This dataset includes data files provided by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute through our grant "Spatial and Temporal Variability of the Arctic Mixed Layer from Russian and American Data", National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant #OPP-9708635. Although this was not a SHEBA grant, the data has a strong relevance to SHEBA, because it helps put the SHEBA ocean data in historical perspective. The data set includes: Beaufort ML Quadrangle that gives mixed layer salinity and temperature from Russian hydrographic stations in a rectangle around the start position of the SHEBA drift. NPstations_2&12&22&31 includes derived mixed layer properties and representative profiles from North Pole Drifting Stations 2, 21, 22, and 31. These are in the general area of the SHEBA drift. Mixed_Layer_Depths_1970s includes mixed layer depths at Russian stations taken in the 1970s in the Arctic Ocean. Also included are files that contain averages of temperature and salinity from 148 historical Russian oceanographic stations within 100 kilometers of the SHEBA drift track for the depths indicated. Anomaly files are a collection of oceanographic stations of temperature and salinity anomalies relative to the average temperature and salinity of those stations that recorded a measurement at each given depth. The collection was chosen from Russian North Pole Station and Sever Program measurements between 1949 and 1989 within 100 kilometers of the SHEBA drift track.