Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin

The main stages of the biography

1906–1915 - apprentice turner, turner, mechanic in the seaport workshops.

1915–1917 – military service in the Black Sea Fleet.

1917–1920 – service in the Red Guard: head of armor workshops, commissar of the headquarters of the sea and river forces of the Southwestern Front, organizer of the partisan movement in Crimea.

1920–1923 - Commandant of Krymchek.

1923–1932 – Head of Security at the People's Commissariat of Communications in Moscow; studying at higher courses at the People's Commissariat.

1925–1926 – Deputy Head of the construction of a radio station at the Aldan mines in Yakutia.

1931 - head of the post office on the ship "Malygin" during the expedition to Franz Josef Land

1932–1933 – head of the polar observatory in Tikhaya Bay (Franz Josef Land).

1933–1934 - Head of the polar observatory at Cape Chelyuskin (Taimyr Peninsula).

1936 – head of the maritime expedition of the steamships “Rusanov” and “Herzen” on the island. Rudolf (Franz Josef Land).

1937–1938 - head of the first drifting station "North Pole", awarded the Golden Star and two Orders of Lenin.

1938–1946 – Deputy Chief, Chief (since 1939) of the Main Northern Sea Route.

1939 – head of maritime operations in the western sector of the Arctic; the first double passage along the Northern Sea Route on the icebreaker "Stalin".

1939–1940 – head of the maritime expedition on the icebreaker “Stalin” to recover the steamship “Sedov” from drift; awarding the second Gold Star and the Order of Lenin.

1941–1945 – authorized State Defense Committee for unloading transport in the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk ports; awarding the rank of rear admiral.

1946 – Released from the post of head of the Main Northern Sea Route due to retirement due to health reasons.

1948–1951 – Head of the expeditionary work department of the Institute of Oceanology in Moscow.

1951–1977 – Head of the Department of Marine Expeditionary Works of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

1952–1977 – Director of the Institute of Biology of Inland Waters of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the village of Borok, Yaroslavl Region (part-time).

1945–1977 – head of the Moscow branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR (on a voluntary basis).

Station Manager I.D. Papanin

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin was born in 1894 in Sevastopol (now Ukraine), into a poor working-class family. He began his working life at the age of 12 as an apprentice turner in the workshops of a military port. He quickly mastered this craft and became a skilled worker. After four years, he could work on any machine, disassemble and assemble any motor.

In 1915, Ivan was called up for military service in the Black Sea Fleet, and in December 1917 he joined the Red Guard detachment. Soon he became the head of the armored workshops of the 58th Army, then - the commissar of the headquarters of the naval and river forces of the Southwestern Front.

In 1918, the Germans occupied Ukraine. Papanin spoke on the ships with a call to remove warships from Sevastopol so that they would not fall to the enemy. Soon two battleships and several destroyers left for Novorossiysk. In the difficult summer of 1919, Papanin was tasked with repairing damaged armored trains. He set up a workshop at an abandoned railway station and soon the trains went to the front.

When the White Guards retreated to the Crimea, the front leadership sent Papanin to organize the partisan movement in the rear of Wrangel. On a small boat, with a handful of fighters, he lands on the rocks of the Crimean coast. A month later, partisan detachments began to seriously harass the baron’s troops. The commander of the Insurgent Army operating in the rear of Wrangel’s troops, A.V. Mokrousov, decided to send Papanin to the headquarters of the Southern Front to M.V. Frunze to report the situation and receive money, weapons and ammunition. Ivan Dmitrievich agreed with the smugglers on delivery by felucca from Crimea to Turkey. He was put in a flour sack and carried past customs guards. On the way, the felucca's engine broke down, and only Papanin was able to fix it. Perhaps this is what contributed to the fact that the smugglers delivered him to the designated place, and did not throw him overboard. The envoy had to walk for twelve days to get to the headquarters of the Southern Front. Then, on a boat with ammunition, he reached the Crimean coast and again fought in a partisan detachment. After the liberation of the peninsula, Ivan Dmitrievich serves as commandant of Krymchek.

In 1923, having been demobilized from the army, Papanin began working as the head of security for the People's Commissariat of Communications of the USSR in Moscow. However, the quiet life weighed on him. And when in 1925 the People's Commissariat decided to open the first stationary radio station in Yakutia, at the developing Aldan gold mines, Ivan Dmitrievich asked to be sent to this construction and became deputy chief for supply issues. The task was successfully completed, although it took almost a month to get to Aldan from the Trans-Siberian Railway on horseback through the remote taiga, where the remnants of the White Guard gangs roamed.

The station was built in a year instead of two, and Papanin, returning to Moscow, went to study at the Planning Academy. After all, he had only four years of primary school behind him. But he was unable to complete the full academy course.

In 1931, reports appeared in the press that the West was preparing a large expedition to the Arctic on the Graf Zeppelin airship. The German government has applied for permission to fly over Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya and Taimyr. The purpose of the expedition was to study the distribution of ice cover and clarify the geographical location of the islands.

