Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin (; October 17, 1890 – October 18, 1952) was a

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

captain, born in Sumsky Posad, in the present

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. In 1932 he commanded the expedition of the

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icebreaker '' A. Sibiryakov'' which made the first successful crossing of the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...

in a single navigation without wintering. This voyage was organized by the All-Union Arctic Institute (presently known as the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute).

The ''A. Sibiryakov'' expedition

The '' A. Sibiryakov'' sailed from

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

, crossed the

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 ...

and chose a northern, unexplored way around

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 ...

to 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 ...

. In September the propeller shaft broke and the icebreaker drifted for 11 days. However, the ''A. Sibiryakov'' used its sails and arrived in the

Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...

in October. The

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

reached the Japanese port of

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after 65 days, having covered more than 2500 miles in the Arctic seas. This was regarded as a heroic feat of Soviet polar seamen and Chief of Expedition

Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, and academician. Biography He was born in the town of ...

and Captain Vladimir Voronin were received with many honors on their return to Russia. The icebreaker ''A. Sibiryakov'' continued in service until it was sunk in 1942 after an unequal fight with

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heavy cruiser '' Admiral Scheer'' during Operation Wunderland in

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The ''Chelyuskin'' expedition

In 1933-34 Voronin commanded another icebreaker on a dramatic, albeit not so fortunate, expedition. In July 1933 the '' Chelyuskin'' sailed from

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before a large crowd. However, in September icebreaker ''Chelyuskin'' got stuck in

pack ice Pack or packs may refer to: Music * Packs (band), a Canadian indie rock band * ''Packs'' (album), by Your Old Droog * ''Packs'', a Berner album Places * Pack, Styria, defunct Austrian municipality * Pack, Missouri, United States (US) * ...

in the

Chukchi Sea The Chukchi Sea (, ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, ...

near Kolyuchin Island. The crew worked hard to free the ship from the surrounding ice, succeeding after almost a week. But the ship became stuck again and drifted in the general direction of the pack ice toward the

. By the end of November it became obvious that the ''Chelyuskin'' would not break free from the pack ice and would have to winter on the Chukchi Sea. Eventually the ship was squeezed by large ice floes and was in danger of sinking. Captain Voronin ordered the crew to unload equipment from the ship and set up a camp site astern of the ship. But cracks in the ice formed under the tents, forcing the crew to load their equipment back onto the ship. The ''Chelyuskin'' drifted for the next two months in the Chukchi Sea to the east of

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 ...

. Finally, increasing pressure resulted in the ship's creaking and eventual breach by ice. Voronin and

managed to jump off just in time before the ''Chelyuskin'' sank close to Kolyuchin Island. Thus only one crew member went down with the ship. The crew then set up tents on a part of the ice surface that was named Camp Schmidt. The crew made radio contact with the village of

Uelen Uelen is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, rural locality (a ''village#Russia, selo'') in Chukotsky District, just south of the Arctic Circle in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Far East. As of the Russian Census (2010), 2010 C ...

on the

Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; , ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form , ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the easternmost peninsula of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village ...

and asked for help. During a dramatic rescue operation, pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky sighted Camp Schmidt, landed his plane on the ice, and rescued the women and children before returning to Uelen. The remaining passengers and crew of the ill-fated icebreaker ''Chelyuskin'' were rescued later and flown to Cape Vankarem on the Chukotka Peninsula. Due to severe weather conditions, the rescue took one month with planes trying hard to carry out the rescue operation from

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;

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; and Cape Olyutor until they were successful.

Memory

Some geographic locations in Russia have been named in honor of this Soviet captain and explorer of the Arctic waters * Voronina Island, a small island group in the

. *Banka Voronina, a shoal in the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

. *Bukhta Voronina, a bay in the NW shores of

Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; , ; ), also spelled , is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, considered the extreme points of Europe ...

. * The Voronin Trough, a geological feature in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

basin with a depth of 450m located 290 km east of

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 ...

. Cape Voronin off Viachtu Bay in

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

Island, however, is not named after Captain Vladimir Voronin, but after Second lieutenant Aleksey Ivanovich Voronin, a previous Russian explorer who took part in the 1849–1855

Amur The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer Manchuria, Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ...

Expedition.Cape Voronin
/ref> ARC-7 class Ice breaking LNG carrier launched in 2019 named Vladimir Voronin in his honor. Vessel regularly makes unescorted passages of the Northern Sea Route carry LNG from LNG plant in Sabetta to Europe and Asia.

References

* Armstrong, T., ''The Russians in the Arctic'', London, 1958.

History of Russian Arctic ExplorationVoronin Trough
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voronin, Vladimir 1890 births 1952 deaths People from the Republic of Karelia People from Kemsky Uyezd Second convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of Nakhimov, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Explorers of the Arctic Soviet polar explorers 20th-century Russian explorers Russian Navy personnel Soviet explorers Soviet Navy officers Chukchi Sea East Siberian Sea Kara Sea Laptev Sea