Hunting the Northern Lights

摘要

When a tragic accident occurred in November 1962 in the coalmine of Kings Bay Company in Ny-?lesund, Svalbard, (78°55'N, 11°56'E) it led to the fall of the labour government that had been ruling Norway since the Second World War. A year later the mine was closed, the infrastructure left unattended, and the community of Ny-?lesund evacuated. The Norwegian government was then facing a challenge as it had to establish a new activity in the village in order to keep the sovereignty over the territory. This was in the middle of the Cold War. The Russian population on Svalbard was about twice as large as the Norwegian, while the production of the Russian mines was approximately half the output of the Norwegians. An empty village with well-developed infrastructure on Svalbard was therefore an enticement for the Soviet Union.