The first geographical information on North-Western Taimyr dates back to the early 17^th century, when the estuary of the Pyasina River was reached by the expeditions of the sea-farers Luka (1605), Kondraty Kurochkin and Osip Shepunov (1610), Erofei and Nikifor Khabarovs (1628), Ivan Tolstoukhov (1686-87) (Vize, 1948; Belov, 1956; Maguidovich, 1983). The first attempts to round the Taimyr Peninsula by sea were also undertaken at that time. The traces of one such expedition undertaken by Akaky and Ivan Muromets in the early 17^th century - the remains of people, money, weapons etc. - were found in 1940-41 by Soviet hydrographers on the Faddey Island and in the Simsa Bay in the eastern part of the Peninsula.

The academician A.P.Okladnikov, who studied these findings in 1945, supposed that the people went there from the west, from the Yenisei River (Historical monument…, 1945). In 1980s the hydrographer V.A.Troitsky substantiated a different opinion: according to his point of view the deceased seafarers tried on two ships to sail by sea from the Khatanga Bay to Yenisei in order to take out furs (Troitsky, 1991). The first ship was crushed by ice in the area of the Faddey Island, the crew managed to land out of it, but the people did not survive. The second ship reached the Simsa Bay, where the crew built a house, having left three ill people there. Then the ship made its way to the south, and four people seem to have got as far as populated places.

In 1701 Taimyr was depicted in the “Draft-book of Siberia” by S.U.Remezov. In 1725-30 the land surveyor Petr Chichagov showed Taimyr on the map of Tobolsk and Yeniseisk provinces. However, the first quite reliable map of the northern coast of the peninsula appeared as a result of the work of the Great Northern Expedition of 1734-42 – the largest geographical undertaking in the north of Russia until the early 20^th century. The cartographic work on the coasts from the west was carried out by D.Ovtsyn`s group, from the east – V.Pronchishchev`s. The latter was replaced in his commander`s position after his death in 1736 by Kh.Laptev (Belov, 1956; Troitsky, 1975). The navigator F.Minin from Ovtsyn`s group drew in 1738-40 on the map the islands, which are now called Dixon and Kamennye, and left a supply of provisions for Kh.Laptev in the Pyasina estuary. In the Yeniseisky Bay he discovered a log-house and a wooden cross put up by Ivan Tolstoukhov. The sub-navigator D.Sterlegov from the same group reached, going along the seashore, the northern latitude of 75^o 26`.Sterlegov and Minin were the first who drew on the map a massif of small islands and meandering straits, dividing them, which is now called the Minina Skerries. The ruins of the log-houses on the Chaek River and the Lidia Cape, where Sterlegov stayed, have remained up to the present time.

The northernmost section of the Eurasian coast was described by the members of Khariton Laptev`s group – the navigator S.Chelyuskin, the land surveyor N.Chekin, the boatswain V.Medvedev and others. In the spring 1740 N.Chekin drew on the map the coast to the west of the Nizhnyaya Taimyra estuary, and he was the first who reached on the ice the Russkiy Island in the Nordensheld Archipelago. Next year Kh.Laptev and Chelyuskin completed the cartographic work on the coast between Dixon and the estuaries of Pyasina and Nizhnyaya Taimyra. In May 1742 S.Chelyuskin and the soldiers A.Prakhov and A.Fofanov reached the northernmost point of Eurasia, having thus completed the cartographic work and description of the whole coast of Taimyr. On the final map of the expedition the coasts are truly depicted, and the contours of the peninsula`s internal parts are often shown more correctly than on some maps of the early 20^th century.

In the first half of the 18^th century there were numerous winter bases and even small settlements of fishermen and hunters for polar foxes on the coast of the Yeniseisky Bay up to today`s Dixon. According to V.A.Troitsky`s reconstruction (1972) there were tens of winter bases on the coast from Dixon to the Pyasina estuary, the owners of which regularly hunted within the radius of 10-40 km polar foxes, reindeer, sea animals and kept packs of draught dogs. The most distant northern winter base was a log-house of Yakut Fomin, which was built on an island in the estuary of the Nizhnyaya Taimyra River. In the second half of the 18^th century the first ecological crisis took place on the coasts of the Pyasinsky and Yeniseisky Bays: the polar foxes` reserves were depleted due to the over-hunting, and the fur hunting became unprofitable. Besides, a mighty smallpox epidemics swept over Western Taimyr and the majority of population died. Only “pyasinsk peasants”, speaking a peculiar Russian language, but looking almost like the aboriginal population – the Dolgans and the Nganasans – continued to drive off the herds of domesticated reindeer to the coast of the Pyasinsky Bay.

