For centuries, the Arctic has attracted the attention of travelers and polar explorers. Many of them dedicated the best years of their lives to her. Georgy Alekseevich Ushakov (1901-1963) - Doctor of Geography, author of the most interesting memoirs "The Island of Blizzards. Through the Wild Land", republished last year on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of this prominent scientist (St. Petersburg .: Gidrometeoizdat - 2001, 600 pp. with illustrations).
In the first part of the memoirs, the author, in the form of a diary, talks about research work on Wrangel Island. Already at the very beginning of the book, the reader gets acquainted with those who discovered this relatively tiny piece of land lost in ice and snow.
On March 9, 1823, the Russian traveler Lieutenant of the Fleet F.P. Wrangel, sitting in a smoky tent on Cape Shelagsky, treated one of the Kamakai foremen, and at the same time asked him if there was any land north of the coast of Chukotka. Kamakay, as a good connoisseur of his region, answered: “Between capes Ezrri (Shelagsky. - G.U.) and Ir-Kaipio (Schmidt. - G.U.), near the mouth of one river, from low coastal cliffs on clear summer days in the north, across the sea, high, snow-covered mountains are visible; in winter, beyond the sea, however, they are not visible. In former years, large herds of deer came from the sea - probably from there, but, pursued by the Chukchi and exterminated by wolves, now they don't show up.
Such was the first information received by the future honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society, F.P. Wrangel, about the island, which was later named after him. By the way, the Russian traveler himself did not manage to visit or even see the mysterious land: his heroic attempts to get to it on the ice on a sleigh from Cape Yakan were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, not doubting the actual existence of the land here, Wrangel mapped its contours with mountains to the north of Cape Yakan, which made it easier for subsequent sailors to navigate.
On August 17, 1849, looking for traces of the Franklin expedition that died in 1847, the English captain Kellet was the first European to notice from the Herald ship in the northwest the land that Wrangel had once marked, which he also failed to visit, however, on a map published in London in 1853, it was designated as Kellet Land. And in 1867, the American captain T. Long from the whaling ship "Nile" saw the same island from the south. Recognizing its outlines, previously mapped by a Russian traveler, he restored justice by giving this territory the name Wrangel Land.
Later, on October 28, 1879, American Lieutenant J. De Long, commander of the Jeannette, also saw Wrangel Land. Drifting in the ice, the ship passed north of it, and thus it became known that it was an island.
And only fifty-eight years after the attempt of our compatriots to reach the mysterious land from the side of Cape Yakan, the first American ships approached its shores. The team of one of them stayed here for 19 days, during which three parties were engaged in the study of this piece of land, which resulted in the first approximate map, collections of flora and fauna, rock samples.
Russian icebreaker "Vaigach" under the leadership of B.A. Vilkitsky came here only in 1911. A landing force landed in the southwestern part of the island, the participants of which made magnetic measurements, determined an astronomical point, and significantly refined the topographic map available at that time. The work of the expedition lasted five years, after which the tsarist government sent a note to foreign powers. In it, Russia declared its rights to a number of newly discovered lands lying against its northern shores. Wrangel Island was also mentioned among them. There were no objections to the note ...
However, in the future, foreign states have repeatedly tried to seize such a tasty piece of land. This could have been avoided only by mastering and populating it with our citizens. With this mission, GA arrived. Ushakov landed on the island in 1926. Fifty Eskimos from Chukotka landed with him (Georgy Alekseevich founded a stationary settlement here in 1936).
For three years, the scientist led a small group of settlers, sharing joys and sorrows with them. Judging by the memories, it was very difficult. I had to overcome frosts and blizzards, hunger, diseases. Surprises and the most difficult trials lay in wait for people at every step. The islanders were practically cut off from the mainland and large cities. There was no question of any regular flights of steamships and planes. Even constant radio communication seemed to them a pipe dream.
I must say that the word "polar explorer" in those years only came into use. There was no experience of living and working in the Arctic. Nevertheless, the author of the book emphasizes, the colony justified the hopes placed on it - a Russian settlement was firmly established here, and the skins of arctic foxes and bears harvested on the island, walrus and mammoth tusks more than covered all the costs associated with its organization.
When reading the short, jerky notes made by Georgy Alekseevich, it is easy to see how much time and energy the administrative work took from him. But despite this, he constantly conducted scientific research. In 1927, in a letter addressed to the Main Hydrographic Directorate and the Polar Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Ushakov wrote that he managed to discover three low-lying pebble islands located off the northern coast and elongated in latitude. For the first time, regular meteorological observations began to be made in these places. Nevertheless, his main scientific achievement was the compilation of a complete map of the island, which shows all the features of orography, including the position of mountain ranges and their heights, river valleys and their watersheds. In addition, the first "governor of the island" collected a variety of collections (geological, flora and fauna), interesting ethnographic materials about the life and life of the Eskimos.
Orography- description of various elements of the earth's surface (ridges, hills, basins, etc.) and their classification according to external features (size, direction), regardless of origin.
In the book of G.A. Ushakov gives a detailed description of this unique corner of nature, sheltered in the extreme northeast of the Arctic coast of Russia, at the junction of the East Siberian and Chukchi seas. The one hundred and eightieth meridian divides the island into two almost equal parts, one of which lies in the Western Hemisphere, the second - in the Eastern. In summer, when the sun hangs overhead all day and night, it is enveloped in fogs, and during the long polar night blizzards rage on it.
The geological history of the island is quite unusual. Once it was part of Beringia - a vast land that in the distant past connected Asia with America (it is considered to be the center of the formation of the Arctic fauna and flora). Glaciers have never covered the entire surface of the island at once, so much of the original pristine nature has been preserved here. About 50 thousand years ago, the sea separated part of the land from the mainland and became an obstacle in the way of the later "invaders".
Wrangel Island is unusually rich in birds. And at the end of summer, large herds of walruses appear in its coastal waters. In some years, they arrange huge haulouts on land - up to 10 thousand individuals. Without any doubt, this rookery can be considered one of the largest in the world. Here is the largest "maternity hospital" of polar bears within the Arctic Ocean.
The main result of the three-year wintering of G.A. Ushakov put it this way: "I fell in love with the Arctic forever." Therefore, after a short respite on the mainland, the icy land again called him to him - in 1930 he led a new expedition, this time to the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, which is located on the border of the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea.
This book details the history of its discovery. In early September 1913, the ships of the Hydrographic Expedition "Taimyr" and "Vaigach" under the command of the already mentioned B.A. Vilkitsky, when trying to bypass the ice north of Cape Chelyuskin, entered a strip of clear water, which led them to an unknown land. The first to notice her was the shift commander of the Vaigach, Lieutenant N.I. Evgenov.
