Relates the attempts since 1553 of men from various nations to navigate the dangerous Northeast Passage through the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean.

History and geographical characteristics of Northern Sea Route and legal regime.

This volume is the first study of the entire history of the Northern Sea Route, from its earliest exploration to the twenty-first century. It includes the West-European search for a new waterway to the Orient (sixteenth to seventeenth century), the Russian Kamchatka expeditions (eighteenth century), and the navigation from Europe to the major rivers in north-west Siberia (late nineteenth to early twentieth century), as well as the Russian utilisation of the sea route in the Soviet epoch and later.

Includes a description and history of exploration of the Northwest Passage, projection of future commercial use, analysis of the past and present legal status of the Passage and a discussion of the main policy implications of future use.