Story. Icebreaker Krasin Icebreaker Krasin history in photographs

Russia is at the origins of Arctic exploration. At the beginning of the 20th century, the domestic icebreaker fleet was born, which in our time is the most powerful in the world. Russian ships made many Arctic trips, breaking a road in the ice of the Arctic Ocean.

One of the most legendary vehicles of our icebreaker fleet is the icebreaker "Krasin", now at its eternal berth in St. Petersburg. The ship has an interesting museum that will interest not only connoisseurs of maritime themes, but also ordinary tourists.

First of all, “Krasin” is interesting for its history. The linear icebreaker was built at the British Newcastle shipyard. The customer was the government of the Russian Empire, and domestic engineers took an active part in the construction.

Initially, the ship was named “Svyatogor”. The icebreaker, considered the most powerful in the world, was launched in January 1917, when the tsarist government, which ordered the ship, was in its final weeks.

The Provisional Government already included the Svyatogor on the balance sheet of the Russian Fleet of the Arctic Ocean. After the October Revolution, the icebreaker was transferred to Arkhangelsk. When rumors arose about an English military corps approaching the city, the Bolsheviks decided to scuttle the ship in the Northern Dvina.

However, this did not stop the British from capturing Arkhangelsk. The British raised the Svyatogor and transferred it to their Norwegian base.

In 1921, People's Commissar of Foreign Trade Leonid Krasin managed to negotiate with the British on the ransom of Svyatogor. The ship was again delivered to Russia. After Krasin's death in 1926, it was decided to name the icebreaker after him.

One of the most glorious pages of “Krasin” was the rescue of the crew members of the airship “Italy” of the famous traveler Umberto Nobile. An Italian aircraft crashed in the Arctic ice. It seemed that the people were doomed, but a Russian icebreaker came to their aid. The Krasin picked up Nobile and his comrades from the ice and delivered them to the nearest port.

In the 30s, the icebreaker was a key link in ensuring reliable navigation in the Baltic and White Sea. In addition, the ship has repeatedly participated in scientific expeditions.

In 1934, the Krasin made its way to the Chelyuskinites who were captured in the ice; during wartime, the ship was an integral part of the famous polar convoy PQ-15.

For 35 years, the icebreaker held the lead in power and maneuverability in ice. The ship honorably carried out its northern watch until 1992, when the ship was withdrawn from the fleet and handed over to the authorities of St. Petersburg for the organization of a museum. In the same year, “Krasin” was given the status of a historical monument of federal significance.

In 1996, a large-scale reconstruction of the icebreaker was completed, and the ship went to its eternal mooring at the Lieutenant Schmidt embankment.

Nowadays, “Krasin” is a branch of the Museum of the World Ocean. Tourists should take into account that there is no free access to the icebreaker. Groups of 3 to 15 people are allowed on the ship. Children under 14 years of age must only be accompanied by an adult.

During the excursion, visitors will see the authentic furnishings of all rooms of the ship - the officer's, captain's cabins, scientific laboratory, wardroom, wheelhouse, captain's bridge. Guests will learn a lot about the history of the domestic icebreaker fleet, Arctic research, rescue operations, and the participation of icebreakers in the Second World War. In addition, tourists will be interested to know how polar sailors live during long expeditions, what they eat, and how they spend their free time.

A separate excursion is devoted to studying the Krasina engine room. Only persons over 14 years of age and holding a photocopy of their passport are allowed into this room. Tourists will see the “heart” of the icebreaker in the engine room - its incredibly powerful engine, which allows the ship to break through thick ice.

History of creation
The original name of the icebreaker was “Svyatogor”. Built by order of the Russian government in the English city of Newcastle, it was assigned to the port of Arkhangelsk. Two years after its construction, during the Anglo-French offensive in 1918, it was decided to sink the icebreaker. Together with several other ships, it sank to the bottom near the mouth of the Chizhovka River, which flows into the Northern Dvina. The bulk of the ship's crew took part in battles on land. In memory of their feat, there is a granite obelisk in Arkhangelsk.
The British were able to raise the ship, and, with the consent of the provisional government, since 1920 the icebreaker has sailed under the English flag. The ship received the name “Krasin” in honor of Leonid Borisovich Krasin, at that time the ambassador and minister of foreign trade. It was he who achieved the return of the vessel to the Russian fleet.

