The Soviet regime's "love affair with the Arctic" in the 1930S was linked to both industrial development and resource extraction in the Far North as well as polar aviation and maritime transport along the Northern Sea Route. Polar scientists and pilots achieved much and were an important source for Soviet propaganda campaigns. Internationally, the Soviet Union took active part in the Second International Polar Year 1932-33 and was widely regarded as a leading polar state. According to Molotov and others, Stalin's own particular interest in the Arctic centred on the development of transport networks required for securing the northern frontiers and resources. The thesis examines the commitment of the Stalinist regime to developing its northern frontiers throughout the 1930S. At the centre of the state-building effort was the Main Administration of the Northern Sea Route, or Glavsevrnorput' (GUSMP). It was created on 17 December 1932 by the Council of People's Commissars (SNK). As the name suggested, its initial focus was on making the Northern Sea Route fully operational for navigation and shipping in accordance with the Second Five-Year Plan. Scientifc input was vital to the achievement of this goal. Within two years the "Commissariat of Ice" was granted responsibility for all territory, sea, ice and islands above the 62nd parallel. The growth of this Stalinist administration (glavk) is re-assessed in light of GUSMP's archival material. The larger context of the research is the Stalinist state in the decade before World War II. In an era of grands projets the overriding aim of the Northern Sea Route project was directly related to Stalin's security interests: with the increasing threat of war coupled with the advances in aviation, there was growing concern over the northern frontiers of the Soviet Union. Given a mixture of success and spectacular failure between 1932 and 1939, the period ended with the Stalinist purges of 1937-38 in which Glavsevrnorput' was to return full circle to its narrow mandate of developing the Northern Sea Route.