In 1843 the rivers Verkhnyaya and Nizhnyaya Taimyra were investigated during his famous expedition by the academician A.F.Middendorf, who has given their name to his peninsula. In the lower part of the river`s stream the scientist almost died of cold, when he was forced to wait for help in solitude in a snow cave. The fundamental work by A.F.Middendorf “Trip to the North and East of Siberia” (1869) is still a source of natural science information about Taimyr.

In 1875-76 and 1878 the geological survey of the Dixon and Sibiryakova Islands and the right coast of the Yeniseisky Bay was conducted by N.A.E.Nordensheld. On the Dixon Island he discovered a wonderful harbour, which he named in honour of the Swedish entrepreneur Oscar Dixon. In 1878 during their famous voyage on “Vega” in the North-Eastern passage Nordensheld and his companions landed also on several islands of the Minina Skerries and the Nordensheld Archipelago and put up a monument on the Chelyuskin Cape.

On 26^th August 1878 the Norwegian Captain E.Iohannesen discovered the Uedineniya Island in the central part of the Kara Sea. In the second half of August 1893 “Fram” of Fritiof Nansen was sailing in the Minina Skerries. The Norwegians landed on the Oleny Island and in several places on the continent in order to hunt and to replenish their water supply. The islands Sverdrup, Scott-Gansena, Vardroper, Mona and Ringnes were discovered and named (Popov, Troitsky, 1972).

The work of the Russian Polar Expedition of the Academy of Sciences on the yacht “Zarya” under the leadership of E.V.Toll was very fruitful. In August 1900, after a short stay on Dixon Toll and his companions: the astronomer F.Zeeberg, the zoologist and doctor G.E.Valter and the student of biology A.A.Birulya, who worked with G.E.Valter as a preparator and who became after his death the biologist of the expedition, examined the islands Polkova, Oleny and Tsirkul in the Minina Skerries (Troitsky, 1972). Due to the difficult ice situation the expedition was forced to winter in the Nordensheld Archipelago, in the strait between the coast and the Bonevi Island, in the bay called “Raid of Dawn”. The scientists and officers of the expedition – the commander of the ship N.N.Kolomeitsev, the senior officer F.A.Matisen, the hydrographer A.V.Kolchak – conducted numerous hikes in the surroundings, made a land survey and the first Taimyr meteorological observations. A great deal of islands was discovered, including the islands Taimyr, Pilota Alexeyeva, Rastorgueva. During this expedition N.A.Beguichev (1874 – 1927), the future famous researcher of Taimyr, who served on “Zarya” as a boatswain, visited it for the first time.

On August 23, 1913, F.Nansen, who was making a large trip in the North of Siberia in the company of representatives of Siberian administration, Norwegian and Russian merchants, visited the Dixon Island again. At that time the fish resources of the Yeniseisky Bay were being intensively developed. Numerous fishing sites “peski” of fish industrialists were located along the western coast of Taimyr. The village Dudinskoye became a large centre of fishing industry. Each summer numerous fishermen`s artels occupied “toni” on the Lower Yenisei River and in the Yeniseisky Bay. In autumn a steam ship picked up the artels and tugged the barges with their catch upstream. Fishing was also the basis of pyasinsk peasants` living.

In September 1914 a forced winter stay in the Toll Bay was made by two ice-breaking steam ships of the Hydrographic Expedition of the Arctic Ocean “Taimyr” and “Vaigach” under the command of B.A.Vilkitsky, which were sailing from Vladivostok to Archangelsk. At the same time as they the schooner “Eclipse” (Captain O.Sverdrup) also stopped for wintering at the Vilda Cape. This schooner was hired by the Russian Government for conducting the search for and rendering help to the expeditions of V.A.Rusanov on “Herkules”, of G.L.Brusilov on “Saint Anna” and of G.A.Sedov on “Saint Foka”, which disappeared in 1912. Regular meteorological, ice and hydrological observations were made at the winter base in the Toll Bay.

N.I.Evguenov, A.M.Lavrov and other officers of the expedition described a considerable section of the coast, having combined their survey with the survey of E.V.Toll. A century mark was put up for the observation over the sea level fluctuations on the Mogilny Cape next to the burial of the Lieutenant A.N.Zhokhov and the stoker I.E.Ladonichev, who died during the winter stay. Food supply storages were laid on the Vilda Cape (Evguenov, Kupetsky, 1985). After the release from ice the ice-breakers made their way to Archangelsk, where they arrived in the early September 1915. On Dixon the sailors visited the first Taimyr polar station, which was just built by P.G.Kushakov (a participant of G.Ya.Sedov`s expedition to the North Pole) and the meteorologist E.I.Tikhomirov. The North-Eastern passage was gone through along its entire length for the second time.

