Sannikov Land (Земля Санникова) is a 1926 Russian/Soviet Science Fiction novel by Vladimir Obruchev. The story is based on the legends about Sannikov Land, an island in the far north of the Arctic Ocean that various travelers claimed to spot.
Several students, political exiles to Yakutsk Oblast, figure out that Sannikov Land must exist, since a lot of birds are seen flying to the north far beyond the known islands of the Arctic. With financial help from a kindhearted academic, they go on an expedition to look for the land, and soon find out that not only does it exist, but it's an oasis of amazingly warm weather thanks to the volcanic activity beneath it. It's also home to the Onkilons, a people who had mysteriously vanished from Siberia, as well as to the Vampu, a Not So Extinct Frazetta Man Paleolithic tribe, and multiple species of Pleistocene fauna.
However, as the seismic activity in the region intensifies, the explorers' relationship with the initially friendly Onkilons quickly begins to worsen.
This novel provides examples of:
- All or Nothing: Annuir agrees to follow Ordin to the mainland, but only if she becomes his first wife. He assures her she'll be the only one.
- Altar Diplomacy: The explorers agree to marry Onkilon girls to ensure the Onkilons' goodwill towards them. They do eventually grow fond of their wives, but Matu, Papu and Annuan abandon their husbands as soon as the chief starts to grow suspicious of the explorers, and Raku dies in the flood, so the marriage of Ordin and Annuir is the only one that works out.
- Apocalypse How: On the low end of Class 0. The eruption will kill everyone and everything in Sannikov Land.
- Awful Wedded Life: Gorokhov is incredibly unhappy with his wife who has a horrid temper, which is one of the reasons he decides to stay in Sannikov Land with gentle and kind Raku who adores him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Heavy on the bitter. The Onkilons and the Vampu have probably perished, Kostyakov is dead, Raku is killed, the entire unique ecosystem of Sannikov Land is gone for good, and the photos and tokens of the land are lost forever. However, apart from Kostyakov, the explorers make it home alive and well, and Ordin and Annuir end up together.
- But Not Too Foreign: Gorokhov, being a Yakut
, is viewed as less of a foreigner by the Onkilons than the Caucasian explorers. It's one of the reasons he is eager to stay with them for good. - Contrived Coincidence: The explorers come to Sannikov Land only a short while before a Natural Disaster Cascade begins. The Onkilons, comparing the situation with an old prophecy about people from the continent bringing misfortunes, start to see it as cause-and-effect.
- Exotic Extended Marriage: Annuir says that Ordin, as a mighty warrior, can have two wives. After thinking it over, Amnundak agrees and lets her marry him.
- Frazetta Man: The Vampu are hairy Paleolithic humans at a very low stage of development who are the Arch-Enemy of the Onkilons.
- God Guise: Downplayed – as the Onkilons are animists, it’s "spirit guise". Gorokhov, while sitting high up in a tree, shouts to the Onkilons that they should go north to escape the flood and claims he is the spirit of the sky. They believe him.
- Grim Up North: The journey to Sannikov Land is described very meticulously, and the author makes it clear that an expedition to the polar regions is a really tough undertaking. Be it wind crashing their tents or ice breaking almost under their feet, the explorers have some narrow escapes from death before even reaching Sannikov Land.
- Flat Character: Matu and Papu, the wives of Goryunov and Kostyakov respectively, aren't given any detailed characterization whatsoever. Annuir is of course one of the main cast, Annuan is defined by her fierce jealousy towards Annuir, Raku is the kind and cheerful girl who loves Gorokhov — but Matu and Papu aren't even mentioned by name after the couple of chapters describing the wife-choosing festival and the next day's campaign against the Vampu.
- Heel Realization: After the explorers scare off the Vampu and take some of their possessions for their collection, Goryunov realizes they have basically committed breaking and entering and robbery, even if it was purely for academic purposes. They decide to leave some of their own things to the Vampu in compensation.
- I Choose to Stay:
- Annuir decides to follow Ordin to the mainland.
- Gorokhov decides to stay with the Onkilons, especially since he has fallen in love with Raku. He changes his mind just in time, so he escapes the flooding, but Raku doesn’t.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Gorokhov feels he could have saved Raku, if he had come to look for her only a little earlier.
