Fifty years ago, the First Soviet Antarctic Expedition marked the beginning of a systematic domestic research sixth continent. The active development of the Antarctic, which began in the middle of the 20th century, required serious practical steps, the most significant of which were the opening of scientific bases on the mainland and the organization of permanent Antarctic expeditions.
To implement the research program, the Integrated Antarctic Expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences (KAE) was formed, which was organized by the Marine Expeditionary Works Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences, headed by I.D. Papanin, and the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. On July 13, 1955, the project of the 1st KAE was approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The head of the expedition was appointed Doctor of Geographical Sciences Hero Soviet Union M. Somova. Several broad areas of work were developed: the study of atmospheric processes in Antarctica and their influence on the general circulation of the Earth's air masses, the identification of the main patterns of movement of Antarctic waters, the compilation of a physical and geographical description of the entire region and glaciers, geological characteristic district. One of critical tasks was the creation scientific station on the coast of the mainland and the organization of a base in the depths of the south polar region. To scientific work added and economic tasks search for new whaling areas. On November 30, 1955, the flagship of the 1st KAE, the diesel-electric ship Ob, left Kaliningrad. Later, the Lena diesel-electric ship and refrigerator No. 7 set off after it. The ships moved to the least explored region of East Antarctica, where they were supposed to build a scientific village and leave about 100 people for the winter.
On January 5, 1956, the Ob entered the Davis Sea and stopped at the edge of fast ice on the coast of Antarctica, which had not yet been named. The "pioneers" called it the Shore of Truth. For reconnaissance, a small ski party was sent from the ship, led by meteorologist and climber A. Gusev. “Climbing the barrier turned out to be very easy, and we already considered that we were on the mainland,” he writes in the book In the Snows of Antarctica. But when they went a little further, they found a huge crack that blocked further progress. It soon became clear that this was not a crack—it was too wide. We found out that we were not on the mainland, but on a huge iceberg, probably recently separated from the main glaciation, but still sitting on the ground and not starting to swim ”The area was clearly not suitable for the construction of the village. Aviation was thrown into the matter, and after several flights west of the Ob parking lot, approximately at the latitude of the Antarctic Circle, a small convenient peninsula with four rocky hills was discovered. The largest one, it had a width of about 400 m, was called the Komsomolskaya hill.
The first Russian Antarctic settlement twenty-one buildings and an airfield was erected in two months. And on February 13, 1956, Mirny was raised over the observatory state flag Soviet Union. Even before the opening of the observatory, with the help of aviation, the study of the surrounding areas began. During flights and during landings, geological, glaciological, magnetic and meteorological observations were carried out, and aerial photography was carried out. On February 25, a plane from Mirny visited the area of the South geomagnetic pole, where it was planned to create the Vostok station. In early March, a reconnaissance flight took place in the area where it was planned to build the Sovetskaya station. In early April, the first sledge-tractor train left Mirny for the interior of the continent. The polar winter was setting in, and the period of daylight was rapidly shrinking. Low temperatures and constant strong winds made it difficult to move and scientific observations. Having traveled more than 370 km in a month, the participants of the campaign founded the Pionerskaya inland station. In October, the Oasis base was established east of Mirny on the coast. In December 1956 and January 1957 ships of the new expedition approached Mirny. Its participants continued scientific observations at the stations and founded two more inland stations "Vostok" and "Komsomolskaya". At the end of 1957, the third expedition arrived on the continent, which founded the Sovetskaya and Pole of Inaccessibility bases. The base "Vostok" was moved to the region of the South geomagnetic pole, at a distance of more than 1,400 km from the coast.
In 1958, there were already 5 Soviet stations, thanks to the research activities of which it was obtained general idea about the meteorological regime and geophysical phenomena in the depths of Antarctica.
At the peak of activity of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition (SAE) in Antarctica, along the coast and in the depths, there were 8 year-round stations: Molodyozhnaya, Mirny, Novolazarevskaya, Progress, Bellingshausen, Russkaya, Leningradskaya ", "East". The personnel of the expedition, which remained for the winter, amounted to 180 people, while in the summer they worked up to 450. The Soviet Antarctic expedition, along with the US Antarctic program, became one of the largest research projects in the south polar region.
