Northeast Passage

History of a sea route
By Andreas Renner

272 pages with numerous illustrations. Hardcover with ribbon bookmark. 22 cm.

For centuries, European sailors dreamed in vain of an eastern route through the Siberian Arctic Ocean:
Willem Barents and Vitus Bering succumbed to the strains of their expeditions after their "discoveries" of Spitsbergen and the Bering Strait, and even the accustomed to success, James Cook, failed in his search for the eastern exit from the ice masses. The Soviet Union fought for the sea route through the use of icebreakers, but many ships still sank due to hubris.

Climate change, of all things, is now opening up the long-awaited waterway—and simultaneously making it the subject of a wide variety of conflicts of interest. Economic area for the export of fossil fuels or national park for environmental and climate protection? International transit route or Russian territory?

Andreas Renner is a historian and professor of Russian-Asian Studies at LMU Munich. He has published on Russian nationalism, medical history, and photography. And since seeing Russia's western coast from Japan, he has been researching Russia as an Asian and maritime power, no longer just as a part of Eastern Europe.

Here you can find out more about seafaring , Spitsbergen , the Arctic and Norway .