For decades there was a fierce competition, saturation of passions and intrigues between researchers and explorers for the conquest of the North Pole and the Far North. Quite a few lost their lives in it, not to mention adventurous and resourceful researchers, who did not get to share the glory that fell to the lot of their more famous friends.

​

Have you ever heard ofAda Blackjack, the forgotten queen of the Arctic, or about Matthew Henson, the first black man to reach the North Pole? Don't feel uncomfortable; Even avowed polar explorers and geography lovers probably don't know much about them.

​

And what do you really know about Vitus Bering, the man the Bering Strait is named after, and his travels in the service of Tsar Peter the Great led to a series of extraordinary geographical discoveries. I stood in front of the monument to the memory of Bering located on Bering Island (of the Commander Islands group east of Kamchatka) and I was moved. After all, he was the first white man to reach the Kamchatka Peninsula and later discovered Alaska.

​

As outrageous as this is, quite a few extraordinary explorers have been forgotten by heart. Come hear their stories.