The Marine Ministry was concerned about the fate of the crews from the Hydrographical Expedition`s ships. In the early spring 1915 it asked N.A.Beguichev, who had become a well-known industrialist by that time, to organize their evacuation to Golchikha. Having set out in March from Dudinka, Beguichev reached in July the place of “Eclipse”`s winter-stay at the Vilda Cape, where sailors had been transferred to by that time. He brought them to Golchikha successfully, and then reached the Middendorf Bay once again, having discovered on the way two large rivers Khutuda and Lenivaya (Bolotnikov, 1976).

In 1916 one of the first polar radiostations in the Arctic began to work on the Dixon Island. Its main task was to receive and to transmit to special synoptic centres a set of information on the weather, ice and hydrological conditions of the arctic seas. Since that time Dixon has turned into a large settlement – the “Arctic capital”. Later the Radiometeorological Centre was organized there, as well as Dixon Administration of Hydrometeorology, the largest in the USSR.

On 18^th July 1918 the Norwegian port Varde was left by the new ship of Rual Amundsen “Mod”, on which the great Norwegian wanted to drift near the North Pole. On 9^th September they passed the Chelyskin Cape and ten days later the expedition stayed for winter in a small bay on the eastern coast of the Chelyskin Peninsula (Amundsen, 1936). The scientific expedition wintered there for the first time and its members paid a lot of attention to the study of the surroundings. Almost the whole crew took part in the numerous sleigh trips. Meteorological, magnetic, astronomic and phenological observations were regularly made. A year later, on 12^th September 1919 “Mod” struggled out of the ice and made its way further to the east. Two sailors Peter Tessem and Paul Knudsen stayed at the place of the winter-stay. They were to deliver mail and the scientific results of the expedition`s first year to Dixon, from which they were separated by 900 km of desert tundra. When the snow cover was established the Norwegians skied to the west, but never reached Dixon.

After the expedition of 1915 the name of N.A.Beguichev became very well-known on Taimyr. And it was him that the Norwegian Government approached with the request to help in the search for the missing Tessem and Knudsen. The salvation expedition, which left Dixon in April 1921 was joined by the Captain of the Norwegian schooner “Heimen” L.Jakobsen and the sailor-interpreter A.Karlsen. On the Mikhailova Peninsula they found the remnants of a bonfire with charred bones, which were taken for human ones. The members of the expedition came to the conclusion that Knudsen had died there and Tessem burnt his corpse, so that polar foxes could not take it away. A great deal of small objects: cartridges, cases, fragments of outfit were found near the bonfire. Having regarded their task as partly fulfilled, the expedition put up memorial signs at the place of the findings and set out to the south (Troitsky, 1977).

In the summer 1922 Beguichev took part in the expedition of the geologist N.N.Urvantsev, the discoverer of Norilsk ore fields, which investigated on a sailing whale-boat the Pyasina River, sailing it downstream and discovering a sailing entrance. During their sailing from the Pyasina estuary to Dixon they came across a small hut made of drift-wood, 2 km away from the estuary of the Zeledeyeva River, in which they found the lost mail of Amundsen (Urvantsev, 1974). On 28^th August, during their hunt in the vicinity of the polar station Dixon, Beguichev, the topographer Bazanov and the biologist Pushkarev found the body of Peter Tessem under a rocky precipice. The exhausted Norwegian, apparently, saw the lights of the polar station, hasted on, slipped and fell down, but did not manage to stand up and froze to death… Beguichev and Urvantsev were awarded by the Norwegian Government with valuable gifts for finding the mail and for their help in the organization of the search.

In 1923-24 an intensive fishing and hunting business development began in the north-western part of the Taimyr Peninsula. In the Dixon area a lot of fishing “points” appeared, the owners of which, like their ancestors in the 18^th century, caught fish and white whales in summer, and hunted polar foxes in winter. One of the first researchers of the fish wealth of Pyasina A.I.Berezovsky wrote in 1925: “… There is no such other place as Pyasina, where its natural fish wealth, owing to its isolation, were in such virgin state, in the whole world…” (Berezovsky, 1925, p. 86). The acquaintance with this river made N.A.Beguichev create in 1926 a hunting artel “White bear”, which was joined by 6 more industrialists and one representative of the aboriginal population. Having rafted the Pyasina River downstream they built a log-house at the Vkhodnoy Cape. The absence of a sufficient food supply, an unsuccessful hunt and a long stay in a damp room resulted in a scurvy, which struck worst of all the oldest person – Beguichev. On 18^th May 1927 he died, having left in Yeniseisk six children in the age from 4 to 15. On June 28, 1964 a monument to the courageous explorer, who has made a great contribution to the research of Taimyr, was opened in Dixon settlement.

