The world celebrates the day of the discovery of Antarctica by the Russian expedition. What you need to know

January 28 marks the day of the discovery of Antarctica by the Russian naval expedition under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. They were the first in 1820 to observe firsthand the icy coast of the last unexplored continent. Antarctica is now a no-man's land, where only scientific research is allowed, and military presence and resource extraction are prohibited. What you need to know about the southernmost continent is in the Izvestia article.

How Antarctica was discovered

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle spoke about the existence of the earth in the very south of the globe, suggesting that it should balance the already inhabited northern continents. However, it was not possible to verify this statement in practice even in the era of Great Discoveries. At the same time, already in 1539, the Spanish king Charles V declared all the lands south of the Strait of Magellan to the South Pole, that is, half of Antarctica, his own governorate of Terra Australis.

• Getting closer to Antarctica was hampered by cold winds, cloudy skies, and constant icebergs. In 1772, the English explorer James Cook managed to cross the Southern Arctic Circle, inside which Antarctica is located almost completely, but he still had 120 km to reach the cherished continent. By the beginning of the 19th century, South American seal hunters began to reach the South Shetland Islands, which belong to Antarctica.

Visiting penguins: scientists from the USSR have made a huge contribution to the research of Antarctica

How Soviet explorers settled the White Continent

A breakthrough in the exploration of Antarctica occurred in 1820. On January 28, the Russian expedition under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discovered the Antarctic ice shelf, which was the first observation of a part of the southern continent. Later, the glacier was named Bellingshausen, and the sea that washes it was named Lazarev. Two days later, Englishman Edward Bransfield discovered the Antarctic Peninsula, which is the northernmost point of Antarctica. The first full-fledged landing on the mainland took place only in 1895.

Who owns Antarctica

• No country in the world has established its sovereignty over Antarctica and its closest islands, but some have claimed ownership of its territory and divided the continent into sectors stretching from the South Pole to the shores. The first formal claim was made by Spain even before the discovery of the mainland, from which it was inherited by Chile and Argentina. In 1840, France began to claim one of the sectors. Great Britain tried to occupy almost half of the land, and after the independence of Australia and New Zealand, it transferred part of the territories to them. Norway also claimed its rights in the 1930s. At the same time, Mary Bird's Land with an area of 1.6 million square kilometers was never claimed by anyone.

• Basically, the claims of individual countries are recognized by each other, but the claims of Great Britain, Argentina and Chile overlap. In 1952, this even led to an incident when the Argentine military fired on a British ship that entered their Antarctic waters. London even filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice, demanding that the claims of Chile and Argentina be invalidated. In parallel, there were talks from the USSR and the USA about the possible promotion of their own claims to Antarctica.

• As a result, the claims to the lifeless continent were resolved peacefully. In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed. It was signed by seven countries with official claims, the USSR, the USA, Japan, Belgium and South Africa. Subsequently, 46 more countries joined them, the last in 2024 were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The parties to the treaty agreed to declare all lands south of the 60th parallel a demilitarized zone. Antarctica has been declared a scientific territory with freedom of research.

How can Antarctica be used?

• In 1998, an additional protocol entered into force, which imposes a ban on any mining in Antarctica until 2048. There are certain deposits of coal, gold, copper, platinum, iron on the mainland, as well as large reserves of oil and gas, but their extraction is in any case unprofitable.

• The national representation in Antarctica is limited to scientific stations. 21 countries have 43 permanent bases, and about the same number of stations operate only in the summer. There are five permanent stations operating under the Russian flag. One of them, Vostok, is located deep in the continent and is the coldest — the average annual temperature on it is -55 degrees. The permanent American Amundsen-Scott station is located directly at the South Pole. The number of polar explorers living in Antarctica varies from 1.2 thousand in winter to 4.8 thousand in summer.

• Although Antarctica is a demilitarized continent, it could theoretically have some military significance. The Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, which entered combat duty in 2023, is designed to be able to fly through the North and South Poles. This was intended to deliver the missile warhead along a trajectory unusual for a possible enemy and bypass the air defense system. With its hypothetical flight over Antarctica, Sarmat provides nuclear deterrence, preventing the enemy from being the first to use nuclear weapons in a possible conflict.

How to get to Antarctica

• Economically, Antarctica is of interest only in the field of tourism. You can reach the mainland by sea or by air. Most tourists are content with sea cruises along its shores, in 2025 about 124 thousand people used this service. Such tours are organized in Argentina, Chile and Australia. There are also sightseeing flights by plane, for example, from Cape Town to South Africa, although for a long time they were not carried out due to a plane crash in 1979, in which 257 people died, most of them tourists.

• In rare cases, landings are organized directly on the mainland, but more often this happens on adjacent islands. Tourists are mostly interested in visiting the most inaccessible continent and the opportunity to see penguins in their natural habitat. At the same time, it is better to go in the summer, which in Antarctica lasts from November to March.