page_title: Nina Demme
section_title: Arctic exploration
hierarchical_section_title: Nina Demme / Career / Arctic exploration
caption_attribution_description: English: Nina Demme on the 1931 expedition to Franz Josef Land. Photograph indicates these were the first photos sent from the expedition: left Demme taking water samples; Middle the camp; right Demme
context_page_description: Nina Demme was a Russian polar explorer, biologist, and ornithologist. She was one of the first women to explore the Arctic and have charge of a polar expedition. Raised in an polyamorous household in Kostroma, she attended the first women's gymnasium in Russia from 1907 to 1914 and then studied to become a teacher. After taking workers courses under Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, she taught collectivism in the Ufa Governorate before settling in Leningrad in 1921 to study at the Geographical Institute. For eight years, she studied geography and biology, participating in numerous field trips on polar research.
  Graduating in 1929, Demme went to work at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and participated in a two-year expedition to Franz Josef Land, during which she was the only woman in the group. Chosen to lead an expedition to Severnaya Zemlya, known then as the Kamenev Islands, she and her team of three men mapped the western part of the archipelago and conducted research on the plants and animals.
context_section_description: In 1929, Demme graduated and went to work at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute when it was founded in 1930. Because of her extensive experience and research background, Demme was selected to participate in an expedition on the icebreaker George Sedov, which planned to winter on Franz Josef Land. Ivanov was sent to manage the polar station in Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island, the 11 scientists being led by Otto Schmidt. Demme was the only woman among them and international news coverage at the time claimed she was the first woman to have explored the Arctic. Her work involved both geographical and biological studies, and the crew wintered for two years on the island. When not making expeditions to study the wildlife and plants, Demme assisted the hydrologist in his measurements. During the expedition, Demme and Ivanov divorced, and she married another of the scientists. When they returned from the trip, that marriage ended, and she married Gabriel Ignatievich Ioylev, a radio operator.
  In 1932, she led a team of three men, including a hunter, meteorologist, and her husband, Ioylev, the radio operator, to winter in the Kamenev Islands, and newspapers reported that she had been the first woman to lead a polar expedition. The group sailed on the Roussanov, arriving on 14 August and settling into the cabin which had a large bedroom with bunk beds and a library, as well a large dining table, where they listened to concerts and news broadcasts each evening during dinner. She was made governor of the archipelago and had the authority to direct commerce, immigration, and other affairs of state. The group was to remain one winter and evaluate the commercial possibilities for the flora and fauna of the islands. They gathered geological and botanical samples, studied the various animals on their expeditions, and mapped the western part of Severnaya Zemlya. As icebreakers were unable to reach, them the team ended up wintering a second year in the Arctic. Various mishaps befell the crew, including one when, while out hunting, the men mistook Demme for a polar bear and she began to sing an aria from La traviata so they would know she was not their prey. In September 1934, Alexander Alexiev, a government pilot, flew from Siberia and was able to extract Demme and her crew, as well as Boris Lavrov and his pilot, who had been on an expedition of the Lena River before their plane crashed and they walked 185 miles to reach the Kamenev station.
caption: Nina Demme on the 1931 expedition to Franz Josef Land. Photograph indicates these were the first photos sent from the expedition: left Demme taking water samples; Middle the camp; right Demme seated
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