- Last Girl Wins: Annuir, Ordin's second wife (and, in addition, the last woman to get married at the wife-choosing festival), is the one with whom he finds real love.
- Let's Wait a While: Implied with the explorers' marriages (since they aren't sure at the start if they are going to follow through with them). They tell the Onkilons that in their country, there is a several-month mandatory engagement period before the actual marriage to test the couple's feelings and compatibility, and the Onkilons agree to let them follow that law. Later on, there are several mentions of the explorers sleeping separately from their wives.
- Lost World: Sannikov Land is populated by mammoths, cave bears and other Pleistocene animals, as well as the Vampu who are Paleolithic humans.
- Love at First Sight: Gorokhov chooses Raku as his wife the moment he sees her.
- May–December Romance: Implied with Gorokhov and Raku. He decides to stay with her rather than return to his own elderly and bad-tempered wife. But then Raku dies in the flood.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: In revenge for the Vampu kidnapping thirteen of their children and killing four of them by the time rescue arrives, the Onkilons kill all the Vampu boys. However, the explorers manage to persuade him to spare the girls and the elderly women.
- Mighty Whitey: Subverted. Though enthusiastic to see them at first, the Onkilons are wary of the explorers and cautious to follow their advice, and anyway, the explorers can do nothing to prevent the coming catastrophe.
- Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Inverted. Ordin is white and Annuir is Asian, but he falls for her precisely because she is anything but mellow.
- The Mole: Annuir spies on the Onkilons after their relationship with the explorers is soured. Ordin warns her not to be too vehement in her defense of him, so that the Onkilons wouldn’t suspect where her loyalties really lie.
- Mundane Luxury: Kazachye is a tiny poor village in the back of beyond, but Annuir, coming from a Neolithic-level settlement, is extremely impressed by it as she encounters things like chairs and beds for the first time.
- Murder by Inaction: Raku is tied to a pole as punishment for disloyalty, and as the flood approaches, she is left behind, still tied, as everyone else evacuates. It's left ambiguous whether the others deliberately left her to drown or simply forgot to free her (even if it's the latter, the Onkilons aren't too sad about her death).
- Natural Disaster Cascade: Over the course of four months, Sannikov Land suffers through a series of earthquakes, a severe frost, more earthquakes, a flood, and a volcanic eruption. Justified, since all these disasters are related to the seismic activity in the region or are indirectly caused by it (the frost occurs when the earthquakes block the active geysers that warm the land).
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Inverted with Ordin, who immediately likes Annuir’s determination and pride after she demands to marry him.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Ordin gets two Onkilon brides and both are called Annu. He decides to call them Annuan and Annuir, short for Annu-annen (Annu the First) and Annu-ngirak (Annu the Second).
- Playful Pursuit: A variation occurs at the Onkilons' wife-choosing festival. Men (in heavy clothes and armed) must choose their wives from a lined-up row of naked women and then chase them: if a man catches the woman he has picked, they're considered married. Since usually women, with nothing to slow them down, can only be caught if they want it, the trope is played straight more often than not. However, some quick-thinking men think up all sorts of tricks to startle their chosen bride and catch her even if she is unwilling.
- Recycled Premise: The premise is identical to that of Obruchev's earlier novel Plutonia. An oasis of warm climate with Not So Extinct prehistoric flora and fauna in the polar regions is discovered by a group of Badass Bookworm explorers, the ecosystem is liable to collapse soon due to some geology-related threat (the dying "sun" in Plutonia, the seismic activity in Sannikov Land), and the materials from the expedition are all lost due to a Contrived Coincidence.
- Shout-Out: Gorokhov wants to shoot a baby rhino, but his friends tell him that the joint Papa Wolf and Mama Bear attack of the latter's parents would be deadly. In Obruchev's earlier book Plutonia, Dr. Gromeko does shoot a baby rhino in highly similar circumstances, almost gets trampled by the adult ones and barely escapes with his life.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The two Onkilon ladies whose loyalty to the explorers never wavers are Annuir, brave, adventurous, and willing to go to war at Ordin's side, and Raku, a sweet, quiet and shy housewife.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Raku is The Ingenue, gentle, sweet and loyal, and dies a horrible death in the flood.
