Rabot Charles

(26.06.1856–01.02.1944)

French geographer, glaciologist, traveler, journalist, teacher, translator and guide.

Born in Nevers, graduated from the Nantes Lyceum.

Rabot's scientific activity was based on the materials of his numerous ethnographic and geographical expeditions.

In 1882  the ship “Little Paris” Rabot went to Spitsbergen, ten years later on the ship “English Channel” he visited Northern Norway and performed a topographical survey of the Svartis Glacier. Rabot crossed Svalbard from west to east and explored the most western island of the archipelago of Prince Charles Land.

In 1884 and 1895 Rabot conducted research on the western slopes of the Khibiny Mountains on the Kola Peninsula.

In 1890  Rabot led an expedition to the Russian north. Scientists explored the upper part of the Pechora, then proceeded along the river Shchugor, crossed the Ural Mountains, went along the Lyapino, Sosva and Ob rivers to Tobolsk, and from there reached Horses by train to Tyumen, and then reached Moscow via Yekaterinburg.

Rabot was a passionate ethnographer who studied the life and customs of Zyryans, Samoyeds, Komi, Chuvash, Ostyaks, etc., and published many articles on these topics. Rabot paid much attention to the history of arctic research. He translated the books of  R. Amundsen and F. Nansen into French. In collaboration with P.V. Wittenburg wrote the book "Polar countries".

In 1883  he became the first man to climb Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest mountain.

He died in the commune Marteinyaé-Fèrchaud in the department of Ile-y-Villein in Brittany in northwestern France.

The Cape is a north -west end of the Leigh Smith Island in the archipelago of Franz Josef Land. The name was approved by the Arkhangelsk Regional Executive Committee (Decision No. 651).