North Pole-1 (russian: Северный полюс-1) was the world's first Soviet manned drifting station in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

, primarily used for research. North Pole-1 was established on 21 May 1937 and officially opened on 6 June, some from the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

by the expedition into the high latitudes Sever-1, led by

Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, be, Ота Юльевіч Шміт, Ota Juljevič Šmit (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesm ...

. The expedition had been airlifted by aviation units under the command of

Mark Shevelev Mark Ivanovich Shevelev (; – 6 October 1991) was a Soviet pilot during World War II and one of founders of Soviet polar aviation. He was a head of aviation department Aviaarktika of the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route, a Hero of th ...

. "NP-1" operated for 9 months, during which the

ice floe An ice floe () is a large pack of floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice floes. They may caus ...

travelled . The commander of the station was

Ivan Papanin Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin (russian: Иван Дмитриевич Папанин, – 30 January 1986) was a Soviet polar explorer, scientist, Counter Admiral, and twice Hero of the Soviet Union, who was awarded nine Orders of Lenin. Life a ...

. On 19 February 1938 the Soviet ice breakers '' Taimyr'' and '' Murman'' took four polar explorers off the station close to the eastern coast of

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. They arrived in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

on 15 March on board the icebreaker ''

Yermak Yermak Timofeyevich ( rus, Ерма́к Тимофе́евич, p=jɪˈrmak tʲɪmɐˈfʲejɪvʲɪtɕ; born between 1532 and 1542 – August 5 or 6, 1585) was a Cossacks, Cossack ataman and is today a hero in Russian folklore and myths. During ...

''. The expedition members, hydrobiologist

Pyotr Shirshov Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov (russian: Пётр Петрович Ширшов; in Ekaterinoslav 17 February 1953 in Moscow) was a Soviet oceanographer, hydrobiologist, polar explorer, statesman, academician (1939), the first minister of Ministry of ...

, geophysicist Yevgeny Fyodorov, radioman

Ernst Krenkel Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel (russian: Эрнст Теодо́рович Кре́нкель; in Białystok – 8 December 1971 in Moscow) was a Soviet Arctic explorer, radio operator, doctor of geographical sciences (1938), and Hero of the Sovie ...

, and the commander Ivan Papanin, were awarded the

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

title.

References

Exploration of the Arctic Polar exploration by Russia and the Soviet Union 1937 in the Soviet Union Arctic research Arctic expeditions 1937 in science 20th century in the Arctic Expeditions from the Soviet Union North Pole {{Soviet-stub