FWJN

**Fridtjof Nansen D.C.L., Ph.D., Sc.D., GCVO KSO (10, October, 1861 - 13, May, 1930)** was a Norwegian athlete, diplomat, explorer, humanitarian, inventor, neuroscientist, oceanographer, professor and zoologist. During his career, Nansen served as Professor of Zoology at the Royal University of Oslo, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Norway, and the High Commissioner of the League of Nations' International Office for Refugees. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1922 for his efforts on behalf of refugees of the First World War and his role in the development of the League of Nations.

Nansen's laboratory developed a device for sampling seawater, supported the validity of the neuron theory, later evinced by Spanish neurologist Santiago Ramon-Cajal,

Nansen's office

Nansen personally authored *Norway and the Union with Sweden*, a title advocating for the independence of Norway from the Kingdom of Sweden, and *The Structure & Combination of Histological Elements of the Central Nervous System*, a dissertation defending the neuron theory, drafted the *Integrity of Independence Treaty of 1907*, securing recognition of the Kingdom of Norway's independence from the European powers, founded the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, the Norwegian Central Oceanographic Laboratory and the Norwegian Geographical Society, led the Trans-Greenland Expedition of 1888, the first expedition to traverse the interior of Greenland, and the North Pole Expedition of 1893, which reached a record northern latitude of 86°14′, negotiated the dissolution of the United Kingdom of Scandinavia and signed the *Integrity of Independence Treaty of 1907* and the League of Nations' *Slavery Convention of 1926*.

## Biography

### Career

#### Diplomatic and Humanitarian Efforts

In 1907, Nansen authored and signed the Integrity of Independence Treaty in his capacity as Plenipotentiary Minister of the Kingdom of Norway, securing recognition of the Kingdom of Norway's independence from the British Empire, the Republic of France, the German Reich and the Russian Imperium.

Nansen became heavily involved in humanitarian campaigns both of his own accord and on behalf of the League of Nations, beginning in April, 1920, when, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, he was dispatched to the territories of the newly inaugurated Soviet Union to observe the effects of the revolution and provide aid to the population if and where it was deemed necessary. Nansen was assigned to organise the effort to repatriate approximately 500,000 prisoners of war to their respective nations and by November of the same year, Nansen had successfully returned 200,000 of these individuals to their own countries with finances raised from his own personal wealth, private charity and fundraising efforts which involved depicted the suffering in these regions in a series of photographs sold as postcards.

> *"Never in my life have I witnessed such a formidable degree of suffering."* - Dr. Fridtjof Nansen
>
>

On 1, September, 1921, Nansen was appointed High Commissioner of the League of Nations' International Office for Refugees, which he promptly accepted. This allowed him access to the manpower and funds of the League of Nations to accommodate his humanitarian efforts abroad.

In 1922, after two years of work resettling refugees and prisoners of war, Nansen reported before the League of Nations Assembly that 427,886 had been successfully repatriated to over 30 different countries around the world.

After the magnitude of the calamity in Russia was exposed to the League, Nansen was deployed to resettle people displaced or exiled by the Communist International, and simultaneously dedicated himself to finding a rapid solution to the food shortages and impending famine resulting from widespread crop failure and Bolshevik collectivization policies, which threatened to condemn 30 million people in the region to starvation.  Much to his dismay, Nansen failed to prevent the famine which subsequently took millions of lives due to a lack of financial aid to provide food for the populace. Nansen provided minimal relief with funds he had generated from private charity and his personal fortune, however, it was not substantial enough to prevent the mass death that was to follow. Nonetheless, Nansen had managed to arrange the resettlement of 2 million people to Australia, central & western Europe and North America, sparing some of the Communist serfs their fate.

> *"There was in various transatlantic countries such an abundance of maize, that the farmers had to burn it as fuel in their railway engines. At the same time the ships in Europe were idle, for there were no cargoes. Simultaneously there were thousands, nay, millions of unemployed. All this, while thirty million people in the Volga region, not far away and easily reached by our ships, were allowed to starve and die."* - Dr. Fridtjof Nansen
>
>

Following his excursion to Armenia in 1925, Nansen presented to the League of Nations Assembly a scheme entailing the resettlement of 15,000 Armenian refugees to a 360 km2 plot of land and the construction of an irrigation system for agricultural production beyond the borders of Soviet Armenia. Ultimately, Nansen failed to generate the funding to complete the project, however, for his efforts, in addition to this failed endeavour, Nansen gained a reputation among the Armenian people which has continued to venerate his legacy to this day.

#### Literary Career

Nansen's literary career began during his expedition to Greenland in 1893, during which Nansen wrote Eskimo Life, an ethnographical tome detailing the culture, history and physical attributes of the Inughuit, Kalaalit and Tunumiit Inuit tribes of Greenland during his expedition to the island.

Nansen's next title was a record of his expedition to the North Pole, Farthest North, a lengthy volume in which Nansen illustrated his adventures during the expedition, describing the voyage of the 'Fram' to the North Pole, considered by most seasoned arctic explorers at the time to be tantamount to a suicide pact, and the three year sojourn of the crew on the ice shelves of the North Pole, where they sustained themselves by hunting seals. This expedition reached a record northern latitude of 86°14′ and earned Nansen international renown and membership in scholarly societies throughout Europe. Additionally, Nansen was invited to serve as professor of zoology at the Royal University of Oslo, an invitation which he accepted.

In 1905, Nansen published Norway and the Union with Sweden, a brief recollection of the historical union with Sweden and previous unions with the other Scandinavian nations, propounding the ideal of self-determination and deliberating the potential benefits and consequences of the termination of the union for contemplation by the Norwegian public. Nansen himself was the descendant of proponents of the union with Sweden, particularly his paternal ancestors, and simultaneously advocates of it's dissolution, mostly including his maternal ancestors and most notably Count Johan Wedel-Jarlsberg, his great uncle & one of the authors and framers of the Constitution of Norway. Nansen himself held sympathies toward Norwegian nationalism preceding the resolution of 1905 and ultimately this view was reinforced with the passage of time, with Nansen taking a principal role in the dissolution of the union, the restoration of the Norwegian monarchy and ascension of Prince Carl of Denmark to the throne as King Haakon VII.

In 1911, Nansen released Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times, a historical publication describing the earliest attempts to reach the most northerly extents of earth, spanning a period from classical antiquity to the early sixteenth century.

Throughout his career, Nansen continued to author literary works, including Armenia and the Near East in 1923, Across Armenia and Through the Caucasus to the Volga in 1927, a series of volumes chronicling the plight of the Armenian, German, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian peoples following the annexation of their lands by the Soviet Union and his efforts to relieve the famines and food shortages that resulted from the agricultural collectivization policies of the leaders of the Communist International. It was this cause to which Nansen dedicated the latter part of his life, in service of the starving masses under the Communist regime, and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1922.

In addition to his autobiographical, historical and scientific publications, Nansen produced numerous fiction novels, principally tales of adventure involving arctic exploration.