The policy of the USSR for the development of the Northern Sea Route

This chapter highlights that the awareness of the importance of each of the spheres of northern policy by the Tsarist Russian and then Soviet leadership led to significant dynamics in the development of the NSR. In 1916, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a “Note on the ownership of Russia of all open lands and islands ‘located north of the Asian coast of the Russian Empire’”. It was the first documented attempt to consolidate the Arctic territories within the framework of Russian sovereignty. The Bolsheviks inferred from the events of the First World War and the imperial past. Therefore, they began to pay considerable attention to the development of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route. The economic resources of the USSR made it possible to develop the Arctic regions and the NSR, which was a key instrument in the former’s growth. This found expression in the development and formation of the maritime transport infrastructure. The centrally planned basis of the Soviet economy made it possible to invest significant resources in the development of the North. The result of these investments became the legacy of the Russian Federation and required further planned and purposeful development.