The Soviet government agreed on the condition that our scientists would take part in the flight, and copies of scientific materials and aerial photographs would be transferred to the USSR. In total, eight scientists took part in the expedition, including two Soviet ones - R.L. Samoilovich and P.A. Molchanov, and radio operator E.T. was included in the crew. Krenkel and engineer F.F. Assberg. There was a lot of fuss about the flight in the world press. “Intourist”, together with the Arctic Institute, became the organizer of the voyage of the icebreaking steamer “Malygin” to Franz Josef Land, where in Tikhaya Bay he was supposed to meet the airship and exchange mail with it. Special stamps, envelopes, cards and stamps were issued, the sale of which covered the costs of the sea expedition. Two employees of the People's Commissariat for Postal Service were sent to the Malygin, one of whom turned out to be the novice polar explorer Papanin. He headed the ship's communications department.

Ivan Dmitrievich and his assistant K. Petrov delivered 15 thousand envelopes and stamps to Arkhangelsk. All the cabins on the ship were occupied, and the filmmakers had to be forced out. On July 19, "Malygin" moved along the Dvina to the White Sea. The ship was commanded by a young but quite experienced captain D.T. Chertkov, the scientific part was headed by Deputy Director of the Arctic Institute V.Yu. Wiese, and his assistant was N.V. Pinegin is an artist, a famous Arctic explorer, who participated in 1912–1914. on Sedov's expedition.

Among the passengers was the famous Umberto Nobile, who led the tragic expedition on the airship Italia in 1928. Now he helped create new airships in the USSR and did not miss the opportunity to visit Franz Josef Land, hoping to find traces of his missing companions. There were also correspondents from the leading newspapers Pravda, Izvestia and Komsomolskaya Pravda on the ship.

On July 25, "Malygin" reached Tikhaya Bay. The first shift of polar explorers, who worked here for about a year, happily welcomed the expedition members. The next day, around lunchtime, the Graf Zeppelin airship arrived here and landed on the surface of the bay.

Narrated by I.D. Papanin:

“The boat was standing ready. We quickly carried all our mail into it - eight bags - and jumped off ourselves. Nobile, a cameraman and photojournalists went down into the boat with us. We quickly rushed from the pier to the airship.

The airship lay on the water - a huge, constantly swaying pile. He reacted to any, even very weak wind. The mail transfer procedure was short. We loaded our mail for them, the Germans threw theirs into our boat. What worried me most that day was that the Germans dropped off our mail without a receipt and in complete disarray. Probably no one cared about this except me, but I loved that everything was as it should be.

As soon as the mail was delivered to the Malygin, Kostya and I got to work - we dismantled it, handed it to the passengers, the rest of the letters were left to wait on the mainland.” (Papanin, 1977).

It should be added that the bags with correspondence were handed over to him from the gondola of the airship by radio operator E.T. Krenkel. This is how the first meeting of these people took place, six years later they were the first to land at the drifting station “North Pole-l”.

The history of the flight of the airship is as follows. On July 24, it took off from the German city of Friedrichshafen and flew through Berlin and Leningrad to Franz Josef Land. On July 27, a meeting with “Malygin” took place. Having taken aerial photographs of the islands of the archipelago, the air giant headed for Severnaya Zemlya, from there to Taimyr, then turned north again and crossed Novaya Zemlya along its long axis. Next - Arkhangelsk, Leningrad, Berlin, where the Zeppelin landed on July 31, having covered 31 thousand kilometers.

Again the word of I.D. Papanin:

“This was a truly outstanding flight that proved the possibility of using the airship in the Arctic for scientific purposes.

However, this story had its continuation: the Germans, as was stipulated, transferred observation materials to the Soviet Union, except... aerial photography. They referred to the fact that they had defective film. As it turned out later - after the war - the film was good and the aerial photography was excellent, but only the flight director handed over all the film to the German General Staff. Although this was two years before Hitler came to power, apparently the German military was actively collecting intelligence data. Arctic aerial photography materials were brought to light and used by the fascist General Staff ten years later, when Hitler’s hordes invaded our Motherland and fighting also began in the Far North.” (Papanin, 1977).

This is Papanin's version. The Malygin flight was designed for a month, so after meeting with the airship, he visited several more islands of Franz Josef Land. Papanin gladly participated in all landings on the shore. He liked the north, and he began to think about the future. In Tikhaya Bay, Ivan Dmitrievich examined the polar station in detail and came to the conclusion that it needed to be expanded and improved. In conversations with the head of the expedition V.Yu. He shared these thoughts with Wiese and offered his services. They decided to postpone the conversation until the mainland.

From the memoirs of flight participant N.V. Pinegina:

“I first met this man in 1931 in the mail cabin on board the Malygin. He had some secret of putting people together into close groups. Before the hunters had time to express their dream of obtaining skins and other trophies, Papanin lined up all those who lusted after bear blood, aligned them, straightened their drooping chins, distributed weapons by cartridge clip and announced the rules of collective hunting, as if he himself had just spent his entire life before and did that he hunted polar bears...