Rescue of Umberto Nobile's expedition
In 1928, the icebreaker Krasin became known throughout the world. This year, Italian airship inventor Umberto Nobile organized his second expedition to the North Pole. On way back The airship encountered very bad weather conditions. The aircraft became heavily icy and fell onto the ice. Rescue operations lasted for a month and a half. They involved ships and planes different countries, hundreds of people. The Soviet Union was able to offer the most adequate assistance. "Krasin" set off in the direction of Spitsbergen, the place where the tragedy occurred. Even the most powerful icebreaker found it difficult to deal with hummocks; on July 6, it stopped in the ice. At that moment, a plane took off to search for people. He managed to find two surviving crew members. Taking advantage of the improving ice situation, "Krasin" came out to meet them. On July 12, the Italians Zappi and Mariano boarded the ship. A little later, five more crew members were found. During the rescue operation The icebreaker itself was damaged. For prompt repairs, he went to the nearest Norwegian port. At this time, the team received a radiogram that the German steamer Monte Cervantes was in distress not far from them. Its passengers decided to take part in the Arctic voyage to see the legendary icebreaker. The ship collided with an iceberg and was holed. Having provided assistance to the crew of the Monte Cervantes, the Krasin reached Norway. After minor repairs, the icebreaker again moved north in search of the expedition of Roald Amundsen, who went to help his friend who had disappeared in the ice. Unfortunately, the search was unsuccessful and “Krasin” returned to St. Petersburg.

Pre-war time
In the 20s and 30s, the icebreaker provided navigation in the White and Baltic Seas. At this time, the economic importance of the Northern Route was assessed. It was used to supply the camps of Norilsk and Kolyma with provisions, and export gold and nickel back.
In 1937, the icebreaker Krasin and about 20 other ships froze in the ice near Taimyr. Having made their way to Kozhevnikov Bay, near which there were coal deposits, the sailors built a simple mine on the shore. To escape, the ship's crew temporarily turned into miners. Coal was transported on sleighs aboard the Krasin. It was enough not only to maintain the life of the ship during the forced winter, but also to lead other ships out of ice captivity.
Stalin's repressions did not pass the Krasin crew. The head of the rescue operation of the Italian airship, Joseph Unschlikht, and the captain of the icebreaker, Rudolf Lazarevich Samoilovich, were shot. Commissioner Paul Horace, who worked on the Krasina expedition, died in exile.

New life for the icebreaker
In the second half of the twentieth century, the icebreaker began new life. In 1950, she was converted from an icebreaker to a geological exploration vessel. Since 1972, Krasin has been participating in the study of Spitsbergen. In 1976, a new diesel-electric icebreaker "Krasin" was produced. To avoid confusion, they decided to give the shipping veteran a new name - “Leonid Krasin”. In 1989 it was transferred to the International Foundation for the History of Science. In 1992, “Krasin” received the status of a historical monument of national significance.
The first museum exhibition began its work on board the Krasin in 1995. Now active excursion work is underway here. Museum visitors can get acquainted with the history of the icebreaker and maritime laws. You can touch a lot on the ship with your hands. Here you can get acquainted with the latest navigational instruments and their predecessors, and feel the rigor of ship life. The luckiest museum guests may encounter the ghost of an icebreaker. It sometimes frightens visitors to the engine room tour.
There is also a ship's cat on the Krasin - sometimes excursionists manage to see it. They say they picked it up from a passing ice floe several years ago.

You can also visit the ship in the virtual space. On the page of the live journal “Kubrik of Friends of the Icebreaker “Krasin” http://community.livejournal.com/krassin_kubrik/profile you can find information about seminars and conferences taking place in the museum, changes in the work schedule, and, of course, Interesting Facts from the history of navigation.

In the city of St. Petersburg, near the embankment next to the Mining Institute, a unique museum ship hosts excursions. The icebreaker, which turned 100 years old this year.

Photo. Icebreaker "Krasin" in museum service

At the beginning of the First World War, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral N. O. Essen, raised before the Admiralty Marine Technical Committee the question of the need to build new icebreakers - to support military operations of the fleet in the winter and to ensure the winter navigation of allied transports to Arkhangelsk, which became the first world war to the most important foreign trade port of Russia. The Minister of Naval Affairs, Admiral I.K. Grigorovich, supported the idea. As a result, by the end of 1915 Russian government decided to order a new icebreaker in England - its own shipyards had long been firmly occupied with a huge number of military orders. In January 1916, a contract was signed with the English company Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. The icebreaker was named "Svyatogor" - in honor of the legendary epic hero, who was so strong that the earth refused to bear him. The project was developed by Russian engineers on the basis of the famous Makarov “Ermak” and was somewhat superior to it in terms of tactical and technical data.

The British are building quickly: already on January 12, the keel of the future ship was laid on the slipway, and by May, a third of the metal required for assembling the hull was delivered to the shipyard. On August 1, the icebreaker was ready for launching, and on August 3, the launch took place. Having completed the icebreaker, the factory team handed it over to the Russian crew by October 1, 1916.

Official tests of the Svyatogor were delayed due to the danger of the icebreaker being sunk by German submarines, which were still snooping around the Liverpool Mile. Only on March 3, the icebreaker went to sea, but after traveling only 15 miles, it turned to the port. In the report, Captain K.K. Neupokoev explained his actions by saying that “the icebreaker did not obey the rudder at all, deviating from the course by 40 degrees in both directions.”

