First voyage to the Kolyma: The Soviet North-East Polar Expedition 1932–33

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Barr, William
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1979
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Kara Sea; Chukchi Sea; Kolyma; Yenisey; Shmidt; Proliv Longa; Chukchi; Northern Sea Route; Polar Record; yenisey river
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400002679; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400002679

Shipping on the Kara Sea section of the Soviet Northern Sea Route—to and from the mouth of the Yenisey river from the west—had been established on a regular, indeed routine, basis by the 1931 navigation season, when 16 freighters took part (Belov, 1959, p 379). At the other end of the sea route, however, the situation was radically different. Between 1923 and 1931 the mouth of the Kolyma had been served each season by only one, occasionally two, of the freighters Stavropol', Kolyma and Leytenant Shmidt without icebreaker escort, these vessels would fight their way through the ice of the Chukchi Sea and Proliv Longa to the mouth of the Kolyma (Belov, 1959, p 216–56, p 385–403). The 1932 season saw a dramatic change.