Soviet and Russian Studies of Long-Term Climate Change in Antarctica: The International Context

The 1959 Antarctic Treaty declared Antarctica a zone of peace and a ‘continent for science’. A number of scholars, however, have pointed to the geopolitical factors which inevitably underlie international scientific collaboration. Whilst accepting this view, the aim of this paper is to suggest that to paint too dichotomous a picture of science during and after the Cold War is to oversimplify a complex situation, especially in regard to Antarctica. Having outlined factors both hindering and favouring scientific co-operation in Antarctica, and the role of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in fostering Antarctic Science, the paper moves on to consider the origins of Vostok station as a Soviet scientific base during the IGY (1957-8). It then discusses the development of deep ice drilling at Vostok, an exercise undertaken for both glaciological and paleoclimatic reasons, eventually involving close collaboration with France and the USA. By the late 1990s the ice core at Vostok had reached a depth of 3623 metres revealing patterns of climate change over a period in excess of 400,000 years – the world’s deepest ice core at the time. The discovery of subglacial Lake Vostok, whose existence was first detected in the 1970s, is then discussed as involving international collaboration and oversight by SCAR. Finally, attention is paid to the overall contribution of Vostok to our understanding of climate change and to the view that Vostok serves as an ‘iconic record’ for global climate science.