However, the factory commission stated that the problems with control were due to the fact that the crew had not yet gotten used to the ship and had not studied the mechanisms. The Russian engineers monitoring the construction and testing of the ship, in turn, tried to prove that in terms of its maneuverability the icebreaker was in no way inferior to its older brother Ermak, which had 17 years of trouble-free operation. All the time while the controversy was going on, “Svyatogor” was parked in Newcastle. Only on March 31, 1917, the St. Andrew's flag was raised on the icebreaker, and it was enlisted in the combat squadron - the Arctic Ocean Flotilla. Here he was engaged in escorting transport in ice conditions and... protecting convoys from submarines. But not for long: power soon changed in the country, political storms swept the Russian north, and soon after the October Revolution the Entente began intervention against the young Soviet republic.

An English squadron was heading towards Arkhangelsk, and in order to make it difficult for it to approach the city, the city authorities decided to sink several ships at the mouth of the Dvina. Inexplicably, Svyatogor was also included in the list of candidates for sinking. However, the icebreaker opened the kingstones on the shallows - and both the pipes with the masts and most of the freeboard remained above the water. After the British finally entered Arkhangelsk, they easily pumped out the icebreaker with the help of a single dewatering tug and began to use it for its intended purpose.

Surprisingly, but true: the Soviet government soon had to rent the icebreaker captured by the British. The fact is that the icebreaking steamship Solovey Budimirovich fell into an ice trap in the Kara Sea. With passengers on board. More than 85 people, including women and children, were on the verge of starvation on a ship in distress. “Svyatogor” arrived at the scene of the accident under the command of the famous Norwegian Otto Sverdrup, the former captain of the legendary “Fram”.

In June 1920, “Svyatogor” brought a steamer out of the ice, which had been stuck between hummocks for four months. After this, the icebreaker received payment for its work and... went back to the British.
At the same time, in the early twenties, negotiations began between the governments of the two countries on the return of the icebreaker Svyatogor. They were led from the Soviet side by the famous diplomat Leonid Krasin. And he was successful: the icebreaker returned. After the death of L.B. Krasin in 1926, his name was assigned to the former “Svyatogor”.

In 1924 the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen created the International Society "Aeroarctic" and set a goal for aircraft manufacturers - to organize air traffic over the ice expanses using "Zeppelins" - airships. The idea seemed interesting to the Italian general and aircraft designer Umberto Nobile, who developed the Zeppelin project specifically for northern conditions. In 1926, the airship "Norge" ("Norway") was built and launched on its first flight - across the entire Central Arctic to the North Pole. The expedition was led by the Italian aviator himself and the famous polar explorer Roald Amundsen.

First of all, two world celebrities quarreled. To death... So, in the future, Nobile decided to carry out flights over the pole without the “stubborn Norwegian, meddling with his advice out of place.” In 1928, the general built a new airship, named it “Italy,” recruited a dozen and a half volunteers for the expedition, and flew to the North Pole.

The expedition was supposed to land at the 90th parallel. According to the plan, a group of researchers would conduct unique research there for several days, which the Norge crew could not do... Well, and of course, the Italian military aristocrat tried to rub the nose of the Norwegian upstart - the son of a common man, a small shipbuilder who kept a small boathouse for fishing steam launches...

The airship took off from Spitsbergen on May 11, and accompanied the expedition... Pope Pius XI. The crucifix, donated by the Pope, was thrown into the snow when flying over the northernmost point of the earth - as a sign of “the Lord’s dominion over the northern waters.”

Nobile had plans to land the research group on the ice, but the weather did not allow it: the airship went on a reverse course and... disappeared. Contact with the expedition was severed on May 25.

After 9 days, an ordinary Soviet schoolboy, studying in a radio amateur club, accidentally caught a weak radio signal on the air. It turned out that 100 kilometers from Spitsbergen over the frozen sea the airship became icy and collapsed on an ice floe. Moreover, the hard landing occurred with the stern and “belly”, and there was the pilot’s cabin. As a result, it broke. A mechanic named Pomello died immediately, Nobile himself, and expedition members Malmgren and Cecioni were injured. After part of the gondola was torn off, what was left of the airship was also dragged away by a blizzard, so that six expeditioners went missing. And the survivors found themselves on bare ice among the wreckage of their airship and personal belongings scattered during the accident.

Fortunately, barrels and boxes with expedition rations - weighing more than 170 kilograms - and three bales of tarpaulin and reserve flaps for repairing the airship's cylinders also fell onto the ice. From these scraps, the survivors built a tent to live in, moved the victims into it, and covered their NI. And in order for the tent to be clearly visible in the ice, they also painted the “Zeppelin skin” red, fortunately a couple of cans of paint also fell out of the gondola’s “belly”, torn by ice, just in time.

Among the items that fell out were parts for assembling a short-wave emergency radio station. It was her signals that were picked up by the Soviet pioneer radio amateur 9 days later.