The discovery of Severnaya Zemlya was the last major geographical discovery in the 20th century. It is important to emphasize that G.A. Ushakov began training on Wrangel Island. First of all, he studied in detail all the materials relating to the recently discovered archipelago, developed in detail his own, boldly bold and at the same time extremely simple plan for future work. It provided for the implementation of an extensive program: determining the configuration of Severnaya Zemlya, compiling its topographic map, analyzing the geological structure, collecting materials on the flora and fauna, as well as the ice regime of the seas surrounding the islands. The expedition was supposed to carry out a cycle of meteorological observations, measure terrestrial magnetism, describe auroras, and much more.
The author of the book tells in a fascinating way about the progress of the work of the legendary four Russian polar explorers: G.A. Ushakova, N.N. Urvantseva, V.V. Khodov and S.P. Zhuravlev, who in 1930-1932. in fact, they re-discovered and described Severnaya Zemlya to the smallest detail - four large and small islands with a total area of 37 thousand km 2. As a result, an accurate map of the archipelago was created, which made it possible in the future to make through navigation along the Northern Sea Route.
The Severozemelskaya expedition was marked by another important event - on October 1, 1930, it commissioned the first hydrometeorological station in the Arctic. On it, the famous four began to conduct regular observations of the weather, launch pilot balloons, measure atmospheric electricity and terrestrial magnetism. She laid the foundation for the study of auroras and permafrost. Achievements of the legendary group of researchers led by G.A. Ushakov, as well as the work under his leadership on Wrangel Island, found a well-deserved place in the history of the development of the Russian North.
Candidate of Historical Sciences Ya.V. RENKAS
People settled the Arctic many millennia ago. It is almost impossible to determine exactly when. But some methods allow (very approximately) to estimate the prescription of this event.
The first way is related to the genetic difference between different groups of people, such as Africans and Europeans, Arctic Asians and the peoples of the Pacific basin. The greater the difference, the earlier these groups separated. The second method is based on the analysis of the proximity of their languages. The third - archaeological - on the analysis of the age of buildings and other traces of material culture. The results obtained by all three methods approximately coincide and show that the settlement of the Arctic by people who made up its indigenous population occurred gradually, over a period of about 20 thousand years, starting about 35 thousand years ago (and maybe even earlier).
The details of this process are unknown to us, and today's population of the northern region is represented by many peoples - Nenets and Evenks, Khanty and Evens, Chukchi and Nanais, Mansi and Nivkhs, Eskimos, etc. Their number is small (for example, according to the All-Union Population Census of 1989, There were 34,665 Nenets, 30,163 Evenks, 22,520 Khanty, 15,184 Chukchi, and 12,023 Nanais). This is understandable: the local nature is not able to feed many people. But reindeer breeding and hunting (including sea animals) have been ensuring their existence for several millennia. The Arctic remained unknown to Europeans for many centuries. Scandinavians and Russian coast-dwellers were the first to settle beyond the Arctic Circle.
The arrival of Europeans and the discovery of the richest mineral deposits in the Arctic have changed the traditional way of life of the local population. But it continues to preserve ancient cultural and economic traditions. In the future, travel to the Arctic was undertaken for various purposes - military, commercial, scientific. The names of many pioneers remained on the map: the Bering Strait, the Barents Sea, the Laptev Sea, etc.
In the 4th century BC, from the Greek colony of Massalia (now the city of Marseille is located here), Pytheas, a geographer and astronomer, set off in search of the western edge of the world. On a tiny sailing boat, without a compass (they learned to use a magnetic needle in the Mediterranean only fifteen centuries later!) He rounded the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles and reached the land where the Sun sank below the horizon for only three hours. He called this land Tuliy (sometimes they write - Tula). At a distance of one day's journey from there, he found himself in an area that " was neither sea nor land". Did he reach the ice? Whether Thulius was the Shetland Islands, or Iceland, or the shores of Scandinavia - we do not know. Be that as it may, it was Pytheas from Massalia who turned out to be the discoverer of the Arctic for Europeans.
In the VIII century, the Vikings from Scandinavia, whose poverty of nature forced them to look for new lands, reached the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Hebrides and Ireland, in the middle of the IX century - Iceland. It was from Iceland in 982 that Eirik the Red, expelled for violent temper from his native places (present-day Norway), having recruited a team, went west in search of land. Having neither maps nor a compass, he reached the largest island on Earth - Greenland. Finding meadows covered with lush grass here, Eirik called this place Greenland (Green Earth), and many geographical objects received his name: Eirik's fiord, Eirik's island and others. Three years later he returned to Iceland, collected a flotilla of twenty-five ships and again set off for Greenland. After a difficult and dangerous journey, only fourteen ships reached the goal. Eirik and his family settled in the new lands and was proclaimed their ruler. Fifteen years later, Eirik's son Leif went to sea with a crew of thirty-five men, headed west, and after some time reached Helluland, the "Land of Stone Slabs." This was probably the southern tip of Baffin Island. Sailing from there to the south, the sailors reached Markland - "Land covered with forest" (maybe Labrador), and then Vinland - "Land of grapes". They spent the winter there, and the next summer they returned to Greenland. There is almost no doubt that the Vikings visited North America, but exactly where Vinland was located is still unknown.
In 1741, the ship St. Peter, carrying Captain-Commander Bering, washed ashore on the island, where more than 20 crew members, including the captain, died of scurvy. In memory of this event, the island was named Bering, and the archipelago of which it is part was named the Commander Islands.
For 10 years of research, the outlines of the coasts and islands of almost the entire giant coast of Northern Russia were mapped. Sections of the lower and middle reaches of many rivers in the Arctic Ocean basin are described for the first time. The "academic detachment" of the expedition, that is, scientists assigned to it, explored vast territories that had not been studied by anyone until then.
Johann Gmelin spent all 10 years (1733-1743) traveling around Siberia, compiling a description of Yakutia and Transbaikalia, the Urals and Altai. Behring's satellite Georg Steller became the first explorer of Northwest America. Stepan Krasheninnikov traveled more than 1700 km across Kamchatka, compiling the first "Description of the land of Kamchatka", which became a model of geographical research for several generations of scientists.
The names of many members of the expedition are imprinted on the map of the Arctic: the Bering Sea, Cape Chelyuskin, the Pronchishchev Coast and many others.
An attempt to find a northwestern passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken by many - for example, by the expeditions of Sebastian Cabot (1508) and John Franklin (1845), ended in the death of the crews of both expedition ships in the area of King William Island.
For the first time, the northwestern passage was passed by Roald Amundsen on the ship "Joa" (with a displacement of only 47 tons) in 1903-1906.
