Famous explorer of the North. Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin

PAPANIN Ivan Dmitrievich (14/26.11.1894-30.01.1986), Arctic researcher, geographer, rear admiral. Born into a sailor's family. He headed the first Soviet drifting station “North Pole-1” (1937 - 38). Head of the “Glavsevmorput” (1939 - 46), during Great Patriotic War GKO authorized representative for transportation in the North. Since 1951, head of the Department of Marine Expeditionary Works of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Director of the Institute of Biology of Inland Waters of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1952 - 72). Author of the books “Life on an Ice Floe” (1938) and “Ice and Fire” (1977).

PAPANIN Ivan Dmitrievich (1894-1986) - Soviet cultural figure, scientist, polar explorer, Doctor of Geographical Sciences (1938), Rear Admiral (1943), Hero Soviet Union (1937, 1940).

Active participant in the Russian Civil War in 1918-1922. In 1923-1932 worked in the People's Commissariat of Communications. In 1932-1933 headed the polar station in Tikhaya Bay on Franz Josef Land; in 1934-1935 - polar station at Cape Chelyuskin; in 1937-1938 - the first drifting station “North Pole” (“SP-1”), Head of the Main Northern Sea Route (1939-1946); simultaneously in 1941-1945. - GKO authorized representative for transportation in the North. In 1948-1951 - deputy Director of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences; from 1951 - head of the Department of Marine Expeditionary Works of the USSR Academy of Sciences and at the same time in 1952-1972. - Director of the Institute of Biology of Inland Waters of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1945 - prev. Moscow branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR.

Orlov A.S., Georgieva N.G., Georgiev V.A. Historical Dictionary. 2nd ed. M., 2012, p. 380.

Ivan Papanin. Photo for memory. 1930s.
The original is kept in the Moscow House of Photography museum.

From the encyclopedia

Papanin Ivan Dmitrievich [b. 14(26).I. 1894, Sevastopol], Soviet explorer of the Arctic, twice Hero of the Owls. Union (27.6. 1937 and 3.2.1940), rear admiral (1943), doctor of geogr. Sciences (1938). Member CPSU since 1919. In 1914 he was called up for military service. service in the navy. In Civil. during the war he took part in battles against the White Guards in Ukraine and Crimea. As part of a special detachment he was sent to the rear of Wrangel’s army to organize partisans. movements in Crimea. In 1923-32 he worked in the People's Commissariat of Communications. In 1931, as a representative of this People's Commissariat, he participated in the Arctic Tich. expedition of the icebreaker "Malygin" to Franz Josef Land. In 1932-33 he headed the polar expedition in Tikhaya Bay on Franz Josef Land, in 1934-35 - the polar station at Cape Chelyuskin, in 1937-38 - the first drifting station "North Pole" ("SP-1"), work at -roy marked the beginning of a systematic study of the high-latitude regions of the polar basin in the interests of navigation, meteorology, and hydrology. In 1939-46, P. was the head of the Main Northern Sea Route, and at the same time, during the Great Patriotic War, the State Defense Committee was authorized for transportation in the North. In 1948-51 deputy. director of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences for expeditions, and since 1951 head of the Marine Department. expedition works of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1952-72 at the same time director of the Institute of Biology, internal. waters of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1945 prev. Moscow branch Geogr. society of the USSR. At the 18th All-Union Conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1941) he was elected a member of the Center Audit Commission. Dep. Top. Soviet of the USSR 1st and 2nd convocations. Awarded 8 Orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Nakhimov 1st degree, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Red Star, as well as medals. A cape on the Taimyr Peninsula, mountains in Antarctica and an underwater, a mountain in the Pacific Ocean are named after P.

Materials used Big Soviet encyclopedia in 8 volumes, vol. 6

To supply the Gulag

Papanin Ivan Dmitrievich (11/14/1894, Sevastopol - 1/30/1986), polar explorer, statesman, rear admiral (1943), Doctor of Geographical Sciences (1938), twice Hero of the Soviet Union (6/27/1937, 3/2/1940). Participant in the Civil War. In 1919 he joined the RCP(b). Since 1931 he led polar expeditions. In 1937-38 he headed the first Soviet drifting station "SP-1". The tragic fate of the station was the center of a major propaganda campaign launched to prove the superiority of the USSR over the West. In 1937-50, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1939-46 beginning. Main Northern Sea Route, which played a crucial role in supplying the camps Gulag . In 1941-52, member of the Central Audit Commission of the BCP(O). During the Great Patriotic War, he was simultaneously authorized by the State Defense Committee for transportation in the north. Since 1948 deputy Director of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1951 Department of Marine Expeditionary Works of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1951-72, director of the Institute of Biology of Inland Waters of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Author of the memoirs "Life on an Ice Floe" (1938) and "Ice and Fire" (1977).

Materials used from the book: Zalessky K.A. Stalin's Empire. Biographical encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow, Veche, 2000

I.D. Papanin. Taimyr. Photo by Y. Khalin.

...If it weren't for chance

Papanin's name would never have entered the history of world discoveries if not for chance. In 1937, he was appointed head of the first Soviet drifting scientific station, the North Pole.

The rest of his biography is quite traditional. He was born in Odessa into a poor family, rose to the position of ship mechanic, and worked as a mechanic for a long time. Like many people of his generation, Papanin was a participant in the Civil War. Then he worked in the North and sailed on icebreakers. During the expedition on the Graf Zeppelin he was on the icebreaker Malygin.

Before Papanin's expedition, man had already reached the North Pole. The first to get there was the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, in 1926 the American Bert and, finally, in 1928 the Italian Umberto Nobile. The organization of the North Pole station pursued completely different goals. The explorers had to remain in the polar region for many months and conduct a variety of scientific research.

The group of brave polar explorers consisted of four people: in addition to Papanin, it included hydrologist and biologist Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov, geophysicist and astronomer Evgeniy Konstantinovich Fedorov and radio operator Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel. Papanin was approved as the head of the expedition, as well as the cook. The entire scientific program of this unique expedition was led by the famous polar explorer Otto Yulievich Schmidt.

The expedition was equipped for a long time and very carefully: a specially insulated tent house was designed, unique radio equipment was created, and special food products were developed that could withstand severe frost of 50 degrees and months of storage. The participants received extensive training. For example, P.P. Shirshov even completed a medical training course, since there was no doctor at the station.

In March 1937, a grandiose air expedition at that time on four heavy bombers designed by A.N. Tupolev flew north. On May 21, 1937, the expedition landed on an ice floe near the North Pole. The equipment of the scientific station continued for two whole weeks, and only at the beginning of June the planes took off. The ice floe began to slowly move south.

During the drift, unique scientific material was collected. Researchers discovered a huge underwater ridge crossing the Arctic Ocean, conducted meteorological observations, and Krenkel sent weather reports to the mainland every day at the same time. It turned out that the polar regions are densely populated. Contrary to forecasts, polar bears, seals, and even seals came to the polar explorers. The water of the Arctic Ocean also turned out to be saturated with plankton.

The drift of this scientific station continued for two hundred and seventy-four days. By February 1938, the size of the ice floe had shrunk so much that polar explorers had to be removed. The famous epic of their salvation began. At this time, the station was in the Greenland Sea and approaching the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The small hunting ship “Murmanets” was the first to go to the drifting station. He bravely entered the ice, but was soon trapped and carried into the Atlantic Ocean. The airship "SSSR-B6", which took off at full speed, crashed, crashing into a mountain near the city of Kandalaksha. Two submarines were also sent into the ice, but they would not have been able to surface in the drift area.

Only on February 19, two powerful icebreakers, the Taimyr and the Murman, were able to approach the expedition. A small single-engine plane was launched from the Taimyr, which was the first to reach the drifting ice floe. It was piloted by the famous polar pilot Vlasov.

The next day, icebreakers approached the station. The polar explorers first moved to the Taimyr, and from there to board the Ermak, which had arrived in time by that time, the grandfather of the Russian icebreaker fleet. He was supposed to deliver the polar explorers to Leningrad. However, suddenly the captain of the Ermak received an order to proceed to Tallinn. Everyone on board the ship was perplexed as to why it was necessary to enter the capital of Estonia.

Only many years later it became known that the infamous trial of Bukharin was taking place in Moscow just these days, and Stalin demanded that the meeting of polar explorers take place after it. Indeed, the meeting of brave heroes turned into a national celebration. They were awarded state awards and became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

After that, Papanin worked as the head of the Northern Sea Route, and after the war he worked in the Academy of Sciences system.

Reprinted from http://visserf.com/?p=35

Walking from security officers to polar explorers

Heroes of cruel times

Few people know that the famous polar explorer Ivan Papanin was... a security officer at a time when tens of thousands of dissidents were being exterminated on the Crimean Peninsula. And yet, the legendary Crimean went down in history as the creator of the world’s most powerful research fleet, which made the USSR the undisputed leader in the study of the World Ocean.

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin belonged to the category of people who are usually called nuggets. He was born on November 26, 1894 in Sevastopol in the family of a port sailor, who led a semi-beggarly existence, not even having their own home. They huddled in a strange structure of 4 walls, two of which were pipes, trying to earn at least a penny by helping their mother support her family. Ivan, the eldest of the children, especially suffered. The boy studied well, was first in the class in all subjects, for which he received an offer to continue his studies at public expense. But the impressions of a poor and disenfranchised childhood will become decisive in the formation of his personality and character.

At the head of the partisan movement

The most a bright event, according to the recollections of Papanin himself, the uprising of sailors on the Ochakov in 1905 was for him. He sincerely admired the courage of the sailors who went to certain death. It was then that the future convinced revolutionary was formed in him. At this time, he was learning a trade and working in the factories of his native Sevastopol. By the age of 16, Ivan Papanin was among the best workers at the Sevastopol plant for the production of navigation devices. And at the age of 18, as the most capable, he was selected for further work at the shipbuilding plant in Revel (present-day Tallinn). At the beginning of 1915, Ivan Dmitrievich was drafted into the navy as a technical specialist. In October 1917, together with other workers, he went over to the side of the Red Guards and plunged headlong into revolutionary work. Returning from Revel to Sevastopol, Papanin actively participated in the establishment of Soviet power here. After the occupation of Crimea by German troops on the basis of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Ivan went underground and became one of the leaders of the Bolshevik partisan movement on the peninsula. Revolutionary professionals Mokrousov, Frunze, Kun entrust him with secret and difficult tasks. Over the years, he went through all imaginable difficulties - “fire, water, and copper pipes.”

In August 1920, a group of communists and military specialists from the Red Army, led by A. Mokrousov, landed in Crimea. Their task was to organize partisan warfare in Crimea. Papanin also joined Mokrousov. The rebel army they assembled dealt Wrangel serious blows. The White Guards had to withdraw troops from the front. To destroy the partisans, military units from Feodosia, Sudak, Yalta, Alushta, and Simferopol began to surround the forest. However, the partisan detachments managed to break out of the encirclement and retreat into the mountains. It was necessary to contact the command, report on the situation and coordinate their plans with the headquarters of the Southern Front. It was decided to send a reliable person to Soviet Russia. The choice fell on I.D. Papanin.

In the current situation, it was possible to get to Russia only through Trebizond. It was possible to agree with the smugglers that for a thousand Nikolaev rubles they would transport the person to the opposite shore of the Black Sea. The journey turned out to be long and unsafe. He managed to meet with the Soviet consul, who on the very first night sent Papanin on a large transport ship to Novorossiysk. And already in Kharkov he was received by the commander of the Southern Front, M.V. Frunze. Having received the necessary help, Papanin began to prepare for the return journey. In Novorossiysk he was joined by the future famous writer Vsevolod Vishnevsky.

