"One-Sixth of the World" - Putin Hands Out Special Assignment to Recover Old Names of Russian Lands
Russia will publish a new World Atlas with the truthful names of geographical features. The assignment was given by Vladimir Putin. He emphasized the importance of preserving the names originally given by our explorers. The task was set at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) where President Putin, among other things, presented awards to researchers and donated money for the restoration of forests.
Salima Zarif with the details in St. Petersburg.
The expression "one-sixth of the land" was first used by surveyor and cartographer Ivan Strelbitsky in his book Calculation of the Surface of the Russian Empire. This volume was funded by the RGO which is maintained by a board of trustees reviving the tradition of philanthropy and constantly supplying the RGO with work.
To what shores new expeditions will go, what rare animals will they study and which movies will they make is decided at the annual board meeting. Here's the National Arctic Atlas they published in 2014. The new task set by Putin is to create a Russian World Atlas.
President Putin: "Today only a few know that the original historical name of Smith Island is Borodino Island that Snow Island is Maloyaroslavets Island, and Levingston Island is Smolensk Island. And in 2020, we will celebrate the anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica which was carried out by Russian explorers".
The Russian World Atlas will restore historical and geographical justice.
President Putin: "We do not intend to impose anything on anyone, it's not necessary. but we can not tolerate the distortion of historical and geographical truths, and injustices. I'm asking Rosreestr, the experts of the RGO, and our Defense Ministry to take care of that. The security classification of many maps is clearly outdated and archaic".
Bureaucratic obstacles should not arise because the RGO and the Defense Ministry are led by the same person. Sergey Shoigu brings up depressing statistics: The international geographical dictation held in 25 countries revealed an extremely low level of knowledge about Russia.
Sergey Shoigu, Head of the RGO: "Two centuries ago, Nikolai Gogol used to say: "The great ignorance of Russia is in the middle of Russia." Unfortunately, his words remain relevant today. Only 442 out of 260,000 participants got 100 points It's 0.17%".
Those who eliminate gaps in knowledge are being rewarded. A gold medal named after the legendary explorer Yuri Senkevich was awarded this year to the program "In the World of Animals". The head of the VGTRK Oleg Dobrodeyev was also rewarded for his contribution to the implementation of RGO media projects. And professor Ulla Johansson received the golden Miklukho-Maklay medal for studying the Turkic peoples of Siberia. She used to work in Leningrad. As a German, she was welcomed there just 15 years after the siege and even invited as a guest, despite Party members being against it.
Ulla Johanssen, ethnologist: "The traditions of Russian hospitality were much stronger than the fear of the Party. Since that time, I love Russians, you know".
The new project of the RGO and Gazpromneft will study narwhals, "the sea unicorns" the only representative of its kind included in the Red Book. People know almost nothing about them. A narwhal’s natural life span is about 55 years. In captivity, they can't live for more than 4 months.
Alexander Dyukov, CEO of Gazpromneft: "Our task is to conduct a deep research assessment of the current condition of the narwhal population the borders of their habitat and the number of specimens. We're going to develop a set of measures that'll help preserve narwhals and their habitat".
Together with the RGO, VTB Bank is restoring forests in the Irkutsk Oblast. They invited President Putin to participate.
Andrey Kostin, CEO of VTB Bank: If you don't mind, we'll plant those trees on your behalf. In order to do that, we'll need your permission to take 104,000 rubles from your VTB bank account because every tree costs 100 rubles".
President Putin: Oh, that's why you need me.
- OK.
- Of course, I don't mind.
- Here's your certificate. It says: "Vladimir Putin planted a forest in the Irkutsk forestry area. Species — Scotch Pine; quantity — 1,040 trees." And the exact coordinates of those pines. Thank you.
- Are you coming for the money? Scary people, those bankers.
The real heroes of the day are two modest students. Artyom Makarenko and Valeria Sayenko, who discovered two new Russian islands from their homes. They studied satellite images of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The islands were exposed due to the melting of glaciers.
Valeria Sayenko: "We felt like real explorers — being the first people on Earth to see the new islands".
Thanks to their discovery, the Russian territory has increased by 290,000 square meters.
Salima Zarif, Alexey Sasyrin, Oleg Makarov Oleg Shavyrin, Alexander Burushkov, and Pyotr Rovnov Vesti, St. Petersburg.