The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context

Abstract

Climate change has become significantly pronounced in the Arctic over recent decades. In addition to these climate effects, the environment has experienced severe anthropogenic pressure connected to increased human activities, including the exploitation of natural resources and tourism. The opportunity to exploit some of the natural riches of Svalbard was promptly grasped by the Soviet Union well before the 1940s. In this paper, we present the story of Pyramiden, a mining settlement in central Svalbard. The Soviet town experienced its golden age in the 1970–1980s but fell into decline in the late 1990s which corresponds well with the overall economic and geopolitical situation of the Soviet Union. The impacts of past mining activities and related urban infrastructure development are illustrated with the use of historic aerial photographs. The most pronounced changes in the terrain configuration were connected to adjustments of the river network, construction of roads, water reservoirs, and obviously mining-related activities. The natural processes overwhelmed the city infrastructure rather quickly after the abandonment of the town in 1998, though some traces of human activities may persist for decades or centuries. Nowadays, Russia has been attempting to recover the settlement especially through support of tourism and research activities.

Is it real? Science diplomacy in the Arctic states’ strategies

“…Therefore, we argue that despite disagreements and concerns about a possible shift in power dynamics, peace and stability is the primary foreign policy goal for the region and the Arctic states actively seek to keep the region "exceptional" (see Exner-Pirot & Murray, 2017). Certainly, "through scientific research, states are able to overcome their disagreements and create strong international science cooperation" (Kavan & Halašková, 2022). What is more, we agree here with Łuszczuk et al ( 2020) that "scientific cooperation stimulates cooperation also in other areas" (p. 618), and this is particularly important for the Arctic.…”

Concluding commentary: Inter-disciplinary vistas – research on Svalbard in a local to global continuum

“…Rather, there is a strong underlying current that constructs Svalbard as something that might be called a socialmaterial configuration under the guiding aim of achieving sustainability (see the contribution by Hovelsrud, Veland, Kaltenborn, Olsen, & Dannevig, 2021;also, more generally, Pram Gad & Strandsbjerg, 2019), and that particularly constructs Svalbard not only as a political, legal, or economic configuration, but decidedly also as a cultural and aesthetic one (see la Cour, 2022;Polar Record Ødegaard, 2022). It is these configurations that need to be enacted and "negotiated," be it through practices and underlying imaginaries of what Svalbard "is" (or should be), be it by guides in the tourist industry (see the contribution by Trine Andersen), be it by the local government and administration, or be it through the waking up of a "ghost town" (see Kavan & Halašková, 2022).…”

Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard: An analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends

“…A major supplier of coal to the Kola Peninsula and surrounding northern regions until the start of WWI, Trust Arktikugol also supplied the icebreaker fleet plying the Northern Sea Route (Nabok, 2013a). After 1961, the two main mines Barentsburg and Pyramida (also rendered as Pyramiden) continued to operate with the closure of Pyramida in 1998 due to depleted coal reserves and the plane accident in which 141 miners and their family died (Kavan & Halašková, 2022). The extraction of coal in the remaining Barentsburg mine is limited to 120 thousand tonnes per year, while to break even the Russian Ministry of Energy calculated that at least 350 thousand tonnes need to be extracted.…”