Schmidt sits on the ice floe like a nix on a raspberry. Otto Yulievich Schmidt - hero, navigator, academician and educator Schmidt's contribution to the study of children's groups

Sh Midt Otto Yulievich - an outstanding Soviet explorer of the Arctic, scientist in the field of mathematics and astronomy, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Born on September 18 (30), 1891 in the city of Mogilev (now the Republic of Belarus). German. In 1909 he graduated from the 2nd classical gymnasium of the city of Kyiv with a gold medal, in 1916 – from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kyiv University. He wrote his first three scientific papers on group theory in 1912-1913, for one of which he was awarded a gold medal. Since 1916, private assistant professor at Kiev University.

After the October Revolution of 1917, O.Yu. Schmidt was a member of the boards of a number of people's commissariats (Narkomprod in 1918-1920, Narkomfin in 1921-1922, Central Union in 1919-1920, People's Commissariat of Education in 1921-1922 and in 1924-1927, member Presidium of the State Planning Committee in 1927-1930). One of the organizers of higher education and science: he worked in the State Academic Council under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, a member of the Presidium of the Communist Academy in 1924-1930. Member of the RCP(b)/VKP(b)/CPSU since 1918.

In 1921-1924, he headed the State Publishing House, organized the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, took an active part in the reform of higher education and the development of a network of research institutions. In 1923-1956, professor at the 2nd Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov (MSU). In 1920-1923 - professor at the Moscow Forestry Institute.

In 1928, Otto Yulievich Schmidt took part in the first Soviet-German Pamir expedition, organized by the USSR Academy of Sciences. The purpose of the expedition was to study the structure of mountain ranges, glaciers, passes and climb the highest peaks of the Western Pamirs.

In 1929, an Arctic expedition was organized on the icebreaking steamship Sedov. O.Yu. Schmidt was appointed head of this expedition and “government commissioner of the Franz Josef Archipelago”. The expedition successfully reaches Franz Josef Land; O.Yu. Schmidt created a polar geophysical observatory in Tikhaya Bay, examined the straits of the archipelago and some islands. In 1930, the second Arctic expedition was organized under the leadership of O.Yu. Schmidt on the icebreaking steamer "Sedov". The islands of Vize, Isachenko, Voronin, Dlinny, Domashny, and the western shores of Severnaya Zemlya were discovered. During the expedition, an island was discovered, which was named after the head of the expedition - Schmidt Island.

In 1930-1932 - director of the Arctic Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1932, an expedition led by O.Yu. Schmidt on the icebreaking steamer Sibiryakov covered the entire Northern Sea Route in one navigation, laying the foundation for regular voyages along the coast of Siberia.

In 1932-1939, he was the head of the Main Northern Sea Route. In 1933-1934, under his leadership, a new expedition was carried out on the steamer Chelyuskin in order to test the possibility of sailing along the Northern Sea Route on a non-icebreaking class ship. At the time of the death of "Chelyuskin" in the ice and subsequently during the arrangement of life for the rescued crew members and the expedition on floating ice, he showed courage and strong will.

In 1937, on the initiative of O.Yu.Schmidt, the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences was organized (O.Yu.Schmidt was its director until 1949, in 1949-1956 - head of the department).

In 1937, O.Yu. Schmidt organized an expedition to the world’s first drifting scientific station “North Pole-1” in the very center of the Arctic Ocean. And in 1938 he led the operation to remove station personnel from the ice floe.

U Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 1937 for leadership in the organization of the drifting station "North Pole-1" Schmidt Otto Yulievich He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin, and after the establishment of a special distinction, he was awarded the Gold Star medal.

Since 1951, editor-in-chief of the Nature magazine. In 1951-1956 he worked at the Geophysical Department of Moscow State University.

The main works in the field of mathematics relate to algebra; The monograph “Abstract Theory of Groups” (1916, 2nd ed. 1933) had a significant influence on the development of this theory. O.Yu. Schmidt is the founder of the Moscow algebraic school, the head of which he was for many years. In the mid-1940s, O.Yu. Schmidt put forward a new cosmogonic hypothesis about the formation of the Earth and the planets of the Solar System (Schmidt hypothesis), the development of which he continued together with a group of Soviet scientists until the end of his life.

On February 1, 1933, he was elected a corresponding member, and on June 1, 1935, a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From February 28, 1939 to March 24, 1942, he was vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1934).

