten, cobalt, apatites (calcium
phosphate), copper and nickel ores.

Today, the northern Siberian deposits of
oil and gas in Medvezhye, Urengoi and
Yamburg run into the thousands of billions
of cubic metres that are being fully explored
and utilized. According to Soviet geologists,
the entire coast of the Soviet Arctic that
stretches from Arhangelsk (Archangel) to
the Bering Sea is a continuous oil-bearing
region. :

=

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 20, 1984

Living testimony of the Soviet Arctic’s
full development are its booming communi-
ties. Today, the 500,000-strong city of
Murmansk in the southern Soviet Arctic isa
thriving industrial and trade centre. And
Norilsk, a city of 200,000, is a metallurgical
community in central-northern Sibera that
provides the Western regions of the USSR
with valuable mineral products.

Key to their development has been the

recent establishment of a permanent trans-
port link between both cities along the
northern sea route of the Arctic, thanks to
the 25 vessel-strong icebreaker fleet of the
country. Totalling 1,300 kilometres, the dis-
tance between Murmansk and Norilsk is
equal to the area between Tuktoyaktuk and
Churchill, Manitoba.

The Soviets are now keen on developing
a permanent sea route link along the entire
length of the Arctic between Leningrad and
Vladivostok. This is all the more under-
standable because the northern sea route is
the shortest water route between the Euro-
pean and Asian parts of the USSR. Thus, if
a vessel sails from Leningrad to Vladivostok
through the Suez Canal, it must cover
23,200 kilometres compared with 14,280
kilometres through the polar seas.

The northern sea route not only shortens
the distance, but it often is the only trans-
port artery connecting the European part of
the USSR with the gigantic Siberian pro-
jects. Currently, numerous deposits of min-
erals are being utilized and big hydroelectric
power stations are being built in Northern
Siberia. Giant Soviet rivers such as the Ob,
Yenisei, Lena, Yana and the Kolyma extend
the sea route by 37,000 kilometres. These
rivers make it possible to reach out-of-the-
way areas that were previously accessible
only by helicopter.

The 25 Soviet icebreakers are today the
backbone of navigation in the north. They
are well equipped and highly automated to
provide a constant, safe link among com-
munities of the north. The service is rein-
forced by the presence of the three powerful
nuclear-powered icebreakers Sibir, Rossiya
and Brezhnev (formerly the Arktica), a
75,000-h.p. nuclear icebreaker which reached
the northern pole in 1977. These icebreakers
although nuclear-powered, are safe and
have solved the crucial problem of constant
stops for refueling that limits diesel-
powered icebreakers. All Soviet icebreakers
escort cargo ships of up to 15,000 tons
capacity in the Arctic.

Since 1981, the Soviets have embarked
on a major construction project of new

Icebreaker fleet unlocks Arctic

types of icebreaker-and-cargo vessels called
lighter-cum-container carriers. Due to lack
of multi-purpose port facilities in the Arctic,

_ their use is particularly advantageous

because they can load and unload cargo at
sea. The cargo is quickly and efficiently
transferred to smaller cargo-icebreakers
which, in turn, enter the rivers and canals of

USSR

northern Siberia with considerable ease.
Plans are now under way to construe

nuclear-powered cargo submarines for
under ice-cover use along the northern s@
route. Soviet scientists. believe the existen®
of underwater canyons in the southern Al@
tic will facilitate underwater passage
submarines.

——

FEDERATION OF RussiIAN CANADIANS

Banquet & Concert with guest artists
Sunday, June 24, 1984
Banquet at 5 p.m., Concert following

Russian People’s Home
600 Campbell Avenue

Admission: $8 per person
For further information, please call: 253-8180, 420-5886, 255-6488

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