Aleksandr Suleymanov

The author analyzes the development of geocryology (the study of permafrost) and the organization of research in this field during the period from 1930 to 1941, when the USSR Academy of Sciences’ newly established special Commission initiated and conducted an active program of research of the world’s largest permafrost areal in Northern Siberia. In 1939, the Commission was reorganized into the V. A. Obruchev Permafrost Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which developed and coordinated a network of regional stations. With the help of archival data and published sources, the article describes the history of academic expeditions, the participation of the Academy of Sciences’ researchers in the work of permafrost stations, and the importance of permafrost studies for scientific exploration of the Asian Arctic.