The expedition was determined to survive. Having found several pairs of skis in the wreckage and repaired them, the participants in the “unscheduled landing” sent three people, led by the Swedish scientist Malmgren, to go on foot to Spitsbergen for help. Subsequently, this group was saved, but the leader of this small detachment, Malmgren, died. According to his comrades, Italian officers Zappi and Mariano, two weeks after the start of their campaign in the ice, Malmgren began to give up. He was badly beaten when falling into the ice, weakened along the way and, in the end, demanded to be left to die in the ice. Moreover, he gave his warm clothes to the Italians.

On June 3, 1928, a young mechanic and passionate radio amateur Nikolai Schmidt accidentally picked up weak signals from the Central Arctic among the noise. And he confirmed the student’s report about the missing expedition, specifying the coordinates of the accident site. The rescue operation has begun...

In total, at least one and a half thousand people took part in it - nothing like this had ever happened in the Arctic. 18 ships and 21 aircraft from six countries. Surprisingly, but true: Roald Amundsen, having learned about the disaster, immediately went to save the polar explorers. And he himself went missing with his Latham-47 plane. As it turned out later, he died in the crash. Konstantin Simonov dedicated poetry to this event:

In memory of Amundsen

The whole house is caulked with hemp,

Like the dry bottom of a ship,

And in the office - round on purpose -

A window was cut into the ocean.

Everything around here is familiar, sea,

Such that, standing on the pier,

Your transition to fierce peace

The owner of the house noticed less often.

He's old. Traveling in old age is dangerous,

The king gave him a pension,

And this time we agree with the king

His driver, cook, postman.

They make sure that the coals don’t go out at night,

And they gossip to different doctors,

And in the morning they warm up the shoes,

And they don't serve beer in the evenings.

All his exploits have long been known,

He is condemned to immortal glory,

And not a single soul is interested,

That he is dissatisfied with this fame.

She's not worth one night's stay

Under the sleeping wool-smelling bag,

One pinch of melting snow,

One puff of strong tobacco.

All night long the fireplace roars in the dining room,

And, stirring it with a poker,

The owner is like a bald eagle,

Having ruffled his feathers, he sits in front of the fire.

On the radio all night the weather bureau

Warns that there are storms all around, -

Let the ships moor at the ports

And they are locked tightly at home.

In lightning discharges, audibility becomes duller,

And suddenly from the darkness of a thousand miles

Death cry: “Save our souls!”

And degrees of approximate latitude.

Forgotten clothes hang in the closet -

Overalls, sleeping bags...

He never would have thought before

Why can all the hooks rust like that...

How difficult it is to fasten them out of habit!

The rain hits the glass with wet leaves.

In the rubber pocket - tobacco and matches,

The revolver is in the rear, the compass is in the side.

They were already running around the house with fire,

But, roaring and jumping out of the gate,

Car on the way to the airfield

Long gone around the first turn.

In the forest, oak trees under lightning are like candles,

They bend over their heads, cracking,

And the rain, breaking on the shoulders in flight,

Flows into the black hood of the cloak.

Towards autumn, on the eve of freeze-up,

The fishing boat, having gone fishing,

Will find a piece of his immortal glory -

A fragment of a burnt wing...

The Swedish pilot Lundborg found the expedition, landed on a piece of flat ice and took out General Nobile. Three days later he promised to return and take someone else out, but he got stuck while landing on the ice near the red tent and, miraculously surviving, also remained waiting in the Italian rescue camp.

Two weeks later, the Krasin reached the expedition. The Italians were taken off the ice. Moreover, the adventures in the Arctic did not end there: on the way back, the Krasin brought the icebreaker Malygin out of the ice jam, and already south of Spitsbergen the radio operators received a signal for help from the German steamer Monte Cervantes. This ship, having caught on the air a message about the miraculous rescue of the expedition... went to meet it - with 1800 passengers on board, but, as expected, got stuck in an ice storm and was damaged. If not for the Krasin, the Monte Cervantes would have faced a slow death from increasing flooding in the icy sea. The icebreaker helped the Germans seal the holes and towed the ship for repairs.

In the process of rescuing the Italian expedition, the Krasin reached the then-record coordinates for an icebreaker at 81o 47" north latitude, measured the depths under the ice and drew up a graph of changes in the meteorological situation, proving that a direct breakthrough of icebreakers directly to the North Pole is possible. And entered itself as a number one for such a trip, if the Institute for Northern Research approves it...

Since 1929, the icebreaker "Krasin" became the leader of the Kara sea expeditions, led caravans and at the same time conducted hydrological studies of northern waters, and entered as a participant in the II International Polar Year program. He manages to make the first winter trip in the history of navigation to the eastern part of the Pechersk Sea to the icebreaking steamship Lenin, which was brought there by ice drift, with 120 crew members on board. The icebreaker under the command of captain P.A. Ponomarev was able to free him from ice captivity.