It was November, the sea was constantly stormy, but there was no time to waste. One night, the paratroopers went to sea on the ships “Rion”, “Shokhin” and the boat where Papanin was located. They walked in the dark, with the lights extinguished, in the conditions of a severe storm. The boat circled for a long time, looking for “Rion” and “Shokhin” in the darkness, but, convinced of the futility of the search, it headed for the Crimea. On the way, we came across the White Guard ship “Three Brothers”. To prevent the crew from reporting the landing, the owner of the ship and his companion... were taken hostage, and the crew was given an ultimatum: not to approach the shore for 24 hours. The ongoing storm has exhausted everyone. In the dark we approached the village of Kapsikhor. They dragged all the cargo ashore. Replenished with local residents, the detachment of Mokrousov and Papanin moved towards Alushta, disarming the retreating White Guards along the way. On the approach to the city, the Red partisans linked up with units of the 51st Division of the Southern Front.

The Commissioner Who Was Ashamed

After the defeat of the last army of the white movement - Wrangel's army - Papanin was appointed commandant of the Crimean Extraordinary Commission (Cheka). During this work he received gratitude for saving confiscated valuables.

Needless to say, what the Cheka is, especially in Crimea. This organization was entrusted with an extremely important mission here - to physically destroy the remnants of the Whites, the flower of the Russian officers. Despite Frunze's promises to save their lives after they laid down their arms, about 60 thousand people were shot, drowned, or buried alive.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to trace the transformation of Papanin’s worldview during the terrible years of the revolution. But, undoubtedly, these bloody events left many scars on his heart. As the commandant of the Cheka, he saw and knew everything, but he did not write or say anything about it anywhere and never. He didn’t write, and he couldn’t write, because otherwise he would have been turned into “camp dust,” like many thousands of his comrades.

Of course, Ivan Dmitrievich, being a cheerful and friendly person by nature, conscientious and humane, could not help but think about what was happening. It is curious that it was Papanin who became the prototype of the sailor Shvandi in the play by playwright K. Trenev “Yarovaya Love”. He, of course, compared the ideals that the Bolsheviks called for and what happened in real life before his eyes and with his participation. He drew conclusions and decided to take an unexpected action, which can only be explained by changes in views on what was happening. He seriously decided to move away from politics and revolution and engage in science.

Without receiving special knowledge, having gone through the thorny path of self-education, he will reach significant scientific heights. Thus, Papanin’s “first” life was given to the revolution, and his “second” to science. His ideals drowned in the bloodstream of the Bolshevik Red Terror, and, realizing his guilt and repenting, he decides to disassociate himself from revolutionary violence. However, over the next four years, Papanin could not find a place for himself in the literal and figurative sense of the word.

Fate decreed that in the future I.D. Papanin will be treated kindly by Stalin, always being in his sight. For Papanin, the “second half” of life is much longer - as much as 65 years. He becomes the military commandant of the Ukrainian Central Executive Committee in Kharkov. However, by the will of fate, he again ended up in the Revolutionary Military Council of the Black Sea Fleet as a secretary, and in April 1922 he was transferred to Moscow as a commissar of the Administrative Department of the Glavmortekhkhozupra. The following year, having already been demobilized, he went to work in the system of the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs as a business manager and head of the Central Directorate of Paramilitary Security.

Papanin constantly changes jobs and places of residence. It’s as if something is tormenting him, for some reason his soul is hurting, he is looking for her reassurance and an activity where she would find peace, get the opportunity to temporarily detach herself from what she has experienced, come to her senses and figure everything out. And the North became such a place for him. Here, in 1925, Papanin began building a radio station in Yakutia and proved himself to be an excellent organizer and simply a person who can be trusted to resolve complex issues and who will never let you down, even in the most difficult conditions. It was for these qualities that the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks appointed him in 1937 as head of the polar station SP-1.

The path to the North is the path to yourself

For Soviet Russia vital importance had the discovery of permanent navigation of ships along the Northern Sea Route. For this purpose, a special department was even created - Glavsevmorput. But to operate the route, it was necessary to conduct a series of multifaceted scientific research in the Arctic: to identify the presence of underwater currents, ice drift paths, the timing of their melting, and much more. To resolve these issues, it was necessary to land a scientific expedition directly on the ice floe. The expedition had to work on ice for a long time. The risk of dying in these extreme conditions was very high.

Perhaps no event between the two world wars attracted as much attention as the drift of the “Papanin Four” in the Arctic. Scientific work on the ice floe lasted 274 days and nights. At first it was a huge ice field of several square kilometers, and when the Papanins were removed from it, the size of the ice floe barely reached the area of ​​a volleyball court. The whole world followed the epic of the polar explorers, and everyone wanted only one thing - the salvation of people.

After this feat, Ivan Papanin, Ernst Krenkel, Evgeny Fedorov and Pyotr Shirshov turned into national heroes and became a symbol of everything Soviet, heroic and progressive. If you look at newsreel footage of how Moscow greeted them, it becomes clear what these names meant at that time. After the gala reception in Moscow there were dozens, hundreds, thousands of meetings throughout the country. The polar explorers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This was Papanin’s second such award - he received the first at the beginning of the drift.

This was in 1938, a terrible year for the country. At this time, thousands of people were destroyed, most of them constituting the intellectual elite of the people. The criterion for reprisals was one thing - the ability to provide not only active, but also passive resistance to the totalitarian regime. They especially targeted those who installed Soviet power, with the Bolsheviks of the first draft. There is nothing surprising in this - the old guard could be the first to oppose the revision of Marxist-Leninist teachings, and therefore was subject to destruction. And Papanin would have been among these victims if he had not left the Cheka in 1921.

Papanin lived for another 40 years, filled with activities, events, and people. After drifting in the Arctic, he becomes first deputy and then head of the Main Northern Sea Route. Tasks of enormous national importance fell on his shoulders. Since the beginning of the war, he has been building a new port in Arkhangelsk, which was simply necessary to receive ships bringing cargo from the United States under Lend-Lease. He deals with similar problems in Murmansk and the Far East.

After the war, Ivan Dmitrievich again worked in the Main Northern Sea Route, and then created the scientific fleet of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1951, he was appointed head of the Department of Marine Expeditionary Works under the apparatus of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Papanin's merits were appreciated. Few people had such an “iconostasis” of awards as his. In addition to two titles of Hero of the Soviet Union, 9 Orders of Lenin and many other orders and medals, not only Soviet, but also foreign. He was also awarded the military rank of rear admiral and a scientist - Doctor of Geographical Sciences.

Maybe, outstanding man in any historical era and under any life circumstances is able to realize potential opportunities. The external outline of events, the framing of fate may be different, but the internal, decisive side remains constant. Firstly, this concerns efforts to achieve basic goals, and secondly, the ability to remain a person of high moral principles under any historical conditions. Papanin's life is a clear confirmation of this.

I.D. died Papanin in January 1986. His name is immortalized three times on geographical map. The waters of the polar seas are plied by ships named after him. He is an honorary citizen of Sevastopol, his hometown, in which one of the streets bears the name of Papanin.

Sergey Chennyk

Reprinted here from the site http://www.c-cafe.ru/days/bio/21/papanin.php

Essays:

Life on an ice floe. Diary. Ed. 7th. M., 1977;

Ice and fire. M., 1977.

Literature:

People of immortal feat. Book 2. Ed. 4th. M., 1975.

Biological processes in inland waters [to the 70th anniversary of I. D. Papanin]. M.-L., 1965.

Kremer V. A. Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin. - “Meteorology and Hydrology”, 1964.

(1894-1986)

Papanin Ivan Dmitrievich, Soviet polar explorer, born November 25, 1894, died January 30, 1986. After he carried out a number of works on Franz Josef Land and Cape Chelyuskin, he was entrusted with the management of a drifting polar station in the Central Polar Basin (“ North Pole 1"). Four heavy aircraft under the leadership of the polar explorer O. Yu. Schmidt, which began their flight on May 21, 1937 from Rudolf Island (Franz Josef Land), landed the expedition members - P. P. Shirshov (hydrobiologist), E. K. Fedorov (geophysicist) ) and E.T. Krenkel (radio operator) - along with all their equipment (tent, observation station, radio station, supplies, etc.) approximately 20 km from the pole (89°25"N and 78°40 "w. d.). During the creation of the station, 42 people were on an ice floe about 3 km in circumference and 3 m thick.

On June 6, the planes started their return flight. The ice floe, which later formed a triangle with sides 3-4 km long, drifted at varying speeds in a southerly direction towards the Atlantic. On February 19, 1938, after a 274-day ice drift, Papanin and his companions were taken from a heavily melted ice floe off the east coast of Greenland near 70°46"N and 19°16"W. d. icebreakers "Taimyr" and "Murman". In total, the expedition drifted over 2 thousand km.

Papanin's expedition continued and significantly expanded observations of sea currents, ice drifts, etc. in the central part of the Arctic Ocean. Throughout the ice drift, constant measurements of sea depths were carried out: depths of 4290, 4374 and 4354 m were measured near the pole, between 84 and 83° latitude above the underwater “Nansen Threshold” - 3300–3500 m, near Greenland - 4220 m and, finally, in Greenland coastal waters - about 200 m. The conclusion that even near the pole there are living organisms was very valuable. Measurements of terrestrial magnetism and gravity provided reliable information about the geophysical conditions in the drift region. Regular meteorological observations, the results of which were transmitted daily by radio through Rudolph Island to the international weather service, led to valuable conclusions about the structure of the atmosphere and the processes determining the weather of the Central Arctic. These transfers facilitated the trans-Arctic flights of the Soviet pilots Chkalov and Gromov, made in the summer from Moscow to the western part of the United States (Portland and San Jacinto in California, 9 thousand and 10 thousand km). Observations by Papanin's expedition were continued in 1938-1940. in the eastern part of the Central Arctic Basin by the crew of the icebreaking steamer "Sedov". Papanin took part in its release from the ice at the beginning of 1940, being the head of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. Since 1950, following the model of the first North Pole station, other drifting stations have been equipped with increasingly better auxiliary means.

Memoirs of Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel about the drift of the North Pole - 1 station.

The need to organize a research station in the North Pole area arose from the urgent needs of science and navigation in the Soviet sector of the Arctic.

The seas of our sector of the Arctic pass shortest way from the European part of Russia to Siberia and the Far Eastern region. The journey by sea from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok through the Suez Canal is over 12,600 miles, and along the Northern Sea Route from Murmansk to Vladivostok is only 6,230 miles, i.e. half as much. An important advantage of the Northern Sea Route is also that it runs through the internal seas of our country and navigation along it is protected from any interference from foreign countries.

Development of the Northern Sea Route in the first half of the twentieth century. made it possible to deliver equipment for new buildings and goods for winterers to remote and hard-to-reach areas of the Far North and export furs and minerals from there. The flow of cargo increased from year to year. For centuries, the wealth hidden in the depths of the Far North was put to the service of the Motherland.

However, sailing in the northern seas, which are covered with ice most of the year, is fraught with great difficulty and risk. In three to four months of short Arctic navigation, the ships must reach their destination, unload, take on cargo and return to Arkhangelsk or Vladivostok. The slightest delay on the way entails serious consequences. A ship remaining in the Arctic Ocean for the winter is exposed to great dangers - it can be carried away by the drift of ice to the north and crushed.

The fight for the Northern Sea Route is a fight against ice. Powerful icebreakers and specially designed transport vessels sail across the Arctic seas. However, they cannot always overcome the thickness of the ice. Science came to the aid of polar explorers, revealing the laws of the chaotic, at first glance, movement of the vast ice fields of the Arctic.

The ice of the Arctic Ocean creates a huge mass of cold Arctic air, which affects the climate of the entire northern hemisphere and, in particular, the condition of the ice along the Northern Sea Route. Therefore, in order to know the weather and ice conditions, it was necessary to create dozens of polar stations on this route to study the meteorological and ice regime of the Arctic.