Expedition routes: D. Franklin (1), R. Amundsen (2), F. Nansen (3, 4), R. Peary (5), drift "SP-1" (6), raid a/l "Arktika" (7)
In an attempt to reach the North Pole, Fridtjof Nansen in 1893-1896 on the drifting ship "Fram" and dog sleds reached 86 ° 14 ′ N, from where he went to Franz Josef Land. The North Pole was reached by Frederick Cook from Axel-Heiberg Island on April 21, 1908. The following year, his success was repeated by Robert Peary from Cape Columbia (Ellesmere Island). Later, R. Piri accused his rival of falsifying the report on the campaign. The debate about who was the first to reach the North Pole has not subsided to this day.
In 1926, R. Amundsen flew over the Pole on the airship "Norway".
In May 1937, the first drifting scientific station "North Pole" ("SP-1") was landed on the top of the planet under the leadership of Ivan Papanin, removed from an ice floe in the Greenland Sea upon completion of the drift in February 1938.
On August 17, 1977, the Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika (Captain Yuri Kuchiev) reached the North Pole for the first time in history in free navigation.
article from the encyclopedia "The Arctic is my home"
January 29, 1893 was born Nikolai Nikolaevich Urvantsev - an outstanding geologist and geographer-explorer. Urvantsev became one of the founders of Norilsk and the discoverer of the Norilsk ore region and the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, the author of many scientific works, the main of which are devoted to the study of the geology of Taimyr, Severnaya Zemlya and the north of the Siberian Platform. We decided to talk about five domestic researchers of the Arctic.
Nikolai Urvantsev
Urvantsev came from a poor merchant family from the city of Lukoyanov, Nizhny Novgorod province. In 1915, under the influence of lectures and books by Professor Obruchev "Plutonia" and "Sannikov Land", Urvantsev entered the mining department of the Tomsk Technological Institute and already in his third year he began to study mining samples brought from the expedition. By 1918, in Tomsk, on the initiative of the professors of the institute, the Siberian Geological Committee was created, in which Urvantsev began to work. For the summer of 1919, the committee outlined a plan for prospecting and research on coal, copper, iron, polymetals in a number of places in Siberia. The expedition was financed by Admiral Kolchak: the expedition went to the Norilsk region to prospect for coal for Entente ships delivering weapons and ammunition to the admiral. It is believed that it was Urvantsev who secured funding for the expedition from Kolchak, for which he was later repressed. In 1920, Urvantsev's expedition in the west of the Taimyr Peninsula in the region of the Norilskaya River discovered a very rich coal deposit. In 1921, the richest deposit of copper-nickel ores with a high content of platinum was discovered. In the winter of the same year, Urvantsev explored all the environs of Norilsk and compiled a detailed map. The expedition built a log house in the place where Norilsk will appear in the future, which has been preserved to this day. It is still called "the house of Urvantsev". From this house began the construction of modern Norilsk.
In the summer of 1922, the researcher sailed in a boat along the Pyasina River and the coast of the Arctic Ocean to Golchikha at the mouth of the Yenisei. Between the island of Dixon and the mouth of the Pyasina, Nikolai Nikolaevich discovered Amundsen's mail, sent by him to Norway with the schooner "Lud", which in 1919 wintered at Cape Chelyuskin. Amundsen sent mail with his companions Knutsen and Tessem, who traveled 900 kilometers through the snowy desert on a polar night. First, Knutsen died. Tessem alone continued on his way, but also died, before reaching 2 kilometers to Dikson. For this journey, the Russian Geographical Society awarded Urvantsev the Przhevalsky Grand Gold Medal. And for the discovery of R. Amundsen's mail, he was awarded by the Norwegian government with a personalized gold watch.
Until 1938, Urvantsev led a scientific expedition of the All-Union Arctic Institute on Severnaya Zemlya, an expedition to search for oil in Northern Siberia, became a doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences, was appointed deputy director of the Arctic Institute and was awarded the Order of Lenin. However, the first expedition financed by Kolchak was not forgotten: in 1938, Urvantsev was repressed and sentenced to 15 years in penal camps for sabotage and complicity in a counter-revolutionary organization. The scientist was transferred to the Solikamsk camps. After the abolition of the sentence and the termination of the case in February 1940, he returned to Leningrad and accepted an invitation to work at the LGI, but in August 1940 he was again arrested and sentenced to 8 years. Urvantsev had to serve his term in Karlag and Norillag, where he became the chief geologist of Norilskstroy. He found deposits of copper-nickel ores of the Zub-Marchsheiderskaya, Chernogorskoye, Imangdinskoye mountains, an ore occurrence of the Silver River. Soon Urvantsev was unescorted and made a scientific trip to the north of Taimyr. "For excellent work" was released ahead of schedule on March 3, 1945, but left in exile at the plant. In 1945-1956, Nikolai Nikolayevich headed the geological service of the Norilsk MMC. After rehabilitation, in August 1954, he returned to Leningrad, where he worked for the rest of his life at the Research Institute of Geology of the Arctic.
The famous polar explorer, nicknamed the Columbus of the North, was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and the Gold Medal. Przhevalsky, a large gold medal of the Geographical Society of the USSR, received the title of Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR and the first honorary citizen of Norilsk and Lukoyanov. The Urvantsev embankment in Norilsk, a street in Krasnoyarsk and Lukoyanov, a cape and a bay on Oleniy Island in the Kara Sea, and the mineral urvantsevite from Talnakh ores are named after him. P. Sigunov's book "Through the Snowstorm" was written about him. The life story of Nikolai Nikolaevich formed the basis of the plot of the film Charmed by Siberia. Nikolai Nikolaevich Urvantsev died in 1985 at the age of 92. The urn with the ashes of the scientist, in accordance with his will, was buried in Norilsk.
Georgy Ushakov
The famous Soviet explorer of the Arctic, Doctor of Geography and author of 50 scientific discoveries, was born in the village of Lazarevskoye, now the Jewish Autonomous Region, in 1901 into a family of Khabarovsk Cossacks and set off on his first expedition at the age of 15, in 1916, with an outstanding explorer of the Far East , writer and geographer, Vladimir Arseniev. Ushakov met Arseniev in Khabarovsk, where he studied at the Commercial School. In 1921, Ushakov entered Vladivostok University, but the outbreak of the Civil War and military service prevented him from graduating.