Member of the USSR Central Executive Committee. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st convocation (1937-1946). He was an honorary member of the Moscow Mathematical Society (1920), the All-Union Geographical Society and the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists. Member of the US National Geographic Society. Editor-in-chief of the magazine "Nature" (1951-1956).

He was awarded three Orders of Lenin (1932, 1937, 1953), two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1936, 1945), the Order of the Red Star (1934), and medals.

The following names are named after O.Yu. Schmidt: an island in the Kara Sea, a peninsula in the northern part of Novaya Zemlya, a cape on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, one of the peaks and a pass in the Pamir Mountains, as well as the Institute of Physics of the Earth; streets in Arkhangelsk, Kyiv, Lipetsk and other cities, avenue in Mogilev; Museum of Arctic Exploration of Murmansk Gymnasium No. 4. The first Soviet scientific icebreaker, launched in 1979, was named “Otto Schmidt”. In 1995, the O.Yu. Schmidt Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences was established for outstanding scientific work in the field of research and development of the Arctic.

Essays:
Selected works. Mathematics, M., 1959;
Selected works. Geographical works, M., 1960;
Selected works. Geophysics and cosmogony, M., 1960.

> > Otto Schmidt

Biography of Otto Schmidt (1891-1956)

Short biography:

Education: Kyiv University

Place of Birth: Mogilev, Russian empire

A place of death: Moscow, USSR

– Soviet astronomer and mathematician: biography with photos, main discoveries, expeditions, birth of the Solar system, hypothesis of the rotation of Uranus, encyclopedia.

Otto Schmidt was born on September 30, 1891 in Russia, the city of Mogilev. In 1900, the future great scientist entered school. Later, the Schmidt family moved to Odessa, and later to Kyiv. Already here in 1909, Otto graduated with honors from the Second Classical Gymnasium. Next was the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kyiv University.

In 1912 and 1913, 3 articles by Otto Schmidt were published. Otto graduated from the University in 1913, but remained there to prepare for a professorship. Having passed his master's exams in 1916, Schmidt took the position of private assistant professor. The work he wrote at this time, “Abstract Group Theory,” made a huge contribution to algebra.

In 1918, Otto Schmidt joined the Bolshevik Party, and in 1919 he developed a draft regulation on food proletarian detachments. For the next two years, Schmidt worked at Narkomfin, combining this activity with the leadership of the Institute of Economic Research. He actively took part in the theoretical substantiation of the NEP.

From 1921 to 1924, the scientist headed the State Publishing House. The idea of ​​publishing the Great Soviet Encyclopedia belonged to Otto Yulievich, so in 1929-1941 the position of editor-in-chief of the project belonged to him. In addition, Schmidt lectured at the Pedagogical University, the Moscow Forestry Institute, Moscow State University and the Communist Academy. Otto Schmidt led the work to conquer the Arctic.

From 1929 to 1930, Otto was the head of two expeditions on the icebreaker Georgy Sedov. As a result of the campaigns, a research station was founded on Franz Josef Land. The icebreaker explored the Northern Sea Route, the northeast of the Kara Sea and the west of Severnaya Zemlya. Already in 1930, the scientist was the director of the Arctic Institute.

In 1932, the steamship Sibiryakov traveled from Arkhangelsk to Vladivostok in just one navigation. The icebreaker was led by Otto Schmidt. The second attempt to explore the Arctic seas was made in 1934 on the icebreaker Chelyuskin. The voyage ended unsuccessfully - the ship was lost. Fortunately, the polar pilots managed to save the crew.

A year later, Schmidt became a member of the Academy of Sciences. A number of Otto’s works on astronomy, geophysics, geography and geology were published. In 1937, the scientist led the creation of the North Pole-1 drifting station. Under his leadership, a year later the Papanin heroes were removed from the ice floe.

By 1944, Otto became interested in the formation of the solar system. At this time, hypotheses of this phenomenon were put forward. One of them was the assumption of J. Buffon, which stated that a certain clot of substances gave rise to all the planets. This scientist believed that the original substance was torn out of the Sun and formed as a result of the impact of a huge comet on it.

