Vladimir Rusanov

Born Nov 3 (15), 1875, in Orel; died 1913 in the Kara Sea (?). Russian arctic explorer.

Rusanov graduated from the Orel Theological Seminary in 1897. He was imprisoned for participating in the revolutionary movement and later exiled to Ust’-Sysol’sk for two years. In 1903 he emigrated to France, where he graduated from the University of Paris in 1907. In the same year he visited Novaia Zemlia and traveled by foot along the Matochkin Shar Strait. In 1908 and 1909 he participated in scientific expeditions to Novaia Zemlia and led scientific expeditions there in 1910 and 1911. He was the first to cross Severnyi Island on foot and to travel around Novaia Zemlia by motor and sailing vessels.

In 1912, Rusanov led an expedition on the vessel Gerkules to explore the coal regions of Spitsbergen. He then set off on a voyage east around Zhelaniia Cape and disappeared with his entire crew; the time and circumstances of the demise of the expedition remain unknown. In 1934 a wooden post with the inscription “Gerkules 1913” and some personal effects of expedition members were found on islands off the western coast of Taimyr. A bay and peninsula on Novaia Zemlia, a glacier on Severnaia Zemlia, a mountain in Antarctica, and other geographic features have been named after Rusanov.