THE SOVIET MEMORANDUM ON THE ANTARCTIC, 1950 
Since the autumn of 1948 a number of statements of the Ministries of For- 
eign Affairs of the U. S. A., Great Britain and some other countries, and reports 
in the world press, have referred to the negotiations on the Antarctic which were 
begun on the initiative of the U. S. State Department between the United States 
of America, Great Britain, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina 
and Chile. From these same statements of the representatives of the Ministries 
of Foreign Affairs of some states and from press reports it follows that the aim 
of the negotiations is a decision of the question of the regime for the Antarctic. 
The Government of the U.S.S.R. cannot agree that such a question as the 
question of the regime for the Antarctic should be decided without their par- 
ticipation. In this connection the Soviet Government consider it necessary to 
recall the outstanding services of Russian navigators in the discovery of the 
Antarctic. The fact is generally recognized that the Russian navigators, Bell- 
ingshausen and Lazarev, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, were the 
first to reach the shores of the Antarctic, that they circumnavigated the con- 
tinent and proved thereby the erroneousness of the view which was widely held 
at the time that there was no land beyond the antarctic circle. This service of 
the Russian navigators is no less important than the later explorations on the 
continent itself and on its shores, carried out by the expeditions of some coun- 
tries whose representatives are now declaring their interest in the determination 
of the regime for the Antarctic. — 
It is common knowledge that the territory of the Antarctic and the waters 
adjacent to it are of great value economically, and from this aspect the Antarctic 
continent is of significance not only to the states enumerated above which are 
taking part in the negotiations on the regime for the Antarctic, but also to many 
other states, including the Soviet Union. It is sufficient to say that nine-tenths of 
the world catch of whales comes specifically from antarctic waters. The U.S.S.R. 
is a participant in the whaling industry and in the International Whaling Con- 
vention of 1946. Its whaling flotillas regularly participate in the whaling trade 
in antarctic waters. 
The same state of affairs may be observed as regards the scientific significance 
of the Antarctic, since this continent and the adjacent islands are a convenient 
base for most important meteorological observations which are also of signifi- 
cance to the northern hemisphere. 
The attention of the Soviet public has already been drawn to these facts. In 
particular they were commented upon in the resolution of a general meeting 
of the Geographical Society of the U.S.S.R. (Vsesoyuznoye Geograficheskoye 
Obshchestvo) of 10 February 1949, in which the Society stressed the very great 
importance of the discoveries of Russian navigators in the Antarctic. 
The Soviet Government consider it necessary to state that in accordance with 
international practice all interested countries should be enlisted for the discus- 
sion of the regime for any area of international significance. The Soviet Govern- 
ment consider that this international practice should also be observed in deciding 
the question of the Antarctic. It has already had occasion to point to the ille- 
gality of a separate solution of the question of the state affiliation of the Antarctic 
in an official note to the Norwegian Government dated 27 January 1939.1 
Because of the above, the Soviet Government cannot recognize as legal any 
decision on the regime for the Antarctic taken without their participation. 
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