Large-scale investigation of the north of the Taimyr Peninsula began unfolding in the early 1930s and reached the largest scope before the Great Patriotic War (1941-45). The whole enormous scope of works of the Arctic development was coordinated by the Chief Administration of the Northern Marine Way (CAMNW), organized by the initiative of O.Yu.Schmidt in December 1932. CAMNW had under its command all geological, hydrographical, biological, fishing, hunting, hydrological and other expeditions. The solution of the task set by the Government “to turn the Northern Marine Way into a normally functioning main water way” required a considerable improvement of hydrographical, hydrological and meteorological conditions of navigation. For this purpose polar stations, port facilities, airports and geological bases were built on the desert coasts of Taimyr and on its numerous islands.

In 1930-35 Soviet expeditions on ice-breaking steam-ships “Sedov”, “Sibiryakov”, “Chelyuskin”, “Malyguin”, the ice-breaker “Ermak”, the hydrographical ships “Belukha” and “Tsirkul” have discovered and investigated numerous islands and archipelagos in the central part of the Kara Sea – the islands Vize, Isachenko and Voronina (August 1930), the islands Izvestiy TSIK, Arctic Institute (1932), Kirova (1934), the islands Slozhny and Severny (1935) (Popov, Troitsky, 1972).

Numerous hydrographical expeditions were called upon to provide for the compilation of conditional navigation maps of the north-western coast. This work was carried out in the early 1920s by separate detachments of the Committee of the Northern Marine Way (existed in the period of 1918 – 1932) and the Administration of Navigation Safety in the Kara Sea and the Estuaries of Siberian Rivers (Ubeko-Siberia). Expeditions of the Western Siberian Hydrographical Administration under the leadership of V.I.Vorobiyov worked in the section from Dixon to the Pyasina estuary and the Minina Skerries. Until 1936 the measuring, cartographical and pilotage works were only carried out in summertime, and therefore the work did not move on quickly enough. In 1936-37 the expedition of N.N.Alexeyev on the hydrographical ship “Toros” (Captain V.A.Padzeyevsky) stayed for winter in the Nordensheld Archipelago for the first time (Alexeyev, 1939). The organization of spring measurements from the ice allowed to speed up the works considerably, and the expeditions of the late 1930s drew on the map and opened for intensive navigation a very difficult section of the Kara Sea, adjacent to Taimyr coasts: Minina Skerries, Nordensheld Archipelago, Vilkitsky Strait.

Before the commencement of regular hydrographical works the territory of the Great Arctic Nature Reserve was investigated by large comprehensive expeditions, the most fruitful of which was the sailing on the schooner “Belukha” in 1930-32 (Captain A.K.Burke, hydrologist P.K.Khmyznikov) and the western Taimyr expedition of 1933 under the leadership of A.I.Landin, the head of the sector of air prospecting of the Administration of Air Service of CAMNW, in which the future academician geographer G.A.Avsyuk, the geologist N.P.Kheraskov and the biologist M.P.Rozanov participated, as well as the southern Taimyr expedition of E.I.Igolkin of 1932-34. Their main task was fishing, hunting, hydrographical and hydrological works. At the same time the first fishing and hunting winter bases were organized in the Minina Skerries (1930), on the Mikhailova Peninsula (1931) and on the islands of the Pyasinsky Bay (1932).

An important stage of scientific research in Taimyr was the creation of a network of polar hydrometeorological stations there. In September 1932 the ice-breaking steam ship “Rusanov” put ashore a group of winterers under the leadership of the doctor B.G.Georguievsky on the Chelyuskin Cape. The third group of winterers (1934-35), which was led by I.D.Papanin, started a large construction, and the Chelyuskin Cape became one of the largest stations on the route of the Northern Marine Way. Then the following polar stations were organized on the territory of the today`s Great Arctic Nature Reserve: “Ostrov Uedineniya” (1934, Leader S.V.Shmanev), “Mys Sterlegova” (1934, K.M.Zvantsev), “Ostrov Russkiy” (1935, P.P.Popov), “Ust-Taimyr” (1935, L.V.Ruzov). Three stations (islands Pravdy, Gueiberga and Tyrtova) were founded in 1940 as temporary and worked at first only during the navigation period. A polar station on the Vkhodnoy Cape in the Pyasina estuary worked for several year in the late 1930s.

