#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. A postcard with a stamp dedicated to the 175th anniversary of Arctic explorer Alexander Sibiryakov’s birth has been issued as part of the Geographical Projects of Russia series.
According to the JSC Marka’s press service, the main side of the card features a portrait of Sibiryakov, the Sibiryakov tract’s map, and the Russian Geographical Society’s logo. In addition, special cancellation stamps have been created for the card release in Moscow, Irkutsk, and Tomsk. The circulation of the new postal product is five thousand copies.
According to the press service, Alexander Sibiryakov (1849-1933) is a Russian entrepreneur and explorer of Siberia. He was born on September 26 (October 8), 1849 in Irkutsk. In 1885-1895 he was a member of the Irkutsk city duma, preparing plans for the Siberia development by improving communications, building roads and canals, and its maritime relations with neighboring countries.
Alexander was one of the organizers of the polar expedition on the steamship Vega of the Swedish navigator professor Adolf Erik Nordenskjold, who was the first to sail the Northern Sea Route along the coast of Siberia through the Arctic ocean in 1878-1880 and exit through the Bering strait into the Pacific ocean.
In the 1880s, Sibiryakov explored the mouths of the Pechora, Yenisey, Ob, Amur rivers, the coasts of the Kara and Okhotsk seas, and land routes between the rivers of Western and Eastern Siberia. He built a road from Pechora to Ob, which later became known as the Sibiryakov Tract. Siberian cargo was transported along it to the Pechora region, Mezen district, the Murmansk coast, Northern Norway and Denmark.
An important stage in the plan implementation was the work to improve the conditions of navigation on the Angara. The researcher described the progress and results of his numerous journeys in a number of articles and books. In 1893, he was awarded the title of Irkutsk honorary citizen.
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Text: Polina Bardik, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
