Abstract: The essay gives a brief description of the scientific activities of the Department for the Protection of Arctic Ecosystems, established in the late 1960s at the Central Laboratory of Nature Conservation of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR. Although its status, as well as the status of the Central Laboratory for Nature Conservation, has changed several times (currently it is the FSBI “VNII Ecology”), the main focus of the unit’s activities over the past 50 years has still been research in the Arctic aimed at a deeper understanding of changes in ecosystems and biota under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors, and the development of measures to preserve them.

Keywords: Arctic Ecosystem Research Laboratory: past, Present, Future, polar bear, Arctic, ecosystem.