In 1933, Krasin made another winter voyage in the Arctic. He provides food assistance to fishing camps on Novaya Zemlya, where entire families were left without food and medicine due to severe ice conditions. They transported goods across the ice using dogs and snowmobiles, provided medical care to the residents of the camp, and took away the seriously ill. The icebreaker reached Cape Zhelaniya, visited Russian Harbor and Krestovaya Bay. Never before at this time of year has a single ship penetrated here... And during the summer navigation of this year, the icebreaker led the first Lena expedition, as a result of which Yakutia gained access to the ocean. Captain "Krasin" Ya.P. Legzdin led the icebreaker from Arkhangelsk east to Tiksi Bay. The following transport ships carried thousands of tons of cargo to Tiksi and Nordvik.

And the navigations of 1933 and 1934 turned out to be connected for Krasin with the famous “Chelyuskin epic”. The steamship Semyon Chelyuskin, by and large, was not intended for Arctic voyages. In the ice of the Kara Sea, he was crushed by ice for the first time, so much so that the frames cracked. Fortunately, “Krasin” found him and brought him out of the dangerous ice trap. After this, the “Krasin” was about to go for scheduled repairs to Leningrad, but then the news spread throughout the world’s oceans that the ill-fated “Chelyuskin” nevertheless got into heavy ice, was crushed by it and died. The crew that landed on the ice needed urgent help.

The Krasin's path back to the North was not short: through the North Atlantic, the Panama Canal, and the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, the Krasin set a record for such a route among icebreakers, covering the required distance in just 7 weeks. The ship was commanded by Captain P.A. Ponomarev, later captain of the world's first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin".

But Krasin’s help was not needed: the Arctic captives were taken out of the ice camp by brave Soviet pilots. However, the icebreaker was not left without work. It became the flagship of the icebreaker fleet in the eastern sector of the Arctic and changed its home port to Vladivostok. Soon the Krasin was sent to Wrangel Island, where for five years not a single ship could get through. The Krasin residents delivered a shift of winter workers, building materials and food there. The participants of this expedition, headed by N.I. Evgenov, carried out a large amount of oceanographic work in the East Siberian and Chukchi Seas, and conducted a geological survey of Herald Island.

Once, during another trip to the ice in 1936, on Wrangel Island, “Krasin” was entrusted with the operation of delivering 12 polar bears for the capital’s zoos. All the bears were delivered alive and transferred to the railway for further travel.

In 1937, while attempting to make a record flight over the North Pole, the famous pilot Sigismund Levanevsky went missing. The N-209 plane with its entire crew of 6 people sank into the water somewhere over the Central Arctic... Krasin, which was engaged in escorting ship convoys, was removed from this work and sent on a search. While they were looking - however, to no avail - for the missing pilots, two caravans were lost in the ice - led by the icebreaker "Lenin" and the ice cutter "Litke". Even the Krasin could not get them out, and as a result, twenty-seven ships were forced to spend the winter in heavy ice Arctic. "Krasin" stayed with them - in the Khatanga Bay, in Kozhevnikov Bay. After all, the time will come when the caravans will really need the help of the icebreaker!

To keep warm during the winter drift, generate electricity for on-board systems, and generally keep ships operational for a future breakthrough through the ice, you need a lot of coal. Fortunately, miners were working nearby on the shore. The sailors agreed on the supply of fuel, and laid an ice road along which tractors loaded with anthracite reached the ships from the mine. The 80-kilometer-long road turned out to be invaluable for ships stuck in the ice - during the difficult winter, no one “froze out,” which had often happened in these waters before. The fact is that the slightest interruption in self-heating due to their own boilers leads in these latitudes to the formation of ice plugs in the steam pipeline system - and the pipes simply burst - not immediately, but when trying to warm up the system. And this is essentially death, since repairs in conditions of northern drift are very difficult.

By April 1938, the ice conditions finally allowed the caravans to emerge from the ice. "Krasin" cut off 5 of the most firmly stuck steamers, and "Lenin" and "Litke" completely coped with the withdrawal of the rest.

In the fall of 1938 - a new rescue expedition. Schooner "Ost" Hydrographic Office The Main Northern Sea Route was frozen into ice in the East Siberian Sea... The schooner was found, but it broke its rudder in the ice and was unable to move independently in the wake of the icebreaker along the broken fairway. Towing attempts were unsuccessful due to the weather; as a result, 8 polar explorers from the Osta team remained with the ship for the winter, and Krasin took the rest, leaving food and warm clothes for the winterers.

The most terrible enemy of a polar explorer after the cold is hunger. In order not to suffer from a lack of meat food, the crew of the icebreaker started... a subsidiary farm on board. With the help of ship carpenters, a real “barnyard” was built on the deck, where there was a chicken coop (the birds were fed with cake) and a small crate with piglets. There was no shortage of chicken, eggs and lard. And during one of the navigations, the icebreaker even brought in a cow and a bull - and began to fatten the calves... There was no limit to the surprise of the four fishermen who were lost in the ice and rescued by the Krasin when they, hungry on the way, began to be treated on board with hot milk and fresh, obviously not from a can, chicken soup...

