Few people are interested in scientific research in the Antarctic and the Arctic, but the name of the conqueror of these icy lands, Artur Chilingarov, is known to many. He took part in all the famous expeditions across the Arctic. Chilingarov entered the Guinness Book of Records as the first person in the world to live for six months at the South and North Poles.
Biography: childhood and adolescence
Artur Nikolaevich Chilingarov is a native of Leningrad. He was born in a difficult pre-war time, on September 25, 1939. His father is Armenian by nationality, and his mother is Russian. Initially he bore the surname Chilingaryan.
When Arthur was 2 years old, Leningrad was in a blockade. In an interview, he recalled jellied meat made from wood glue, which in those difficult days seemed sweet, and drying oil instead of vegetable oil.
Chilingarov's father went to the front. Two years after the start of the blockade, her mother lost her legs and was evacuated from the besieged city. And he and his sister and grandmother remained in besieged Leningrad. Fleeing from frequent bombings, they hid in basements. Chilingarov recalled that his grandmother then did not let go of the icon, despite religious prohibitions. Since then, Arthur himself began to carry with him the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Shortly before the lifting of the blockade, he and his relatives were taken out of the city along Ladoga, and then sent to Ust-Kamenogorsk. Chilingarov has a medal "Resident of besieged Leningrad".
After the war, Arthur's father became assistant to the first secretary of the regional party committee, Pyotr Popkov. Soon, Chilingarov's parents divorced. The future polar explorer began to live with his mother, who married a Jew. Chilingarov's father also found a new family. However, in the late 1940s, he was a witness in the so-called "Leningrad case" together with his boss Popkov. Unlike him, Chilingarov's father was not shot, but only repressed. Since by that time he was already divorced from his first wife, Arthur and his mother were not persecuted. In 1954, Chilingarov's father was rehabilitated.
In one of his interviews, Arthur himself described his teenage years as follows: “I grew up like everyone else. I fought and studied. " After leaving school, he decided to enter "Makarovka" (Higher Marine Engineering School named after Admiral Makarov). Chilingarov was admitted to the Arctic Faculty. He began to master the profession of oceanologist. However, at the first exit to the Kara Sea, it turned out that Chilingarova was quickly seasick. He even thought about quitting college, but over time, the body adapted.
Carier start
Before the end of the "Makarovka" Chilingarov managed to work as a fitter at the Baltic Shipyard. After completing his studies, he was assigned to Yakutia, the port of Tiksi. This is the coast of the cold Laptev Sea, where frosts of 40 degrees are the norm. Chilingarov's career began as a junior researcher at the observatory of the Arctic and Antarctic Institute. He was engaged in escorting ships along the Northern Sea Route. And in his spare time he participated in various sports competitions.
His initiative was quickly noticed, and unexpectedly for Chilingarov himself, two years later he was elected first secretary of the Bulunsky district committee of the Komsomol of the Yakut ASSR. Then he turned 26 years old. He was the first and only secretary of the district committee who was not a member of the party. For that time, this was a rare exception.
In 1969, Chilingarov took over at the helm of a Komsomol-youth expedition at the North Pole-19 scientific station. As part of it, he almost died in the open ocean, when one polar night a drifting ice floe split into pieces.
Working beyond the Arctic Circle
Chilingarov devoted most of his life to the Arctic. In 1979, he became the head of the local administration of the USSR State Committee for Hydrometeorology in the polar village of Amderm. He was given an award for his participation in the scientific substantiation of the first experimental voyages in the winter-spring period along the Northern Sea Route. At that time, it was not only prestigious, but also monetary.
For more than two decades, Arthur was the head of the Russian Association of Polar Explorers. In parallel, he was a deputy, a public figure. However, he never left the Arctic. Over the years of work there, he managed to do a lot not only for science, but also for people living in such harsh conditions. Artur Chilingarov was involved in organizing and supervising the following programs in the Arctic:
- high-latitude expedition "North-21";
- expedition to the North Pole on the nuclear-powered ship "Siberia";
- IL-76 transcontinental flight to Antarctica;
- conference "The Arctic on the Threshold of the Third Millennium: New Challenges";
- flight of the An-3T single-engine aircraft to the South Pole;
- sinking to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole;
- long-term drifting station "North Pole-32"
Rank
Artur Chilingarov has many titles, including:
- President of the Association of Polar Explorers;
- Hero of the USSR and Russia;
- Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
- Member of the International Club of Explorers;
- Member of the British Royal Geographical Society;
- Member of the society "Russia - Armenia";
- Doctor of Geographical Sciences;
- President of the State Polar Academy.
Personal life
Artur Chilingarov is married. I met my future wife Tatyana in the early seventies during a vacation in one of the Sochi sanatoriums. The fateful meeting took place before his appointment to the Nenets village of Anderma.
In the same place, in 1974, the Chilingarovs had a son, Nikolai. In 1982, a daughter, Ksenia, appeared. She was born already in Moscow. Chilingarov's children did not follow in his footsteps. Nikolai is a graduate of the Maurice Torez Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. After completing his studies, he joined Vneshprombank. In parallel, he holds the post of vice-president of the interregional public organization "Association of Polar Explorers".
Ksenia Chilingarova graduated from the Faculty of International Journalism and became a business woman. She created her own clothing brand Arctic Explorer, which can be translated as “polar explorer”. The line includes items created for harsh climates. The daughter continues the path of the legendary father, albeit indirectly.