Later, two scientists, Laplace and Kant, working independently of each other, said that the basis of the solar system was a hot and discharged gas nebula. This substance had a compaction in the center and rotated slowly. Scientists believed that its radius was several times larger than the modern solar system. Small particles were mutually attracted, thereby contributing to the compression of the nebula. The speed of rotation of the Solar system increased in proportion to the increase in compression. The continuity of this process led to delamination into rings that rotated within the same plane. Sections of the rings had different densities. The denser ones attracted the rarer ones. Each ring gradually turned into a gas ball with a rarefied structure, which rotated around its axis. Over time, the compaction cooled, solidified, and became a planet. Most of the nebula has not yet cooled down. She began to be called the Sun. This theory of the origin of the solar system is the “scientific Kant-Laplace hypothesis.” Later, the opinion of scientists was subject to great doubt, since it was proven that Uranus rotates in the direction opposite to the rotation of other planets.

Otto Schmidt had his own opinion about the formation of the solar system. He believed that the Earth and other planets were formed from solid particles, not gaseous ones, which are cold. But the Academician admitted the existence of a cloud of gas and dust around the Sun. He believed that numerous particles constantly collided in their continuous movement, while trying not to interfere with each other. This phenomenon was possible only if they moved around the Sun, in the same plane, in circles of different sizes. When the particles, as a result of their movement, came as close to each other as possible, they were attracted, united and gave rise to planets of various sizes. A larger number of combined particles were formed by the giant planets - Saturn and Jupiter, located on opposite sides of the Sun at different distances. As a result of his calculations, Schmidt suggested that larger planets arose in the middle of the solar system, and smaller ones were located closer to the Sun or behind their large neighbors.

Schmidt's hypothesis also explained the rotation of Uranus. The scientist believed that particles could fall onto planetary lumps at an angle, in an oblique direction. Their movement took a slightly different direction - the opposite to the movement of the other planets.

The Soviet scientist, leader of expeditions, public figure Otto Schmidt was awarded the Order of Lenin for his numerous services, and in 1937 he was recognized as a hero of the Soviet Union. Traveler-researcher Schmidt wrote several scientific works on algebra, astronomy and physics. The scientist was an honorary member of Soviet and foreign scientific societies.

Otto Schmidt died on September 7, 1956 in Moscow, leaving behind a great scientific legacy. Schmidt Island, located in the Kara Sea, is named in honor of the outstanding scientist. There is a cape on the Chukotka coast named after him.

125 years ago, Otto Yulievich Schmidt (1891–1956) was born - academician, organizer of scientific life, whose name in our country is associated with such concepts as “Chelyuskinites” and “Northern Sea Route”.

In the 1930s, Academician Schmidt was undoubtedly one of the most famous people in the country. And he was well known throughout the world - both by his accomplishments and by sight. Poems and newspaper praises were written about him. And folk storytellers composed epics about the conqueror of the Arctic. He was one of the “notable people of the Soviet state.” The colorful appearance of the determined scientist was memorable: bright eyes, a long dark gray beard... We don’t know whether he consciously built his image, but there is no doubt about the success: Schmidt’s fame thundered.

As a student he was considered the hope of Russian mathematical science. However, after the revolutions, he began to show not so much research as organizational talent. He was involved in supply, finance, and organization of scientific institutes. He taught mathematics and studied astronomy. By the way, it was Schmidt who at one time coined the word “graduate student,” without which it is difficult to imagine university life today. He was the initiator and energetic leader of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. True, all-Union fame came to him when Schmidt became the leader of polar expeditions and the head of the Northern Sea Route.

“If you want to become a good polar explorer, climb the mountains first,” Otto Yulievich used to say. It all started with the fact that, while being treated for tuberculosis in Europe, he took a mountaineering course. His fate was decided when “while watching a film about last year’s Pamir expedition (in March 1929 - Author) N.P. Gorbunov (manager of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, participant in the Pamir expedition. - Author) told me about the expedition to Franz Josef Land and offered to go as its leader... In May I agreed, received the appointment of the Council of People's Commissars and in June I was in Leningrad, at the Institute for the Study of the North, where with R.L. Samoilovich and V.Yu. Wiese has agreed on the basics.” The political subtext of the project was visible in the idea of ​​scientific and practical development of Franz Josef Land and its inclusion in our polar possessions, as was declared by a note from the tsarist government in 1916 and confirmed by a Soviet note in 1926. On March 5, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars approved a project for organizing an expedition to Franz Josef Land, where it was planned to build a radio station. The most experienced polar explorer among the participants in the expedition to Franz Josef Land was undoubtedly Vladimir Wiese, who in 1912 received Arctic baptism as a geographer for Georgy Sedov’s expedition. Rudolf Samoilovich was not inferior to him in terms of experience. However, the Council of People's Commissars appointed Schmidt as head of the expedition. They trusted him. He was considered a kind of commissar.