However, winter navigation is not in vain, and in October 1938, “Krasin” was in Vladivostok for three months for repairs - to repair a defect in the plating from a collision with an ice hummock and to sort out the mechanisms. Upon completion of the repairs, I had to go out to assist the hydrographers of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and then get special assignment- guide the submarine "Shch-423" from the base in Polyarny to the Pacific Ocean via the Northern Sea Route. This wiring proved the possibility of relocating submarines from Murmansk to Kamchatka through the North, which, to be honest, the People's Commissar of the Navy doubted until the very end...

During repairs, the Krasin was subjected to a thorough study by a commission consisting of experienced shipbuilding engineers. The goal is to test the operational characteristics for the possible use of the icebreaker as a prototype for a large series. As a result, Krasin became the founder of a numerous line of heavy icebreakers of the Stalin-Sibir type.

And then the Second World War began... Russia's land borders in Europe were completely blocked by the front. Therefore, all allied ties with Great Britain and the United States were carried out through the North - by sea. The result of the Atlantic Charter concluded on August 14, 1941, in which US President F. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill expressed their readiness to assist our country in the fight against German fascism, was the operation code-named “Dervish” - the escort of the first transport convoy with weapons, industrial and food supplies for the army and rear Soviet Union. The convoys sailed through the northern waters of the Atlantic, the Norwegian and Barents seas to the ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.

In peacetime, even an icebreaker with its average speed of 10 knots will cover the road from Liverpool to Murman in 12 days. But... in 1941, this path lay past enemy-occupied Norway - with bases of German bombers and submarines, with surface raiders settled in the fiords - right up to heavy cruisers and the battleship Tirpitz. And as if especially for them, for airplanes and surface raiders, nature invented a polar day: the dim northern sun does not fall below the horizon, providing good search and shooting conditions 24 hours a day and three months in a row... And from November to May - another misfortune, the polar night with storms and frosts, when tons of ice freezes on the sides of transports, impairing seaworthiness, and they sneak around in black water “ wolf packs"Doenitz submarine targets that do not need good visual control...

"Krasin" was mobilized to work on northern convoys, for which part of the onboard equipment was changed from scientific to combat. Once again, as in 1916, Krasin received weapons. Only then were they issued small-caliber artillery and combat searchlights. And this time - three cruising 130 mm guns, 4 Lender 76.2 mm cannons and 4 DShK 12.7 mm machine guns in an anti-aircraft version. In addition, the icebreaker received fire control posts, a sanitary and medical unit post, means of degassing the area and a set of equipment for eliminating the consequences of a gas attack, and door switches were installed on all hatches and doors to the cabins for blackout purposes.

By the way, for some reason Hitler literally hated icebreakers, and even promised to award the Iron Cross - Germany's highest award - to anyone who would sink or disable at least one Soviet icebreaker. Among those eager for this award was the “pocket battleship” Admiral Scheer, whose commander swore an oath to destroy the Krasin without fail, but it was not possible. One day, a hunter and his would-be victim, who were just conducting a convoy of 5 steamships, missed each other in the ice at a distance of only 60 nautical miles...

Returning to the port of Provideniya Bay in mid-October, the captain of the icebreaker Markov received an unexpected order - he was preparing to sail to the United States. The Americans, by agreement with the Soviet government, asked Krasin to provide landing transports to the shores of Greenland in order to capture the military base organized by the Germans there. The icebreaker's route was supposed to run across the Pacific Ocean to the port of Seattle on the west coast of the United States and then through the Panama Canal to Halifax. The voyage proceeded normally, and only at the Fuka Strait the Krasin was caught in a severe storm and was even damaged a little - the wave carried away the bulwark of the middle part of the bridge, the boat was broken, and the storm shield at the wheelhouse was knocked out.

After a short repair, the Krasin passed through the Panama Canal on New Year's Eve and arrived in Baltimore on January 12, 1942. Here, new equipment was installed on the icebreaker: laundry and ironing, and the installation of the mine winding on the hull was completed. In addition, in Baltimore he was given another three-inch cannon at the stern, directly above the towing winch, and six large-caliber and four small-caliber machine guns were installed on the bridge and around the chimneys above the davits. In addition, some weapons were sent as cargo - three new cannons, 16 machine guns, 2 thousand shells and 220 thousand cartridges.

In Norfolk, Krasin passed the British military examination and received a certificate as an auxiliary cruiser. But the operation in Greenland was canceled and the icebreaker was sent to the Scottish port of Glasgow, where it again received additional weapons: two 12-pounder cannons, a three-inch universal gun, five Browning machine guns and two small-caliber machine guns.

