Five essays and a story examine six long-standing problems in the history of the development of the Russian Arctic, either rarely and superficially touched upon by scientists and writers, or not touched upon at all. Using all published documents, it is shown that many “well-known” and “reliable” statements have no substantiation and have been circulating from book to book since the time when little was known about the relevant topics, and the topic itself was often dangerous to study. The main attention is paid not to the distances traveled and latitudes reached, but to once living people with their thoughts, passions, weaknesses, and sometimes crimes. The author tried to show that to understand previous events it is not enough to know the “facts”, i.e. evidence, but one should use the entire available arsenal of historical science. For everyone who is interested in the Arctic, the fate of unusual people and countries. A number of errors have been corrected in the second edition , including significant ones, photographs, maps and literature were added, many explanations were given, and comments from experts were taken into account.