Month: August 2013

Arctic Sunrise enters the Kara Sea

I use this old picture of Soviet polar activities to illustrate a really important news: Greenpeace has proceeded with its work and its ice-breaker Arctic Sunrise has entered the Kara Sea despite receiving no permission from the Sevmorput administration. Russian media reports laconically on this enterprise, but much more can be found on the Greenpeace… Read more »

Hunting for “hostile” submarines

The Northern Fleet Naval Aviation exercises in the Barents Sea have the traditional agenda of hunting for “hostile” submarines. They may have an additional goal of making an impression on Koji Sekimizu, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, who is taking a ride of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear icebreaker in order to inspect the safety… Read more »

Arctic ice hits a new historic low

The Arctic ice is about to hit a new historic low this month, and Rossiiskaya gazeta has proudly reported that nuclear ice-breaker 50 Let Pobedy made a voyage to the North Pole, which happened to be the 100th visit by a ship to this symbolic spot. What the newspaper is somewhat shy about is that… Read more »

2 August 1933

It is 80 years ago – 2 August 1933 – that the unfortunate Chelyuskin left Murmansk for the voyage along the Sevmorput that became one of the legends of early Stalin’s era. And this is the link to a lengthy presentation of the voyage of Petr Velikii along the same route, which is supposed to… Read more »