When we were standing at the northern shore of Novaya Zemlya, an incident happened to Papanin that could have ended badly for someone else. Carried away by hunting wild deer, he entered the central part of the island. On the way back, the hunters, having decided to go straight to the shore, found themselves cut off from it by an impassable gorge and a stormy river. We had to go back more than 20 km and only from there go in the direction of the icebreaker parking lot. On the “Malygina” the inexplicable absence of the hunters who left light for two days caused considerable concern. To top it all off, fog rolled in. “Malygin” was blasting its horns. When the fog cleared, a man appeared on the shore, moving his legs with difficulty, followed by two more in the distance. Papanin walked ahead; behind his shoulders, in addition to the backpack, two pairs of deer antlers and rifles of his comrades were visible. Sitting heavily on a chair, Papanin spoke in short words about the amazing journey of almost a hundred kilometers. His companions were completely exhausted - they couldn’t even carry guns.” (Pinegin, 1952).

...Wise kept his word and recommended Papanin’s candidacy to the director of the Arctic Institute R.L. Samoilovich and the Chairman of the Arctic Commission under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR S.S. Kamenev. Papanin was appointed head of the polar station in Tikhaya Bay and a year later went there again on board the icebreaking steamer Malygin. This station was given great importance in the program of the Second International Polar Year, held in 1932–1933. It was to be turned into a large observatory with a wide range of research. At the beginning of 1932, Papanin moved to Leningrad and was enrolled on the staff of the Arctic Institute. He spent whole days in the warehouses of Arcticsnab, selecting the necessary equipment and equipment, and looking closely at the “personnel”. In the corridors of the institute, he met a thin young man, a graduate of the physics department of Leningrad University. Thus began his long-term friendship with E.K. Fedorov, future academician and head of the State Hydrometeorological Committee. The first page in his polar biography was his wintering in Tikhaya Bay.

A total of 32 people were selected to work on Franz Josef Land, including 12 scientists. These were mainly young specialists - graduates of Leningrad University and the Moscow Hydrometeorological Institute. In addition, Papanin took his wife with him for the winter, which was rare for those times.

Captain D.T. Chertkov had to make two trips on the Malygin from Arkhangelsk to Tikhaya Bay to bring everything he needed. The construction team that arrived on the first flight immediately set to work. Before this, the station had only one house and a magnetic pavilion located in the distance. Now they had to build another residential building, a radio station, a mechanical workshop, a power plant, equip scientific pavilions and a weather station. In addition, on Rudolf Island - the northern tip of the archipelago - they built another house, brought equipment and four winterers there, creating a branch of the observatory. It was led by K. Raschepkin.

A word from N.V., a participant in the second voyage of the Malygina. Pinegin:

“Looking at the shore through binoculars, I recognized in a group of people the short and agile figure of the head of the new observatory and the entire Franz Josef Land, I.D. Papanin. He was apparently getting ready to join us, but he couldn’t tear himself away. Having met a man along the way, he was involved in some urgent matter. More than once I took a few steps towards the pier and returned again.

The boat with the captain arrived only half an hour later. He climbed up the storm ladder onto the deck and spoke, overcoming the tired hoarseness in his voice:

- Hello, brothers!.. Why are you delayed? We are waiting for you here - trouble. There are not enough boards. This hole—the hangar—gobbled everything up; standard after standard goes on, and there is no end in sight. How many did you bring?

And when he found out, he screamed:

- Yes, why do you, my dears, want to kill me? I don’t have enough for the high-mountain station... Eh, honest mother!

The captain justified himself:

- But the ship is not made of rubber.

- And you should go to a bigger deck, to the deck!... Well, okay, there’s no need to cry. Let's talk about unloading... It's a serious matter... Let's go to the cabin, captain, and have a good time...

About forty minutes later our guest was again on the shore. There, plunging into a conveyor chain of people transferring loads, he picked up a box; a minute later I saw this active man on the rafters, and after another five minutes - among the bindings of an openwork tower on a windmill...

I went ashore to look at the construction in Tikhaya Bay. We toured the old house, new spacious rooms for various offices and laboratories, and separate pavilions for various scientific works. Everything was done solidly, economically, prudently...

The work was well organized: there was an extraordinary amount of fuss. Among the general mass of workers, it was not possible to distinguish scientists from loaders, carpenters and painters. The new boss managed to select an amazingly well-coordinated company. Even the cook was mobilized for construction; he was replaced by the boss’s wife, who fed the entire horde...

Having completed our scientific work, we again visited Tikhaya Bay in the second half of September. This time the boat from the shore did not delay. Papanin appeared instantly. And he immediately laid claim to all the coal available in the Malygina bunkers, with the exception of what the icebreaker needed for the return voyage.

- No, don’t argue about it. How can I make it easier for scientists to work if there is not enough fuel? What if we stay in the winter for another year? That’s it, friend,” Papanin turned to me. - Trouble! They say there are not enough bags left. There are many - but torn. There is nothing to load coal with. So, help me. Not for service, but for friendship: persuade your young ladies to mobilize for a breakthrough, to sew up bags. We could do it ourselves, but you understand: sewing is not a man’s job. While we are picking with needles, you will burn about fifty tons of coal. Persuade! I’ll treat them to some chocolate later.” (Pinegin, 1952).

Having taken on the task of carrying out a set of scientific observations under the International Polar Year program, the staff of the observatory in Tikhaya Bay began to master radio sounding of the atmosphere. The young aerologist I. Guterman had to debug regular launches of probes from the ground to establish the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. E.K. studied the magnetic field. Fedorov, features of radio wave propagation - major specialist B.F. Arkhangelsk. The most experienced researcher at the observatory was biologist L.I. Leonov, who studied the flora and fauna of Franz Josef Land.