Vyacheslav Venediktov
Polar Captain
The dream of Nikolay Litau about the sea was born where it is hundreds of kilometers away - in the small village of Sovetskoye in the north of Kazakhstan. Before the first circumnavigation, there were service in the army, moving to Moscow, studying in Polytechnic Institute and 17 years of work in Glavmosstroy. He came to sailing when he was already over 30. Having quickly mastered the basics, Litau became a yacht captain and took part in several ocean voyages. In 1991, as a captain-mentor on the yacht of the English journalist Miles Clark "Wild Goose" passed along the inland routes of Russia from the White to the Black Sea. The case was unprecedented for those times: our internal waters were closed to foreigners. A compromise solution to difficult legal issues was found by Dmitry Shparo's Adventure Club, thanks to which the trip took place. After returning from the expedition, Litau presented his own project trip around the world on a yacht in the meridional direction across all the oceans of the planet through the Northern sea route. Most of those who sailed treated this as madness: through the ice, which even icebreakers sometimes can not do, and on a yacht?! And only a few, including Dmitry Shparo, believed and accepted. Thus began another, captain's, life of Nikolai Litau. For three years he supervised the construction of a boat in Tver, specially designed for the upcoming trip, able not only to withstand the tests of storm and wind, but also ready to withstand the harsh Arctic ice. For three years, the Adventure Club and N. Litau have been preparing a campaign: looking for sponsors, gathering a team. Finally, in November 1996, in the year of the 300th anniversary of the Russian fleet, with the Patriarchal blessing, the yacht, named at the suggestion of His Holiness "Apostle Andrei", set sail from its native shores and overcame the most difficult path 31,000 nautical miles long, repeatedly subjecting sailors to trials. But only once Litau wrote in his diary: “When it was hard, I decided for myself, I would return, and not a foot in the sea again.” The British Royal Cruiser Club recognized the Apostle Andrew's expedition as the most outstanding achievement in world yachting and in 1999 awarded Captain Litau with The Seamanship Medal. Following the British, the Cruiser Club of America awarded the Russian skipper with the medal " blue water"("The Blue Water Medal"). Compatriots were in no hurry to recognize the merits of Nikolai Litau, only in October 2002 a presidential decree was issued on awarding him the Order of Courage. The start of the second round-the-world expedition took place in October 2001. Again, as if in a kaleidoscope, countries and islands replaced each other: Germany, Cape Verde, Brazil, Falklands There, beyond the border of the Antarctic region beyond the 60th parallel, the first acquaintance with the sixth continent Antarctica took place. Ahead of the sailors was a meeting with the Canadian Arctic. The result of two round-the-world voyages and ten years of captain's life was a route that tied around the globe a strong maritime knot "Eight Litau", and new idea. September 14, 2004 "Apostol Andrew" again went on a campaign dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev.
Irina Zubkovskaya
Sails in the ocean
The hypothesis of the existence of a huge southern continent originated in ancient times However, all attempts to find it failed. Even James Cook, during two round-the-world voyages, failed to find it. In the notes of the English captain, one can read: “There is not the slightest space left where the mainland could be, unless near the Pole and places inaccessible to navigation ...” His authority was so high that no one made new attempts for half a century. Only 45 years later, the Russian navigators Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev returned to the "southern" issue. On the two sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" they made an Antarctic round-the-world expedition, during which the last, sixth, continent of the planet was finally discovered. This happened during the first trip into the depths of the polar region on January 16 (28), 1820. At noon at latitude 69 ° 21 "28" along the meridian 2 ° 14 "50" west longitude, sailors noticed a sparkling strip high ice. It was Antarctica. On January 8, 2005, the Russian yacht Apostol Andrey passed the cherished 60th parallel. The crew of the 16-meter sailboat set itself an ambitious task: to sail around Antarctica, being all the time south of this invisible line. Cross all the meridians inside the icy diameter, and if the ice situation allows, then go up beyond the 70th parallel, penetrate as deep as possible into the heart of Antarctica. The Apostles are no strangers to Antarctic waters: the yacht first came here in February 2002. She visited the Russian scientific station "Bellingshausen", and then went beyond the Antarctic Circle, towards the island of Peter I. At that time, it was not possible to achieve the goal: oncoming storms and the approaching winter did not allow. But the Antarctic Circle was crossed, the yacht reached the 69th parallel. The maximum latitude was reached in the same region of the Southern Ocean, where the ships of the great predecessors established their achievements. The new trip to Antarctica coincided with the 185th anniversary of the mainland's discovery. Beyond the 60th parallel, "Apostol Andrew" went in longitude zero degrees Greenwich meridian. Sector indian ocean passed with weak and variable headwinds. Only once, in the