Lönngren, T. P. AT THE ROOT OF THE KOLA EXPEDITION: FRIDTJOF NANSEN AND OLAF BROCH // Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2020. Vol. 42. No 2. P. 89–95. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2020.457


Ethnology, anthropology and ethnography

AT THE ROOT OF THE KOLA EXPEDITION: FRIDTJOF NANSEN AND OLAF BROCH

Lönngren
T. P. 		University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway
Keywords:
Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture
expedition to the Kola Peninsula
material culture
realias
population of northern Russia
Olaf Broch
A. A. Shakhmatov
Fridtjоf Nansen		 Summary: The fact that a legendary Norwegian explorer Fridtjоf Nansen, who was a talented and highly educated man, knew very well the history and culture of the peoples of Northern Russia, is mentioned in almost every work dedicated to his planned expedition to the Kola Peninsula, which was never performed. However, there are no research works that mention the fact that his deep knowledge, which inspired him to investigate the Kola Peninsula, was acquired only thanks to great support from a Norwegian slavist Olaf Broch. Until now it has also been unknown that the idea of investigating the Kola Peninsula came to Nansen’s mind long before professor Solberg’s project was initiated in 1924. The article “At the Roots of the Kola Expedition: Fridtjоf Nansen and Olaf Broch” deals with the prehistory of the failed expedition and the role played by Broch in the origin and development of Nansen’s idea. This idea was to perform a many-sided investigation of the Kola Peninsula, including a linguistic line of research – the study of the dialects on the peninsula, with special attention to words connected with the unique culture of the local population. The article makes use of the unpublished materials comprising the epistolary legacy of Olaf Broch and deposited in Russian and Norwegian archives.



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