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USSR's first drifting polar station: When Soviets set their sights on the Arctic

The four members of the North Pole 1 expedition – Ivan Papanin, Ernest Krenkel, Yevgeny Fyodorov and Pyotr Shirshov – spent nine months on a drifting ice-floe and were evacuated on February 19, 1938

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North Pole-1, the first Soviet manned drifting station in the Arctic Ocean, 1937

Soviet explorer Ivan Papanin and his dog Vesely, 1938

North Pole-1 drifting station radioman Ernst Krenkel in a tent, 1937

Ivan Papanin, head of the station, clearing snow at the North Pole-1 drifting station

Dog Vesely, 1937

© Ivan Papanin/TASS

Murman and Taimyr icebreakers, 1938

© A. Yermakov/TASS

The icebreaker Yermak with members of Ivan Papanin’s expedition on board, 1938

© Sergei Loskutov/TASS

Photographer Mark Troyanovsky taking picture of the icebreaker Yermak with Ivan Papanin’s expedition crew on board, 1938

© Sergei Loskutov/TASS

Ivan Papanin’s expedition members Pyotr Shirshov and Yevgeny Fyodorov, 1938

© Sergei Loskutov/TASS

People greeting members of the Ivan Papanin's team in Moscow, 1938

© Boris Fishman/TASS

On February 19, 1938, the Soviet ice breakers Taimyr and Murman took four people and their equipment off the ice floe. Soviet explorer Ivan Papanin and three other members of the North Pole 1 expedition (Ernest Krenkel, Yevgeny Fyodorov and Pyotr Shirshov) spent nine months on a drifting ice floe. North Pole-1 became the first Soviet manned drifting station in the Arctic Ocean.

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