Album with 130 Original Photos of the 1939-1940 Soviet Oil Exploration Expedition to Nordvik Bay, Showing the Expedition Base Camp (General View, Bathhouse, etc.), Construction Works (Rotor No 2), Team Members (Including the Compiler and his Wife), Equipment (Boiler Room, Rotor Drilling Rig, Oil Drilling Rigs, etc.), and Infrastructure (Meteorological Station, Tankette, etc.); also, with the Photos of a Local Fire, Funeral of Deceased Explorers, Rallies, and Native Yakuts; titled: Alʹbom dlya malyuvannya [Album for Drawing]. Ca. 1939-1940.

Oblong Quarto album (ca. 22x30 cm). 32 thick paper leaves. With 130 mounted original gelatin silver photographs, with smaller ones from ca. 7,1x5 cm (2 ¾ x 2 in) to ca. 3,6x3 cm (1 ½ x 1 ¼ in), larger ones from ca. 16,3x10,3 cm (6 ½ x 4 in) to 8,5x14 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ½ in), and the rest of the photos ca. 7,6x11 cm (3 x 4 ½ in); with a mounted folding printed map showing the route of the expedition (ca. 21x67 cm) and a hand-drawn map of the expedition base camp (ca. 20x28,2 cm). Most photos with period ink captions in Russian on the mounts. Several photographs with dates indicated. Period grey patterned full cloth album with blind-tooled decorations with industrial motif on the front board, fastened with a string; dried flower specimens mounted to the inner side of the rear board. Binding slightly worn with mild damp stains on the right margin of the front board, one page detached, several photos age-toned and with mild silvering, but overall a very good album with strong, interesting photos.  

Historically significant album of rare original gelatin silver photographs taken and collected during the Nordvik-Khatanga Soviet Oil Exploration Expedition in 1939-1940. The compiler took part in the expedition together with his wife “Sonkes,” who, according to the photographs, was head of a tailor's workshop at the expedition base camp in Nordvik. Neither reports nor official photographs from the expedition were found through our research of digital archives and libraries.

The expedition, organized by the USSR’s Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route at the onset of WWII, aimed to study the oil potential of Nordvik Bay. A team of polar explorers set sail from Arkhangelsk on a steamship, accompanied by a cargo convoy and powerful icebreakers. Navigating through the Yugorsky Shar Strait, the expedition made several stops at Dixon, Melyuskin, and Vstrechny Islands before establishing its base in Nordvik Bay. Despite extensive operations, drilling at Nordvik over the next seasons proved largely unsuccessful, revealing only small oil pockets with little commercial value.

The album contains 130 lively vernacular photographs from the 1939-1940 expedition, including eight well-executed photos of the expedition base camp and its premises (the general view of the settlement, main street, local bathhouse, and canteen).

About ten photographs portray construction works as the team members attempted to build rotor No. 2. The images depict the site of the rotor, “the beginning of the work,” workers pulling out a tankette from snow, digging, and using special equipment. There are also about a dozen photographs showing the general view of rotor No. 1 - “the first in the world in Arctic conditions,” “a boiler room for rotor No. 1,” “a rotor drilling rig No. 1 with machinery room,” “steam winch 250 hp for rotor No. 1,” “oil drilling rigs,” “general view of a coal mine,” etc.

At least forty lively candid photographs show the expedition members (mostly the compiler and his wife) sewing at a tailor’s workshop, resting after work, feeding dogs, and posing by a tankette, on sleds, in tents, at a meteorological station, by the storage room, near the assembly crane, etc. Especially interesting are five photos of a fire at a local hospital, documenting the funeral of deceased polar explorers and the compiler standing solemnly beside the victims’ camp. There are also about ten candid individual and group portraits of local Yakuts, showing “Sonkes with a young Yakut woman”, “Yakut Family and Sonkes”, “Yakut Man with a Purchase”, young Yakut women in a school reading books, and Yakut fishermen posing by their camp.

The other interesting photos portray the expedition members at the October and May rallies (with “Sonkes” clearly visible in the crowd), four and two-engine seaplanes at Cape Kosisty, “bird market on Vstrechny Island,” steamships (“Stalingrad,” “Dixon,” etc.) and icebreakers (“Ermak”, “Litke,” etc.) from the expedition, etc. The album closes with the general views of the bank of the Khatanga River, the town Igarka, and the Krasnoyarsk pillars. Overall, historically important collection of 130 original gelatin silver photographs documenting the 1939-1940 Soviet Oil Exploration Expedition to Nordvik Bay.