Page 145 - Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors, Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors. Vol. 1

The Arctic climatic Zone is almost impossible for man to live in, at least, with-
out modern technical equipment, and therefore it at once falls out of the list. Life in
the Arctic Zone seethes on land only during a short summer and stops during the long
arctic night. The only place where it goes on independent of the time of the year is in
the depths of the ocean. Life on the surface is mainly represented by migratory birds
(especially in the islands of the Arctic Ocean) and animals which migrate there for
the period of the summer season. Only polar bears, the predators of the arctic coast,
are an exception: for them the Arctic is their native element and they get their basic
booty from the waters of the ocean. Polar bears, polar foxes, arctic mice and owls,
and reindeer which migrate to the tundra for the summer season, are the animal re-
sources of the Arctic Zone.

The arctic mice, for example, fall into a long hibernation for almost nine
months, then wake up during the Arctic Day, to breed and rear their young and accu-
mulate fat for the next hibernation. Man appears in the Arctic Zone, following mi-
grant animals — reindeer, also during the Arctic Day. The ecological system of the
Arctic Zone is very poor and unable to provide man with food the whole year round
and, because of this the Arctic Zone is inhabited only for the time of the Arctic Day.
The people who somehow rendered these lands habitable are forced to fight for exist-
ence every day and in order survive they have to live in families which follow the
herds of semi-domesticated reindeer. Often hundreds of kilometres of tundra separate
one family from another: in fact, every day for these people is a fight for life; the
death of the reindeer or their illness would mean the death of the whole family. There
is nobody to wait for to get help. It is impossible to get to other people without a deer
or a dog-relay. But even if people had the latter, it would still very hard or almost im-
possible to find other people in the vast tundra, especially during the Arctic night
when snow-storms rage incessantly.

And during the Arctic day the tundra becomes almost impassable because of the
great number of lakes and insidious bogs. Due to the reasons indicated above, the
Arctic climatic Zone was not able to create necessary and sufficient conditions for
the development of man as a species. One family is sufficient for the saving of al-
ready accumulated experience, but it is not sufficient for the acquisition and accumu-
lation of any qualitatively new ones. People forcedly began to develop these lands.
They were driven to this dominion of the Snow Queen by stronger tribes which
pushed them out of their native lands. When coming to these lands, the forced mi-
grants, more precisely those of them who managed to survive, almost stopped in their
development for many thousands of years. Yet until quite recently the way of life of
the tundra inhabitants differed not at all from that which they had five, ten and more
thousand years ago. In fact, the way of life of modern reindeer breeders has changed
very little — they still follow their herds; but in their lives today they use some
achievements of modern civilization, to the creation of which they have no relation
whatsoever and thus, they are not creators, but only users of the results of the work of
others. Mainly, this climatic zone was developed by people of the yellow race.

The life of the Sub-Arctic climatic zone is much richer if we compare it with
the Arctic zone. Its ecological system consists of the forest-tundra and north taiga.

Back to contents 145