A statue of Lenin looks out onto a Norwegian icefield. Until 1920 no state officially laid claim to this isle in the Svalbard archipelago. Scandinavian and Russian miners and whalers worked side by side until a treaty gave Norway the land. But the Russians were allowed to keep their mines and Spitzbergen became their strategic European toehold. Today their blackened coal miners still emerge from the ageing mine. Now an eclectic mix of nationalities live beside the island’s 3000 Polar Bears. A former city trader shows us around his adopted wilderness. Polar bear tracks lead away from his lodge where a bear stole in and ate his mattress. But the isle is no longer quite so wild. Tourists now arrive to add to the intimate island community With this new influx can Spitzbergen maintain it’s balance between development and wilderness?

Produced by ABC Australia