The first polar stations were built at the mouths of Siberian rivers - at the final destinations of sea transport, where river and sea caravans met and cargo was exchanged. Now large northern ports have grown up on the site of these stations. During the years of the first Stalinist five-year plans, a whole network of polar stations was created on the northernmost islands of the Arctic Ocean.

Winterers at polar stations did a lot of hard work. Four times a day, Moscow received information about the weather, ice movement and sea conditions from all over the Arctic. Based on this information, in March-April each year, i.e., long before the opening of navigation, scientists gave long-term forecasts of ice conditions along the entire length of the Northern Sea Route.

From year to year, the forecasts became more and more accurate and greatly helped sailors. Depending on the predicted state of the ice, a plan for sea transportation was drawn up. Powerful icebreakers stood ready near the most difficult navigation areas and based polar aviation for long-range reconnaissance and for guiding ships.

Despite the fact that winterers regularly reported summaries of the results of their observations and, over time, very extensive scientific data accumulated, it was not possible to completely reveal the Arctic ice regime. Indeed, weather forecasters drew their isobars and isotherms every day, but they ended at the last polar stations located on Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands and Wrangel Island. One could only speculate about what was happening to the north of them.

Expeditions from different countries that visited the polar region and the pole at the beginning of the 20th century established only the presence of large ocean depths and an almost continuous moving ice cover in the Central Polar Basin, as well as the absence of land in the North Pole region. What is the depth of the ocean at the pole? Is the ice at the pole itself mobile and, if so, where does it come from and where does it go? What's the weather like there? How do cyclones and anticyclones originate and pass through? Is there life at the North Pole? Foreign expeditions did not answer all these and many other questions. They had to be resolved by Soviet science.

In the spring of 1936, the Soviet government approved a plan for an expedition to the North Pole, and O. Yu. Schmidt was appointed its leader.

Organizational work began to boil. The personnel of the future drifting station “North Pole” has been determined. It included four people. I.D. Papanin, who had previously led the largest polar stations for several years, was appointed head of the station; the scientists were hydrobiologist and hydrologist P.P. Shirshov, a participant in the Sibiryakova and Chelyuskin expeditions, astronomer and magnetologist E.K. Fedorov, who spent the winter with Papanin more than once. E. T. Krenkel was approved as the radio operator of the drifting station. By this time, he had considerable experience working at the polar radio stations of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, as well as at the Sibiryakov, Chelyuskin radio stations and various ships sailing in the Arctic. The news of his appointment to the North Pole station found him at his next winter camp on Severnaya Zemlya.

Four heavy four-engine aircraft were allocated to the expedition. This flight detachment was headed by the famous polar pilot M.V. Vodopyanov.

The route of the upcoming expedition ran through Franz Josef Land. It was necessary to organize a technically equipped base for aircraft on the northernmost island of this archipelago - Rudolf Island. This important task was entrusted to Papanin.

In the summer of 1936, the icebreaking steamer Rusanov left Arkhangelsk for Franz Josef Land, having on board everything necessary to build a radio station and radio beacon and large reserves of aviation fuel, as well as a team of twenty people who were to create a base. The straits of the archipelago were clogged with ice, and when Rusanov reached Rudolf Island, it turned out that the island was surrounded on all sides by heavy ice fields. The shores of Rudolf Island are a sheer ice wall ranging from ten to twenty meters high. Only on the western side there is a narrow coastal strip, and it was from this side that the path to the island was blocked by especially heavy ice. A risky decision was made to unload onto the ice about a mile and a half from the island and use tractors to transport all the cargo to the island. This hard, intense work was carried out around the clock. At any moment, the wind could set the compacted ice fields in motion. But, despite all the difficulties, the task was brilliantly solved - a well-equipped base for the expedition was created on Rudolf Island.

In the fall of 1936, preparations began for the expedition's complex economy.

The expedition members thoroughly studied all the literature about attempts to reach the Pole. We noted shortcomings in order not to repeat them, and used the correct solutions to this or that issue.

The main difficulty was the need to limit the weight of the equipment. Each plane could carry two and a half tons of cargo, therefore, the weight of all our equipment should not exceed ten tons. We abandoned the usual wooden or plywood containers. All property was packed in lightweight waterproof bags. Fuel (kerosene and gasoline) was in rubber wineskins.

The food issue was resolved with the help of workers from the Nutrition Research Institute. Polar explorers received ready-made lunch for a year and a half. To prepare various soups, porridges and jelly, you just had to boil water and throw into it certain tiles, hard as stone. There was milk and eggs in the powder. Smoked meats, pressed caviar, sweets - all this was presented in abundance in the ration. To make it more convenient to drag food from ice floe to ice floe, if necessary, and also to protect it from dampness, it was sealed in light tin boxes with handles. Each package contained a complete set of food in quantities sufficient for four people for ten days.

Particular attention was paid to housing. The frame of the rectangular and straight-walled tent was made of duralumin pipes. Three covers were put on this frame: a light canvas one, then a huge silk quilt with eider down, and finally a heavy waterproof black tarpaulin. The black color of the tent would help in case of searches to locate polar explorers on the ice; In addition, black attracts the sun's rays, and they could use the sun's heat as free heating.

The tent was extremely small. It contained four beds, two one above the other, a table, a table with radio equipment and scientific instruments.

As E. T. Krenkel wrote, “we had complete equipment for a meteorological station, actinometers (instruments for studying solar radiation), instruments for determining gravity, a chemical laboratory, recorders, photographic and film cameras - in a word, everything necessary for exploring the North Pole, and designed for work in Arctic conditions.

The heaviest item was our hydrological winch. Using this winch, we had to measure the depth of the ocean at the pole and take a soil sample. In addition, every day it was necessary to carry out a series of hydrological works according to an extensive, pre-developed program: determine depths, soil, temperatures at various horizons, take samples at various depths to determine the chemical composition of water, catch microorganisms and determine current speeds at various depths.

A lot of work and engineering was put into creating the winch. A system of spring levers was designed that automatically stopped the winch the moment the load reached the ocean floor.

Radio communication problems were especially important. In an expedition like ours, the lives of its participants depended on a confident connection with the land. If on any of the days of the drift the radio had stopped transmitting our coordinates, it would have meant that we were lost, like grains of sand, in the vast desert of the Arctic Ocean. That is why our walkie-talkie had to work uninterruptedly and reliably both in the cold and during sudden temperature changes. Her weight should not exceed 500 kilograms.

The construction of the radio station was entrusted to the team of one of the Leningrad radio laboratories, which had extensive experience in creating small shortwave stations. Leningraders coped with this task brilliantly. The equipment turned out to be so reliable that during nine months of work I never had to open the station to troubleshoot. The range of our radio station was equal to a thousand kilometers (to the base on Rudolf Island).

It was clear to us that we would have to use wind as the main source of electricity. Although the wind conditions of the North Pole region were not known, it was difficult to imagine that there might be long periods complete calm. But just in case, we took with us a backup gasoline engine and a manual dynamo.

Many thousands Soviet people invested their labor and skill in preparing our expedition. Later, during our drift, unpacking boxes of food and equipment, we often found friendly notes from the humble workers, with whose hands everything we had was created. It was the breath of the homeland, the feeling of an elbow that supported us. And the only worthy answer to this enormous work could only be the successful completion of the expedition.

In addition to preparing equipment, we also dealt with personal training issues. Each of us was a specialist in our field, but it was necessary to achieve interchangeability. This was especially true for astronomical calculations and radio communications. Under all conditions, we should have been able to determine our coordinates and transmit them by radio to the mainland. Therefore, Shirshov and Papanin learned to make astronomical determinations, and Fedorov learned to operate a radio station. Shirshov, in addition, mastered in one of the Moscow hospitals the most necessary first aid techniques for frostbite, heart attack, fractures, etc.

Finally, after months of preparation, everything was ready. In February 1937, in a secluded place near Moscow, we tested all our equipment under field conditions. True, we were taken to the place not by planes, but by trucks, but everything else was almost like at the pole. It was cold. We stood next to a huge pile of things and could only rely on our own strength and capabilities.

Tests of our entire farm, with minor exceptions, gave excellent results. I had every reason to be satisfied with my radio station, since I was able to establish contact with many cities of the Soviet Union and with radio amateurs in other countries. The blocked distances far exceeded the range of our station.

The spring of 1937 was damp and dank. Forecasters delayed clearance for departure. Finally, on March 20, the planes took off for the Pole.

Our cargo was sent to Arkhangelsk by train in order to facilitate the takeoff of planes from the wet Moscow airfield.

The first landing was made seventy kilometers from Arkhangelsk, in the village of Kholmogory - in the homeland of the great Russian scientist M.V. Lomonosov. Early in the morning we were already in Arkhangelsk and soon returned by truck to Kholmogory with cargo. Spring followed us in Arkhangelsk. Only a week later we were able to fly further.

In addition to the expeditionary vehicles, our flight detachment had another lighter aircraft, which was somewhat ahead of the main group of airships. Pilot Golovin looked over the route and provided information about the weather and the condition of the airfields.

The next landing was made at the Novaya Zemlya polar station in the Matochkin Shar Strait. This was already the real Arctic. Winterers on dog sleds dashingly rolled barrels of fuel to the planes.

The next day, wind speeds at times exceeded 30 meters per second. The force of the wind turned the screws of cold engines. The tightly secured machines shook with small tremors. There was some damage, but it was quickly repaired by mechanics.

Having said goodbye to the polar explorers of the Matochkin Shar station, we flew to Rudolf Island. Frosty and partly cloudy weather was favorable for the flight. Around midnight, with the sun shining and the sky clear, we approached Franz Josef Land. The mountainous islands stretched into the distance, into a foggy haze. Finally, Rudolf Island opened up. From a distance it looked like a cloud or fog and was a completely smooth, geometrically correct, gently sloping ice dome.

At the very top of the ice dome we saw a landing sign and smoke signals. Smoke was also visible from the chimneys of two puffing tractors. That's when we fully appreciated preparatory work on organizing the base. Landing on the northernmost island of our Motherland was no different from landing at a convenient, well-equipped airfield.

They were looking forward to us. While we happily greeted our friends, tractors were busily taking our planes to the places where fastenings had been prepared for them. Fuel reserves for our aircraft were concentrated on the dome of the island. Below, in warm houses, a ceremonial dinner and clean beds awaited us. A large polar bear was sitting on the porch of the house; on its outstretched paws it held bread, salt and a huge iron key with the inscription: “The Key to the North Pole.” As it turned out, this bear was killed by winterers a few days before our arrival and frozen in this position.

Rudolph Island, discovered in 1873, once had a dark reputation. At the end of the past and the beginning this century[XX] it served as the starting point of numerous unsuccessful expeditions to the North Pole. The ruins of buildings from previous expeditions are still preserved there.

The pole was not given to man. The path to it was blocked by ice drifting to the southwest, the oncoming speed of which the travelers, using the only type of polar transport of those times - dogs, could not overcome.

We studied the descriptions of all previously undertaken expeditions and, naturally, made comparisons. The richest expedition to the Pole had 102 dogs. We had four four-engine aircraft with a total capacity of sixteen thousand horsepower. Most of the previous expeditions were organized with private funds, which were usually not enough to purchase the necessary equipment, taking into account all the complications that could arise. There was no trace of radio communication. Our expedition was armed with all the best that the country could give. The radio allowed us to have hourly contact with our homeland, which sent us to the Pole.

We spent a whole month on Rudolf Island. All equipment was inspected and checked once again. The weather forecasters had to “release” us to the pole. The meteorological information we had was more than meager. It was necessary to forecast the weather based on reports from the island of Spitsbergen and polar stations located much further south. This made the task more difficult. The central part of the Arctic basin remained silent for centuries.

