Chapter 1808 Arrived in a More Tragic Place
Looking at the map, the west of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and the east is the Dolgan-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
The Dolgan-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is now generally known as the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug.
Xiao Peng felt like he was in prison on Alexander Island. After Moiseyev came, he talked with people from the Russian Ministry of Energy several times and was finally able to leave the "Clover" base on Alexander Island. In the end, he was just moving from one "prison" to another "prison", which was called "Dixon Island".
Dikson is a small island off the coast of the Taymyr Autonomous Region, right where the Yenisei River flows into the Kara Sea. Although it's called an "island," you can actually walk directly from the sea back to the Taymyr Autonomous Region in winter.
There is a 'Dixon City' on this island. This city is a semi-militarized city with hospitals, schools, government offices, courts and so on. Its main function is still military, and it is a border outpost city.
However, it was a little different from Alexandria Land. The Clover Base on Alexandria Land was a naval base, while this was an air force base. Knowing that Xiao Peng couldn't stand the boredom of the Clover Base, Yevmenov sent an order from Moscow to send Xiao Peng here first.
Why send him here?
Great location!
To the north lay the Central Executive Committee's Bulletin Islands and the Arctic Research Institute Islands, and to the northeast lay October Revolution Island, Komsomol Island, and Bolshevik Island. The sinking site of "Submarine No. 3" was between these two island groups, between Franz Josef Land, where Alexander Land is located.
There are roughly two types of names for islands in Russia. One is this naming method that bears strong traces of time, and the other is naming after Russian celebrities and revolutionary martyrs.
Dickson Island is an exception. The name of this island comes from the Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Oscar Dickson, who discovered the island in 1875 and named it "Dickson Island".
Look at that unfortunate name. 'Dick' is slang for 'tinny', and 'Dixon' literally means 'son of tinny'...
In fact, Western surnames originated very late, and Westerners have only had surnames for a few hundred years.
At first, Westerners only had given names but no surnames. As the population gathered in cities, people had to use nicknames to distinguish each other to avoid confusion. Later, people with nicknames would pass their nicknames on to their descendants. In this way, Westerners gradually developed surnames.
In addition to nicknames, some people use their occupations as surnames, such as "Smith" (blacksmith), "Miller" (mill worker)", "Cook" (cook), "Weaver" (weaver) and so on; some people use the geographical features of where they live as surnames, such as "Wood (forest)", "Cliff (cliff)", "Bush (shrub layer)", "Lake (lake)", "Street (street)" and so on; some surnames are derived from appearance characteristics, such as "Short (short)", "Brown (brown skin color), "Lang (long)"; and there are also sons of XXX, such as Johnson (son of John), Robinson (son of Robin), and "Dixon (son of Dick)".
Although there are slight differences due to language differences between European countries—for example, "Short" means "short" in the UK, while the French equivalent is "Petit"—these are the basic surnames of Westerners. Basically, a person's surname tells you what kind of person their ancestors were or where they came from.
There are still many islands in Russia, such as Franz Josef Land, Nordenskiölds Archipelago, and Schmidt Island. As soon as you hear the names, you can tell that they are named after Western discoverers; while islands such as Kolguyev Island, Lyakhov Islands, Dabecherev Island, and Bolshevik Island are named by Russians themselves...
The Russians had asked Xiao Peng to stay on Dickson Island, citing his full cooperation with the Ministry of Energy's research team. This annoyed Xiao Peng greatly: he had already been there with the icebreaker and survey ship, identifying the oil field, and the subsequent exploration work had little to do with him. Yet, the Russians insisted on keeping him there.
Xiao Peng was really driven crazy by the Russians: they just threw him to Dixon City and left him there without a care in the world. He didn't know whether to say they were careless, arrogant or just formalistic.
Or all three?
When I got here, I felt like I wasn’t even at the Shamrock Base!
At least the Shamrock Base is modern! It even has two reactors for heating, but what about here?
The name says it's a 'city', but the entire 'city' is basically made up of bungalows except for a three-story building, with a few two-story 'high-rise buildings' occasionally.
There are still thousands of people living in such a place!
Xiao Peng genuinely didn't understand the point of this place: although it had a port, it froze in winter, and although it had an airport, it was impossible to take off during a cold snap. If it was simply for radar reconnaissance, it wouldn't be as useful as the two polar regions, the "Northern Trefoil" and the "Arctic Trefoil."
After thinking for several days, Xiao Peng finally figured out the reason why this place existed: it was a historical problem.
The Soviet Union wasn't unaware of the Arctic's strategic significance; otherwise, they wouldn't have prioritized it at that time. However, due to technological limitations, they couldn't fully develop the region. At the time, Alexander Land had only a so-called "weather station" staffed by fewer than ten people. Dixon Island, on the other hand, was much easier to develop and supplies could be brought in more easily, so they developed it. Now, with more advanced technology, they've re-entered Franz Josef Land and built the "Shamrock" base.
This is just like when the domestic economy is bad and the level of technology is not high, you just go to the islands and reefs and build two "stilt houses" and throw a few people there, and then reclaim land and build islands after the economic level improves.
Xiao Peng is really going crazy staying here: although there are more than 2,000 people living here, he has only seen 30 people at most since he arrived here.
Although the sun can be seen here now, it's basically the same as not seeing it at all. (It's winter here for ten months a year, and for two of those months there's no sun at all.) Xiao Peng has rarely been anywhere except to the store and the army mess hall! To stay warm, he even has to light a stove in his room—a big coal-fired stove!
It is said that it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. When has Xiao Peng ever suffered this?
No, I must leave this damn place...but the question is how do I leave?
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