When the stationary observations were fine-tuned, the young scientists decided to begin expeditionary observations in remote points of the archipelago. For this purpose, in the spring and summer of 1933, several dog sled trips were organized. E.K. Fedorov, back in October 1932, visited the island with the accompanying fishing vessel “Smolny”. Rudolf, and six months later, together with the musher Kunashev, he got there on a sled, having covered over 300 kilometers in 22 days. Along the way, they identified several astronomical points, tying them to them and clarifying the outlines of the coasts and straits. Near Fr. Rudolf discovered several small islands called Octobers.

From Fedorov’s memoirs:

“The position expressed by Ivan Dmitrievich at the very first meeting with him: “So that science does not suffer,” was decisively embodied in life in a wide variety of forms. He himself did not have any systematic education. However, by constantly visiting all the laboratories and systematically talking with each of us, he quickly understood the main tasks and the meaning of the research carried out at the observatory. He did not try to delve into details, but, being a naturally intelligent and insightful person, he first of all wanted to understand how qualified each specialist was, how interested in his work, and devoted to it.

Having made sure that all the scientists under his command - both old and young - were trying to complete their tasks as best as possible, he no longer considered it necessary to interfere in their work, did not try to command, but turned all his attention to helping them. The metalwork and carpentry workshops quickly fulfilled our orders for all kinds of devices: various devices and booths were built to accommodate instrument sensors, convenient shelves and mounts in laboratories.

Along with their main work, all employees without exception, and Papanin led by example, performed some housekeeping duties.” (Fedorov, 1979).

From the memoirs of Professor V.Yu. Wiese:

“I first met this wonderful man, a Bolshevik and former Red partisan, in 1931, when I was the head of the expedition on the Malygin to Franz Josef Land. That year, the first meeting of the Graf Zeppelin airship with an icebreaker took place in the Arctic. To commemorate this event, special postage stamps were issued in the USSR. There were post offices both on the airship and on the Malygin, and the department on the Malygin was headed by I.D. Papanin. The Arctic immediately captured this man, in whom the thirst for extraordinary activity was overflowing.

The idea of ​​spending a year in Tikhaya Bay, where the meeting of the Zeppelin with the icebreaker took place, firmly stuck in Ivan Dmitrievich’s head. Looking at the then modest research station on Franz Josef Land, Papanin already saw it differently in his dreams. In his opinion, there should have been a whole village here, where scientists would have been provided with all the necessary conditions and amenities for their work, where there would have been an air base with a hangar, a wind turbine providing the village with electrical energy, a telephone, a barnyard, etc.

Ivan Dmitrievich enthusiastically developed his plan for construction on Franz Josef Land in front of the Malygin people. “Tikhaya Bay should be not only the northernmost station in the world, but also the best. It should become an exemplary polar observatory,” was Ivan Dmitrievich’s conclusion. For people like Papanin, words are deeds. He fully implemented his construction plan in Tikhaya Bay the following year.

At that time, the Second International Polar Year was taking place. A broad program of work on Franz Josef Land put forward by I.D. Papanin, it could not have come at a more opportune time and the necessary loans for the deployment of a station in Tikhaya Bay to a polar observatory were provided. Papanin’s exceptional efficiency, ability to rally the team around him and infect him with his enthusiasm made it possible that a year later the station on Franz Josef Land became unrecognizable.” (Wise, 1946).

The second shift of the polar ship in Tikhaya Bay was taken out at the end of the summer of 1933 by the icebreaking steamer Taimyr (by coincidence, it was the crew of the Taimyr that evacuated the Papanin four from the drifting station SP-1 four and a half years later). After reporting to the Arctic Institute on the work done, Papanin went on vacation, and then reappeared in V.Yu.’s office. Wiese. Word by I.D. Papanin:

“So,” said Vladimir Yulievich, “we decided to send you as the head of the polar station at Cape Chelyuskin. Do you agree? “And, without giving me a chance to answer, he continued: “There is a small polar station there.” But it does not meet modern requirements. Last year, your team created an excellent observatory in Tikhaya Bay. The same work remains to be done at Cape Chelyuskin.” (Papanin, 1977).

In four months it was necessary to select a station staff of 34 people, deliver prefabricated houses, scientific pavilions, a hangar, a wind turbine, all-terrain vehicles, a radio station and much other things to Arkhangelsk. E.K. agreed to go with Papanin. Fedorov with his young wife, hydrologist of the Arctic Institute V.P. Meleshko, employees of the observatory in Tikhaya Bay V. Storozhko and F. Zuev.

The expedition set off for Cape Chelyuskin in July 1934 on board the icebreaking steamer Sibiryakov, which by that time was commanded by Yu.K. Khlebnikov, who previously served as senior assistant. We had to stay at Dikson Island for two weeks, since the path to the Vilkitsky Strait was blocked by ice. This gave Papanin the opportunity to raid local warehouses and get hold of something for his station.

