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Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, humanitarian, and statesman. He led a number of scientific expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic Ocean between 1888 and 1896 and accepted a faculty position at the University of Oslo as a zoologist. Nansen was the Norwegian delegate to the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, advocating the adoption of the Covenant of the League of Nations and recognition of the rights of small states. He served as the Norwegian delegate to the League of Nations from 1920 to 1930 and held a number of high commissionerships. In this capacity he oversaw the repatriation of Central Power prisoners of war from Russia (1920 to 1922), developed the Nansen Passport for refugees in Eastern Europe and the Middle East (1921), supervised food shipments to famine-stricken Russia (1921-1922), monitored the exchange of Greek and Turkish refugees after the Turko-Greek War (1922), and planned for a national home for Armenian refugees in Syria and Lebanon (1925). Nansen received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his humanitarian work with refugees. He died on May 13, 1930 near Oslo. 1861 -- Born in Store Frøen, Norway (near Oslo) 1888-1889 -- Led the first expedition to cross Greenland 1893-1896 -- Explored the Arctic Ocean; while his research ship, Fram (Forward) drifted in the ice pack from Eastern Siberia to Spitzbergen, he attempted to reach the North Pole by dog sled 1896 -- Appointed Professor of Zoology, and later Oceanography, at the University of Kristiania (Oslo) 1905 -- Supported the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden, advocating Norwegian independence 1906-1908 -- Norwegian Minister to Great Britain 1917-1918 -- Head of Norwegian delegation to the United States to obtain food supplies and obtain a relaxation in the Allied blockade of neutral European countries during World War I 1919 -- President of the Norwegian Union for the League of Nations -- Norwegian delegate at the Versailles Peace Conference, he strongly supported the Covenant of the League of Nations and was an advocate for the recognition of the rights of small nations 1920-1930 -- Norwegian delegate to the League of Nations 1920-1922 -- Appointed High Commissioner by the League Council to supervise the repatriation of German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war from Russia; succeeded in repatriating over 425,000 POW’s 1921 -- Appointed High Commissioner for Refugees by the Council of the League of Nations; created the “Nansen Passport,” an identification card for displaced persons, and provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of Russian, Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian, and Assyro-Chaldean refugees 1921-1922 -- Appointed High Commissioner, with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross, to deliver food supplies to famine-stricken Russia; negotiated an agreement with the Soviet government to open the International Russian Relief Executive office in Moscow which distributed food supplies to approximately 22 million people 1922 -- Nobel Peace Prize Laureate -- Supervised the exchange of 1.25 million Greek refugees from Asia Minor and 500,000 Turks from Greece at the request of the Greek government after the Turko-Greek War of 1919-1922 1925 -- Planned a national home for Armenian refugees in Erivan and resettled 40,000 displaced persons in Syria and Lebanon 1930 -- Died in Lysaker, Norway
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League of Nations Archives, Palais des Nations, CH-1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland |
