Remote traditional livelihoods of the Russian Pomors in the 15th-18th centuries

Exploitation of remote areas in the Russian North has a long history. It began in the 12th century when a distinctive variant of the Russian culture that subsequentlyspread across a vast area up stretching to the Asian North and the isles of the Arctic Oceancame about. Five Arctic marine passages connected the Pomor lands with the north ofWestern Siberia, the Novaya Zemplya archipelago and the Spitsbergen archipelago. Local population engaged in fishing and hunting to harvest wild animals in order to produceitems for sale such as walrus tasks, hides of white bears and sea animals. Fishing was alsoan important subsistence activity. Specific types of sea boats such as big and small kochesthat could move across sheets of ice were used. There are a lot of historical sites preservedin these areas (settlements, parts of boats, and beacon (navigation) crosses. The resultsof the explorations concluded that the Russian Pomors had all necessary means at theirdisposal to exploit these Arctic areas as early as the 16th century.