In 1926, Ushakov was appointed leader of an expedition to Wrangel Island. Since then, Georgy Ushakov has forever connected his life with the Arctic. He became the first scientist to draw up a detailed map of Wrangel Island, the first governor of the Wrangel and Herald Islands, he studied the life and customs of the Eskimos. By 1929, fishing was established on the island, the map of the shores of Wrangel Island was corrected and supplemented, a large scientific material was collected on the nature and economic opportunities of the islands, on the ethnographic features of the Eskimos and Chukchi, and on the condition of navigation in this area. A meteorological service was also organized on the island, a topographic survey and description of the island were carried out for the first time, valuable collections of minerals and rocks, birds and mammals, as well as herbariums were collected. One of the first in Russian ethnography was a study of the life and folklore of the Asian Eskimos. In July 1930, Ushakov set off together with Nikolai Urvantsev to conquer Severnaya Zemlya. In two years, they described and compiled the first map of the vast Arctic archipelago Severnaya Zemlya. In 1935, Ushakov led the First High-Latitude Expedition of the Main Northern Sea Route, on the icebreaker Sadko, when the world record for free navigation beyond the Arctic Circle was set, the boundaries of the continental shelf were determined, the penetration of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream to the shores of Severnaya Zemlya was established, and an island named after Ushakov was discovered. Ushakov became one of the founders of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the initiator of the re-equipment of the motor ship Equator (Mars) into the world-famous scientific vessel Vityaz.
For outstanding achievements, Ushakov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star. Several ships, mountains in Antarctica, an island in the Kara Sea, a village and a cape on Wrangel Island are named after him. Ushakov died in 1963 in Moscow and bequeathed to bury himself in Severnaya Zemlya. His last will was fulfilled: the urn with the ashes of the outstanding explorer and discoverer was taken to Domashny Island and walled up in a concrete pyramid.
Otto Schmidt
One of the founders and editor-in-chief of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, professor, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Hero of the Soviet Union, explorer of the Pamirs and the North, was born in 1891 in Mogilev. He graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Department of Kyiv University, where he studied in 1909-1913. There, under the guidance of Professor D. A. Grave, he began his research in group theory.
In 1930-1934, Schmidt led the famous Arctic expeditions on the icebreakers Chelyuskin and Sibiryakov, which made the first ever voyage along the Northern Sea Route, from Arkhangelsk to Vladivostok, in one navigation. In 1929-1930, Otto Yulievich led two expeditions on the icebreaker Georgy Sedov. The purpose of these voyages was the development of the Northern Sea Route. As a result of the campaigns of Georgy Sedov, a research station was organized on Franz Josef Land. "Georgy Sedov" also explored the northeastern part of the Kara Sea and the western shores of Severnaya Zemlya. In 1937, Schmidt led the operation to create the North Pole-1 drifting station, for which Schmidt was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin, and after the establishment of a special distinction, he was awarded the Gold Star medal. In honor of Schmidt, "Cape Schmidt" on the coast of the Chukchi Sea and "Schmidt Island" in the Kara Sea, streets in Russia and Belarus are named. The Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was named after O. Yu. Schmidt, and in 1995 the Russian Academy of Sciences established the O. Yu. Schmidt Prize for outstanding scientific work in the field of research and development of the Arctic.
Ivan Papanin
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Arctic explorer Ivan Papanin became famous in 1937 when he led an expedition to the North Pole. For 247 days, four fearless employees of the North Pole-1 station drifted on an ice floe and observed the Earth's magnetic field and processes in the atmosphere and hydrosphere of the Arctic Ocean. The station was taken out into the Greenland Sea, the ice floe sailed more than 2 thousand kilometers. For selfless work in the difficult conditions of the Arctic, all members of the expedition received the stars of Heroes of the Soviet Union and scientific titles. Papanin became a doctor of geographical sciences.
During the Great Patriotic War, the polar explorer served as the head of the Main Northern Sea Route and the authorized representative of the State Defense Committee for transportation in the North. Papanin organized the reception and transport of goods from England and America to the front, for which he received the title of Rear Admiral.
The famous polar explorer received nine Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the October Revolution and the Order of the Red Star. A cape on the Taimyr Peninsula, mountains in Antarctica, and a seamount in the Pacific Ocean are named after him. In honor of the 90th anniversary of Papanin, Russian polar explorer, friend of Ivan Dmitrievich, S. A. Solovyov issued envelopes with his image, at present there are few of them left, they are kept in private collections of philatelists.
Sergey Obruchev
An outstanding Russian, Soviet geologist and traveler, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the second son of V. A. Obruchev, the author of the famous novels “Sannikov Land” and “Plutonium”, from the age of 14 he took part in his expeditions, and at the age of 21 he also spent an independent expedition - it was devoted to the geological survey of the surroundings of Borjomi. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University in 1915, he was left at the department to prepare for a professorship, but two years later he went on an expedition to the region of the middle course of the Angara River.
Working in the Geological Committee of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR, Obruchev conducted geological research on the Central Siberian Plateau in the Yenisei River basin, singled out the Tunguska coal basin and gave its description. In 1926, he discovered the cold pole of the Northern Hemisphere - Oymyakon. The scientist also established the gold content of the rivers of the Kolyma and Indigirka basins, in the region of the Chaun Bay and discovered a tin deposit. The expedition of Obruchev and Salishchev in 1932 entered the history of the development of the North and polar aviation: for the first time in the USSR, the method of aerial visual route survey was used to explore a vast territory. In the course of it, Salishchev compiled a map of the Chukotka District, which also changed previously existing maps.
The expeditions and works of Obruchev were unique for that time. In 1946, the outstanding scientist was awarded the Stalin Prize, he was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, and the Badge of Honor. Obruchev is the author of a number of popular science books: “To Unexplored Lands”, “Across the Mountains and Tundras of Chukotka”, “In the Heart of Asia”, as well as the “Handbook of a traveler and local historian”. The mountains in the Chaunsky district of the Magadan region, the peninsula on the South Island and the cape of the North Island of Novaya Zemlya, the river (Sergei-Yuryus) in the basin of the upper reaches of the Indigirka and a street in Leningrad bear the name of the scientist.
The Arctic is one of the harshest regions on Earth. And perhaps the one who decided to study it is already worthy of admiration. Russian and Soviet polar explorers were able to make the most discoveries in the Arctic, but it still remains a mystery. So there is something to strive for and from whom to learn modern conquerors of the northern lands.
September 20, 1934 ice cutter “F. Litke returned to Murmansk, passing through the Northern Sea Route in one navigation. The famous steamship worked hard exploring the Arctic, like its namesake, Admiral and scientist Fyodor Petrovich Litke.
Ice cutter "F. Litke" in Arkhangelsk, 1936.
In 1955, Soviet polar explorers set a world record. For the first time in navigation, a surface vessel reached the coordinates of 83 ° 21 "North latitude, not reaching the North Pole 440 miles. It remained unbeaten for many years - subsequently, only icebreakers equipped with a nuclear power plant could do such a trip. The icebreaker Litke was honored to set this record "- a ship that has served in the ranks of the Russian, and then the Soviet fleet for more than 40 years. Although the Litke ice cutter is somewhat in the shadow of its older and more powerful counterpart in polar navigation, the Makarov Yermak, it worked hard for the needs of the vast Arctic There are a lot of farms, having survived three wars, many difficult polar expeditions and posting caravans.