Schmidt wrote: “The first reasonable, justified idea about the geographical structure of the Central Polar Basin belongs to Nansen.” His contemporaries did not want to listen to him. It is known that this energetic, courageous man nevertheless did not waver in his theoretical views and managed to put them into practice while drifting the Fram. The drift of the Fram is still considered the greatest event in the history of the polar countries. But the Fram's drift, which occurred in the 1890s, remained lonely. The Fram passed from the New Siberian Islands, slightly beyond 85 degrees, through a significant part of the Central Polar Basin, but was not at the Pole. Fridtjof Nansen intended to repeat the trip under different conditions, namely, to freeze a ship of the same type into an ice floe somewhere north of Alaska, hoping that it would pass closer to the pole and, drifting for 4–5 years, would collect more material than “ Fram."

Over the course of several years, Schmidt managed to firmly seize the initiative from the Norwegians and Americans in the development of the Arctic. The achievements of Soviet polar explorers in Schmidt's time are impressive. In 1929, an Arctic expedition was formed on the icebreaking steamship Sedov, which successfully reached Franz Josef Land. In Tikhaya Bay, Schmidt created a polar geophysical observatory that examined the lands and straits of the archipelago. In 1930, during the second expedition, islands such as Isachenko, Vize, Dlinny, Voronina, and Domashny were discovered. In 1932, the icebreaker Sibiryakov made the passage from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in one navigation. Every child in the USSR heard about the Northern Sea Route in those years. Great hopes were placed on him, primarily economic ones. We saw the Northern Sea Route as one of the levers for transforming life. Schmidt headed the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. Much was under his jurisdiction. And the construction of weather stations, and the organization of polar aviation, and shipbuilding issues, as well as radio communication problems...

In 1933, he headed an expedition on the steamship Chelyuskin, which was supposed to prove the viability of the Northern Sea Route. But Chelyuskin was unable to enter the Pacific Ocean. The ship was crushed by ice and sank. 104 people found themselves on the ice in a seemingly hopeless situation. Schmidt proved himself to be a real commander. When a large crew landed on an ice floe, one person died. Accident! No more such incidents occurred in the Schmidt camp. Under the leadership of the academician, the Chelyuskinites quickly erected a tent city, created conditions for preparing food and treating the sick. Ernst Krenkel managed to establish radio contact with the mainland. The Chelyuskinites lived like a big family. Schmidt instilled in his comrades faith in salvation and the will to live. It was here that his main talent manifested itself - communication, pedagogical influence. On the ice floe he gave entertaining lectures to the Chelyuskinites. The whole world followed the life of the Schmidt camp as a kind of “reality show”. It all ended in a miraculous rescue. The pilots took every single Chelyuskin resident to the mainland. Nobody died.

In the last weeks of his stay on the ice floe, Schmidt became seriously ill. Tuberculosis, pneumonia... At first he hid his illness from his comrades, then he could not hide it. He fell off the ice and went straight to the hospital. However, when rewarding the heroes, he was not deprived. Moscow greeted the academician as a triumphant.

In 1937, Schmidt acted as the organizer of the North Pole drifting station. Together with the Papaninites, he flew to the ice floe, checked everything, passionately spoke at the rally and returned to the mainland. And Ivan Papanin returned after a year of drifting as an all-Union hero. Soon Joseph Stalin found it necessary to replace Schmidt as head of the Northern Sea Route with Papanin. Then a comic song arose: “There are many examples in the world, But it’s really not better to find: Schmidt took Papanin off the ice floe, And he took him off the Northern Sea Route.” Although even at that cruel time, Schmidt did not fall into disgrace. He was engaged in science, headed departments and institutes, unfortunately, he was often treated for a long time.

All R. In the 1940s, Schmidt put forward a new cosmogonic hypothesis about the appearance of the Earth and the planets of the solar system. The academician believed that these bodies were never hot gas bodies, but were formed from solid, cold particles of matter. Otto Yulievich Schmidt continued to develop this version until the end of his life together with a group of Soviet scientists. All R. the war worsened the disease. Schmidt was forced to retire, but continued to engage in scientific research. Unfortunately, increasingly, illness took him away from science for a long time. The great lover of life (he was rightfully considered the “Soviet Don Juan”) died before reaching the age of 65. He remained in the memory and in many implemented endeavors.