Almost at the same time geologists came to North-Western Taimyr. The outcrops of bituminous coal layers on the eastern coast of the Yeniseisk Bay have been known since the beginning of the last century, and in the early 1930s several large fields of coal, suitable for use in the fleet, were discovered: Slobodskoye, Uboininskoye, Krestyaninskoye. In 1935-36 the geological group of N.N.Mutafi discovered a field of very good quality coal on the left bank of the Lower Pyasina River (Mutafi, 1939). In 1943 the coal production began in the Pyasinskoye field. Large-scale mining works were also conducted by large Dixonovskaya, Yeniseisko-Pyasinskaya (Western Taimyr) and Ust-Yeniseiskaya geological prospecting expeditions. Settlements, mines and adits were built. Thorough mining works were conducted in 1936-41 in the bays Efremova and Slobodskaya, in the Upper Uboinaya and Krestyanka Rivers, in the area of the Sterlegova Cape, the Minina Skerries and in the southern part of the Nordensheld Archipelago (Anikeyev and others, 1941). The remains of the large settlement Shakhta Severnaya on the Pyasinskoye field – double house walls, filled with coal for warmth, foundations, trolleys, rails, a small cemetery, gigantic piles of barren rock, adits filled with ice – can be seen even nowadays.

In 1934 a wooden pole with a carved inscription “Hercules 1913” was found during topographical works in the Mona Archipelago on the Veizel Island (now Hercules Island). Practically at the same time a great lot of things and documents, which belonged to V.G.Popov and A.S.Chukhchin, the members of the crew of the sailing motor ship “Hercules”, were found by hydrographers on a nameless island in the Minina Skerries. On this ship the geologist V.A.Rusanov planned to sail along the whole northern coast of Russia. After their research work in the summer 1912 on the Spitzbergen Archipelago “Hercules” made its way to the east and disappeared without a trace… Here the first evidence of the fate of V.A.Rusanov and his companions finally appeared.

A lot of expeditions examined afterwards the places of these findings, as well as a section of the coast from Dixon to the Minina Skerries and the Skerries themselves, but the secret of the “Hercules” expedition`s loss still remains unrevealed (Shparo, Shumilov, 1982, 1992; Koryakin, 1987). Nevertheless, a lot has been clarified. Thus, in the light of new information it became clear that the remnants of a bonfire and the small things found by Beguichev in 1921 did not belong to Tessem and Knuden, but to the members of Rusanov`s expedition. Apart from it, the search expeditions, mainly the expedition of the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” under the leadership of D.I.Shapiro (scientific leader A.V.Shumilo), made a lot of most interesting findings on the north-western coast of Taimyr in 1973-77; a food storage of E.V.Toll, polls put up by N.A.Beguichev, remnants of the expeditions of the 1930s, old fishing and hunting winter bases, remnants of a ship near the Pestsovy Island etc. (Shparo and others, 1975). The major part of the examined territory is included in the Great Arctic Nature Reserve now.

The further investigation works in Taimyr were interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. In 1942-44 the eastern part of the Kara Sea became an arena of combatant actions. Hydrographers and winterers of the polar stations worked practically on the front line. The heroic defence of Dixon and an unequal battle of the ice-breaking steam ship “Sibiryakov” and the German fascist raider “Admiral Scheer” in August 1942 is well known. On 18^th September 1943 the enemy submarine burnt a polar station on the Pravdy Island. On 26^th August 1944 the hydrographical ship “Nord” was sunk near the Belukha Island. On 23^rd – 24^th September of the same year a heated fight started between the Soviet patrol ships SKR-29 and AM-120 and a German submarine near the Kravkova Island (Belov, 1969). The gunners of AM-120 forced one of the submarines to retreat, but the ship was sunk by another submarine.

The last operation of Hitler`s Navy in the Arctic was an attack against the polar station on the Sterlegova Cape. On 26^th September 1944 the landing forces captured the station and took six of its employees in captivity. One of them (G.V.Bukhtiyarov) managed to run away. The others were brought by the Germans to Norway, where, after their refusal to cooperate, they were put in a prison. They were liberated from there by the Red Army forces. The polar station was burnt down. The battle near Taimyr coasts still remains one of the little known pages of the Great Patriotic War.

Right after the end of the war hydrographical and geological works were resumed on the Taimyr section of the Northern Marine Way. In the late 1940s – early 1950s several large geodesic, aero-photographic and geological expeditions worked there. They completed the cartography of Severnaya Zemlya and the Taimyr Peninsula. In 1951-54 several hydrographical expeditions, engaged in the land survey of the archipelagos of the central part of the Kara See, worked there at the same time. A lot of small islands were discovered and modern navigation maps were made.

