Located at the southeastern tip of the Schirmacher oasis and on the shores of Lake Stantsionnoye, Russia’s Novolazarevskaya Station is named for Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, who was second-in-command of Fabian von Bellingshausen’s expedition of 1803–06, and captain of the supply ship Mirny. The station is 80km from the Lazarev Sea coast, but only 4.5km east of India’s Maitri Station.
Soviet-Russian activity in the area dates back to the establishment of Lazarev base in 1958. In its very first year of operation (1961), a storied self-surgery took place.
In 1979 the current station replaced the old one, which included a sty for pigs fed on kitchen scraps. The station’s seven single-story buildings are built on steel struts 1m to 2m above the ground and are connected by wooden boardwalks. A wooden Russian Orthodox cross marks the grave of the radio operator who died during winter in 1996.
About 25 people overwinter at ‘Novo’ and there are about 70 summer personnel. Despite its latitude (S 71°), weather at ‘Novo’ can be quite mild. In summer, solar radiation from the surrounding rocks makes it warm enough to sunbathe in the nude – scientists in the mid-1960s even fell asleep during this unusual Antarctic activity!
A somewhat less surprising pastime for personnel features the station’s beloved Russian banya (bathhouse), in which as many as six people can steam at 100°C and beat each other with birch boughs – before running outside to roll in the snow.
A 2780m ice-sheet runway for ski and wheeled aircraft sits 15km south of ‘Novo,’ at an elevation of 550m. It is a major hub of the Dronning Maud Land Air Network project in conjunction with Troll Station.