- Статьи
- Science and technology
- Visiting penguins: scientists from the USSR have made a huge contribution to the research of Antarctica
Visiting penguins: scientists from the USSR have made a huge contribution to the research of Antarctica
70 years ago, on January 5, 1956, the legendary 1st Integrated Antarctic Expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences began, which changed our understanding of the geography and climate of the Earth. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Our ice floes
As you know, the honor of discovering Antarctica belongs to Russian sailors. But after the expedition of Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, who in 1820 saw the icy coast of the mysterious continent, our travelers did not sail to the area of the South Pole far from our ports. Russian researchers have never set foot on the ice of Antarctica, because the ships of Lazarev and Bellingshausen only sailed past the shores of the icy continent. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists from the United States, European powers and Latin American countries had already thoroughly explored the shores of Antarctica.
"Natives of the coral island of Moller meet Russian sailors" is a reproduction of a drawing from life by artist P. Mikhailov, a participant in the first Antarctic expedition on the Vostok and Mirny boats led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev.
But after the Great Patriotic War, there was a danger that Antarctica would become a military base for the Americans, that atomic weapons would be deployed there. In addition, 80 percent of the fresh water on Earth is stored on this continent. It became clear that the descendants of Lazarev and Bellingshausen urgently needed to overcome the gap. Arctic skills were supposed to help our researchers "catch up and overtake America" in a short time.
"Brothers, help science!"
On July 13, 1955, the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a decree on the organization of a comprehensive Antarctic expedition. That's where it all started. The reason for the exploration of the sixth continent was the preparation for the International Geophysical Year. From November 1955 to April 1959, our country undertook to organize four ship voyages to Antarctica and establish scientific observatories both on the coast and inland. The International Council of Scientific Unions has allocated a vast unexplored territory for Soviet researchers.
Polar explorer Ivan Papanin
Ivan Papanin, a legendary polar explorer with outstanding penetrating power, was responsible for organizing the expedition. When he walked into the boss's office with a big smile and announced from the doorway: "Brothers, help science!" — no one could refuse him. The expedition was equipped according to the best international standards. For the Soviet Union, which had recently suffered the hardships of war, this was an unprecedented scale. The aviation detachment received four planes and two helicopters. The expedition's flagship, the Ob diesel—electric ship, was loaded with 13 tractors and tracked bulldozers, 4 GAZ-47 all—terrain vehicles, a dozen specially equipped trucks carrying camping radios and power plants, and a GAZ-69 SUV. Well-trained Kolyma sled dogs went to Antarctica. Mikhail Somov, a Hero of the Soviet Union who managed to prove himself as an outstanding Arctic researcher, was appointed head of the expedition. A few days after the Ob, the second ship, Lena, sailed to the shores of Antarctica. And on December 15, they were followed by the ship Refrigerator No. 7, which delivered food to the southern latitudes.
The voyage was perfect, and on January 5, 1956, our compatriots set foot on the shores of Antarctica.
The continent of Antarctica. The Lena diesel-electric ship is the flagship of the Soviet Antarctic expeditions, the base of polar explorers
But how and where to land? Somov sent scouts and climbers to the rocky coast. They made sure that building a station on these rocks was a waste of time. Besides, there was a storm. A convenient place for the future residence was found only a few days later, from an airplane. 20 people landed there without delay. They have equipped an airstrip on the glacier. Soon, the Ob came closer to the future station, and travelers began unloading, building, and naming local geographical features: Pravda Coast, Komsomolskaya Rock, and Radio Hill...
In February, after a month of hard work in extreme conditions, the first Soviet scientific station in Antarctica, the Mirny Observatory, was launched, around which a whole village appeared, which immediately became one of the largest on the White continent. There, to the sound of the national anthem, as at a parade, the polar explorers raised the Soviet flag. The meteorologists' house was built about twenty paces from the line of the Southern Arctic Circle. The village and the observatory were named after one of the sailing sloops of the Bellingshausen and Lazarev expedition. But there was also a relevant implication to this name: Soviet scientists emphasized that they had come to Antarctica to prevent the militarization of southern latitudes.
Winter workers carry sledges with cargo from the berth of the Mirny Scientific Observatory in Antarctica
About a hundred people worked at this Antarctic base, a scale that could not have been achieved at the drifting stations in the Arctic Ocean. Regular meteorological observations began in Mirny, including the launching of radio probes and the compilation of weather maps... A seismic station installed in a well cut into the ice has been put into operation. Scientists meticulously recorded variations in the Earth's magnetic field. Biologists studied Antarctic fauna — penguins, seals. There were plenty of weapons at the station, but one of Somov's first orders was: "Don't shoot penguins!" Several large colonies of these royal seabirds have been discovered in the Mirny area.