The 1950s-70s can be considered as the time of flourishing of hydrographical works in the Arctic. Regular investigations for the compilation of large-scale navigational and topographical maps, surveying works, installation of navigational signs in the districts of the most difficult access in the Arctic were expanded by Leningrad Hydrographical Organization of the Ministry of Marine Fleet (HO MMF), created on the basis of the Hydrographical Administration of MMW. The HO system included Dixon Hydrographical Base, founded in August 1944, and Khatanga Hydrographical Base. They are engaged in the survey and measurement, as well as the installation and maintenance of lighthouses, buoys, folding and navigational signs. The main measurement and topographical works are carried out from the ice in spring, pilotage works – from ships and helicopters in spring and in summer. For example, on the section of Dixon Hydrobase there were about 40 radio-lighthouses and more than 300 navigational signs. From year to year, since 1959, hydrographers set out on sleigh-truck trains to the north, where they made detailed surveys. Thus, in 1961 the work on the compilation of maps of the northern part of Taimyr – the Chelyuskin Peninsula was completed, in 1964-67 – the Minina Skerries. The following hydrographers` names are well known: A.I.Kosoy, A.V.Maryshev, V.I.Tsyganyuk, P.Ya.Mikhalenko, I.I.Chevykalov, A.G.Divinets, V.Ya.Leskinen, M.E.Bekzhanov, Yu.K.Chernokaltsev, V.A.Troitsky and others.

After the end of the war the construction of new polar stations both on the continent (Eclipse Bay, 1949; Rybak, 1950), and on the islands (Vize Island, 1945; Isachenko Island, 1953; Izvestiy TSIK Islands, 1953) continued.

Even during the war geological prospecting works in the search for rare-earth and radioactive elements under the leadership of N.N.Urvantsev, the chief geologist of Norilsk Works, began. Extensive geological works were expanded in North-Western Taimyr in 1946, when the State Geological Survey in the scale: 1:1 000 000 began there. In 1946-55 the geological groups of E.A.Velichko, V.I.Tychinsky, O.A.Novikov, V.A.Zolotukhin, A.F.Barabashin, S.A.Logachev, V.A.Cherepanov, Yu.E.Pogrebitsky and other employees of the Scientific Research Institute of Geology of the Arctic (SRIGA) worked on the territories, which are now included in the Great Arctic Nature Reserve. Along the geological surveys mining works were also carried out in the basins of the rivers Lenivaya, Izvilistaya, Khutudabiga, Pyasina, Verkhnyaya Taimyra, on the Kamennye Islands, on the Morzhovy Island and on the Birulinskoye mica field. On the verge of the 1940-50s large settlements of geologists, geodesists and aviators appeared in Lomonosov, Vostochnaya, to the east of the Sterlegova Cape, Tareya and Ust-Tareya on the Pyasina River. More than ten coal fields were found on a small territory between the coast of the Yeniseisky Bay and Pyasina.

Geographers and biologists visited Northern Taimyr much more seldom than hydrographers and geologists. Thus, in 1946-48 comprehensive research was carried out by the Taimyr expedition of the Arctic Institute under the leadership of B.A.Tikhomirov and V.N.Koshkin on Dixon, in the Taimyra River estuary, on the Sterlegova Cape and on the Taimyr Lake. In 1949 a specially created Taimyr expedition (leader V.A.Mininberg), in which such prominent scientists as the zoologist L.A.Portenko, the botanist B.A.Tikhomirov, the permafrost expert A.I.Popov took part, examined the place where almost a whole corpse of a mammoth was found, and managed to successfully extract and deliver it to Leningrad. In 1949 the employees of Igarsk permafrost station worked in the Lower and Middle Pyasina River.

In 1950s the Scientific Research Institute of Polar Land Cultivation, Animal-breeding, Hunting and Fishing Business of CANMW, renamed into SRI of Agriculture of the Extreme North (SRIA of the Extreme North), was transferred from Leningrad to Norilsk. The employees of this largest Taimyr scientific institution (V.N.Andreyev, M.M.Geller, V.A.Zabrodin, E.F.Zabrodina, Ya.I.Kokorev, L.A.Kolpashchikov, V.A.Kuxov, L.N.Michurin, B.M. Pavlov, G.D.Yakushkin and many others) have thoroughly studied the flora and the fauna of the basin of the Upper Pyasina River. They have fulfilled a great deal of interesting works on the route and at numerous permanent bases. The research was mostly devoted to the biology and zoology of reindeer, waterfowl, other ornithofauna, polar fox, lemmings; epidemiology and parasitology; botany; reindeer breeding; anatomy and physiology of animals. After 1985 a considerable part of the works was devoted to the study of unfavourable influence of Norilsk Works` emissions on the tundra landscape. Economic consequences of human activity`s intensification in Western Taimyr were intensively studied, as well as the ways of creation of a local supply base for the population of Norilsk. Employees of SRIA of the Extreme North “rafted” often downstream the rivers Pyasina, Pura, Dudypta, Agapa, Tareya, Mokoritto, Yangoda, Gorbita, Luktakh and others. The interfluve of the Pura and the Pyasina Rivers, the basin of the upper part of the latter and the area of the Purinskiye lakes have been especially thoroughly studied.