On April 10, 1942, literally armed to the teeth, the icebreaker and convoy set off for Iceland. The path was extremely dangerous, the convoy was caught in a strong storm, and one of the convoy drifters suggested that Captain Markov return. “Krasin” remained... Despite the fact that a few minutes before the dialogue with the drifter, a lost German torpedo drifted 5 meters from its stem. So, also boats...

"Krasin" as part of PQ-15, which included 26 transport ships and 20 security ships, left Reykjavik for Murmansk. Since the beginning of convoy operations in the USSR, PQ-15 was the largest convoy. The guard involved 16 minesweepers, a detachment of 4 destroyers, two cruisers, the auxiliary air defense cruiser Wilster Queen and the submarine Sturgeon. The long-range cover group included a squadron consisting of the battleships George Washington and King George V, the cruisers Tuscaloosa and Wichita, as well as the destroyers Madison, Plankit, Wainwright and Wilson. Along with British and American ships, the Polish submarine Yastrzheb, the Norwegian Uredo and the French Minerva were involved in providing long-range cover. And for the first time, the seaplane carrier Empire Morne was added to the order of cargo ships. A seaplane carrier usually differs from deck carriers in that its aircraft are launched from a catapult and can land on the water. However, this particular one was given ordinary, non-floating Spitfires on wheels, and once he had released them into flight, he could neither take them back nor land them on the wave. Having completed the task and used up the fuel, the pilots jumped out with a parachute and simply sank their plane, after which they had to be searched in the water using their orange life jackets.

"Krasin" was the first in the fourth column. On the fourth day after going to sea, April 30, the convoy was discovered by a German reconnaissance aircraft and attacked by aircraft: in three waves, alternately with bombers and torpedo bombers. The icebreaker Krasin opened fire on the planes and saved not only itself, but also its neighbor, the Canadian icebreaker Montcalm, from bombs.

Surprisingly, but true: the regular, and not auxiliary, convoy covering group lost formation under fire, and the battleship King George V crushed its own destroyer in the ranks. 226 English sailors were lifted from the water, and the battleship had to be removed from the operation and urgently replaced with the same type Duke of York.

A new tragedy struck the convoy the next day. The Norwegian destroyer St. Albans and the British minesweeper Seagal followed a signal from some transport, which reported that it was allegedly being followed by a submarine. They found the boat, stunned it with depth charges and forced it into an emergency ascent. And then it turned out that it was the Pole “Yastrzheb” assigned to the same convoy, who deviated from his place in the order... The worst thing is that after some time the consequences of the hydrodynamic shock received during this attack affected: “Yastrzheb” soon sank ...

On the night of May 2-3, six German Heinkels attacked the convoy completely suddenly - despite reinforced air defense posts - and bombarded the transport warrant with torpedoes. The transport "Cap Corso" perished, was left without power and was finished off by the destroyers of the convoy after the crew was removed, the leader of the transport column "Botavon", and the steamer "Jutland", which had become disorganized, was literally torn apart by German submarines a day later.

On May 3, the raids continued. Moreover, “Krasin” shot down three torpedo bombers. And on May 4, after an attack by German planes on the armed trawler Cap Palisser, two more. True, the Palisser still sank from the damage it received.

On May 5, 1942, the convoy reached Kildin Island and entered the Kola Bay. Thus ended the outstanding voyage of the icebreaker "Krasin" across two oceans along the route: Providence Bay - Seattle - Panama Canal - Baltimore - Norfolk - New York - Boston - Portland - Halifax - Glasgow - Reykjavik - Murmansk. A 15,309 mile trek...

After convoy PQ-15, the icebreaker "Krasin" is again under repair. With another increase in armament: it received six more long-range three-inch (76.2 mm) guns, seven 20 mm Oerlikon-type anti-aircraft guns, six heavy-caliber Browning machine guns and four 7.3 mm small-caliber Browning machine guns. The cellars were re-equipped with the expectation of having 3 thousand shells for cannons, 9 thousand rounds for Oerlikon-type machine guns, 39 thousand rounds for large-caliber machine guns of the Browning type and 40 thousand rounds for small-caliber machine guns...

During the 1942 navigation, the icebreaker Krasin carried ten ships along the Northern Sea Route carrying timber, ore and asbestos for the Far East and Chukotka. Having accepted the caravan for escort next to Fr. Dixon, the icebreaker literally saved this caravan from the fire of the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, taking the ships into the ice of high latitudes... About the fact that they left their “personal” enemy without the order promised by Hitler, who promised his Fuhrer “the wet pennant of the Russian icebreaker” , the Krasin residents found out only a month later - from a captured newspaper.

For the courage and bravery shown when performing important tasks during the war years, over 300 Krasin sailors received government awards. In fact, this is the entire crew.

Since April 1, 1972, the veteran of the icebreaker fleet served under the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR. After dismantling one of the machines that was hopelessly out of order and transferring part of the boilers to “power unit” mode - to generate electricity for geologists - it lost the ability to work in heavy ice conditions due to a drop in power. But he was retained in service as a research hydrographer. And in 1989, the transfer of the research vessel “Leonid Krasin” of the Marine Arctic Geological Exploration Expedition of the PGO “Sevmorgeology” of the USSR Ministry of Geology to the balance of the International Foundation for the History of Science took place.