It was harder than all the trials of cold and winds for the polar explorers to be isolated from their families and from their usual lives. Antarctic friendship and radio broadcasts from Moscow helped. The children of the researchers were on the air, they were preparing concerts for their fathers. And it seemed that there were not seventeen thousand kilometers between them...
Pioneers of Inaccessibility
Soviet explorers explored the most inaccessible corners of Antarctica. The pilots helped out. They explored new spaces from the sky, and delivered from the air a KAPSH, an Arctic frame tent designed by Shaposhnikov, which resembled a Kyrgyz yurt. It is a stable and easy-to-install structure. Gas cylinders were installed for its heating. It was possible to live there, conduct research, and conduct experiments. And then, on all-terrain vehicles, if necessary, replenishment got there.
Reproduction of the painting by Igor Ruban "Pionerskaya Station"
On April 2, a tractor train left Mirny inland, on which volunteers set off to explore the remote territories of Antarctica. In early May, the expedition found itself 375 kilometers from the coast, at an altitude of 2,700 meters. It was a real journey into the unknown. No one had ever been there before our travelers, let alone conducted research. They were pioneers, and the station, located deep in Antarctica, was named Pioneer. Three low houses connected by a vestibule, radio masts, a meteorological platform and an airstrip — this is what the world's first observatory in inner Antarctica looked like. Four heroes — the station's head, Professor Alexander Gusev, glaciologist Leonid Dolgushin, radio operator Evgeny Vetrov and tractor driver Nikolai Kudryashov — stayed there for several months. They were pioneers.
Commander of the Antarctic
One of the Antarctic seas is named after Mikhail Somov, the true hero of the first Soviet expedition. The Russian Leningradskaya polar station is located on the shore of the Somovsky Sea.
A hereditary scientist, he was the first Russian researcher to conquer both the North and South Poles. Since his youth, oceanology has become his passion, and above all, the study of polar currents and ice drift. At that time, polar explorers were treated roughly like astronauts in the 1960s. The children in the yards played Chelyuskinets and dreamed of becoming polar pilots. Somov participated in Arctic research since the mid-1930s, participated in the first cruise along the Northern Sea Route from Leningrad to Vladivostok and back during one navigation.
Hero of the Soviet Union, Head of the 1st Integrated Antarctic Expedition, Doctor of Geographical Sciences Mikhail Somov
In 1956, Somov led the Soviet Antarctic Expedition. During one wintering period, he managed to establish research work on the icy continent. Colleagues on the dangerous journey noted not only the courage and organizational talent of the expedition leader, but also his cheerful character. Everyone who worked with him remembered Somovsky's smile. In many ways, it was thanks to Somov that a favorable climate was established at the Soviet Antarctic stations.
After Antarctica, world fame came to him. In 1961, Somov was awarded the gold Medal of the Founders of the Royal Geographical Society of Britain. He became the first Soviet and the fourth Russian recipient of this prestigious award, which has been awarded since 1832. Since then, this medal has not been awarded to Russian researchers.
The medal was presented to Somov by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. In his speech to the aristocratic and scientific British beau monde, he was casual and joked as if in a polar tent: "The Antarctic continent is the only absolutely male continent on our planet. There we are completely freed from any oppression by women and only because we can fully devote ourselves to work. And the Antarctic continent is also distinguished by the unwavering loyalty of all the men who inhabit it to their wives and brides. The most tender and passionate telegrams come to them from Antarctica..." This joking confession was quoted in dozens of newspapers in those days. Somov possessed diplomatic talents — it was no coincidence that he was constantly assigned to conduct international negotiations on Antarctic issues.
Immediately after the expedition, the professor's health began to fail. The doctors decided categorically: "Work in the Antarctic and business trips to countries with tropical and subtropical climates are contraindicated." But less than a year after this verdict, Somov went to Antarctica again, as the head of the Eighth Seasonal Soviet Antarctic Expedition. He opened a new Antarctic station, Molodezhnaya, in the western part of Enderby Land. It became the main base of Soviet Antarctic research for many years.
View of Molodezhnaya station
Somov was a true romantic of travel. Through his labors and exploits, our science and our country have made great strides in exploring new latitudes. The founder of the first Soviet Antarctic station is buried in Komarov, near St. Petersburg. The monument on his grave was built from stones brought from Antarctica.
Antarctica forever
On February 13, 1957, the anniversary of the founding of Mirny, the participants of the Somov expedition said goodbye to Antarctica. The second opening of the white continent took place. In 2 years, the world has learned more about the icy continent than in the previous 135 years. "With their expeditions to Antarctica, the Russians have enriched science with such knowledge and information that perhaps no other nation has contributed," wrote the Swedish Daily Newspaper and did not exaggerate at all. Since then, our scientists have not stopped their Antarctic watch for a minute, and their leadership in this important scientific matter is difficult to dispute.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