At Cape Chelyuskin there was also impressive coastal fast ice, which made it possible to unload directly onto the ice. The cargo, weighing a total of 900 tons, had to be dragged to the shore three kilometers away, which took two weeks. During this time, the icebreaker Ermak with the steamship Baikal and the tugboat Partizan Shchetinkin, as well as the ice cutter Litke, approached the cape. Papanin managed to attract their crews to unload. This episode is noteworthy: two young men from an ice cutter approached Papanin, introduced themselves as hydrobiologists and asked to inspect the station. Papanin allowed it, but at the same time offered to bring a decent log to the construction site.

In parallel with unloading, a seasonal team of construction workers began constructing residential buildings, scientific pavilions, warehouses and a wind turbine. At the end of September everything was ready, all that remained was to put the stoves down. Therefore, in order not to delay the ship, Papanin left the stove maker for the winter and let the rest of the workers go. Research staff began round-the-clock observations with regular transmission of reports to the Arctic Institute, and the rest began preparations for spring expeditions: they checked sledges and equipment, made short-distance sledding trips, and established intermediate bases.

From the memoirs of Professor V.Yu. Wiese, leader of the Litke campaign in 1934:

“He supervised the construction at Cape Chelyuskin I.D. Papanin, the new head of the winter quarters... At Cape Chelyuskin, Papanin set to work with the same ardor as on Franz Josef Land. Together with him, almost in full force, were his wintering comrades in Tikhaya Bay. Working selflessly, during the period of construction fever with almost no sleep, Papanin demanded the same work from his subordinates. And yet, at Papanin’s first call, the old winterers, without hesitation, again followed with Ivan Dmitrievich; his wife remained for the winter at Cape Chelyuskin.” (Wise, 1946).

In the spring, when the frosts weakened and 24-hour days arrived, Fedorov, Libin and Storozhko went on a long trip to Lake Taimyr on dog sleds. And Papanin and Meleshko moved along the Vilkitsky Strait. Their trip was adventurous. In a hurry, Ivan Dmitrievich forgot his protective glasses at the station and received snow blindness from the bright Sun. His companion had a hard time. The weather turned bad, it began to snow, and a snowstorm began. The dogs had difficulty dragging the sled, on which Meleshko laid the chief. So they covered almost 60 km to the station, where the patient had to lie blindfolded for another week.

Five kilometers from the station, the polar explorers built a small hut where they could sit out in bad weather. Suddenly it became popular and everyone took turns going there to relax and hunt. The next shift called this hut and the coastal ledge that sheltered it Cape Papanin.

The ice in the strait began to move only in the first days of August, but clear water was established only at the end of summer. The icebreaking steamship Sibiryakov left Dikson with a new shift of winterers. Papanin was pleased with what had been done: a modern observatory and radio center had been created, scientists had collected valuable materials. Cleanliness and comfort reigned in the residential building and pavilions, which was a great merit to the wives of Papanin and Fedorov. Galina Kirillovna acted as a meteorologist and librarian, and Anna Kirillovna was a geophysicist and cultural organizer. Then the women at the polar stations could be counted on the fingers of one hand: in addition to the two mentioned, there was also a radio operator Lyudmila Shrader in Uelen, that’s all. True, meteorologist Olga Komova was traveling with her husband on the Chelyuskin, but before Fr. They never reached Wrangel.

Soon the Sibiryakov delivered a new shift, unloaded food and set off further east, to other polar stations. He was supposed to pick up the Papanins on the way back. Of course, it was unreasonable for two shifts to crowd together at one station, the old-timers wanted to go home to their families, so Papanin took advantage of the passage of the Anadyr steamship past Cape Chelyuskin, going to Igarka, and persuaded its captain P.G. Milovzorov to take them with him. Thus ended Papanin’s work at Cape Chelyuskin...

I.D. Papanin successfully completed this expedition. Now he enjoyed well-deserved authority in the Main Northern Sea Route. Therefore, when the question of the leader of the first Soviet expedition to the North Pole was being decided, and the candidacy of V.Yu. Wiese was selected based on age and health, the government commission settled on Papanin. In addition to the experience of two wintering in the Arctic, his KGB past obviously also influenced him, which especially appealed to the NKVD.

A word from Ivan Dmitrievich himself:

“One day, Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar, whom I knew well from the Civil War, work in Ukraine and Crimea, called me to his place. He now held the high post of member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, was deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and People's Commissar of Finance. Broad-shouldered, tall, fit, he sat me down in a chair, left the table, and sat down opposite me.

- Ivan, I must tell you...

I immediately felt cold. I knew that I was expected to be the head of the polar station, but whatever - that was the only thought I lived with. And so…

– Yesterday there was a Politburo meeting. It’s been decided: you are the head of the North Pole.” (Papanin, 1977).

Months began filled with a continuous string of worries. The list of necessary things kept growing.

“At first, in the building of the Main Northern Sea Route on Razin Street, I felt uncomfortable: a multi-layered life flowed there, fraught with worries, problems, and troubles. My case was one of many, and sometimes I felt that they were looking at me with annoyance - he was walking around, taking up time. After sitting in the reception rooms of the heads of various departments, I rebelled... I had to demand: let me be given the appropriate powers. As a result, the SP-1 station received a separate account in the State Bank, and I received complete freedom of action. Let me make a reservation right away: I tried to save government funds wherever I could. Sometimes I would bargain so that what we needed at the pole would be made the same in quality, but cheaper. I’ve heard a lot of accusations of stinginess.” (Papanin, 1977).

