Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2021 number

Terence Edward Armstrong (1920-1996) was a British linguist, geographer, economist, historian, who had worked at the Scott Polar Research Institute (Cambridge) for many years and been recognized widely as a leading researcher of the Arctic. Despite the high appreciation of his scientific achievements by Soviet and Russian experts, T. Armstrong’s works were not given due attention in the Russian historiography. The paper objective is to fill this gap. It’s proven that T. Armstrong made a significant contribution to the Arctic studies in the UK. While focusing on the Soviet North problems, he actively promoted the scientific cooperation between Western and Soviet scholars, implementation of international research projects, development of educational programs and training specialists in the field of polar research at western universities. T. Armstrong was among the first Western researchers who studied a wide range of issues related to the Russian Arctic (the Northern Sea Route development, the forced labor use, the indigenous people policy, oil and gas production, urbanization problems, environmental protection etc.). Comparing the tsarist and Soviet policies in the Arctic he came to conclusion that changes occurring in the North after 1917 were so striking and profound that the whole pre-revolutionary era could be considered as a prequel to the Soviet period. Giving a high assessment of the Soviet Arctic policy results, T. Armstrong pointed the need to widen the international cooperation in the region further developing and solving its problems. Being an adherent of the ideas of “environmentalism” (the theory consideting the environment’s decisive role in human evolution), he perceived the Arctic as a unique habitat with a fragile ecosystem that must be preserved for future generations. The scientific heritage of the British researcher is still relevant and deserves to be thoroughly studied by the Russian specialists.