Without exaggeration, this well-deserved ship was named after a man who devoted almost his entire life to the study of the seas and oceans, including the Arctic. Fyodor Petrovich von Litke - an admiral, scientist and researcher - did a lot to make the white spots framing the Russian Empire in the North much smaller. The name of this outstanding navigator, the founder of the Russian Geographical Society, was named in 1921 by a Canadian-built icebreaker, which had been the “III International” for several months, and even earlier - “Canada”.
Estonian roots
The ancestors of Fyodor Petrovich Litke, Estonian Germans, came to Russia in the first half of the 18th century. The grandfather of the future admiral Johann Philipp Litke, being a Lutheran pastor and learned theologian, arrived in St. Petersburg around 1735. He entered the position of director at the academic gymnasium, where, according to the contract, he had to work for 6 years. Johann Litke, along with very outstanding mental abilities, had a rather quarrelsome character, which caused conflicts with colleagues. Soon he had to leave his job and go to Sweden.
However, Russia still remained for him a convenient place to live and work, and in 1744 the theologian returned back to Moscow. His authority as a clergyman and scientist remains high, so Johann Litke is elected pastor in the new German community in Moscow. Interestingly, Johann Litke maintained an academic school where none other than the young Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin was trained in German. Johann Philipp lived in Russia for quite a long life and died in 1771 from the plague in Kaluga. Ivan Filippovich Litke, as he was called in the Russian manner, had a large family: four sons and a daughter. The father of the famous navigator and founder of the geographical society was the second son, Peter Ivanovich, who was born in 1750.
Like many children of foreigners, he is already completely Russified. Peter Litke received a decent education and in his younger years preferred a military uniform to a mantle of a scientist. He took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, where he distinguished himself in the battles near Larga and Cahul. Pyotr Ivanovich Litka happened to serve as an adjutant to Prince Nikolai Vasilievich Repnin, a figure of impressive influence in the reign of Empress Catherine II. Subsequently, he happened to serve as a manager in numerous princely estates, then he moved to the Customs Department, holding quite significant positions there. Peter Litke died in 1808, being a member of the College of Commerce.
Like his father, Peter Ivanovich Litke also had numerous offspring, consisting of five children. The youngest of them was the son Fyodor Petrovich, who was born in 1797. Anna Ivanovna von Litke, nee Engel, the wife of Peter Ivanovich, died two hours after giving birth. Being still not at all an old widower and having five children in his arms, the baron expectedly decided to marry a second time. The attitude towards the offspring from the first marriage of the young wife, who added three more children, was very severe, therefore, when Fedor was seven years old, he was sent to study at a private boarding school of a certain Mayer. The quality of education and upbringing in this institution left much to be desired, and it is not known how the fate and interests of Fyodor Litke would have developed if he had not been taken away from the boarding school. His father died, and his stepmother, after the death of her husband, refused to pay for her stepson's education.
The boy was barely ten years old when his mother's brother Fyodor Ivanovich Engel took him home. Uncle was a high-ranking official, member of the State Council and director of the Department of Polish Affairs. He was the owner of an impressive fortune and led an active social life, in which there was never enough time for a nephew taken into the house. The property of Fyodor Ivanovich Engel, among other things, was a decent library for those times. The books there were collected in large numbers, but rather haphazardly. Fyodor Litke, being an inquisitive person in his youth, did not deny himself the pleasure of reading everything that came to hand. And not always, as the admiral himself later noted, what was read was of useful content.
So, actually left to himself, the boy lived in his uncle's house for two years. In 1810, his older sister Natalya Petrovna von Litke married Captain 2nd Rank Ivan Savvich Sulmenev and took her younger brother into her house. Only here Fedor finally felt himself in the family circle. In his sister's house, he could often see naval officers, listen to conversations on maritime topics, which gradually fascinated him more and more.
Perhaps close communication with her sister's husband largely determined the further life path of the future admiral. In 1812, when the Patriotic War began, a detachment of gunboats under the command of Sulmenev was on the roadstead of Sveaborg. His wife came to him, taking with her her younger brother. Having long noticed that the young man was “sick” by the sea, Sulmenev decided to develop this useful thrust from his young brother-in-law. At first, he hired teachers for him in various sciences, and then took him into the detachment as a midshipman. Fyodor Litke became a sailor and remained true to his choice for the rest of his life.
Sailor
Already in the next 1813, the newly minted midshipman distinguished himself at the siege of Danzig during the foreign campaign of the Russian army, serving on the galley (sailing and rowing vessel of small displacement) "Aglaya". For his courage and self-control, Litke was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 4th class, and promoted to midshipman.
Fyodor Petrovich Litke, 1829
The era of the Napoleonic wars ended, and Litke's naval service continued. The Baltic was already small for the young man - he was drawn to the wide expanses of the ocean. And soon he got the opportunity to meet them not only on the pages of books and atlases. Ivan Savvich Sulmenev, having learned that Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Golovnin, famous in the then naval circles, was preparing to depart for a round-the-world expedition on the sloop Kamchatka, recommended Fedor to him.
Golovnin was known for his voyage on the sloop "Diana", which took place in very difficult international conditions. Recent allies, Russia and England, after the conclusion of the Treaty of Tilsit by Alexander I with Napoleonic France, were actually in a state of war. "Diana", having arrived in South Africa, turned out to be an interned British squadron based in local waters. Golovnin managed to deceive his guards, and the sloop escaped safely. Subsequently, circumstances developed in such a way that Vasily Golovnin had a chance to spend almost two years in Japanese captivity. This outstanding officer described all his many adventures in the Notes, which were very popular. It was a great honor to be under the command of such an illustrious officer, and Fyodor Litke did not miss his chance to get on the expedition.
Round-the-world expeditions have not yet become commonplace in the Russian fleet, and each of them was an outstanding event. On August 26, 1817, the sloop Kamchatka set off on its two-year voyage. He crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn and, having overcome the water expanses of the Pacific Ocean, arrived in Kamchatka. After giving the crew a short rest, Golovnin continued to carry out the assigned task. "Kamchatka" visited Russian America, visited the Hawaiian, Moluccas and Mariana Islands. Then, having passed the Indian Ocean, she reached the Cape of Good Hope. Next was the already familiar Atlantic. On September 5, 1819, two years later, the Kamchatka sloop returned safely to Kronstadt.