Ivan Dmitrievich was entrusted with not only the preparation of equipment, equipment and food for the drifting station, but also the construction in 1936 of an air base on Rudolf Island, from where planes were supposed to fly to the North Pole.

Papanin, with his characteristic determination, wedged himself into the selection of the station staff. But of his companions from previous winterings, he managed to defend only Fedorov. The candidacies of Krenkel and Shirshov were proposed by the head of the expedition O.Yu. Schmidt, who knew them well from the campaigns of Sibiryakov and Chelyuskin. Papanin was ambitious and subsequently, in the heat of the moment, often called them “Schmidtites.” The candidacy of mechanic Mekhrengin was also selected, but later he had to be abandoned due to the overload of the planes.

For a whole year, the team of the future North Pole station prepared for work on the ice floe. An exception was made only for Krenkel, who at that time was wintering on Severnaya Zemlya. Papanin briefly leafed through the works of polar explorers. He boldly took on the design of new and alteration of existing equipment. Not wanting to “bow” to the Arctic Institute, where they were offended at him because of Wiese, Ivan Dmitrievich refused the help of experienced suppliers. As it turned out later, not all innovations were successful and on the ice floe the participants often felt inconvenience and the consequences of miscalculations.

“Ivan Dmitrievich caused a lot of trouble to the Kauchuk plant by ordering our living tent. They cut the tarpaulin, sewed it, tried on cleverly designed shells on an aluminum frame. The demands were serious. The house must be warm, durable, quickly assembled and disassembled, and so light that four people can quickly move it when assembled.

The tent was redesigned many times until Ivan Dmitrievich was satisfied. The last addition was numerous pockets along the inner walls and a vestibule where you can take off your shoes. The house turned out wonderful." (Fedorov, 1979).

From the memoirs of I.D. Papanina:

“Without lighting on an ice floe, you can’t go anywhere. Krenkel primarily needs electricity. Radio communication every three hours. Taking batteries with you is difficult, and they are unreliable in cold weather. Gasoline, fuel oil - how much is needed! No matter how you look at it, you need a windmill. Windmills are unpretentious, they are not afraid of frost, and they rarely break down. But they were bulky and heavy. The lightest - American - weighed 200 kg. I figured: 100 kg is too much for us, we need to remove even half of these 100 kg due to the design and materials. I had to be cunning. Fifty is a suitable number, but it has one drawback - it is round, and for some reason designers don’t like this. I went to Kharkov and Leningrad.

– The maximum weight of the windmill is 53 kg.

They looked at me with regret - they said I had gone crazy. Still, Leningrad craftsmen set a record: they created a windmill weighing 54 kg according to the design of the Kharkov designer, engineer Perli.” (Papanin, 1977).

The Institute of Food Service Engineers has developed a set of freeze-dried foods that are high in calories and contain lots of vitamins. Among them were soup cubes, dried meat in powder and cubes, extracts, crackers soaked in meat sauce, and rice puddings. The entire food supply weighed 1.3 tons, but it contained many tons of meat, vegetables, and fruits. All products were packaged and sealed in special tin cans, at the rate of one can for ten days for four people. The weight of each can is 44 kg. The expedition took 135 cans, half of which were left in reserve on the island. Rudolph.

The starting point for the flight to the Pole was Rudolf Island, the northernmost point of Franz Josef Land. From here it is only 900 km to the goal. But there was only a small house in which three polar explorers spent the winter. For the air expedition, it was necessary to build the main and alternate airfields, living quarters, a garage for tractors, and warehouses for equipment. Plus bring hundreds of barrels of fuel.

Regarding the distribution of responsibilities O.Yu. Schmidt and M.I. Shevelev was engaged in an air expedition, and I.D. Papanin – issues of preparation of equipment for the drifting station and the creation of a support base on the island. Rudolph. In February 1936, pilots Vodopyanov and Makhotkin flew to Franz Josef Land on two R-5 aircraft to lay out an air route, inspect and study the intermediate and final landing sites. As soon as a positive conclusion was received from them by radio, the sea expedition started.

I.D. Papanin, head of the future airbase Ya.S. Libin and a team of builders with the necessary cargo set off from Arkhangelsk to Fr. Rudolf on the ships "Rusanov" and "Herzen". The time was very early; the pack ice met the caravan halfway. Only “Rusanov” reached the final goal, and “Herzen” stopped in Tikhaya Bay. The cargo had to be picked up from it on an additional flight by Rusanov.

Having made sure that things were in full swing - houses, a radio station, a radio beacon, workshops, warehouses, an engine room, a bathhouse were being built - Papanin went to the mainland. Ya. Libin and the builders remained on the island.

“Ten tons of cargo for four. Is it a lot? One radio equipment – ​​500 kg. Today's polar explorers working for "SP" have the same 10 tons, but for one person. We tried to provide for every little detail. The same lamp glasses. How we cursed them later! As soon as you put it on, you look, it’s cracked. Or primycnye heads. Fuel in rubber trunks, medicines, notebooks and diaries, shovels, picks, axes, crowbars, guns, blowtorches, plywood, soap, lighters, sleds, chess, books. Is it possible to throw anything away? And what about underwear, high boots made of dog fur, felt boots with galoshes, mittens, fur overalls? What about high leather boots like hunting ones? How useful they were later!” (Papanin, 1977).