Mikhailov Andrey 09/30/2018 at 10:00

September 30 is the birthday of the outstanding academician, mathematician, geographer, geophysicist, astronomer, explorer of the Pamirs and the Arctic, hero of the Soviet Union Otto Yulievich Schmidt. Soviet history, perhaps, does not know a more versatile and titled scientist. And his expedition on the ship "Chelyuskin" will never be forgotten.

There were times when Otto Yulievich Schmidt was no less famous than, say, Yuri Gagarin. I remember Olga Oyushminaldovna studied in our class; It turned out that her father was called that way at one time - Oyushminald: “Otto Yulievich Schmidt on the ice floe.”

There are also other derivative names: Lagschminald: (“Schmidt’s camp on the ice floe”); Lagshmivar ("Schmidt's Camp in the Arctic"). Well, who from our scientific community is honored with such memory - in names? Perhaps the classics of Marxism, who gave our grandfathers the names Rem, Vilen, Vladlen, Marlen and others like that.

Otto Yulievich Schmidt was born on September 30, 1891 in Mogilev. His paternal ancestors were German colonists who moved to Livonia (Latvia) in the second half of the 18th century, and his maternal ancestors were Latvians from another rented estate, named Ergle.

As a child, he worked in a writing supplies store. Money for the gifted boy’s education in the gymnasium was found from his Latvian grandfather Fricis Ergle. Interestingly, not far from the farm of Fricis Ergle there is Birkineli - a manor where the famous Latvian poet Jan Rainis spent his childhood.

In 1909, Otto Schmidt graduated from high school in Kyiv with a gold medal. Then - the physics and mathematics department of Kyiv University, where he studied in 1909–1913. There, under the guidance of Professor D. A. Grave, he began his research in the mathematical theory of groups.

Otto Schmidt - one of the founders and editor-in-chief of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1924-1942). Founder and head of the department of higher algebra (1929-1949) of the Physics, Mathematics and Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow State University. In 1930–1934, he led the famous Arctic expeditions on the icebreaking ships Sedov, Sibiryakov and Chelyuskin. In 1930–1932, he was director of the All-Union Arctic Institute, and in 1932–1938, head of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (GUSMP). From February 28, 1939 to March 24, 1942, Schmidt was vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

He also developed a cosmogonic hypothesis for the formation of bodies in the Solar System as a result of the condensation of a circumsolar gas-dust cloud, and left behind a number of works on algebraic group theory.

In 1928, Otto Yulievich Schmidt took part in the first Soviet-German Pamir expedition, organized by the USSR Academy of Sciences. The purpose of the expedition was to study the structure of mountain ranges, glaciers, passes and climb the highest peaks of the Western Pamirs. In 1929, an Arctic expedition was organized on the icebreaking steamship Sedov. O. Yu. Schmidt was appointed head of this expedition and “government commissioner of the Franz Josef Archipelago.” The expedition successfully reaches Franz Josef Land; A polar geophysical observatory is being created in Tikhaya Bay.

In 1930, the second Arctic expedition was organized under the leadership of O. Yu. Schmidt on the icebreaking steamer "Sedov". She discovered the islands of Vize, Isachenko, Voronin, Dlinny, Domashny, and the western shores of Severnaya Zemlya. One of the discovered islands was named Schmidt Island. In 1932, an expedition led by O. Yu. Schmidt on the icebreaking steamer Sibiryakov covered the entire Northern Sea Route in one navigation and thereby laid a solid foundation for regular voyages along the coast of Siberia.

In 1933–1934, under his leadership, a new expedition was carried out on the steamship "Chelyuskin": its goal was to check whether it was possible to sail along the Northern Sea Route on a non-icebreaking class ship. It was this expedition that became one of the brightest moments in the exploration of the Arctic and the real finest hour of Otto Yurievich. At the time of the death of "Chelyuskin" in the ice and during the arrangement of life for the surviving crew members and expedition on the ice floe, he showed courage and strong will.

"Chelyuskin" with a displacement of 7.5 thousand tons was built in Denmark by order of Soviet foreign trade organizations. The steamship was designed to sail between the mouth of the Lena (hence the original name of the ship - Lena) and Vladivostok. According to technical data, the ship was the most modern cargo and passenger ship for that time. According to Lloyd's classification, it is classified as an icebreaker-type vessel.