Such a long expedition had a tremendous impact on the formation of Fyodor Litke as a sailor. On Kamchatka, he held the responsible position of head of the hydrographic expedition. The young man had to deal with various measurements and research. During the long voyage, Litke intensively filled in the gaps in his own education: he studied English and other sciences. He returned to Kronstadt from the expedition already as a lieutenant of the fleet.
A curious detail was the fact that during his trip around the world he met and became friends for life with Ferdinand Wrangel, an equally outstanding Russian navigator. Wrangel, having made another trip around the world, would rise to the rank of admiral, become the ruler of Russian America in 1830–1835, and devote a lot of time to exploring the coast of Siberia.
Vasily Golovnin was pleased with his subordinate and gave him a brilliant recommendation, in which he described Fyodor Litke as an excellent sailor, a diligent and disciplined officer and a reliable comrade. Thanks to the opinion of an authoritative sailor and outstanding personal qualities, Lieutenant Fyodor Litke received a responsible task in 1821: to lead an expedition to Novaya Zemlya, little explored at that time. He was then 24 years old.
Arctic explorer
Novaya Zemlya, despite the fact that it was known to Russian Pomors and Novgorod merchants in ancient times, has not yet been subjected to serious and systematic research. In 1553, this land was observed from the sides of their ships by the sailors of the tragically ended English expedition under the command of Hugh Willoughby. In 1596, the famous Dutch navigator Willem Barents, in an attempt to find the Northern Passage to the rich countries of the east, rounded the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya and wintered in the most difficult conditions on its eastern coast.
For many years, Russia itself did not get around to exploring this polar archipelago. Only during the reign of Catherine II, in 1768-1769, the expedition of the navigator Fyodor Rozmyslov compiled the first description of Novaya Zemlya, having received a lot of reliable information, supplemented by information from the local population. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, this region was still poorly explored. There was no exact map of the coasts of Novaya Zemlya. To correct this omission, in 1819 an expedition was sent there under the command of Lieutenant Andrei Petrovich Lazarev, brother of MP Lazarev, the discoverer of Antarctica, Admiral and Chief Commander of the Black Sea Fleet. The tasks assigned to Lieutenant Lazarev were very extensive, while very limited time frames were set for their implementation. It was required to survey Novaya Zemlya and Vaygach Island in just one summer. Lazarev's mission ended in failure: most of the crew of his ship, upon returning to Arkhangelsk, were sick with scurvy, and three died during the voyage.
Now, this difficult task was assigned to Fyodor Litka. Given the experience of the previous, unsuccessful, enterprise, the goals set for Lieutenant Litke were more modest. It was necessary to survey as much of the Novaya Zemlya coastline as possible and to carry out hydrographic surveys. At the same time, it was strictly prescribed not to stay for the winter.
For expeditionary purposes, a 16-gun brig with the characteristic name "Novaya Zemlya" was specially built with a displacement of about 200 tons, a length of 24.4 meters, a width of 7.6 meters and a draft of 2.7 meters. The brig had a reinforced hull set, the underwater part was sheathed with copper sheets. In case Novaya Zemlya still had to stay for an unscheduled wintering, she was loaded with scaffolding and bricks for housing. The volume of holds made it possible to take provisions based on reserves for 16 months. Under the command of Litke was a crew of 42 people.
The expedition began on July 27, 1821. The lieutenant got down to business thoroughly and without haste. It was necessary to understand a completely unfamiliar environment, because Litke had no experience of sailing in ice. In addition, it was necessary to test the seaworthiness of the ship entrusted to him. The brig "Novaya Zemlya" was built in good faith - its crew had the opportunity to repeatedly verify this later. In the Throat of the White Sea, the Novaya Zemlya ran aground, which was not marked on the available maps - with great effort, the crew managed to get off it. In general, the outcome of the first voyage was satisfactory. The coordinates of Kanin Nos were clarified, the longitude of which differed from that indicated on the maps by one degree, and other studies and measurements were carried out. The experience gained in 1821 was taken into account in the preparation of plans for the next expedition in 1822.
Until the beginning of August 1822, the expeditionary brig explored and described some areas of the Murmansk coast, and then moved to Novaya Zemlya, the main object of research. A significant amount of work was done: an inventory was made of the coast of Novaya Zemlya south of Matochkin Shar up to the South Gusinoy Nos and from Mount Pervoismochennaya to Cape Nassau, mistakenly taken by Litke for Cape Zhelaniya. Ice prevented further advance to the north, and on September 12 Novaya Zemlya set off for Arkhangelsk. The results of the expedition were highly appreciated by the Admiralty. Following the results of two years of work, Fedor Petrovich Litke was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander, his officers were awarded orders, and the lower ranks were awarded cash prizes.
The expedition of 1823 became a test of strength for both the ship itself and its crew. Having completed work on the description of the Murmansk coast, on July 30 the brig set off for Novaya Zemlya. At the end of the summer, with a strong northwest wind, Novaya Zemlya was thrown onto the rocks. The rudder was damaged, fragments of the keel floated around the ship, according to Litke. He prepared to give the order to cut down the masts, but a powerful wave pulled the brig into clear water. The damaged ship was forced to return to Arkhangelsk. Despite the difficult conditions in which the expedition found itself, research work continued even on the way home: the northern coast of Kolguev Island was described. In the White Sea, the hastily repaired Novaya Zemlya was caught in a storm, again damaging the rudder. Only the training and self-control of the crew prevented the death of the ship.
For the next year, 1824, Litke planned the next, fourth, expedition to the Novaya Zemlya region. His ship was repaired and put in full order. On July 30 of this year, the brig set off on its next Arctic voyage. In early August, he was already at Novaya Zemlya, but he could not move further north. The ice situation this year turned out to be unfavorable, and the crew began to study it. Four expeditions to Novaya Zemlya received major scientific and research results, Fedor Litke himself gained invaluable experience in sailing in the polar latitudes. Possessing an excellent memory and an excellent literary language, he combined his impressions and observations in the book “Four-time trip to the Arctic Ocean, made by order of Emperor Alexander I on the Novaya Zemlya military brig in 1821, 1822, 1823, 1824. Lieutenant Commander Fyodor Litke.
Second circumnavigation
After his return from the North, compiling reports and reports, Litke was appointed commander of the Senyavin sloop under construction at the Okhta shipyard. Together with another sloop called the Moller, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Mikhail Nikolaevich Stanyukovich (later admiral and father of the famous seascape writer Konstantin Mikhailovich Stanyukovich), they were supposed to sail to Kamchatka and then ensure the protection of Russian interests in the North Pacific Ocean . The instructions of the Admiralty, however, did not strictly prescribe the interaction between the two ships.