Bay of Kooperatsia, a nine-magnitude storm was picked up. Running away from him, the "Apostle Andrew" came close to the ice barrier of Antarctica. On January 25, 2005, the yacht was only seven miles from the coast, called Enderby Land. Before the Russian scientific base"Progress", the first scheduled visit, had only a few days of sailing, but the ice situation in the Prydz Bay, on the shore of which the village is located, did not allow visiting the polar explorers. For almost a month, the "Apostol Andrew" moved east in fogs and snowfalls, surrounded by icebergs. By the end of February, he entered the D'Urville Sea, where he crossed the Antarctic Circle for the second time and visited the French station Dumont D'Urville, also named after the navigator and oceanographer. The approaches to the station, located on the islands of the Geology archipelago, in the immediate vicinity of the mainland, were guarded by two giant iceberg, each of which exceeded the size of Moscow in area. Leaving the hospitable French, the yacht passed through the South Magnetic Pole, where the compasses literally refused to serve, and continued its voyage to the east. In the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean, fresh westerly winds ensured a rapid course advance. On the last day of February, "Apostle Andrew" passed half of the earth's circumference! Cook's result has been improved. Autumn was approaching, the end of navigation, but the chances of success of the plan remained quite real. However, fate was pleased to dispose of it differently, and on March 2, in the Ross Sea, Apostol Andrei lost her rudder. It took a whole month to get the yacht out of the icebergs and to the inhabited land without a rudder. On a crippled boat, I had to cross the frantic fifties and stormy forties latitudes, survive a 12-point hurricane. After repairs in New Zealand, it was decided to return to the shores of the ice continent in January 2006 and complete the Antarctic ring. If successful, Apostol Andrew will be the first sailing ship to circumnavigate Antarctica.
Vladimir Putin spent the day in Novorossiysk, beginning his trip with a visit to the Voyennaya Gavan port, which is under construction, where ships of the Black Sea Fleet will be based. After the prime minister went to Heroes' Square, where he laid flowers at the monument to those who died in the Great Patriotic War and talked with veterans.
Details NTV correspondent Andrey Grigoriev.
Let Ukraine succeed in extending the stay of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, but they did not forget about the spare, additional base. A large military harbor is being built in Novorossiysk. The pier and several moorings are already ready, the builders reported today to the Prime Minister.
True, the Moscow University tanker, freed from pirates off the coast of Somalia, should soon come here to the neighboring civilian port. AT happy outcome accidents, according to Vladimir Putin, is also the merit of the shipowner.
Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation: “I want to thank you and convey my gratitude to the crew of the Moscow University for their courageous and professional conduct. Courageous because they repelled one attack and acted decisively enough. Professional for the fact that they made the right decision in time and created all the conditions for the combat unit marines for the release of the vessel.
The Prime Minister was shown the water area of the port from a boat, but he walked along the embankment. It has just been reconstructed, and now it has become a kind of calling card for the city.
Stretched like an amphitheater along the coast, Novorossiysk is literally pressed against the Tsemess Bay by mountain ranges: on the one hand, Koldun Peak, on the other, Sugar Loaf. The cold wind from the continent almost does not blow, and it seems that fresh trends in the city can only get from the sea.
This is the largest Russian port on the Black Sea, and during the Great Patriotic War there was a fierce struggle for possession of it. Today Vladimir Putin, together with veterans, honored the memory of the fallen and laid flowers at Eternal fire. The memorial is kept in exemplary order, and even the guard of honor from the Yunarmiya members has been preserved. This is one of the best number one posts in Russia.
Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation: “I would like to congratulate you on wonderful holiday Happy Victory Day Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War".
The Prime Minister congratulated the veterans on the upcoming 65th anniversary of the Victory Day, asked them about the problems and assured that the state would do its best to resolve these problems promptly.
Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation: “I would like to talk about the main thing, the main thing in our country for many, many years, the housing issue. You know that we promised this year to close the problem for those veterans of the Great Patriotic War registered before March 1, 2005. I report that this task has been completed. Last region, who reported on the completion of this task, this is exactly Krasnodar region. The corresponding notice was sent from there on May 1, 2010. I admit that somewhere else there are some errors, but I repeat: officially all regions have reported. Of course, we will check it. But this task has been completely solved.”
The atmosphere is warm, the veterans are in a cheerful mood. All of them are invited as spectators to the military parade, which will be held on May 9 in Moscow on Red Square.
