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PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — R. A. Davydov. INSTRUCTION OF THE ARKHANGELSK MEDICAL BOARD OF 1837 ON THE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF SCURVY ON NOVAYA ZEMLYA AND SPITSBERGEN

This work is a publication of the document “Instruction for the prevention of mortality occurring on Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen from scurvy”. The document was prepared at the suggestion of the military governor of Arkhangelsk after a number of deaths from scurvy among Russians engaged in hunting on Spitsbergen in the mid-1830s. The text of the document was drafted at the Arkhangelsk Medical Board in 1837 and printed as a pamphlet at the provincial printing house in the same year. The pamphlets were sent to the local police departments of the province to supply shipowners involved in organizing hunting expeditions to the Arctic archipelagos of Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen. One of the copies of the pamphlet is currently kept in the State Archives of the Arkhangelsk region. This document is interesting because it describes the main symptoms and the course of the disease in a laconic form, in a language understandable to a non-specialist. In particular, to prevent scurvy, those who hunted in the Arctic archipelagoes were advised to use sour products, i. e. sauerkraut, horseradish, cloudberries, cranberries and lingonberries. These products were easily available to the provincial population and could be stored for long periods during hunting expeditions. For the treatment of scurvy, it was recommended to “drink with the juice of cranberries or cloudberries” and a decoction of conifers, more precisely a decoction of pine cones. Thus, in 1837 — almost a century before vitamin C was officially discovered, artificially synthesised and the dependence of scurvy on a deficiency of this vitamin in the body was proven — doctors in Arkhangelsk gave recommendations for the prevention and treatment of scurvy patients, focusing on providing people with foods rich in vitamin C.богатыми именно витамином C.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — S. A. Nikonov. THE ABILITY TO SURVIVE: METHODS OF ADAPTATION AND MORTALITY OF RUSSIAN HUNTERS IN SVALBARD AND NOVAYA ZEMLYA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 18TH — EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The article deals with the problem of the influence of extreme factors on the wintering of Russian industrialists on Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard in the second half of the 18th — early 19th century. Wintering, assumed a one-year stay of artels in the polar archipelagos, which could provide significant income from hunting sea animals, but posed threats to human health and life. The risks included the climatic conditions of the Arctic (polar night, cold) and diseases caused by vitamin deficiency (scurvy). For wintering, fishing huts (camps) were built, the building material for which was regularly brought from the mainland. Prevention of scurvy was carried out in various ways, both developed over the centuries (the use of plants, honey, etc.), and by means of medicine of the 18th–19th centuries. However, the ways of adaptation could not completely avoid the death of industrialists. The causes of death of industrialists were various factors — diseases, accidents at sea and during hunting for sea animals, death during blizzards. There are cases of criminal deaths caused by clashes between Russian industrialists and European whalers. A significant danger was represented by scurvy disease, the victim of which was not only individual industrialists, but also entire artels. Analysis of the materials of the Belomorskaya Company of 1804–1808 shows that up to a third of the artels became victims of wintering by industrialists. The significant mortality of industrialists, the inability to calculate the risks of wintering in the polar archipelagos, can be considered as a factor contributing to the reduction of fisheries on Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard. By the second half of the 19th century, the hunting of sea animals on Svalbard by Russian industrialists was curtailed.