Fridtjof Nansen

A SCIENTIST

During his life, Fridtjof Nansen was at first seen as a scientist and he gave a significant contribution to zoology, geography, ethnography and geology. He had his major in zoology, and in 1888 he completed his doctoral thesis on the central nervous system of lower animals. In 1897 he became a professor of zoology and later oceanography. Fridtjof Nansen strongly believed in the evolution and the possibilities of discovering the rules of nature. After his expedition to the North Pole 1893- 1896 he was interested in great natural systems - deeply involved in the discovery of how currents are generated from the planetary rotation and the formulation of the theory of the Ekman spiral that explains the phenomenon. Nansen played an essential role in the development of Norwegian and international maritime explorations.

A POLAR HERO

Both of the polar expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen (to Greenland on skies in 1988 and the expedition to the North Pole 1893 - 1896) are among the greatest exploration adventures of all time. He decided to cross from the uninhabited east to the inhabited west; in other words, once his party was put ashore, there could be no retreat. He also made a decisive contribution to scientific knowledge of how to survive in the most extreme conditions. He also embarked on the planning of new polar expeditions, including one which he hoped to lead to the South Pole. This project was destined never to be completed, however. Other more urgent tasks engaged all his attention. His polar expedition made him world wide famous. They created a foundation for his later political, diplomatic and humanitarian activities: but, first of all acquired the material for the scientific research.

A POLITICIAN AND A DIPLOMAT

Although Fridtjof Nansen formally had never been positioned in the Norwegian politics, several times he had been mentioned as a possible prime minister. In 1905 Norway dissolved her uneasy union with Sweden and Nansen played a very important role. Fridtjof Nansen was appointed by the newly independent Norwegian state to be its first minister in London (1906-1908), where his personal standing was high and his main assignment was to obtain the unified support of his people for the Norwegian Government's resolute line of action and by explaining the Norwegian position and engendering goodwill for her cause among leading statesmen and the peoples of the world. In 1917 in order to avoid the hunger in the neutral Norway during the First World War, Nansen was dispatched to Washington as the head of a delegation charged with the task of negotiating with the American authorities for a relaxation of the embargoes on certain goods. Later he headed the Norwegian delegation in Geneva, the League of Nations (1920. - 1929). Fridtjof Nansen is seen as one of the founders of the Norwegian foreign policy, but he also was a strong opponent of the bureaucracy.

A HUMANITARIAN

Fridtjof Nansen's humanitarian work started in the fall of 1920 when the League of Nations asked him to be High Commissioner for hundreds of war prisoners remained in Siberia and other parts of Asiatic Russia after the First World War. Every day thousands of war prisoners were dying of starvation, exposure or disease. At first he refused due to his scientific work, but finally allowed himself to be persuaded into taking on the assignment. This decision was prompted both by compassion for the unfortunates still languishing in prison camps and by the fact that it was vital, if the League were to enjoy complete confidence, that its first major incursion into the field of practical organization should be carried out as quickly and as efficiently as possible - and he wished to do all he could to enhance the reputation of the League.

In august 1921 the International Red Cross urged the League of Nations Council to do something about the refugees, and the Council asked Nansen to take on this added burden. Fridtjof Nansen accepted to be the Head of the European humanitarian program in Russia and Ukraine that were struck by the famine. In many respects this was the greatest and most difficult of all the humanitarian work Nansen tackled. By accepting that hard task he, again, sacrificed his own personal explorations. This time the relief work met with even greater political difficulties than before. The Russian civil war was only just over, and in many parts of the world the Soviet regime was feared and hated. The Communist Government was regarded with profound distrust, and many politicians looked upon aid to the starving Russian peasants as camouflaged support of bolshevism. Once again Nansen could make no progress with the League of Nations or with most of the governments he approached; at every turn, he found himself up against a blank wall. Famine 1921 - 1923 is one of the greatest catastrophes in the history; almost 30 million people died in a year and a half. However, Nansen's mission managed to save the lives of millions of people.

In the autumn of 1921, just after he started with the humanitarian program against the famine in the Soviet Republic and Ukraine, Fridtjof Nansen accepted the position of the first High Commissioner for refugees at the League of Nations. He was involved with that task until his death in 1930. At first, the project was appropriated to around 2 millions of Russian refugees, but it was gradually extended to all groups of individuals without the citizenship in Europe. That task was shown as extremely difficult and it completely depended on his personal prestige and his organisational skills. That was the time when the concept of binding international cooperation was rather undeveloped.

NANSEN PASSPORT

At the conference in Geneva which Fridtjof Nansen convened in 1922, the High Commissioner for Refugees was given a right to issue identification certificate for refugees and citizens without the state. That was called "The Nansen passport". It's been the first time in the history that an individual had a right to issue refugee identification certificate with international recognition as a passport. The Nansen Passport was honoured by the governments in 52 countries and it helped millions of people to find new home. Today's Alien's passport is a document corresponding to a The Nansen's passport.

AN ENTERPRENEUR

There's a hidden relationship between Fridtjof Nansen's polar expeditions and his humanitarian work. They both refer to his entrepreneur's skills, courage and his sense of compassion. He directly applied his polar experience coordinating help people in need. The humanitarian work was his biggest challenge, but several times he failed. He was capable of wining over the forces of the nature, but he often had to admit defeat in the communication with the people. However, Fridtjof Nansen's humanitarian work was an organizational masterpiece. In all of his projects he managed to establish effective and active administration in a short period. He had never been paid for his work, everything was to go to ones he had tried to help. In the beginning of the 20th century he was traveling a lot, giving lectures, collecting funds and convincing impassive politicians to give money and loans. He was criticized a lot for letting be used as a pawn in a cynical political games. Fridjof himself felt that helping ones in need should always be before political decisions.