In May 1826, a three-masted 300-ton sloop was launched at the Okhta Wharf and moved to Kronstadt for retrofitting. A crew of 62 people was preparing for a voyage to the distant Pacific frontiers. In addition, there were 15 artisans on board, who were supposed to be sent to Okhotsk and Petropavlovsk. Having loaded all the necessary supplies, on August 20, 1826, the Senyavin set off on his long march.
Evgeny Valerianovich Voishvillo. Sloop "Senyavin"
The first stop on the way was Copenhagen, where they bought warm clothes and rum. In the same place, Senyavin waited for Moller, who left Russia a little later. Then, at the end of September, Russian ships arrived in Portsmouth. Litke visited London, where he acquired some astronomical instruments, which he tested at the Greenwich Observatory. Then there was a path across the Atlantic Ocean, and at the end of December 1826, Russian sailors saw Rio de Janeiro. The next stage of the journey: Cape Horn was bypassed in early February of the next year, 1827. During a strong storm, both ships lost each other, and when on March 18 the Senyavin entered Valparaiso Bay, he saw the Moller, already departing for Kamchatka.
In April, Litke set out on his sloop in the direction of Alaska. June 11 "Senyavin" arrived in the capital of Russian possessions in America - in Novoarkhangelsk, where he handed over the cargo destined for this city. The rest of the summer and the beginning of autumn, the Senyavin was in the waters adjacent to Alaska, visited the Aleutian Islands. In October, the sloop called at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for mail.
After that, Litke took his ship to tropical waters. Russian sailors were waiting for the exotic Mariana and Caroline Islands with their exuberant palette of colors. Until the spring of 1828, Senyavin was in the southern latitudes, carrying out various studies, landing scientists on numerous islands, collecting samples of flora and fauna.
Map of the circumnavigation of the sloop "Senyavin"
In the summer, Litke again came to the shores of Kamchatka, conducting research on this remote region. "Senyavin", having passed the Bering Strait, deepened several miles into the Arctic Ocean, and then turned south. In September 1828, the sloop finally returned to Petropavlovsk, where the Moller was already anchored by that time. Both ships began to prepare for the return to Kronstadt. In October of the same year, the ships left the coast of Kamchatka, which had already become familiar to them, and set off on their way back.
This path passed through the Philippines and Sumatra. From one of the many islands, "Senyavin" took a shipwrecked English sailor, but this "Robinson" was completely unsuitable as an interpreter, because in the two years he lived on the island he did not bother to master the language of the local natives. In August 1829, the Senyavin sloop returned safely to its native Kronstadt.
The material collected during the three-year expedition was simply enormous, and Fyodor Petrovich Litke immediately began to generalize and systematize it. Upon his return, he was promoted to an extraordinary military rank and received the epaulettes of a captain of the 1st rank. In 1835–1836 published a major work "Journey around the world on the military sloop" Senyavin "in 1826-1829." It was translated into many European languages and its author became famous. The Russian Academy of Sciences honored this book with the full Demidov Prize, and Fedor Petrovich himself was elected a corresponding member of the academy.
Mentor, admiral and scientist
Fame in scientists and naval circles, authority and popularity brought Fyodor Petrovich Litka an unusual surprise. On February 1, 1832, Emperor Nicholas I appointed him adjutant wing, and at the end of the year - educator of his son, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich. The emperor wished that Constantine would certainly become a sailor. Fedor Petrovich stayed in this position for a long 16 years. On the one hand, such proximity to the court was an honorable duty, on the other hand, Litke no longer went on the expedition.
Sergei Konstantinovich Zaryanko. Portrait of F. P. Litke
The Grand Duke, through the efforts and efforts of his mentor and educator, really fell in love with the sea and subsequently headed the Maritime Department. Konstantin Nikolayevich was known as a liberal, carried out quite a few reforms and transformations, including abolishing corporal punishment. Under him, military service in the Navy was reduced from 25 to 10 years. But that will be much later. Fyodor Petrovich Litke, despite the forced land life, did not leave his scientific activity. On his initiative, the Russian Geographical Society was formed in 1845, where he took the position of vice-chairman. Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich was the chairman. The first meeting of the society took place on October 7, 1845.
Litke's military career was successful: in 1835 he became rear admiral, in 1842 he received the rank of adjutant general, and in the next 1843 - vice admiral. Konstantin Nikolaevich grew up and was preparing to head the Maritime Department. Fyodor Petrovich Litke in 1850 was appointed the chief commander of the Revel port and the military governor of Revel. In 1852, the navigator was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.
On the eve of the Crimean War, Vice-Admiral Litke turned out to be the chief commander of the Kronstadt port. At the beginning of 1854, at a special meeting with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, where plans were discussed to counter the allied squadron, whose appearance in the Baltic was expected in the coming weeks, Litke spoke in favor of the defensive nature of the strategy for using the Baltic Fleet. Its main forces remained at anchor in the well-defended harbors of Kronstadt and Sveaborg. Subsequently, neither the shelling nor the demonstration of the most serious intentions helped the Anglo-French command to achieve its goals. The capture of the small fortress of Bomarsund on the Åland Islands was their main and, perhaps, the only major success. Litke's merits in organizing the defense of Kronstadt were appreciated - he was elevated to full admiral and appointed a member of the State Council.
Fedor Petrovich does not leave scientific activity. In 1864 he was elected president of the Academy of Sciences. Litke served in this post for almost 20 years, until he was replaced in 1873 by another outstanding Russian scientist, Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tyan-Shansky. In 1881, having almost lost his hearing and sight, Fyodor Petrovich Litke retired from the Academy of Sciences. The navigator and scientist died on August 8, 1882 and was buried in St. Petersburg.
Litke's name was repeatedly imprinted on geographical maps; in his honor, in 1873, a gold medal was established for outstanding research in the field of geography. In 1946, by decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, this honorary award was restored. The name of Fyodor Litke was carried on board for many years by a ship that did not much less for Russia in the Arctic than the admiral himself, in whose honor it was named.
Ice cutter "Litke"
In 1909, the famous British shipyard Vickers, commissioned by Canada, built a ship to work in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The multi-purpose ship called "Earl Gray" had a displacement of 4.5 thousand tons and was intended for the transport of passengers and cargo. If necessary, he could also carry out the protection of fisheries. An unusual structural element of the ship was a sharp bow, where the skin thickness reached 31 mm. As conceived by the creators, such a sharp and strong nose was supposed to cut the ice, allowing the vessel to wedged into the crack formed and further push the ice apart with the hull. Therefore, the brainchild of the British shipyard was not called an icebreaker, but the unusual term "ice cutter". Initially, Earl Gray was not intended for sailing in difficult Arctic conditions.