Finally, the long-awaited day has arrived. A powerful 60-horsepower "Stalinets" took us to the dome of the island. The expedition's leadership decided to first fly to the pole on one plane, set up a landing site there, and then call the other three planes with cargo. Vodopyanov’s flagship plane was supposed to fly first. There were thirteen people on board: the crew of the plane, the head of the expedition, the cameraman and our four.

On May 21, 1937, at 4:50 a.m., the extremely loaded plane took off and, having made two circles above the base, set course.

Rudolf Island quickly disappeared from view. The ice dome merged with the general background of ice and sky. At the beginning of the journey, large leads and small broken ice floated beneath us, but gradually the ice became more and more compact and the size of the fields increased. The nature of the ice cover was continuously observed from the aircraft and photographed.

With fabulous speed we crossed the invisible paths of previous expeditions. Here Nansen walked after an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole. Here lay the last route of Brusilov’s ship “St. Anna”, missing. We flew over the graves of many brave men who unsuccessfully stormed the North Pole. These were pages of history. And we were proud that we, Soviet polar explorers, had to open a new page in the history of the conquest of the Arctic.

After six hours of flight we were over the pole. Beneath us the same swirling continuous clouds were white in places. The plane, breaking through the clouds, began to descend in large turns. Everyone was worried about one thought: where is the lower limit of cloud cover? What if there is fog at the pole and landing is impossible?

And at that moment, some wires shorted out in the on-board radio station and the radiogram that we were above the pole and were descending was cut off mid-sentence. This was a big complication, but then we were most worried about the possibility of landing.

Only at an altitude of 200 meters below us did the ice fields of the North Pole open. Now everything depended on Vodopyanov’s skill. To land a heavy machine on an unprepared site without catching a single protruding ice floe required great skill.

A push... Baring ice floes pass under the wings... Finally the car stopped. We poured out onto the ice.

“Hurray” rang out in honor of our beloved Motherland, and we rushed into each other’s arms.

Polyus did not greet us particularly kindly. The weather was far from May: fifteen degrees below zero, a nasty drifting snow filled our clothes with the finest snow, the sun barely shone through the quickly rushing clouds.

After the first minutes of joy and excitement, everyone went about their business. Fedorov, having installed his equipment, began the first astronomical determination. We needed to clarify our coordinates. I started urgently installing my radio station, since the umformer on the on-board radio had burned out, and communication with Rudolf Island was required immediately. It was not difficult to imagine what the comrades who remained on the island could have imagined. After all, the connection with us was cut off literally mid-sentence.

Unfortunately, the first plane failed to capture our entire radio station. We arrived with only the equipment necessary to start the station and its minimal operation, just one set of batteries and a small engine for charging them. The unexpected failure of the aircraft radio disrupted our original plan and our agreement with the radio operators of Rudolf Island.

Installation and launch of the station took almost four hours. Finally, at four o’clock in the afternoon, our station’s small umformer began to hum, but it turned out that the batteries had run out due to a long stay in the cold. It was necessary to start the gasoline engine to charge the batteries.

Hour after hour passes. Charging the batteries, our calls, then listening. Half an hour later, charging again, and everything starts all over again. Rudolph Island drones monotonously with its powerful radio beacon. They hoped that we might return, and therefore did not turn off the lighthouse. This circumstance prevented us from quickly establishing communication: the radio beacon was drowning out the weak signals of our twenty-watt transmitter.

Only at 21:30. Rudolf Island signals appeared on the air. The dots and dashes of our call sign flew at breakneck speed. After the first minutes of joy and congratulations, we moved on to business. At six o'clock in the morning the first weather report left for Rudolf Island:

“North Pole May 22, 06 Moscow time. Pressure 761. Temperature minus 12. Wind 8 meters, western (along the Greenwich meridian), gusty. Fog. The sun is shining through. Visibility 1 kilometer. Light snow."

From now on, weather forecasters could give reliable weather reports at the pole and make more accurate forecasts.

The evening of May 23 brought us great joy. We received a government telegram signed by comrades Stalin, Molotov and other leaders of the party and government. This is what was written in the telegram, which remained forever in the memory of those who were then on the distant ice field near the North Pole:

“To the head of the expedition to the North Pole, comrade O. Yu. Schmidt.

To the commander of the flight squad, Comrade M.V. Vodopyanov.

To all participants of the expedition to the North Pole.

The Party and government warmly welcome the glorious participants in the polar expedition to the North Pole and congratulate them on completing their intended task - conquering the North Pole.

This victory for Soviet aviation and science sums up the brilliant period of work on the development of the Arctic and the northern routes, so necessary for the Soviet Union.

The first stage has been completed, the greatest difficulties have been overcome. We are confident that the heroic winterers remaining at the North Pole will honorably complete the task entrusted to them to study the North Pole. Bolshevik greetings to the brave conquerors of the North Pole!

I. Stalin, V. Molotov, K. Voroshilov, L. Kaganovich, M. Kalinin, A. Mikoyan, A. Andreev, A. Zhdanov.”

It is difficult to find words to describe with what excitement and gratitude we listened to the text of this telegram. Our homeland highly appreciated our services. Fulfilling the government assignment to study the North Pole became the meaning of life for us.

And then the everyday work began. It was necessary to find out the thickness of the ice floe. We spent the whole day chiseling a circular groove, leaving an ice head in the middle. The work was hard and challenging. The ice gradually became more and more damp, and finally boiling water gushed out, instantly flooding the mine. The thickness of the ice floe was three meters and ten centimeters. Therefore, our ice field was at least two years old.

The next thing was to build a snow house for the radio station, as the tent was cramped and our larger tent had not yet arrived.

The snow cover of the ice floe was solid. With difficulty they cut out bricks of the required size with a shovel and laid the walls. The roof was made from a cargo parachute, the white silk of which allowed light to pass through well.

A few days later, the planes of A.D. Alekseev, I.P. Mazuruk and V.S. Molokov flew to the pole, and we received all our equipment.

An inexhaustible source of energy was immediately installed - a windmill. Our living tent became the center of the village. The flight crew tents were located around it.

We worked a lot. Everyone was doing their own thing, but in addition there was a lot general works on the structure of our entire economy. All cargo was checked. Then all the food and fuel was divided into several parts and transported in different directions. It was impossible to store everything in one place; we had to take into account the possible compression and rarefaction of our ice field.

Digging an ice hole, building snow houses, cooking food - all this took time, and we could barely cope with these small but necessary jobs.

June 6th was the day of parting with the pilots. At five o'clock in the evening a rally was held in honor of the raising of the flag and the grand opening of the drifting polar station "North Pole".

Flags rose and swayed in the wind: one was state, the other with the silhouette of Comrade Stalin.

We stood with our heads naked and sang “Internationale” to the roar of warming engines.

The last minutes of farewell, and now the planes are taking off, showering us with snow dust. Vodopyanov was the last to take off. The hum becomes weaker and finally stops.

The four of us were left on the ice floe.

The next day, hydrological work began. A wooden platform was built near the hole and a winch was installed. Shirshov, smeared to the ears with machine oil, beamed like a birthday boy. The weight, probe and instruments disappeared under water. The counter arrows began to run. The steel cable quickly unwound. After 2 hours and 40 minutes the winch stopped automatically. Depth 4290 meters! To check, they raised the load fifty meters three times, and each time the cable stopped in the same place. A sample of dark greenish-gray silt was lifted from the bottom in a steel cylinder.

Under a layer of cold Arctic water, at a depth of 250 to 600 meters, positive temperatures were discovered with a maximum of plus 0.77 degrees; at a depth of over 750 meters, the water temperature gradually decreased and at a depth of 2930 meters it was minus 0.7 degrees.

Ten days later we had moved so far south that it was necessary to measure the depth of the ocean again. The second sounding showed an even greater depth - 4374 meters. The color of the soil turned pink.

This time we were able to clearly find the upper boundary of the relatively warm Atlantic jet. Thus, it was established that the Gulf Stream branch reaches the North Pole at a known depth. Shirshov extracted plankton from the depths - microorganisms living in sea water, and small jellyfish. It was a wonderful discovery. It refuted the existing opinion that the pole area is a lifeless desert.

But life at the pole is not limited to plankton. We saw two small fish in a crack in the ice field. It was clear that the fish were plankton consumers. Consequently, there must have been a next link - the fish consumer - the seal. After some time we saw a seal. The hunt was unsuccessful, but we still managed to photograph him. We also saw three seagulls in the area of ​​the pole. And one day a mother bear with two cubs appeared near the camp. Unfortunately, our dog scared them away, and I, getting excited, started shooting too early and the bears disappeared into the thick fog.

Bears at the Pole - no one could have predicted this. The closest land from the pole - Greenland - was 700 kilometers away. Our mother bear and her cubs had to do this big way, and even come back. But when we soon saw a seal, it became clear that the bears traveling through the drift fields towards the pole were provided with food.

Relative summer began at the pole around mid-June. On June 11 there was the first positive temperature - plus 0.3 degrees. Light frosts alternated with thaws.

The heat took over and caused us a lot of trouble. Blizzards created drifts of wet, melting snow. Rain and fog turned the snow into an icy slurry. In the end, all the snow from our ice field melted, and we found ourselves on bare ice, among puddles and large lakes.

We were concerned about maintaining our living tent. The snow did not melt under her. We lined the sides with ice, and over time it began to rise on an ice pedestal.

The lakes became larger and connected with each other. We pumped up a rubber boat and made short excursions around these lakes. Their depth in some places reached two meters.

Our reserve bases were stored on the nearest ice hillocks. Countless times we had to drag them from place to place.

A big event in our life, as well as in the life of the entire country, was Chkalov’s flight across the North Pole. A few days before his departure, our station began to provide additional weather reports. We were notified of the departure and immediately established surveillance of the operation of Chkalov's radio station.

On June 19, the weather in our area was disgusting: fog, wet snowfall, continuous low clouds, temperature plus 0.5 degrees. In the morning at 5:50 a.m. a plane buzzed above us. Chkalov reported that they were flying in a cloudless sky, and below them there was continuous clouds. Chkalov had to dump Moscow newspapers and letters. The fog prevented this and we only heard the drone of the plane above our tent.

From the bottom of our hearts, we wished our pilots a happy fulfillment of Stalin’s mission.

At the end of June we had to leave the snowy hut where the radio station was located. Its walls became like lace and threatened to collapse. The floor turned into a solid puddle.

The radio masts were installed in a new location. In the corner of the living tent, all the radio equipment was placed on a small table. Batteries were installed under the table. The cable from the windmill was also connected to the tent. A day later, the equipment dried out, and the audibility of all radio stations increased sharply. We got the opportunity to regularly listen to Moscow.

Each of us was a correspondent for one or even several newspapers and magazines. The demand for any information about our work was extremely great. We willingly responded to all correspondence demands and became real journalists. There was only one limitation, but it was a very significant one - the wind. The operation of the radio station depended on charging the batteries, i.e., on the operation of the windmill.

When there was wind, many thousands of words were transmitted, and when the wind stopped and it was not known how long the battery charge would have to be stretched, we reduced the transmission and reception time. There were periods of calm when we used electricity very sparingly, limiting ourselves to transmitting weather reports four times a day.

Each report included our latest coordinates. If necessary, the expedition's search would begin south of our last location.

In a strong wind we felt tense: we had to reckon with the possibility of compression and hummocking of the ice. We slept in turns, since we had to often leave the tent, go around our reserve bases and monitor the condition of the ice.

August 28, 1937 marked one hundred days of our stay on the ice. On this day we were at 87°09" north latitude at 1° east longitude.

Our ice field moved south at variable speeds. In one hundred days, the ice floe traveled along a broken line 550 kilometers at an average speed of five and a half kilometers per day.

