he joint Swedish-Russian expedition to the Spitzbergen archipelago completed its three-year work in August 1901. The expedition, supported by the governments of Russia and Sweden and organized by their respective Academies of Sciences, measured the meridi an and continued further to the north the 1821-1852 Russian geodetic measurements of the “Struve arch,’’ from the Danube’s delta to the Norwegian town ofHammerfest. The initial proposal for a joint expedition came from the Stockholm Academy and was supported by St. Petersburg academicians O. A. Backlund, director of the Plilkovo observatory, and F.N.Chernyshev. On Russian suggestion, the program of the geodetic expedition became complex, including also magnetic, geophysical, geologi cal and meteorological investigations. The expedition’s 19 members wintered in the settlement Konstantinovsky in Goys bay and made regular meteorological and magnetic observations. From this base, as tronomical and geodetic parties explored the entire Western island of Spitzbergen. The party led by A. S.Vasil’ev, in particular, performed the bulk of measurements on the island’s central glacier, Lomonosovfonna, where Russian and Swedish triangula tion networks met. The important results of the Spitzbergen expedition included precise measurements of the meridian between 76.5 and 80.5 northern latitude. The measured flattening of the Earth’s ellipsoid came close to the parameters of the F.N. Krasovsky ellipsoid. The centennial of the Swedish-Russian expedition was marked by another internatio nal expedition to Spitzbergen’s Russian settlement Barentsburg in August 2001.