Estonia at both ends of the globe

VINCENT TEETSOV

It has been suggested that Ui-te-Rangiora, a navigator from Polynesia, was the first person to set eyes on Antarctica in 650 CE. It is also claimed that in 1820, the Imperial Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen, a Baltic German from Lahetaguse in Saaremaa, was the first to see the continent. No matter how you look at it, though, enthusiasm about the polar regions of the planet has not ceased after they were merely seen.

According to Erki Tammiksaar from the Estonian University of Life Sciences and Dr. Enn Kaup of Tallinn University of Technology, tens of thousands of scientists from Estonia have conducted research in Antarctica since then. At first, this was connected to Soviet expeditions after the Second World War. The Bellinghausen expedition became a way for the Soviet Union “to claim rights to the Antarctic and also to argue for its participation in Antarctic exploration.” Estonian scientists were able to leverage this to conduct important research.

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Photo: eu-polarnet.eu