Territory

In 1596, the islands were described by the Dutchman Willem Barentsz, who gave the main island the name "Spitsbergen" (translated as "sharp mountains"). The Svalbard expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of V. F. Starkov proved that from the middle of the XVI century the archipelago had been already settled by the Pomors. The Svalbard coastal waters were abundant with lots of walruses and whales, which made it an ideal base for whaling in the XVII-XVIII centuries. In 1743, four Russian hunters landed in the southeastern part of the archipelago, their ship was icebound. They spent more than 6 years on the island until 1749 when they were discovered by a Russian merchant ship. In 1765-1766 Mikhail Lomonosov organized two marine scientific expeditions to Svalbard headed by Vasily Chichagov. Until the end of the XIX century, Svalbard was abandoned because of the decline of whaling. Interest in the archipelago arose with the development of polar expeditions and research. In 1912, Western Svalbard was described in detail by the Russian Arctic explorer Vladimir Rusanov. American, English, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish enterprises began to mine coal on the archipelago, which led to the emergence of permanent settlements. In 1920, the USA, the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden signed the Svalbard Treaty, which secured Norway's sovereignty over the archipelago and the right of the countries-participants in the agreement to conduct economic and research activities on the islands. The USSR joined the Treaty on May 7, 1935. After World War II, tourism and scientific research began to develop in Svalbard. Nowadays, Norway and Russia are closely cooperating on the archipelago. There are two official languages on the islands - Norwegian and Russian. Russian citizens do not need a visa to visit Svalbard.