By the end of August the air temperature began to drop. The long polar night was approaching. The blizzard filled up the holes and ruts formed by the melting and leveled the surface of the ice floe. We went on several excursions ten to twelve kilometers from the camp. The road was not easy; there were often old hummocks. We have entered an area where compression has recently taken place. The height of the heaped ice masses reached eight meters. A chaotic accumulation of ice, traces of titanic compression, stretched for many kilometers to the horizon.

The sight of these hummocks made us become even more vigilant. We hoped for our ice floe to be three meters thick, but even such ice could crumble under the pressure of neighboring fields, like glass.

On October 5 we saw off the sun. It disappeared into the long polar night. The last days of light were used to build ice huts. Our main tent perfectly withstood the dampness and winds, but all the other tents were disheveled and almost completely unusable. We had to think about the blizzard on the polar night, which would cover our reserve bases.

We had to build ice houses. We kneaded snow porridge in the ice hole and put it with shovels between two boards placed on edge. After fifteen minutes, the boards could be raised higher and the next tier laid. This is how the walls grew. The hardest part was building the roof, but we got through that too predicament. Two held a bent sheet of plywood on their shoulders, and the rest put a thin layer of ice porridge on top. The plywood was kept for quite a long time - the frost should have grabbed the roof, but not so much that the plywood sheets would hopelessly freeze. Then the plywood was torn off, and the ice porridge remained.

The polar night brought us a lot of new troubles. The ice hole near the hydrological winch began to freeze. Clearing it from above was not difficult, but when the ice began to build up at the lower edge at a depth of three meters, we were forced to abandon this ice hole. I had to move to another place.

Hydrological work began to be carried out on the nearest crack, one kilometer from our tent. It was dangerous to leave instruments near her because of possible compression. Therefore, each time I had to install everything again and clean it up after finishing the work. This made work difficult.

Once, returning at night during a snowstorm from a hydrological station, Papanin and I wandered around the living tent for a long time, not finding it. We had to take precautions: we collected all the ropes and stretched a line, holding on to which we could walk in the dark.

Observation of weather, ice and sea continued during the polar night. The East Greenland Current, heading from the Central Arctic Basin into the wide strait between Spitsbergen and Greenland, carries huge masses of polar multi-year ice, the so-called polar pack, to the south. The existence of ice drift was known earlier and was proven by the drifts of many ships and ice buoys thrown onto the ice in different places in the Arctic. On the coast of Greenland, driftwood washed out to sea by Siberian rivers and household items from northern Alaskans were found.

For the first time, our drifting station made it possible to clarify the drift speed and carry out systematic and comprehensive hydrological work.

After seven months of drifting, we approached the northeastern shores of Greenland. Due to the proximity of land, large compression and hummocking was to be expected. The entire facility was put in full readiness: they stepped up watch, closely monitored the ice, and prepared a set of emergency equipment.

For a whole month, the ice floe was carried along the eastern coast of Greenland.

At the end of January a terrible storm broke out. For a whole week we were unable to make astronomical observations due to a blizzard and storm, and when we finally managed to make them, it turned out that we had catastrophically advanced to the south. A request even came from Moscow demanding that we repeat our last coordinates, as they suspected an error in the calculations.

The danger was that the mass of ice moving south had reached the latitudes where the region of open water begins. It was as if we were pushed to the edge of the ice fields. The storm and waves from the south were destroying our ice field. We found ourselves on a fragment of a field measuring 200 by 300 meters. This happened on February 1st. Two bases and a technical warehouse were cut off from us. Everything necessary for life was saved in time.

The storm continued, and with it our situation worsened. The ice floe was getting smaller.

Sometimes clear waters up to fifty meters wide appeared, and this indicated that we were moving towards ice-free water.

The living tent had to be abandoned because it was flooded with water. Having erected a light tent for the radio station and housing, we were immediately forced to move it, since a new crack passed through the middle of the tent - another part of the already small ice floe broke off. The radio equipment was installed on sleds and moved from place to place depending on the situation.

On February 6, the compression began. With a crash and a creak, the masses of ice climbed onto our tiny ice floe. Ten meters from the tent, an ice shaft grew and moved toward us. The ice floe was shaking under us.

On February 8, a storm tore and overturned our tent and loaded sledges. With great difficulty, we somehow secured the remains of our property. The next day the storm died down and we saw the Greenland mountains on the horizon for the first time. All around us there was a mess of crushed ice. Here and there scattered pieces of our equipment were blackened. Climbing over hummocks and jumping over cracks, we managed to collect part of the property.

Having dug a hole in the snow and covering it with a tarpaulin, we settled in it. It was cold, but the wind did not bother us.

During the storm, we were able to regularly make meteorological observations and transmit them to the mainland. Now the hydrological observations are over - the winch has been carried away in an unknown direction. The last depth we were able to determine was 203 meters.

Our fragment of the ice field continued to move south. All around was only finely crushed, and in some places, mushed ice. When the wind picked up, we waited tensely and were ready for any new complications. Our rubber boats were pumped up and ready. All our notes, maps, diaries were placed in a rubber bag, which in the event of a disaster would be thrown into the sea, and maybe someone would pick it up.

But we knew that the ships sent by the Motherland were rushing to our aid. A few days later, direct communication was established with the icebreaking ships Murman and Taimyr.

And then, finally, February 19th arrived. Maneuvering between the ice floes, crossing the ice bridges, the icebreakers made their way to us.

Unforgettable minutes of meeting!

Dozens of friendly hands helped us transfer the remains of our property to the ships.

The last radiogram was transmitted - a report to the government.

“We are infinitely happy to report on the completion of the task entrusted to us. From the North Pole to 75° north latitude, we carried out all the planned research and collected valuable scientific material on the study of ice drift, hydrology and meteorology, made numerous gravitational and magnetic measurements, and carried out biological research.

From the first of February, when our field broke into pieces at 74°, we continued all possible observations under these conditions. They worked confidently, did not worry for a minute about their fate, they knew that our mighty Motherland, sending its sons, would never leave them. The ardent care and attention shown to us by the party, the government and the entire Soviet people continuously supported us and ensured the successful completion of all work.

At this hour we leave the ice floe at coordinates 70°54" north 19°48" west, having drifted over 2500 kilometers in 274 days. Our radio station was the first to report the news of the conquest of the North Pole, provided reliable communication with the Motherland, and with this telegram ends its work.”

Moscow greeted us warmly and joyfully. Entwined with flowers, surrounded by crowds of jubilant Muscovites, our cars slowly moved towards the center.

Our expedition, like all expeditions and construction projects in our country, was a truly national affair. Dozens of institutions and factories took part in its preparation. The work of our four was the final link in the enormous work of many thousands of people. Millions of Soviet people followed our life on the ice floe, worried about us, thousands of radio amateurs kept in touch with us... Together with us, together with Moscow, the entire Soviet people rejoiced at our victory.

J.V. Stalin in a speech at a reception in the Kremlin for workers high school highly appreciated the work of the winterers of the North Pole drifting station, saying that “...Papanin and the Papaninites, in their practical work on a drifting ice floe... overturned the old idea of ​​​​the Arctic as outdated, and established a new one that meets the requirements of real science. .."

Meaning research work drifting station "North Pole" is very large. The firmly established idea that the ice of the Central Arctic basin is a continuous accumulation of hummocks was refuted, the existence of large oceanic depths in the area of ​​the pole was proven, it was established that the warm Atlantic current reaches the pole, and the laws of ice drift were clarified.

The observations of winterers at the drifting station shattered assumptions about the extreme poverty of organic life in the Central Arctic. The meteorological and magnetic observations of the expedition are of especially great practical importance. Before the start of work at the drifting station, science had no information about the climatic features of the Central Polar Basin and the magnetic field of the polar region.

We couldn't help but win at the pole. Neither cracks nor compression scared us, because every day and every hour we felt the love of the people, the care of the Communist Party and the Soviet government.”

Bibliography

1. E. T. Krenkel Station “North Pole” / E. T. Krenkel. - Russian sailors. – Moscow: Military Publishing House of the USSR Ministry of Defense, 1953. – P. 435-450.
2. 300 travelers and explorers. Biographical Dictionary. – Moscow: Mysl, 1966. – 271 p.

Ivan Papanin was born in the city of Sevastopol on November 26, 1894. His father was a harbor sailor. He earned very little, and the large Papanin family suffered from poverty. They lived in a makeshift shack in Apollonova Balka, located on the Korabelnaya side of the city. Ivan Dmitrievich recalled his childhood as follows: “Chekhov has a bitter phrase: “I didn’t have a childhood as a child.” It’s the same for me.” Each of the Papanin children from a young age tried to earn at least a penny on their own by helping their parents.

At school, Ivan studied “excellently”, but due to his difficult financial situation, after graduating from the fourth grade in 1906, he left his studies and got a job at the Sevastopol plant as a turner’s apprentice. The smart boy quickly mastered this profession and was soon considered a skilled worker. By the age of sixteen, he could independently disassemble and assemble a motor of any complexity. In 1912, Ivan, among other capable and promising workers, was enrolled in the staff of the shipbuilding plant in the city of Revel (currently Tallinn). In a new place, the young man learned a number of new specialties, which later became very useful to him.

At the beginning of 1915, Ivan Dmitrievich was called to serve. He joined the Black Sea Fleet as a technical specialist. Two years later, a revolution occurred, and Ivan Dmitrievich, who by that time was twenty-three years old, did not hesitate to join the ranks of the Red Army. A short time later, he was appointed head of the armor workshops of the 58th Army. In the difficult summer of 1919, Ivan Dmitrievich was repairing damaged armored trains. At an abandoned railway station, he managed to organize a large workshop. After this, the young man worked as commissar of the headquarters of the river and sea forces of the Southwestern Front.

After the main forces of the White Guards retreated to the Crimea, Papanin, among others, was sent by the front leadership to organize the partisan movement behind enemy lines. The assembled Rebel Army caused Wrangel considerable harm. In the end, the White Guards had to withdraw some troops from the front. The forest where the partisans were hiding was surrounded, but with incredible efforts they managed to break through the cordon and escape into the mountains. After this, the commander of the Insurgent Army, Alexei Mokrousov, decided to send a proven and reliable person to the headquarters of the Southern Front in order to report the situation and coordinate further actions. Ivan Papanin became such a person.

In the current situation, it was possible to get to Russia through the Turkish city of Trebizond (now Trabzon). Papanin managed to negotiate with local smugglers to transport him across the Black Sea. In a flour sack, he safely passed the customs post. The journey to Trebizond turned out to be unsafe and long. Already in the city, Papanin managed to meet the Soviet consul, who on the very first night sent him to Novorossiysk on a transport ship. Twelve days later, Papanin managed to get to Kharkov and appear before Mikhail Frunze. The commander of the Southern Front listened to him and promised to provide the partisans with the necessary assistance. After this, Ivan Dmitrievich set off on the return journey. In the city of Novorossiysk, the future famous writer-playwright Vsevolod Vishnevsky joined him. On a boat with ammunition they reached the Crimean coast, after which Papanin returned to the partisans.

For organizing the actions of partisan detachments behind enemy lines, Ivan Dmitrievich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After the defeat of Wrangel's army and the end of the Civil War, Papanin worked as commandant of the Extraordinary Commission of Crimea. During the work, he was thanked for preserving the confiscated valuables. Over the next four years, Ivan Dmitrievich literally could not find a place for himself. In Kharkov, he served as military commandant of the Ukrainian Central Executive Committee, then, by the will of fate, he was appointed secretary of the revolutionary military council of the Black Sea Fleet, and in the spring of 1922 he was transferred to Moscow to the place of commissar of the Administrative Directorate of the Main Maritime Technical and Economic Directorate.

Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to trace the change in Ivan Dmitrievich’s worldview over these terrible years, during which he went through all imaginable and unimaginable difficulties. Undoubtedly, the bloody events left many scars on his heart. Being a benevolent, humane and conscientious person by nature, Papanin finally made an unexpected decision - to engage in science. We can say that from that moment he began the “second half” of his life, which turned out to be much longer - almost sixty-five years. Ivan Dmitrievich demobilized in 1923, moving to the position of chief of security at the People's Commissariat of Communications. When in 1925 the People's Commissariat decided to establish the first stationary radio station at the Aldan gold mines in Yakutia, Papanin asked to be sent for construction. He was appointed deputy chief for supply issues.

We had to get to the city of Aldan through the remote taiga; Papanin himself wrote about this: “We went to Irkutsk by train, then again by train to the village of Never. And then another thousand kilometers on horseback. Our small detachment, well-equipped, moved without losses, despite the fact that the time was turbulent - they almost drowned in the river, and had to shoot back from the bandits. We got to the place barely alive, it was severely frosty, and we were pretty hungry.” The station was built in one year instead of the planned two, and Papanin himself said: “During the year of work in Yakutia, I turned from a resident of the south into a convinced northerner. This is a completely special country that takes a person without a trace.”

Returning to the capital, Ivan Dmitrievich, with only four grades of primary school behind him, entered the Planning Academy. However full course Academy, never graduated - in 1931 Germany turned to the Soviet Union for permission to visit the Soviet part of the Arctic on the huge airship "Graf Zepelin". The official goal was to clarify the location of islands and archipelagos and study the distribution of ice cover. The USSR agreed with only one condition: that Russian scientists would also take part in this expedition, and copies of the data obtained at the end of the trip would be transferred to the Soviet Union. The world press made a big fuss about the flight. The Arctic Institute organized a trip to Franz Josef Land for the icebreaking steamship Malygin, which was to meet the German airship in Tikhaya Bay and exchange mail with it. The aspiring polar explorer Papanin, as an employee of the People's Commissariat for Postal Service, headed the post office on the Malygin.

“Malygin” reached Tikhaya Bay, where the Soviet station stood, on July 25, 1931. The expedition participants were met by the first shift of polar explorers, who lived here for a year. And by lunchtime the next day, the Graf Zeppelin airship arrived here, landing on the surface of the bay. Papanin wrote: “The airship - a huge swaying pile - lay on the water, reacting to any, even very weak wind. The mail transfer process was short. The Germans threw their correspondence into our boat, we handed them ours. As soon as the mail was delivered to the Malygin, we dismantled it and distributed it to the passengers, the rest of the messages remained to wait for the mainland.”

Having said goodbye to the airship, “Malygin” visited a number of islands of Franz Josef Land. Ivan Dmitrievich gladly took part in all coastal landings. This is how Papanin’s flight participant, writer Nikolai Pinegin, recalled: “I first met this man in 1931 in the Malygin postal cabin.” It seemed to me that he had some kind of gift for putting people together into friendly groups. For example, before those who wanted to hunt had time to express their proposals, Ivan Dmitrievich had already lined up people, lined them up, distributed weapons, cartridges and announced the rules of collective hunting, as if all his life he had done nothing but shoot polar bears...”

Papanin liked the north, and in the end he decided to stay here. He wrote: “Isn’t it too late to start life again at thirty-seven years old? No, no and NO! It's never too late to start your favorite business. And I had no doubt at all that the work here would become my favorite, I felt that it was for me. I was not afraid of difficulties; I had already experienced enough of them. The blue sky and white expanses stood before my eyes, and I remembered that special silence that has nothing to compare with. This is how my journey as a polar explorer began..."

While still in Tikhaya Bay, Papanin, having carefully examined the polar station, came to the conclusion that it needed to be expanded. He shared his thoughts with the head of the expedition, the famous polar explorer Vladimir Wiese, offering his services. After returning from the expedition, Wiese recommended the candidacy of Ivan Dmitrievich to the director of the Arctic Institute, Rudolf Samoilovich, which resulted in the appointment of Papanin as head of the station in Tikhaya Bay. It should be noted that this station was given great importance in connection with the scientific event held in 1932-1933, called the second International Polar Year, designed to unite the efforts of the leading powers in the study of the polar regions. The station in Tikhaya Bay was planned to be turned into a large observatory with a wide range of research.

In January 1932, Ivan Dmitrievich moved to St. Petersburg and was accepted into the staff of the Arctic Institute. He spent days and days in the warehouses of Arcticsnab, choosing the necessary equipment and looking closely at the “personnel”. A total of thirty-two people were selected for the work, including twelve research assistants. It is curious that Papanin took his wife with him for the winter, which was rare for those times. To deliver everything necessary to Tikhaya Bay, the Malygin had to make two voyages from Arkhangelsk. The construction team that arrived on the first flight immediately got to work. Before their arrival, the station had one residential building and a magnetic pavilion, but soon another house, a mechanical workshop, a radio station, a power station and a weather station appeared next to them. In addition, a new house was built on Rudolf Island, thus creating a branch of the observatory. Nikolai Pinegin, who went to look at the construction, wrote: “Everything was done solidly, prudently, economically... The work was perfectly organized and was carried out extraordinarily. The new boss has assembled an amazingly well-coordinated team.”

After stationary observations were established, scientists began observations at distant points of the archipelago. For this purpose, dog sled trips were undertaken in the first half of 1933. The result was the identification of several astronomical points, clarification of the outlines of the straits and shores, and the discovery of a scattering of small islands near Rudolf Island, called October. The outstanding polar explorer, astronomer and geophysicist Evgeny Fedorov recalled: “Ivan Dmitrievich’s motto: “Science should not suffer,” was decisively put into practice. He did not have any systematic education, however, visiting all the laboratories, regularly talking with each of us, he quickly understood the main tasks, in the sense of the research being carried out. He did not try to delve into details, however, being by nature an insightful and intelligent person, he wanted to know how qualified each scientist was, how much he loved his job, and how devoted he was to it. Having made sure that all the specialists were trying to do their job as best as possible, he no longer found it necessary to interfere, turning all his attention to helping them.”

The second shift of the station in Tikhaya Bay was transported by the icebreaking steamship Taimyr in August 1933. After reporting to the Arctic Institute on the work completed, Papanin went on vacation and then reappeared in Wiese’s office. During the conversation, Vladimir Yulievich informed him of a new appointment - the head of a tiny polar station located on Cape Chelyuskin. In four months, Ivan Dmitrievich managed to select a team of thirty-four people and deliver scientific pavilions, prefabricated houses, a wind turbine, a hangar, a radio station, all-terrain vehicles and much other equipment to the city of Arkhangelsk. It is curious that most of his wintering colleagues in Tikhaya Bay did not hesitate to go with Papanin.

The travelers set off in the summer of 1934 on board the icebreaker Sibiryakov. At Cape Chelyuskin there was solid fast ice, which allowed the polar explorers to unload directly onto the ice. The total weight of the cargo reached 900 tons, and all of it, down to the last kilogram, had to be dragged three kilometers to the shore. This work took two weeks. During this period, the Litke icebreaker, the Partizan Shchetinkin tugboat, the Ermak icebreaker along with the Baikal steamship approached the cape. Papanin also managed to attract the crews of these ships to carry them. Simultaneously with the delivery of things and materials, a team of builders began constructing scientific pavilions, warehouses, houses and a wind turbine. Everything except the stoves was ready at the end of September. In this regard, in order not to delay the icebreaker, Ivan Dmitrievich, leaving the stove maker for the winter, released the rest of the workers. Throughout the winter, the researchers carried out observations and went on one-day sleigh rides. In the spring, one group of scientists set off on a long trip to Taimyr on dog sleds, and the other, together with Papanin, moved along the Vilkitsky Strait.

At the beginning of August, the ice in the strait began to move, and the Sibiryakov left Dikson with a new group of winterers. Ivan Dmitrievich was pleased with the work done - a radio center and a modern observatory were created, and scientists accumulated valuable material. Comfort and cleanliness reigned in the pavilions and residential building, which was the merit of the wives of Fedorov and Papanin. By the way, Anna Kirillovna Fedorova acted as a geophysicist and cultural organizer, and Galina Kirillovna Papanina acted as a meteorologist and librarian. Soon the icebreaking steamer brought a new shift and, having unloaded food, headed east to other stations. He was supposed to pick up the Papanins on the way back. It was unreasonable for two shifts to crowd together at one station; many wanted to go home to their families, and Ivan Dmitrievich, taking advantage of the passage past the cape of the Anadyr steamship, persuaded the captain to take his detachment with him.

After returning from the campaign, Papanin began to enjoy well-deserved authority among polar explorers, but the next expedition of Ivan Dmitrievich forever inscribed his name in the exploration of the Arctic spaces. For the USSR, the discovery of permanent navigation of ships along the Northern Sea Route was of great importance. For this purpose, a special department was established - the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route, or Glavsevmorput for short. However, to operate Arctic lines, it was necessary to conduct a series of multifaceted scientific research - study ice drift routes, periods of their melting, study underwater currents and much more. It was decided to organize a unique and risky scientific expedition, which involved long-term work by people directly on a floating ice floe.

Papanin was appointed head of the expedition. He was entrusted not only with the preparation of equipment, equipment and food, but also with the construction of an air base on Rudolf Island. With his characteristic determination, Ivan Dmitrievich also inserted himself into the selection of the station’s team. However, of his old companions, he managed to defend only Evgeniy Fedorov. In addition to him, the team included: radio operator Ernst Krenkel and hydrobiologist Pyotr Shirshov.

For a whole year, the staff of the drifting station prepared for work. An exception was made only for Krenkel, who was wintering at that time on Severnaya Zemlya.

Papanin boldly took on the task of remaking existing equipment and designing new ones. He wrote: “Without lighting, there’s nowhere. Taking batteries is difficult, and they are unreliable in cold weather. Fuel oil and gasoline - how much will you need? Apparently, we need a windmill. It is unpretentious, not afraid of frost, and rarely breaks. The only negative is that it is heavy. The lightest one weighs almost 200 kilograms, and for us even a hundred is a lot, it is necessary, due to the materials and design, to remove even half of this hundred. I went to Leningrad and Kharkov. He said there: “The maximum weight of a windmill is 50 kilograms.” They looked at me with regret - they said I was moving. ...And yet, Leningrad craftsmen set a record - according to the design of a designer from Kharkov, they created a windmill weighing 54 kilograms.”

The Institute of Public Nutrition Engineers came up with special sets of freeze-dried, high-calorie, fortified foods for the expedition. All products were sealed in special tin cans weighing 44 kilograms each, at the rate of one can for four people for ten days. In addition, powerful compact radio stations were assembled especially for the participants and a unique tent was developed that could withstand fifty-degree frost. Its lightweight aluminum frame was “dressed” with canvas, and then with a cover, including two layers of eider down. On top there was a layer of tarpaulin and a black silk cover. The height of the “house” was 2 meters, width - 2.5, length - 3.7. Inside there was a folding table and two bunk beds. A vestibule was attached to the outside of the tent, which “kept” the heat when the door was opened. The floor of the tent was inflatable, 15 centimeters thick. The “house” weighed 160 kilograms, so four men could lift it and move it. The tent was not heated; the only source of heat was a kerosene lamp.

The starting point for the flight to the Pole was Rudolf Island, from which the goal was only 900 kilometers. However, there was only a small house for three people. For the air expedition, it was necessary to build the main and reserve airfields, warehouses for equipment, a garage for tractors, living quarters and deliver hundreds of barrels of fuel. Papanin, together with the head of the future air base, Yakov Libin, and a team of builders with the necessary cargo, went to the island in 1936. Having made sure that work there was in full swing, Ivan Dmitrievich returned to the mainland. The final rehearsal for the operation of the future drifting station was successfully held in February 1937. A tent was erected fifteen kilometers from the capital, in which the “Papaninites” lived for several days. No one visited them, and they maintained contact with the outside world via radio.