The staff of the future drifting station began to prepare for the dress rehearsal. On February 19, an unremarkable truck with bales, boxes, and aluminum pipes drove through the streets of Moscow. About 15 kilometers from the city, the car stopped in an open field, where Papanin’s men and O.Yu. Schmidt were waiting for it. The day was frosty, the wind threw prickly snow in our faces.

Word by I.D. Papanin:

“We came to test our housing, to live as we had to live on the ice floe. To begin with, they spread a tarpaulin on the snow, then a second one, assembled a light aluminum frame, “dressed” it with canvas, then with a cover with two layers of eider down. On top there is again a layer of tarpaulin and a black silk (to be better heated by the sun) cover with the inscription on the roof: “USSR - drifting station of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route.” Dimensions of our house: width – 2.5 m, length – 3.7, height – 2 meters. Total living area 9.25 sq. meters. Inside there are two bunk beds and a folding table. A vestibule was attached to the tent so that the wind would not blow out the heat when the door was opened. The floor was made inflatable, the thickness of the air cushion was 15 cm. We received such a gift from the Moscow Kauchuk plant. Our house weighed 160 kg, so four of us could lift and move it... It goes without saying that the tent was not heated. The only heat source is a twenty-line kerosene lamp.” (Papanin, 1977).

Several days passed like this. By prior agreement, no one came to see them; communication with the outside world was maintained by radio. Water was heated from snow. Papanin collected and wrote down all the comments of his comrades in order to eliminate the shortcomings in the near future.

The landing of the station at the North Pole is written in the first section of our book, so we will not repeat it.

On the ice floe, Papanin kept a diary every day, detailing the life of the team. Some readers may notice that the station chief paid a lot of attention to seemingly insignificant events. He described what he cooked for dinner, how he stored food, repaired equipment, and raised his dog Vesely. But these details formed the life of the station.

From the diary of I.D. Papanina:

“Pyotr Petrovich measured the depth of the ocean - 4290 m. From the bottom he raised silt - thin, greenish-gray. Opening again! Discoveries followed one after another. Petrovich had a lot of test tubes and flasks. Everything he took out of the water was supposed to be preserved in alcohol. But the trouble is, the supply of alcohol remained on Rudolf Island. We had a barrel of cognac. It’s hard to say who got it wrong. What won't you do in the name of science? I covered myself with tin, pipes, pliers, lit a blowtorch and built a moonshine still. Two liters of cognac yielded a liter of alcohol...

...Nothing exhausted us on the ice floe more than hydrological work, it was so tedious and tiring.

The winch stood over a hole made in the ice. The line is metal, strong enough to support its own weight. Multiply the cross-sectional area by the length of the line, then by the specific gravity of iron - 5.7 grams per cubic centimeter. And all this had to be lowered, but carefully so that there were no jerks, otherwise the line would break. Then - rise. None of us were involved in weightlifting... The two of us twisted the winch handles for 15–20 minutes straight, without a break. Your hands were shaking until they bled, there were black circles in your eyes, and you were twisting, twisting, twisting, and even trying to seem cheerful... And no one complained: why did Shirshov need so many stations, he would have felt sorry for others, they made them a little smaller. And although we called Petrovich “the main exploiter,” we helped him without complaint...

In such a situation as we lived in, there had to be a person in the team with a healthy work ethic. In terms of staff, and also in age - I was older than everyone else - they were supposed to be me. And what titles did my friends call me, laughing! I was the first smuggler of the North Pole, the first hairdresser, the first soldering iron, the first cook - and so on ad infinitum. Together with my friends, I chiseled three-meter ice, turned the “soldier motor” for radio communication, and turned the winch for many hours in a row. But one of the first responsibilities is to monitor the ice floe. Breaks usually start with a small thing - a crack that sometimes you won’t even notice.

...A telegram arrived from the political department of the Main Northern Sea Route that a party-Komsomol group was being created on the ice floe, and I was approved as the party organizer. Its composition was as follows:

Members of the CPSU (b) – I.D. Papanin – 25%

Candidates for membership of the CPSU (b) - E.T. Krenkel – 25%

Members of the Komsomol - E.K. Fedorov – 25%

Non-Party - P.P. Shirshov – 25%. (Papanin, 1977).

In connection with the creation of the party-Komsomol group, its meetings began to be held regularly. Papanin was careful in this regard, and after each radiogram with an order to discuss another anti-party organization (it was 1937), he gathered his group and discussed it.

From the diary of I.D. Papanina:

« September 1. The constant dampness made itself felt and we caught rheumatism. We were amused by Dr. Novodenezhkin from Rudolf Island, to whom we turned for advice. There was laughter when Ernst read out the recommendations: take hot baths at night, then rub your joints with ichthyol ointment with some mixture, sleep with gloves, wash your hands with soapy alcohol in the morning...

Krenkel proposed the text of the response radio telegram: “First, there is no bath, second, the composition of the ointment is unclear, third, if alcohol is found, even soapy, we will use it internally.”

