The Ichthyander Project was the first project involving

underwater habitat Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping. In thi ...

s in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1960s."Ichthyander-66, an Underwater House in Tarkhankut", Tatiana Shevcnenko, ''Sobytiya Weekly''
«Ихтиандр-66» — подводный дом на Тарханкуте
, Татьяна Шевченко, «События»)
/ref> ttp://www.whoiswho.ru/old_site/russian/Curnom/32002/kik1.htm "ЮРИЙ КИКЛЕВИЧ" a bio of the engineering leader of the project Inspired by information on experiments on underwater habitats abroad (in particular, by

Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...

's '' Conshelf''), the members of the amateur diving club "Ichthyander" in

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: Names of European cities in different languages (C–D), cities' alternat ...

embarked on the project of their own at a site by Tarkhankut Cape,

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. In August 1966, in the first experiment, purely amateur, Ichthyander-66, a person spent three days continuously underwater. After newspaper news, the experiment attracted attention of authorities and scientist, and during Ichthyander-67 the habitat operated for two weeks. After Ichtyander-68 Ichtyander-70, after unsuccessful attempts to elevate it to a professional level, with state support, the project was discontinued. A 1968 Soviet popular science book ''Homo Aquaticus'' writes: "It so happened that after the 1967 expedition, an order was issued to dissolve the club". Ichthyander-68 was carried out during a short-lived attempt the members of the club to attach themselves to the Mining Science-Technical Society (Горное научно-техническое общество) to start research in underwater geodesy and drilling.Чернов А. Гомо аквактикус, 1968, Молодая гвардия, chapter "Ихтиандр-66" таврический A memorial marker exists (a stone with a plaque and steel slabs) at the site. This project preceded and catalyzed several other early Soviet experiments with underwater habitats, such as ''Sadko'' (autumn 1966), ''Chernomor'' and ''Sprut''.

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