Aleksandr Kuznetsov was the expedition leader of the first undisputed team to set foot on 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 rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
. Other claimants, notably
Frederick Cook
Frederick Albert Cook (June 10, 1865 – August 5, 1940) was an American explorer, physician and ethnographer, who is most known for allegedly being the first to reach the North Pole on April 21, 1908. A competing claim was made a year l ...
(1908) and
Robert Peary
Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being ...
(1909) have been criticized for a lack of supporting logs, having no one to confirm sextant readings or other reasons.
Kuznetsov led the Sever-2 team of
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 ...
scientists who flew and landed three
Lisunov Li-2s at the North Pole on April 23, 1948.
Soundings made by the team were the first to indicate an underwater mountain ridge beneath the ice and water at the North Pole.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuznetsov, Aleksandr
20th-century Russian explorers
Explorers of the Arctic