This book is a kind of chronicle of the development of the Arctic from the very first attempts to the polar expedition to the North Pole, organized by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. The book includes diary entries by Parry, Nansen, Amundsen, Sedov, Papanin, Uemura, Shparo and others. Essays written by the authors of the book combine these entries into a coherent narrative.