Ice cutter "Earl Grey", 1910
With the outbreak of the First World War, Russia expressed a desire to acquire several ships suitable for ice navigation. One of them was "Earl Grey", which after the purchase was renamed the more euphonious "Canada". The ice cutter was placed at the disposal of the Maritime Transport Administration of the Belomor-Murmansk region. Already in the late autumn of 1914, "Canada" began to escort Russian and allied transports through the White Sea to Arkhangelsk.
On January 9, 1917, the ice cutter stumbled upon an underwater rock that was not marked on the map, and from the resulting hole sank in the Yokangi roadstead. The ship was soon raised and in June of the same year put in for repairs. In October 1917, weapons were mounted on the Canada, and she was included in the flotilla of the Arctic Ocean.
In the Civil War that began soon, the ice cutter also had a chance to participate. The British, who arrived for "allied" support, disposed of the Russian North in a businesslike manner. "Canada" was handed over to the naval forces of the White movement. In March 1920, during the evacuation from Russia, "enlightened navigators" and the command of the White movement took part of the Russian ships abroad. The crew of the Canada, who sympathized with the Bolsheviks, sabotaged the event. Moreover, the ice cutter entered into a skirmish with a former comrade-in-arms leaving for the West - the icebreaker Kozma Minin. It is believed that this is the only artillery battle of icebreakers in the polar latitudes.
In April 1920, Canada became an auxiliary cruiser of the Red White Sea Flotilla. In May, the ice-cutter steamer is renamed the III International. In 1921, he was transferred to the Department of Mortrans. On July 21 of the same year, the ship was given the name "Fyodor Litke" in honor of the admiral, navigator and head of the Russian Academy of Sciences. During the restoration of the economy destroyed by the Civil War, “F. Litka" had a chance to work not only in the Arctic, but also in the Baltic and Black Seas.
In 1929, he was in the Arctic almost constantly. For the risky transition to Wrangel Island, the ice cutter was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1934 he made the transition from Vladivostok to Murmansk in one navigation. In 1936, together with the icebreaker Anadyr, he escorted the destroyers Stalin and Voikov to the Pacific Ocean.
The peaceful work of the ice cutter was again interrupted - the Great Patriotic War began. July 25, 1941, no longer a young ship, was again called up for military service. The ice cutter received the tactical designation SKR-18, and at first two 45 mm guns were installed on it, which were replaced by 130 mm ones. In addition to this, there were several machine guns. The ship carried out, first of all, its immediate task: escorting caravans from the Kara to the White Sea and back.
On August 20, 1942, SKR-18 was attacked by the German submarine U-456, but managed to avoid being hit by torpedoes. At the end of the war, when the need for patrol ships decreased, the icebreaker was returned to the operational subordination of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. After the end of the war, the veteran of the Arctic returned to scientific activities - high-latitude expeditions were carried out on board. The swan song of the old ice cutter was the Arctic swimming record set in 1955, when “F. Litke "reached the coordinates of 83 ° 21 "North latitude. This record remained unbroken for a long time. But the years took their toll, and even metal retreated under their onslaught - on November 14, 1958, the Fyodor Litke ice cutter, which was already considered hopelessly outdated by that time, taken out of active service and after some time scrapped.
Icebreaker "Fyodor Litke", launched in 1970.
The tradition was continued by the new icebreaker "Fyodor Litke", which entered service in 1970 and carried rail ferries across the Amur. Withdrawn from the fleet in 2014. Time will pass, and perhaps a new icebreaker named after Fyodor Petrovich Litke, a Russian navigator, admiral, scientist, will again break through the ice, like his predecessors.
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The Arctic is the northernmost region of the globe. This polar territory still remains unexplored to the end, attracting the attention of researchers from around the world.
The most famous Arctic explorers in the world
The story of Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen was born in 1872. He made his first trip to the Arctic in the period from 1897 to 1899, when he was the navigator of a ship participating in the Belgian expedition. Upon his return, the Norwegian organized his own trip, buying himself a yacht "Joa" and recruiting a small crew to set sail. The journey began in 1903 in Greenland.The main merit of Roald Amundsen is the conquest of the Northwest Passage - the sea route through the Arctic Ocean along the northern coast of North America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1911, Roald Amundsen became the first polar explorer to reach the border of the North Pole.
History of Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Nansen was born in Norway in 1861 and his interest in the Arctic came from his sports career. The professional skater and skier crossed Greenland on skis, becoming the first person to make such a journey. Later, having assembled a team, Fridtjof set off for the North Pole on the three-masted schooner Fram. 
When the ship was blocked by ice blocks, Nansen, along with the team, continued on a sleigh, reaching 86 degrees north latitude. After this journey, Nansen's life was not connected with expeditions: he devoted himself to science and politics and in 1922 was awarded the Nobel Prize.
History of Umberto Nobile
Umberto Nobile was born in 1885 in Italy, he became famous as the creator of airships. In 1926, Umberto Nobile began traveling with the American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth in an airship. 
The aircraft successfully flew to Alaska, and Umberto Nobile received the status of a national hero. After that, the airship builder repeated the journey, but the ship crashed. At the same time, Umberto Nobile managed to escape.
Russian Arctic explorers
History of Chelyuskintsy
In 1933, sailors Vladimir Voronin and Otto Schmidt set off on a unique expedition on the Chelyuskin steamer along the northern shores of Eurasia. 
Their goal was to prove the possibility of passing the Northern Sea Route on a simple steamer and in the absence of special equipment. The attempt was unsuccessful and the Chelyuskin was blocked by ice in the Bering Strait. Fortunately, the team was saved.
History of Georgy Sedov
Georgy Sedov was born in 1877 and from his youth connected his life with the sea. Before exploring the Arctic, he took part in the Russo-Japanese War, commanding a destroyer. 
He made his first trip to Yakutia in 1909, in which he studied in detail the mouth of the Kolyma River. After he went to explore Novaya Zemlya. In 1912, at the expense of private funding, he organized a voyage on the ship "Saint Foka", which was blocked by ice blocks on the border with Novaya Zemlya. Georgy Sedov could not complete this expedition, as he died from hypothermia on the way to the North Pole.
History of Valery Chkalov
The call to Valery Chkalov came at the age of 52, when he was able to make the first non-stop flight over the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver. The entire flight took 63 hours: Chkalov and his crew flew 9130 km on an ANT-25 aircraft. 
History of Ivan Papanin
Soviet Arctic explorer Ivan Papanin was born in 1894 in the family of a Sevastopol port worker. His first trip to the north took place in 1931 during the exploration of Franz Josef Land on the steamer "Malygin". 
In the period from 1937 to 1938, Papanin was the head of the North Pole drifting station. The team spent 274 days on the ice floe. Ivan Papanin twice received the degree of Hero of the Soviet Union.
At all times, man has sought to know the world. The editors of the site invite you to learn about the most famous travelers in the world who were attracted by unknown distances.
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