The Russkaya Station () was a former Soviet and Russian Antarctic research station that was located on the Ruppert Coast, in Marie Byrd Land in Western Antarctica. The station was proposed in 1973 and approved in 1978. Construction began the next year and it was opened on March 9, 1980 and officially abandoned in 1990. The station was mothballed in the beginning of 1990. In February 2006, Valeriy Lukin, the head of the Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE), stated that There are plans to open the mothballed stations Molodyozhnaya, Leningradskaya and Russkaya in the 2007–2008 season. However, by 2012 it was reported that reactivation plans, although delayed, had not commenced. Climate For the shore of Antarctica, the winds are considered to be rather strong. The average number of days per year with wind speeds of over in the area around the station is 264, and on 136 of those the wind speed is over . The average temperature in the coldest months of July–August is ; in the warmest months of December–January it is . The lowest temperature ever recorded at the station was in 1985, and the warmest was in 1983. The average overall temperature over the course of a year is , and the average amount of snowfall is around . See also List of Antarctic research stations List of Antarctic field camps Soviet Antarctic Expedition Crime in Antarctica Further reading James G. Bockheim, The Soils of Antarctica, PP 185 – 194 References External links Official website Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute AARI Russkaya Station page COMNAP Antarctic Facilities COMNAP Antarctic Facilities Map Outposts of Marie Byrd Land Soviet Union and the Antarctic Russia and the Antarctic 1980 establishments in Antarctica 1990 disestablishments in Antarctica