May 21, 1937 near the North Pole large group polar explorers were landed on an ice floe. It took people two weeks to equip the station, and then four people remained on it. The fifth living creature on the ice floe was a dog named “Vesely”. The drift of the legendary station "SP-1" (North Pole-1) lasted 274 days. During this time, the ice floe floated over two and a half thousand kilometers. The expedition participants made many scientific discoveries, in particular, an underwater ridge crossing the Arctic Ocean was discovered. It also turned out that the polar regions are densely populated by various animals - seals, seals, bears. The whole world closely followed the epic of Russian polar explorers; not a single event that happened between the two world wars attracted such attention from the general public.

Papanin, not being a scientific specialist, often worked “in the wings” - in the workshop and in the kitchen. There was nothing offensive in this; without the help of Ivan Dmitrievich, two young scientists would not have been able to implement an extensive scientific program. In addition, Papanin created a team atmosphere. This is how Fedorov wrote about him: “Dmitrich not only helped us, he guided and literally nurtured what is called the spirit of the team - willingness to help a friend, friendliness, restraint regarding an unsuccessful act and an extra word from a neighbor. He, as a leader, perfectly understood the need to maintain and strengthen the compatibility of the expedition participants, devoting all his spiritual strength to this side of life.”

Every day Ivan Dmitrievich got in touch with the mainland and talked about the progress of the drift. One of the last radiograms was especially alarming: “As a result of a storm that lasted six days, in the area of ​​the station on February 1 at eight o’clock in the morning, the field was torn by cracks ranging from half a kilometer to five kilometers long. We are on a piece of debris 200 meters wide and 300 meters long. The technical warehouse has been cut off, as well as two bases... There is a crack under the living tent, we are moving to a snow house. I’ll tell you the coordinates today, please don’t worry if the connection is lost.” The management decided to evacuate the polar explorers. With enormous difficulties, on February 19, 1938, not far from the coast of Greenland, the “Papaninites” were removed from the ice floe with the help of the approaching icebreakers “Taimyr” and “Murman”. Thus ended, according to the outstanding Soviet scientist Otto Schmidt, the most significant geographical study of the twentieth century.

All members of the expedition turned into national heroes, becoming symbols of everything Soviet, progressive and heroic. The polar explorers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and received major promotions. Shirshov became director of the Arctic Institute, Fedorov became his deputy, Krenkel headed the Arctic Department, Ivan Dmitrievich became deputy head of the Main Northern Sea Route Otto Schmidt. Six months later (in 1939), Otto Yulievich went to work at the Academy of Sciences, and Papanin headed the Main Northern Sea Route. Of course, both in character and in style of work, Ivan Dmitrievich was the complete opposite of the former leader. However, in those years new organization just such a person was needed - with enormous energy, life experience, penetration ability. It was here that Papanin’s organizational gift truly unfolded. He devoted a lot of effort to the development of the North, organizing the life and work of people who worked in the vast territory of the Soviet Arctic.

In 1939, Papanin aboard the icebreaker "Stalin" took part in a voyage along the Northern Sea Route. "Stalin", having traveled along the entire route to Ugolnaya Bay, returned to Murmansk, making a double through voyage for the first time in the history of Arctic voyages. Papanin wrote: “In two months, the icebreaker covered twelve thousand kilometers, including work in the ice to guide ships. We visited the main Arctic ports and a number of polar stations, and I had the opportunity to see their condition and get acquainted with the personnel. This voyage turned out to be truly priceless for me - from now on I knew the state of affairs not from papers or hearsay, and received complete information about navigation in the Arctic.”

Having completed the navigation of 1939, Papanin went to rest south, but was soon called to Moscow in connection with the start of work to rescue the crew of the icebreaker Georgy Sedov, drifting in the ice. The government decided to send the flagship icebreaker “Stalin” to help, which was also given the additional task of saving the icebreaking steamship “Sedov”. After urgent completion of repairs, the Stalin left the port of Murmansk on December 15, 1939. On January 4, 1940, 25 kilometers from Sedov, the icebreaker fell into heavy ice. The pressure of the ice floes was so strong that the frames cracked. However, a week later the compression stopped, and the Stalin, taking advantage of the cracks and loopholes, approached the emergency steamer on January 12. A special commission recognized the Sedov as seaworthy, and after hard work to free the ship from the ice, the icebreaker, taking the steamer in tow, set off on its return journey. On February 1, the expedition members found themselves on native land. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to all fifteen participants of the drift and the captain of the “Stalin” Belousov. Ivan Dmitrievich became a twice Hero.

During the Great Patriotic War, Papanin led transportation in the North of the country with indomitable energy. He was also entrusted with organizing uninterrupted delivery to the front military equipment and equipment coming from England and America under Lend-Lease. In addition, he made a huge contribution to the reorganization of the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. And at the end of 1942, a tank column called “Soviet Polar Explorer”, created at the expense of polar explorers, went to the front. In 1943, Ivan Dmitrievich was awarded the rank of rear admiral. People's Commissar of the Navy Alexander Afanasyev wrote about him: “The short, cast Papanin always came in with a sharp joke and a smile. He will walk around everyone in the reception area, shake hands with everyone and make a pun or say warm words, and then be the first to easily enter the government office. ... When reporting on transportation, he will definitely show concern for port workers, sailors and soldiers, ask to replace special clothing, increase food, and put forward a proposal to reward workers of the Far North for completing tasks.”
Meanwhile, the years reminded Papanin of themselves. Remaining cheerful and not tired in the eyes of his colleagues, Ivan Dmitrievich began to increasingly feel disruptions in his body. During Arctic navigation in 1946, Papanin fell down with attacks of angina pectoris. Doctors insisted on long-term treatment, and, realistically assessing his capabilities, the famous polar explorer resigned from his post as head of the Main Northern Sea Route.

Papanin considered the next two years the most boring in his life. Big holidays for him were the visits of his comrades from the drifting station - Fedorov, Krenkel and Shirshov. In the fall of 1948, Pyotr Shirshov, who is the director of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, invited Ivan Dmitrievich to become his deputy in the direction of expeditionary activities. This is how a new stage began in Papanin’s life. His tasks included ordering and supervising the construction of research ships, forming expedition teams, and providing them with equipment and scientific equipment.

The energy and effectiveness of Papanin’s work were noticed. In 1951 he was invited to the Academy of Sciences to the position of head of the department of marine expeditionary work. The task of the department was to ensure the operation of the AN ships, of which there were no more than a dozen for sailing in coastal waters and one research ship for long-distance travel. However, a few years later, ocean-going vessels designed specifically for scientific research began to appear in the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then in the research institutes of the Hydrometeorological Service. Without any exaggeration, Papanin was the initiator and organizer of the founding of the world's largest research fleet. In addition, the famous polar explorer organized a separate scientific center on the Volga River, and a biological station on the Kuibyshev Reservoir, which later turned into the Institute of Ecology of the Volga Basin of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

It is also necessary to note the activities of Ivan Dmitrievich in the village of Borok. One day, who loved to hunt in the Yaroslavl region, he was also asked to inspect the local biological station. It arose on the site of a former landowner's estate and was dying, but in connection with the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir they were going to revive it. Papanin returned to the capital with a double impression - on the one hand, the station was an excellent place for scientific research, on the other, it was a pair of dilapidated wooden houses with a dozen bored employees. Arriving in Borok at the beginning of 1952, Papanin, who headed the station “part-time,” began active work. His authority in economic and scientific circles allowed the polar explorer to “knock out” scarce equipment and materials; one after another, barges with metal, boards, and bricks began to arrive at the station’s pier.

Residential buildings, laboratory buildings, and auxiliary services were built, and a research fleet appeared. On the initiative and with the direct participation of Ivan Dmitrievich, the Institute of Biology of Reservoirs (currently the Papanin Institute of Biology of Inland Waters) and the Borok Geophysical Observatory were created in the village. Ivan Dmitrievich invited many young specialists to this place, supporting them with housing. However, his main achievement was the appearance in Borok of a group of outstanding scientists - biologists and geneticists, most of whom served time and could not return to Moscow. Here they got the opportunity to fully engage in creative activity. Papanin also ignored Khrushchev’s instructions to send people to retire when they reached the age of 60.

Thanks to the efforts of Ivan Dmitrievich, the village was populated by educated and cultured people. Everything in this place was buried in flowers; on Papanin’s initiative, a special landscaping group was organized, which carried out a number of large-scale windbreak plantings, which made it possible to acclimatize imported southern plants. The moral climate of the village was also of particular interest - they never heard of theft here and the doors in the apartments were never locked. And on the train to Moscow passing near the village, Papanin “knocked out” a permanent reservation for eight compartments for the institute’s employees.

Intense activity in his advanced years affected Papanin’s health. More and more often he fell ill and was in hospitals. His first wife, Galina Kirillovna, passed away in 1973. They lived in harmony for almost fifty years, wintering together at Cape Chelyuskin and in Tikhaya Bay. Being a sensible and calm woman, she perfectly balanced her husband, “bringing him down from heaven” during the years of honors and glory. For the second time, Ivan Dmitrievich married the editor of his memoirs, Raisa Vasilievna, in 1982. The legendary polar explorer died four years later - on January 30, 1986 - and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, where all his comrades from the famous drift had already found peace.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Israel said: “Papanin was a great man with a kind heart and an iron will.” During his long life, Ivan Dmitrievich wrote over two hundred articles and two autobiographical books- “Life on an Ice Floe” and “Ice and Fire”. He was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he was a holder of nine Orders of Lenin, and was awarded many orders and medals, both Soviet and foreign. Ivan Dmitrievich was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences, and became an honorary citizen of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Lipetsk, Sevastopol and the entire Yaroslavl region. An island in the Azov Sea, a cape on the Taimyr Peninsula, an underwater mountain in Pacific Ocean and mountains in Antarctica.

Based on materials from the book by Yu.K. Burlakov "Papanin's Four. Ups and downs" and the website http://odnarodyna.com.ua.

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On November 26, 1894, one of the main researchers of the Arctic, a pioneer in the study and development of the North Pole, Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin, was born. He lived a fairly long life - 91 years. Papanin passed away on January 30, 1986, exactly 30 years ago. Over the years of his life, Ivan Papanin was awarded many awards, including twice becoming a Hero of the Soviet Union, and he was also awarded nine Orders of Lenin. In addition, he had the rank of rear admiral and the scientific degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences. He gained wide fame back in 1937, when he led an expedition to the North Pole. For 274 days, four fearless workers of the SP-1 station drifted on an ice floe and monitored magnetic field Earth, as well as the processes that occurred in the atmosphere of the Arctic Ocean.

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin was born in Sevastopol. His father was a sailor in the port, so the boy’s entire life was spent near the sea; as a teenager he began to work, having completed only the 4th grade of primary school. Already in 1908, he went to work at the Sevastopol plant for the production of navigation instruments. On this occasion, he would later remark in Chekhov’s words: “As a child, I had no childhood.” In 1912, Papanin, as one of the best workers of the enterprise, was transferred to the shipyard in Reval (today Tallinn), and in 1914 he was called up for military service. At the same time, Ivan Papanin again found himself in Crimea, as he was sent to serve in the Black Sea Fleet. In 1918-1920 he took part in Civil War in Ukraine and Crimea (organization of rebel groups and sabotage). Since 1920, he was the commissar of operational management under the commander of the naval forces and forces of the Southwestern Front. From November 1920 he served as commandant of the Crimean Cheka and worked as an investigator. In 1921, he was transferred to work in Kharkov as the military commandant of the Ukrainian Central Executive Committee, after which from July 1921 to March 1922 he worked as secretary of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Black Sea Fleet.

