History of the Northeast Passage

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Renner
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2021 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 465660455

After Christopher Columbus missed the sea route to India, merchants sought it along the coast of Siberia: the legendary unnavigable Northeast Passage of the 16th century. Due to the climate change of the 21st century, the dream of a subpolar trade route between the North Atlantic and North Pacific economic areas is becoming a reality. So far, the history of this route has been studied through the prism of seafarers' biographies or scientific expeditions. With the help of the requested grant, the first overall history of the Northeast Passage will be written. The project examines the Northeast Passage against the background of the seas traversed, the coasts and archipelagos passed, and that means above all as part of Russian and Soviet history. This history includes the expeditions of five centuries as well as the subjugation of the Arctic and its indigenous peoples since the late 16th century. This was the work of Russian Cossacks, scientists and merchants, Soviet engineers, settlers and naval forces. The project analyses and assess the contribution of historical actors against the backdrop of (geo)political and economic and not least environmental-historical and ideological contexts. It thus asks both about the global significance of the sea route and about its importance in the (Arctic) history of Russia. Supplementary essays on these aspects are planned. By focusing on the "Russian" prehistory of the Northeast Passage, the book challenges the "Western" seafaring legends surrounding the passage to Asia. Transit voyages between the Atlantic and Pacific have never been the hallmark of the Northeast Passage; in 2019, they made up only 37 of 801 ship voyages. Rather, the export of fossil and other Siberian raw materials to Asia and Europe makes the sea route a global one.While in the West the current rediscovery of the Northeast Passage was triggered by the melting of polar ice, in Russia it is part of a much older Arctic identity. The maritime route has been used as an inland shipping lane since the late Tsarist era. As early as in the 17th century, the five Arctic seas between the North Cape and the Bering Strait - the core section of the Northeast Passage - formed the northern border of the Russian economic and political sphere of interest. From the historic use of the sea, a legal-historical argument derives. The Russian Federation claims the regulation of a good part of the Arctic shipping traffic.This is a rather controversial claim. The planned monograph aims to explain, not justify, it on the basis of archival and library research. The book thus adds a historical perspective to the current discussion on the Arctic as a potential field of international conflict. That is why the story of the Northeast Passage is not written for a scholarly reading public alone.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants