polyarnik

plural polyarniks · plural polyarniki

1. historicalA polar explorer from the Soviet Union.

   Only a small proportion of aspiring Polyarniks were accepted.

   2002, Charles Swithinbank, Vodka on Ice, page 112

   5 more examples

   And so, in the words of Soviet polyarniks (polar men), the Alekseyev beacon received a "higher education."

   1947, Research Memorandum, volume 5623, number 5327, page 10

   If this was his first year in the polar regions, the polyarnik would receive only the minimum increment [...]

   1989, Gilbert Dewart, Antarctic Comrades: An American with the Russians in Antarctica

   He is not a specialist, and not a polyarnik. He has no geological training.

   2009, Alekseĭ Mikhaĭlovich Ermolaev, William Barr, Vitaliĭ Davydovich Dibner, Arctic Scientist, Gulag Survivor

   The leaders of the organisation — the polar captains, pilots and other groups of polyarniks — were given military ranks, and many of its employees were also called into service in the Red Army and Navy.

   2013, Willy Østreng, The Natural and Societal Challenges of the Northern Sea Route

   One of these aviators, I.P. Mazuruk, later wrote: So Stalin needed the polyarniki, but at the same time he could not trust them any more than he could other Soviet citizens.

   2022, From Northeast Passage to Northern Sea Route

2. A polar explorer from Russia.