Fifty Years of Permafrost Collaboration with the Soviet Union and Russia

摘要

Prior to the 1980s, major contacts with the Soviet permafrost community were through traditional conferences, bilateral agreements, and limited personal exchanges. In 1963 Soviet permafrost specialists participated in the First International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP). Major international field conferences were held in Siberia in 1969, 1973, and 1989. The formal organization of the International Permafrost Association in 1983 provided opportunities to initiate non-governmental, multi-national activities. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new era of institutional and individual cooperation emerged. This paper chronicles, by decade starting in the 1960s, many of the international activities with Soviet/Russian organizations and individuals in the fields of permafrost science and engineering.