Two years later, a promotion followed, and he was transferred to Moscow, where the young security officer dealt with postal issues, and later headed the Central Directorate of Paramilitary Security. His work in Yakutia was also connected with communications, where he supervised the construction of radio stations. While still in the capital, in 1923-1925 he managed to undergo training at the Higher Communications Courses, and it was after their completion that he went to Yakutia.

The activities of Ivan Papanin in 1932-1935 were also associated with being at the very edge of the earth. In 1932-1933, he was the head of the Tikhaya Bay polar station, which was located on Franz Josef Land, and in 1934-1935 he worked at the station, which was located on Cape Chelyuskin. That is, he had to work in very harsh conditions. However, it was then that Papanin most likely finally and irrevocably fell in love with the Arctic.

Later, even more difficult trials awaited Ivan Dmitrievich. In 1937-1938, something happened that made Papanin famous in our country and the world. He headed the world's first drifting station, the North Pole. The scientific results that were obtained in a unique drift were presented by him to the General Meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences on March 6, 1938 and were highly appreciated by specialists. The work of the drifting station really made it possible to collect a lot of important and new information about the harsh Arctic region. For their dedicated work in the difficult conditions of the Arctic, all members of this famous expedition were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the same time, Papanin, together with the station’s radio operator Krenkel, received the degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences.

At the end of 1939 - beginning of 1940, Ivan Papanin successfully organized an expedition to rescue the icebreaker Georgiy Sedov from ice captivity after an 812-day drift. For a successful expedition to rescue the icebreaker, Ivan Dmitrievich was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time. It is worth noting that from 1939 to 1946 he headed the Main Northern Sea Route. Papanin held the position of head of the Main Northern Sea Route and authorized representative of the State Defense Committee for transportation in the North throughout the Second World War. His work as head of the Main Northern Sea Route was important in the pre-war years, as it made it possible to solve many problems with the transportation of goods along the Northern Sea Route. During the first years in this high post, he paid great attention to the construction of powerful icebreakers in the country and the development of Arctic navigation. During the war, he successfully organized the reception and transportation to the front of military cargo that came to the USSR by sea from the USA and Great Britain, for which he received the rank of rear admiral in 1943.

IN post-war years Papanin gradually retreated from practice. He retired in 1949 due to heart disease (he had angina). At the same time, he did not give up his theoretical scientific activities. From 1949 to 1951 he was deputy director of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences for expeditions. From 1951 until the end of his life, Ivan Dmitrievich Papanov headed the department of marine expeditionary work in the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In parallel with this, since 1965 he was also the director of the Institute of Inland Water Biology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, located in the village of Borok. He was also chairman of the Moscow branch of the Geographical Society of the Soviet Union.

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin died on January 30, 1986 from chronic heart failure at a fairly old age - 91 years. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery. During his life, he managed to become an honorary citizen of four cities at once - his native Sevastopol, as well as Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Lipetsk, and even one region - Yaroslavl. A cape located in Taimyr, mountains in Antarctica and the Pacific Ocean, as well as an island in the Sea of ​​Azov were named after him. Also, streets in a number of cities of the Soviet Union were named after Papanin.

Interesting Facts biographies

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin is an academician without education. At one time, he did not even receive a secondary education; the boy studied in primary school for only 4 years. The plant became a real “school of life” for the famous polar explorer. Only while working in the People's Commissariat of Communications did Papanin graduate from the Higher Communications Courses. However, the lack of education did not prevent him from becoming a Doctor of Science in 1938; he received this degree for the results achieved within the framework of the work of the SP-1 station. Subsequently, he was able to become an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, as well as deputy director of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences for expeditions and director of the Institute of Inland Water Biology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Not everyone can achieve such success with the proper education. The same can be said about his military rank. Papanin became a rear admiral in 1943. Before that, he was only an ordinary sailor during the First World War and did not have any special military education.

Polar explorer No. 1

The work of the first Soviet drifting station "SP-1" (North Pole-1) marked the beginning of a systematic study of the high-latitude regions of the polar basin in the interests of navigation, hydrology and meteorology. The drift of the station, which began on June 6, 1937, lasted 9 months (274 days) and ended on February 16, 1938 in the Greenland Sea. During this time, the ice floe on which the station was located floated 2,100 kilometers. The participants of this polar expedition, under incredibly difficult working conditions, managed to collect and systematize unique material about the nature of the high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean. This expedition was attended by the leader Ivan Papanin, radio operator Ernst Krenkel, meteorologist and geophysicist Evgeny Fedotov and hydrobiologist and oceanographer Peter Shirshov.

Perhaps no event in the interval between the two world wars attracted as much public attention as the drift of the “Papanin Four” in the Arctic. Initially, they drifted on a huge ice floe, the area of ​​which reached several square kilometers. However, by the time the expedition was completed, the size of the ice floe no longer exceeded the size of a volleyball court. At that moment, the whole world was watching the fate of the Soviet polar explorers, wishing them only one thing - to return from this expedition alive.

"Papanintsy"

The feat of the four “Papaninites” was immortalized in the Soviet Union in different ways. So in 1938, a series of postage stamps was released, which was dedicated to the SP-1 expedition. In the same year, the book “Life on an Ice Floe” was published, authored by Papanin himself. In addition, for several years all Soviet boys played “Papanitsev” and conquered the North Pole, which was reflected in the literature of those years (for example, in “The Seven-Flower Flower” by Valentin Kataev, 1940). In 1995, Russia issued a commemorative coin worth 25 rubles, which was dedicated to the work of the SP-1 expedition.

Based on materials from open sources.

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin – head of the North Pole research drifting station, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Rear Admiral.

Ivan was born on November 14 (old style) 1894 in the port city of Sevastopol in the family of sailor Dmitry Nikolaevich Papanin and housewife Sekletia Petrovna Kovalenko. Ivan's ancestors were Moldovans and Ukrainians. The family raised six children. When Ivan was still a teenager, his mother died of sepsis, and the hardships of everyday life fell on the teenager’s shoulders. Therefore, despite his good performance at school, Ivan had to go to work at a factory. In 1905, the young man witnessed an uprising on the ship Ochakov. Even then, revolutionary ideals began to emerge in Ivan’s heart.

Since 1908, the young man got a job as a ship mechanic, and then mastered the specialty of a mechanic. At the age of 16, Ivan Papanin was considered the best worker in the assembly of navigation instruments. In 1912, a young worker was sent to Tallinn to improve his skills. In the 1915 war he joined the ranks Navy Russia, but in 1917, with the beginning of the revolutionary movement, he took the side of the Bolsheviks and swore allegiance to the Red Army.

In 1918, Ivan leads a partisan detachment in the territory of Crimea, occupied by the Germans under the Brest Treaty. A sabotage war begins, led by the Bolsheviks Mokrousov and Kun. Being subordinate to experienced warriors, Papanin carried out several successful operations. One of the opponents of the partisans in those years was the army. Papanin was given instructions to pass undetected through White Guard territory and return back with reinforcements.

After the victory over Wrangel on the liberated territory of the Crimean Peninsula, Papanin was given the post of commandant of the Extraordinary Commission. Since 1921, Ivan Dmitrievich had to work as an investigator. The 20s remained in the history of Crimea as a time of bloody reprisals against the surviving officers and soldiers of the White Army. Merciless security officers shot, drowned and buried their compatriots alive. It is unknown what feelings Ivan Papanin, a simple-minded and honest person by nature, experienced at this time.

Expeditions

A year later, Ivan Dmitrievich was transferred to Moscow as Commissioner for Economic Support of the Fleet, and in 1923 he was appointed head of the Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs. In the same year, Papanin enrolled in the Higher Communications Courses, where he studied for two years. When recruitment for an expedition to build a radio station in Yakutia was announced in 1925, Papanin was the first to show a desire to go north.

As deputy head of construction in permafrost conditions, Ivan Dmitrievich achieved the construction of the facility in a short time. Seven years later, Papanin is sent as the head of the polar station to the islands of Franz Josef Land, and two years later, Ivan Dmitrievich heads the station on Taimyr.

When in 1937 the government decided to launch the world's first drifting Arctic station, no one had a question about who would lead it. The goal of the expedition was not to conquer the North Pole; others had done this before Papanin (Roald Amundsen, Richard Byrd, Umberto Nobile). The Soviet government has long set itself the task of creating shipping along the northern border of the state. But the Arctic route has not yet been sufficiently studied. A scientific expedition organized right on the ice floe had to answer about the presence of underwater currents, the periods of motionless ice and the paths of its drift.

The Soviet expedition, which was widely covered in the world press, consisted of the leader and cook Ivan Papanin, hydrologist and biologist Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov, geophysicist and astronomer Evgeniy Konstantinovich Fedorov and radio operator Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel. On Big Earth Polar explorers were trained by Otto Schmidt. A few months before shipment, special food was developed, suitable for long-term storage in the conditions of the far north, a warm home was developed, and measuring equipment was prepared.

The expedition set off on 4 aerial bombers in March 1937 and reached its final destination on May 21. The flight was carried out blindly, but pilot Mikhail Vodopyanov landed the aircraft exactly on an ice floe. Within 2 weeks, the scientific station was fully equipped on the ice, after which aircraft went back, and the ice floe began to move from north to south.

The polar explorers had to drift for 274 days, while it was planned to spend a year and a half in the waters of the Arctic Ocean. During this time, scientists collected information about the fauna of the polar region and the presence of plankton in the ocean waters. The Papaninites took a large number of photographs of animals living in the Arctic. Polar explorers were responsible for the discovery of the Great Underwater Ridge and the creation of a weather map of the Arctic.

The critical moment for Papanin's group came in early February 1938. The ice floe, already approaching the warm waters of the Atlantic since the fall, began to melt and break into pieces. On February 19, the rescue operation was carried out by two icebreakers “Taimyr” and “Murman”, from one of which a plane piloted by pilot Vlasov departed for the station. The next day, equipment and people were on the Taimyr.

The country greeted the “Papaninites” as national heroes. Papanin became the idol of millions; the biography of Ivan Dmitrievich was studied in schools. On March 6, a group of polar explorers reported at the General Meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences. After the report, Ivan Papanin and Ernst Krenkel became doctors of geographical sciences. The expedition members were awarded the Order of Lenin, and all were given the title of Hero of the USSR. Ivan Dmitrievich is appointed head of the Main Northern Sea Route.

In 1939, Papanin took part in the rescue operation of the icebreaker Georgiy Sedov, which had been drifting in Arctic waters since 1937 due to a steering failure. For saving the ship and crew, Ivan Papanin again received the Hero of the USSR.

With the outbreak of the war, Ivan Papanin was entrusted with overseeing the construction of port shipyards in Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, and on the Far Eastern coast. After the Victory over Nazi Germany, having worked for a year in his previous position, Papanin went into science. Papanin's ideas about creating a scientific fleet are being implemented. Since 1951, Papanin has led naval expeditions at the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1956, Ivan Dmitrievich headed the Scientific Institute of Biology of Inland Waters in the village of Borok (Yaroslavl region). Until the end of his life, the scientist worked for the good of his homeland.

Personal life

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin was married twice. The first wife of the polar explorer was a native of Yalta, Galina Kirillovna Kastorzhivskaya. The woman shared with Ivan Dmitrievich all the hardships of life in Yakutia and Taimyr.

Galina was an indispensable assistant to her husband, collecting meteorological information and archiving the data obtained. Having contracted cancer in the mid-60s, Galina Kirillovna died in 1973. There were no children in the family.

Ivan Dmitrievich took the loss seriously, but in 1982 he married Raisa Vasilievna, who edited the publication of the polar explorer’s memoirs. The second wife was 35 years younger than Papanin.

Death

Ivan Dmitrievich enjoyed good health until the end of his life.

The polar explorer died at the age of 92 on January 30, 1986 from cardiac arrest. Papanin's grave is located at the Novodevichy cemetery.