- Alexander Kuchin
Alexander Stepanovich Kuchin ( _ru. Александр Степанович Кучин) (1888 in Onega – 1913? in an unknown place in the
Kara Sea ) was a youngRussia noceanographer and Arctic explorer.Hailing from a humble background, Alexander Kuchin became a seaman in a Norwegian ship already when he was seventeen. The young man loved the
Norwegian language , which he mastered in one year.In 1907 Alexander Kuchin worked in
Bergen , at a Norwegian Biological Station, becoming a student of oceanography expert ProfessorBjorn Helland-Hansen . Meanwhile his enthusiasm for the Norwegian language was such that he wrote a “Small Russian-Norwegian dictionary” («Малый русско-норвежский словарь») in order to share his knowledge with his compatriots.In 1910-1911 Alexander Kuchin was the only Russian on Amundsen’s expedition to the
South Pole on the "Fram ". He made numerous observations in the Southern Atlantic as an oceanographer and navigator. After his return to Norway, in December 1911, Alexander Kuchin married 18-year-old girl Aslaug Poulson, the daughter of a prominent Norwegian journalist.In 1912 Kuchin returned to Russia, where he joinedVladimir Rusanov ’s expedition as captain of ship "Gerkules" toSvalbard . This expedition’s goal was to investigate the coal potential of the Archipelago. He sailed from Aleksandrovsk-na-Murmane (nowPolyarnyy , nearMurmansk ) on 26 June. The personnel consisted of thirteen men and one woman, Rusanov's French fiancée. Apart from Rusanov there was another geologist and a zoologist.At the end of a very successful summer’s field work, three members of the expedition (the geologist, the zoologist and the ship's bosun) returned to Russia via
Grønfjorden inNorway . The remaining ten, including Captain Alexander Kuchin, without consultation with the authorities inSt. Petersburg , set off with Rusanov in an incredibly rash attempt at reaching thePacific Ocean via theNorthern Sea Route . However, their ship "Gerkules" was too small for the kind of expedition Rusanov had in mind.The last to be heard of Rusanov's expedition was a telegram left at
Matochkin Shar onNovaya Zemlya , which reached St. Petersburg on 27 September 1912. In it, Rusanov indicated that he intended rounding the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, and heading east across theKara Sea but nothing was heard from the "Gerkules" thereafter. It disappeared without trace a year later in theKara Sea , off the northern coast of Siberia.In 1914-15 the almost impossible task of searching for Rusanov’s expedition (as well as for similarly disappeared Captain
Brusilov from another expedition), was entrusted toOtto Sverdrup with the ship "Eklips". His efforts, however, were unsuccessful.In 1937 the Arctic Institute of the
USSR organized an expedition to theNordenskiöld Archipelago on ship "Toros". Relics of the ill-fated 1912-13 expedition on the "Gerkules" were found on one of theMona Islands and onPopova-Chukchina Island located at (74° 56'N, 86° 18'E) off Kolosovykh Island in the Kolosovykh group.Two small islets off Salisbury Island in
Franz Josef Land have been named after Alexander Kuchin. Aslaug Poulson, Alexander Kuchin’s Norwegian wife, died in 1987.Works
*«Малый русско-норвежский словарь» (“Small Russian-Norwegian dictionary”), 1907
References
* William Barr, "Otto Sverdrup to the rescue of the Russian Imperial Navy".
* William Barr, Aleksandr Stepanovich Kuchin: The Russian who went South with Amundsen.
* [http://www.arctic.org.ru/pdf/138-139.pdf Biograpical data]
* Professor Helland-Hansen: [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_Helland-Hansen (in German)]External links
* [http://www.pechora-portal.ru/portal/rusanov/kuchin115.htm Contains an elegy to the lost captain in Russian]
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