Georgy Alexeyevich Ushakov () (17 (30) January 1901 – 3 December 1963) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

explorer of the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

. Ushakov broke new ground when he surveyed and explored Severnaya Zemlya, together with four other Arctic explorers, establishing that it was an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

. He was honoured by being named Doctor of Geographic Sciences in 1950.

Career

In 1926, Ushakov founded the first Soviet settlement on

Wrangel Island Wrangel Island (, ; , , ) is an island of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is the List of islands by area, 92nd-largest island in the world and roughly the size of Crete. Located in the Arctic Ocean between the Chukchi Sea and East Si ...

(today called Ushakovskoye) and was its head for three years. In 1930–1932, Ushakov headed the

Severnaya Zemlya Severnaya Zemlya (, ) is a archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. It lies off Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Vilkitsky Strait. This archipelago separates two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Kara Sea i ...

expedition and established a polar station called ''Остров Домашний'' (Domashniy Island).Biography of G. A. Ushakov
at Polar World. In 1929 and 1930 icebreaker ''Sedov'' carried groups of scientists to

Franz Josef Land Franz Josef Land () is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is inhabited only by military personnel. It constitutes the northernmost part of Arkhangelsk Oblast and consists of 192 islands, which cover an area of , stretching from east ...

and later to former Emperor Nicholas II Land, the last major piece of unsurveyed territory in the Soviet Arctic. In 1926 the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR had renamed the still not fully explored land ''Severnaya Zemlya'' (Northern Land). This archipelago was completely mapped under Ushakov, together with

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

Nikolay Urvantsev Nikolay Nikolayevich Urvantsev (; – 20 February 1985) was a Soviet geologist and explorer. He was born in the town of Lukoyanov in the Lukoyanovsky Uyezd of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire to the family of a merchant. He ...

, surveyor Sergei Zhuravlev and radio operator Vasily Khodov thoroughly surveyed Severnaya Zemlya during a 1930–1932 expedition to the archipelago. between 1930 and 1932. This voyage allowed to obliterate enormous "white spaces" on the Arctic map. Geographic features of the territory were named after

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

organizations, events and personalities. About the bleakness of Severnaya Zemlya Ushakov wrote: In 1935, Ushakov led the first Soviet high-latitude expedition on an icebreaker ''Sadko''. The cruises of the ''Sadko'' went farther north than most; in 1935 and 1936 the last unexplored areas in the northern

Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

were examined and the little

Ushakov Island Ushakov Island (, ''Ostrov Ushakova'') is an isolated island located in the Arctic Ocean, Russian Federation. The average yearly precipitation ranges from at a height of and between and around the highest point of the island's ice cap. Geogr ...

was discovered. In 1937 the ship was caught in the ice with two others and forced to winter in the

Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea () is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with ...

, adding valuable winter observations to the usual summer ones. In 1932–1936, Georgy Ushakov was employed at the

Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route The Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (), also known as Glavsevmorput or GUSMP (), was a Soviet government organization in charge of the maritime Northern Sea Route, established in January 1932 and dissolved in 1964. History The organiz ...

(Главное Управление Северного Морского Пути). Ushakov then worked at the Chief Directorate of Hydrometeorological Service of the USSR (1936–1940) and

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

(1940–1958). Ushakov died in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, but was buried on Domashniy Island in Severnaya Zemlya.

Honours

Mountains in the

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, a spit and a cape on Wrangel Island, as well as a river on October Revolution Island bear Ushakov's name. But perhaps the greatest honor was that

, which was the last piece of undiscovered territory in the Russian Arctic, was named after him.

Medals

Ushakov was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

, the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

, the

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

, and a number of medals.

References

External links

Role of Georgiy Alekseevich Ushakov in development of Russian oceanologyThe Russian Arctic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ushakov, Georgy 1901 births 1963 deaths Soviet polar explorers Polar exploration by Russia and the Soviet Union 20th-century Russian explorers Severnaya Zemlya Kara Sea Laptev Sea Explorers of the Arctic Recipients of the Order of Lenin