Fragment from the book “High Latitudes” by S. Samchenko

On the Lieutenant Schmidt embankment, opposite Gorny state institute There is a very interesting museum in St. Petersburg - the icebreaker "Krasin". This ship, despite its heroic history, is still afloat. Of course, the icebreaker-museum will never plow the expanses of the Arctic Ocean and work according to its calling, but it will still serve its country. This time as a museum - a monument of technology and history.

Icebreaker Museum "Krasin": the story of a giant

According to Wikipedia, the icebreaker Krasin, now a museum, was first officially launched in 1917. Thus began the story of the giant. At that time, the Russian government was investing huge amounts of money in Arctic exploration, and considered it necessary to build a second icebreaker, comparable in its power to the Ermak icebreaker. This work was entrusted to the British. “Svyatogor”, which was the first name of “Krasin”, surpassed its predecessor in everything: its silhouette was more dynamic, its displacement was higher, as was its speed, which was 15 knots. But, despite such a promising start, the fate of the icebreaker turned out to be tragic.

1917... The whole world is at war, and then there are civil protests tearing Russia apart. “Svyatogor” faces a difficult task: defending Arkhangelsk from the Entente troops. But the risk of an enemy invasion at the mouth of the Northern Dvina is too great, and the authorities make a difficult decision: to sink the icebreaker. The story goes: it was no longer possible to correct the situation - the city was captured, and the commander of “Svyatogor” along with his entire team were shot. Today in the museum you can see what the icebreaker Krasin looked like at that time: photographs of the giant dating back to 1917 are on permanent display.

In April, I visited St. Petersburg and admired the icebreaker Krasin, but I was not able to visit it.
While looking through archival photographs, I decided to study its history in more detail.

An Arctic icebreaker of the Russian and Soviet fleets, a museum ship since the 1980s.
Built by W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Ltd. in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Great Britain in 1916 - 1917.
In September 1916, a team was formed, and on October 1 of the same year, the icebreaker was included in the list of Navy ships Russian Empire under the name "Svyatogor".
In 1927 it was renamed in honor of the Soviet politician Leonid Krasin.
On September 15, 1917, the icebreaker became part of the Arctic Ocean flotilla.

2. The icebreaker, with an average coal consumption of about 100 tons per day and a full load of coal, had a fuel autonomy of about one month. British steam boilers were designed to use high quality Cardiff coal, which subsequently made bunkering difficult at high latitudes. Soviet Kuznetsk coal did not allow us to develop full power.

3. For several decades, she was the most powerful Arctic icebreaker in the world.
The icebreaker was immediately used to facilitate the passage of British ships with military cargo to Arkhangelsk.
The military service of the Svyatogor did not last long and ended in 1918 - the icebreaker was sunk in shallow water near the mouth of the Chizhovka River at its confluence with the Northern Dvina in Arkhangelsk. The goal was to block the way for interventionist ships to Arkhangelsk, but, as it turned out, it was enough to close the seacocks and pump out the water to raise the ship.
In December 1921, the Soviet Admiralty bought the icebreaker from England.
In 1928, upon returning from North Pole The airship "Italy" crashed. The surviving members of the expedition of General Umberto Nobile and he himself found themselves in the middle of an icy desert. Of all the ships sent to the rescue, only the Krasin was able to reach the expedition’s ice camp and save the people.
On the way back, he assisted the German passenger ship Monte Cervantes with one and a half thousand passengers on board, which received holes after flying into the ice. For this heroic campaign, the icebreaker was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

4. Second World War caught the icebreaker at Far East. "Krasin" was forced to cross the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Panama Canal, in order to be in time for the start of navigation in the western sector of the Arctic. the last part its route took place as part of the Northern convoy PQ-15.
The Krasin operated as an icebreaker until 1972.

5. On August 10, 1989, the Marine Arctic Geological Exploration Expedition transferred the icebreaker Leonid Krasin to the balance of the International Foundation for the History of Science, the ship was sent to Leningrad to continue service in the long-deserved and honorable position of a museum ship.
Now the icebreaker's parking place is Lieutenant Schmidt embankment, near the Mining Institute. Currently it is a branch of the Kaliningrad Museum of the World Ocean.
Like this interesting story at the icebreaker "Krasin".

6. There are interesting ships near the icebreaker parking lot.
On the opposite side of the embankment there was a submarine being repaired.

7. Modern icebreakers.
Linear diesel-electric icebreaker "Murmansk".

8. Lead icebreaker "Vladivostok".

9. Previously, many people raved about the Arctic, dreamed of discovering new lands and doing science, but now there are fewer such enthusiasts.
While working at school, I asked students what they wanted to be, and not one answered - a sailor or a polar explorer...