Northerners, military men, geologists, gas and oil workers celebrate the Polar Explorer’s Day on the 21st of May

A new professional holiday – the Day of the Polar Explorer is celebrated in Russia on the 21st of May, starting in 2013.

It appeared in the calendar of festive dates of Russia by the initiative of the special presidential envoy for international cooperation in the Arctic Artur Chilingarov. During the “direct broadcasting” on the 25th of April, 2013 the Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the idea of establishing the professional holiday of polar explorers, researchers of the Arctic and the Antarctic and proposed to start celebrating it in the same year. In Russia there are about two million people being related to polar explorers. They are not only specialists, who lived in the Arctic and the Antarctic during many years, but also residents of the Far North, geologists and ocean scientists, military men, gas and oil workers. Experts suppose that establishing of the new holiday date will allow raising prestige of work in the Arctic and the Antarctic, will attract high- qualified workforce to work in the Polar Regions. The date for the holiday was chosen not occasionally, the first scientific research expedition of the polar drifting station “North Pole-1” started its work on this day in 1937, as the portal calend.ru informs. Otto Schmidt was appointed the head of the expedition, Ivan Papanin – the head of the polar station. The participants of the expedition conducted oceanographic, meteorological and geophysical researches in the interest of development of the Far North, including development of the Northern Sea Route. The festive events dedicated to the Polar Explorer’s Day are conducted in Moscow. Celebrations are organized by the interregional public organization “The Association of polar explorers” being headed by Artur Chilingarov. Representatives of state authorities, public organizations and veterans-polar explorers are guests of the holiday events. The program includes the sitting of the Board of “The Association of polar explorers”, which consists of the heads of Russian companies, scientific and educational institutions, state and public figures. This year they are discussing issues of preparation for the congress of the Association, which will take place in December this year, as the news agency “Arktika-info” informs.