In 1958 the first aero-calculation of the size of wild reindeer`s population was made. Later it was done regularly. It was found out that the main places of Taimyr reindeer`s calving are situated in the interfluve of the Pyasina and the Pura Rivers, where up to 90% of Taimyr reindeer population gathered in July-August. In 1965 a permanent biological base of the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was organized in the estuary of the Tareya River. Botanical, phytocoenological, floristical, soil, entomological, zoological and geographical research works were conducted there till the beginning of the 1970s.

In 1967 the employees of the project and prospecting expedition of Glavokhota (Chief Hunting Administration) of RSFSR (chief executive A.I.Matyushin) developed a project of creating a nature reserve in the interfluve of the Pyasina and the Pura Rivers. That was the first version of the future Taimyr nature reserve project. Later (in 1988) the nature reserve was organized there. Another unique object is the Pyasina delta, where about one quarter of all moulting geese of Western and Central Taimyr gather – more than 230 000 birds. At the present time the Pyasina delta has the category of water-and-swamp areas of international importance.

In 1985 the Polar Expedition of Leningrad Department of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, under the leadership of L.P.Khlobystin, studied an ancient (18^th century B.C.) settlement in the estuary of Pyasina`s tributary – the Polovinka River, and then the site “Pyasina-4-A” in the lower part of the Pyasina River. L.P.Khlobystin and his colleagues have developed in their works an idea of pyasinsk culture of bronze casting production (Khlobystin, 1998).

In 1984-86 the Arctic Estuary Hydrological expedition and Expedition A-118 of the Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Institute (the leaders respectively A.V.Ufimtsev and A.V.Kholostov) worked in the Lower Pyasina River. A geomorphologic group of Expedition A-118 under the leadership of D.Yu.Bolshiyanov worked in the Pyasina estuary. Travelling on motor-boats the geographers made up a geomorphologic map of the Pyasina delta, studied the Quaternary sediments and the relief of the adjacent areas, including the islands Forvaterny, Ptichyi, the Beguichevskaya Spit, the Vysokaya Mount, the Beguicheva River estuary, and visited the ruins of Beguichev`s log-house. They carried out engineering and geological drilling and made thermo-metrical observations in the wells.

Thus, the investigation of North-Western Taimyr, which began in the first half of the 17^th century, reached the highest intensiveness in the 1930s-50s. The priority directions were cartographic and geological, as well as hydrometeorological, fishing and hunting. Other works were conducted to a great extent incidentally. The 1930s-50s were also the years of the maximum load on the natural complexes of a major part of the Great Arctic Nature Reserve. The territories around the prospected fields were subjected to an intensive contamination. The hunt for polar foxes, birds, sea animals and fishing were absolutely unregulated.

The vegetation and animals on the territory of the future Great Arctic Nature Reserve have almost been uninvestigated until the 1980s. The research works, which were predominantly conducted in the late 1920s by I.I.Kolyushev (1933) and V.G.Geptner (1936), were devoted to the hunted fauna in the area of Dixon and the Lower Pyasina River. In 1947-49 V.M.Sdobnikov (1959, 1959a and others) worked in Northern Taimyr, including the Lower Taimyra River. In 1970s P.S.Tomkovich and N.V.Vronsky conducted their research works there (Tomkovich, Vronsky, 1994).

The coasts, adjacent to the Dixon Island from the south, the biological permanent base “Tareya”, the Chelyuskin Peninsula and the Pronchishchevoy Bay were in the 1960-70s a multi-year ground of comprehensive biocoenological investigations which were conducted by scientists of the Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the participation of a zoological group under the leadership of the correspondent member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yu.I.Chernov (Institute of Ecological and Evolutionary Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences – IEEP RAS). In 1973 and 1974 the works were carried out on the Chelyuskin Cape; the group consisted of botanists, microbiologists and zoologists. The main purpose of the research was to give a comprehensive quantitative estimation to all main groups of animals and plants as components of polar deserts` communities (Arctic tundra…, 1979, Chernov and others, 1979 and other).

Since 1988 the Arctic Expedition of IEEP RAS (until 1993 – Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of RAS) under the leadership of the academician E.E.Syroechkovski began its work on the territory of the future Nature Reserve. In 1988-1992 a comprehensive biological investigation of the Sibiryakova Island was conducted. The group of Professor V.B.Kuvaev carried out a detailed study of the island`s flora and vegetation (Kuvaev and others, 1994). Before that botanists worked on the island only twice: in the summer 1926 A.I.Tolmachev worked in the south-western part of the island (A.I.Tolmachev, 1926, 1931), and in the summer 1950 N.V.Matveyev and L.L.Zanyukha worked on the eastern coast of the island (N.V.Matveyev, L.L.Zanyukha, 1985).