September 21. We celebrated the four-month anniversary of our stay at the North Pole drifting station in our own way: we washed ourselves and changed clothes. In the evening I shaved, heated a kettle of water, undressed to a “small neckline,” as Krenkel said, and washed myself. Petrovich helped. Although it was 20 degrees below zero, we had to endure it: on the occasion of the holiday, we firmly decided to get ourselves in order.

Then we listened to the latest news on the radio. It was nice; people in Moscow remembered us and sent us words full of warmth, attention and love.” (Papanin, 1938).

Here we must take into account that Ivan Dmitrievich was not a scientific specialist, and he often had to be “on the spot” - in the kitchen and in the workshop. There is no offense in this; without him, two young scientists would not have been able to complete an extensive scientific program. Suffice it to remember that one hydrological station took Shirshov up to forty hours of continuous work. And without safety net, without the collective unscrewing of deep-sea instruments, without hot food right at the hole, it would have burned out in a couple of months.

At the same time, Papanin shaped the atmosphere of the team. Here is how E.K. Fedorov spoke about him:

“Completely devoid of any ambition, he saw his purpose not in commanding and disposing, but in what should be done by whom. When selecting personnel, that is, the three of us, he made sure in advance that this was not necessary. Each of us understood what needed to be done and tried our best.

Dmitrich helped us. And at the same time, he directed and literally nurtured what could be called the spirit of the team: the always readiness to come to the aid of a comrade, restraint in relation to an unsuccessful act or word of a neighbor, and the cultivation of friendliness. He, the leader, was perfectly aware of the need to constantly maintain and strengthen, as they now say, the compatibility of all the few participants in the expedition and was absolutely right in devoting all his great spiritual strength to this side of life.” (Fedorov, 1979).

But here are the diary entries of E.K. Fedorov of those days:

« September 7. They unscrewed a large telegram to Ivan Dmitrievich on the “soldier-motor”. He works until he is very tired and then he doesn’t feel well. Doesn't sleep well.

September 22nd. It constantly seems to Ivan Dmitrievich that he works less than others, and therefore he is somehow embarrassed to sleep during the rest he is entitled to. He works a lot, especially when he needs to help with observations, fix something, or organize the housework.

October 13. Ivan Dmitrievich is tinkering in the kitchen at his workbench with a very difficult detailed boxed hydrological turntable, essentially making it anew, and there are a lot of small parts in it. Precise fitting required. For this purpose, some randomly found steel pin is used. He's freezing, he comes in to warm up.

15th of November. Ivan Dmitrievich is a little sour today. I caught a cold in the kitchen making a part for a turntable. Before lunch, I climbed into the bag and took the temperature. Increased. Sore throat. Apparently he had a head cold. Now he's in the bag. Petya put a bottle of hot water on his head...

Ivan Dmitrievich gets out of the bag...

- Dmitrich, there’s no point in you going out now. I would sit in a bag today.

- Never mind. Until I finish this damn box, I still won’t calm down...

November 21. A bright flame rose from our tent - frightened, we quickly went to the camp. As we approached, we noticed a black figure running against the background of the flames. Is it really a fire? Just now, sitting on the sledge, Ernst and I were thinking about how, in essence, it would be peaceful to live here. Now emergency thoughts were running through my head. When we approached, we calmed down - the flames were going out and everything looked normal. The restless Ivan Dmitrievich got enough sleep during the day, got out of the bag and began to try to cook something with a blowtorch to make it happen faster. It was she who gave such a bright flame. There was a cloud of steam coming out of the kitchen.” (Fedorov, 1979).

Nine months of drifting on the ice flew by. The details of this epic are described in the first chapter. Let us turn to Papanin’s personal impressions regarding the return of the expedition:

“On March 17 at four o’clock in the afternoon we arrived in Moscow. Again a road strewn with flowers awaited us.

And so we arrived at Red Square. The Kremlin commandant asked us to wait. Perhaps he wanted us to calm down a little, to come to our senses. We waited, and I feverishly thought how much I needed to say to the Politburo of our party, to all those who sent us on a difficult ice drift and who supported us throughout the ice expedition.

The doors of the St. George's Hall opened. We saw a dazzlingly sparkling hall, long rows of beautifully decorated tables. Smiling, friendly faces were turned to us from all sides. Shouts of "Hurray". I walked holding in my hands a pole with our banner brought from the Pole. Shirshov, Krenkel, Fedorov followed me.

And suddenly there was a new burst of applause. Members of the Politburo entered the hall. Stalin hugged me and kissed me deeply...

After the welcoming speeches were finished, Stalin asked:

– Why is Papanin portrayed as fat in friendly cartoons? He's skinny!

When I arrived on the ice floe, I weighed 90 kg. And when, having returned, I stood on the scales, it turned out to be 60. And no one will weigh (there are no such scales) how much nervous tension our life on the ice floe cost all four of us...

The solemn and cordial meeting in the Kremlin with the leaders of the party and government made an indelible impression on us. In parting, J.V. Stalin said:

And now we will send you to rest with your families. When we need you, we will call you.

And we were sent to a sanatorium near Moscow.

One evening the director of the sanatorium told me:

– They called from Moscow. You are urgently summoned to the Kremlin.

- How should I get there?

– I can only provide a car for transporting milk. It's late, there are no other cars.