Psychophysiology of combat activities in the Arctic

Introduction. The relevance of the problem is related to the fact that the Arctic has become the centre of economical and military concerns for many states and an important factor for future Russia and the whole world. To protect the national interests in this sphere the military servicemen must be able to efficiently perform in specific natural geographic and weather climatic conditions. The paper aims to reveal and examine the specific “Arctic” stress factors, estimate their influence on military servicemen combat activities, outline the ways of their special “Arctic” psychological training. Materials and Methods. The following methods were used: content-analysis of documents, scientific literature and Internet via the leading search systems such as Google, Rambler, Yandex. Indices of Doctor of Sciences and Candidate of Sciences dissertations were researched and the most world-known textbooks and course-books on Military Psychology and Psychophysiology, as well as guidance, instructions and field regulations were scrutinized. Results and Discussions. The importance of psychophysiological factors in performing combat tasks in the Arctic region is proved. The impact of cold on military servicemen performance is under study. The conditions causing military servicemen fatigue are examined. The authors reveal the peculiarities of military servicemen actions with lack of orienting points and perception disorders. The influence biorhythms’ malfunctioning has on military servicemen performance is shown. The fields of military servicemen “Arctic” psychological training are substantiated. Conclusions. Life activity in the Arctic region requires the special “Arctic” psychological training which enables the military servicemen to successfully adapt to the climate, have special adaptation, normalization of season and day and night biorhythms of military servicemen body functioning. Military servicemen must be ready to combat in conditions of extremely low temperatures, heavy physical loads and fatigue, lack of orienting points, navigation systems’ malfunctioning, poor quality of radio connection, unknown conditions, uncertainty, without opportunities to have an overall rest and suchlike.