Apart from the botanical studies ornithological research works were also conducted. E.E.Syroechkovski and O.A.Chernikov from IEEP RAS and Ukrainian Ornithologists from Melitopol Teachers` Training Institute under the leadership of A.I.Koshelev participated in these works. The study of the unique island population of wild reindeer was undertaken by E.E.Syroechkovski, A.S.Abolits and O.A.Chernikov. The physical and geographical survey was made by F.A.Romanenko.

In 1990-1992 stationary ornithological, teriological and botanical works were conducted in the area of the Knipovicha Bay, along the study of the routes in the estuary part of the Nizhnyaya Taimyra River and the basin of the Malinovskogo River. The materials collected there under the guidance of P.S.Tomkovich served as a basis for the creation of the most complete overview of the nesting ecology of a number of high arctic species of sandpipers Limicolae: Calidris canutus, Calidris alba, Calidris ferruginea and others. During the same years large-scale aero-calculations of moulting geese`s quantity and the ringing of brent geese Branta bernicla (about 1500 birds were ringed) were conducted in the Lower Nizhnyaya Taimyra, in the basin of the Leningradskaya River and in the adjacent territories. A member of the expedition - the ornithologist I.I.Chupin examined the Lower Shrenk River.

Joint Russian-Dutch research works in the area of the Ptichyi Islands and in the adjacent sections of the Pyasina delta began in 1990 and continued till 1994. The Dutch scientists studied profoundly the ecology of brent geese B. bernicla, while the Russian participants made comprehensive ecological systems` observations. The Lower Lenivaya River, located between these sections of stationary works of the Arctic Expedition, was the place of periodic ornithological observations during three seasons. Before, in 1983, the ornithologists P.S.Tomkovich and N.V.Vronsky already worked there, having compiled the first overview of ornithofauna of this area (Tomkovich, Vronsky, 1988).

In 1993 the Arctic Expedition of IEEP RAS (the group leader A.V.Rybkin) started a multi-year monitoring of the fauna of birds and animals in the area of the Meduza Bay, to the south of Dixon. In the same year, the biological station “Billem Barents” was created in the Meduza Bay by the initiative of the academician E.E.Syroechkovski. Its task is to serve as a base for stationary and monitoring works of Russian and foreign scientists. The construction of the station was funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Fishing of Holland. This area became the place of constant research works of Russian, Dutch and other foreign scientists, which continue in the present, now within the framework of the Great Arctic Nature Reserve`s activity. Ornithological, other zoological and various geographical and botanical research works are conducted there.

The Izvestiy TSIK Islands, the islands Sverdrup and Russkiy in the Nordensheld Archipelago were examined for the first time by ornithologists of IEEP RAS under the leadership of E.E.Syroechkovski Jr. in 1992-93. The geographer F.A.Romanenko and the botanist Yu.P.Kozhevnikov participated in the expedition`s groups. The main areas of brent geese`s B.bernicla nesting and large colonies of white gulls Pagophila eburnea were discovered there.

In 1994 a number of sections of Northern Taimyr: the Arctic Institute Islands, the Zarya Peninsula, the Pravdy Island, the Nansen Island, a number of sections on the western coast of the Chelyuskin Peninsula, the Komsomolskoy Pravdy Islands and the adjacent area of the polar station “Andreya” were examined in the course of work of the Russian-Swedish expedition “Ecology of Tundra-94” (scientific leader E.E.Syroechkovski). Although their visits were not very long, the scientific force, which has examined these districts, was rather considerable (about 40 scientists). The first scientific results have been published (Syroechkovski Sr., Rogacheva, 1995; Syroechkovski Sr., Kuprianov 1995; Romanenko 1995; Syroechkovski Jr. 1995; Syroechkovski Jr., 1995 and others).

The work of the research group employees of the Nature Reserve has been for many years concentrated on the study of the influence of Norilsk Ore Mining and Dressing Works on the flora and fauna both of the Nature Reserve`s territory and the Taimyr Peninsula`s territory with the adjacent sea area; on the study of damaged and destroyed vegetative and soil cover of the tundra, in particular the territory around drilling units, along the routes of the laid gas and oil pipelines and the pipelines, which are being currently laid, and also the places of natural destruction of the soil cover in the process of its thawing in the summer period (Chuprova, 1995, 1996, 2006; Chuprova, Afanasiev, 2003; Chuprova, Chuprov, 2004). This type of works is aimed at the optimization of anthropogenic landscapes, which are formed both on the territory of the Taimyr Peninsula, and in various other regions of the Extreme North (Chuprova, 2006).

Director – Valery Leonidovich Chuprov (PhD of Agric.Scs)

Deputy Director of Scientific work – Inga Leonidovna Chuprova  (PhD of Biol.Scs)

Deputy Director of
Territory Protection –
Hairullin Rashit Rafkatovich

Head Official of the
Ecological Education Department – Faina Guennadievna Kushnir