The steamship was launched on March 11, 1933, and began its test voyage on May 6 of the same year. The ship set off on its maiden voyage on June 3 under the name Lena and arrived in Leningrad two days later. On June 19, it received a new name - “Chelyuskin” in honor of the Russian navigator and explorer of the North Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin.

On July 16, 1933, "Chelyuskin" under the command of polar captain Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin and the head of the expedition, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences O. Yu. Schmidt, sailed from Leningrad to Murmansk. On August 2, taking 112 people on board, the ship left Murmansk for Vladivostok, working out a scheme for delivering cargo along the Northern Sea Route during one summer navigation. It was planned that icebreakers would help Chelyuskin on difficult sections of the route.

The ship encountered the first ice floes in the Kara Sea when leaving the Matochkin Shar Strait. With the help of an icebreaker, the ship overcame solid ice and continued moving. On September 1 he reached Cape Chelyuskin. In the Chukchi Sea, the ship again encountered solid ice. On November 4, 1933, thanks to a successful drift along with the ice, the Chelyuskin entered the Bering Strait. When only a few miles remained to clear water, the ship was drawn back in a northwest direction.

"Chelyuskin" drifted with its crew for almost five months - from September 23 to February 13, 1934, when it was crushed by ice. The ship sank in two hours. Fortunately, the crew, ready for such an eventuality, prepared everything in advance for unloading onto the ice. The last to leave the Chelyuskin were Schmidt, Voronin and the expedition's caretaker, Boris Grigoryevich Mogilevich.

As a result of the disaster, 104 people were left on the ice. The expedition members built barracks from bricks and boards salvaged from the ship. The camp was evacuated with the help of aviation: on March 5, pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky made his way to the camp on an ANT-4 plane and removed ten women and two children from the ice floe.

The next flight was made only on April 7. Within a week, pilots Vasily Molokov, Nikolai Kamanin, Mavriky Slepnev, Mikhail Vodopyanov and Ivan Doronin took the rest of the Chelyuskinites to the mainland. The last flight was made on April 13, 1934. In total, the pilots made 24 flights, transporting people to the Chukotka settlement of Vankarem, one and a half hundred kilometers from the ice parking lot.

Under the leadership of Otto Yulievich Schmidt, all 104 people who spent two months on an ice floe in polar winter conditions were rescued. Those arriving from the ice floe, primarily women, children and the sick, were sent by plane further to the village of Uelen, and then to the Lavrentiya and Provideniya bays.

The remaining 53 of the most physically strong members of the expedition made a 500-kilometer walk from Vankarem to Uelen, and some further - to the bays of Laurentia and Providence, where the ships were waiting for them.

Moving for 14-16 hours on uneven ice, falling into cracks, climbing steep coastal cliffs on all fours, spending the night in the snow without tents, suffering from frostbite and injuries, unable to shelter from the blizzard, people walked up to 70 kilometers a day. 16 people were hospitalized upon arrival at Providence Bay.

In the last days of his stay on the ice floe, Schmidt became seriously ill and, by decision of a government commission, on April 11 he was transported to a hospital in the city of Nome, Alaska. In Moscow, members of the expedition were solemnly greeted by members of the government and residents of the capital.

The pilots who participated in the removal of the Chelyuskinites from the ice floe became the first heroes of the Soviet Union, and a number of geographical objects of the USSR received the names of the Chelyuskinites. Expeditions were repeatedly organized to search for the wreck of a sunken ship. Searches in 1974 and 1978 yielded no results.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the memory of "Chelyuskin" in 2004, the underwater archaeological expedition "Chelyuskin-70" was organized. In September 2006, its participants in Chelyuskin-70 reported that they had found the sunken hero steamship, and in February 2007, experts confirmed that the railing post and ventilation grille, raised from the bottom of the Chukchi Sea, are indeed fragments of the legendary Chelyuskin.

Many contemporaries perceive "Chelyuskin" as the world's largest monument to the traveler and scientist, Otto Yulievich Schmidt. That’s how it actually is...

But that's not all of Schmidt's exploits. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 1937, for leading the organization of the drifting station "North Pole-1", Schmidt Otto Yulievich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin, and after the establishment of a special distinction he was awarded the Gold Star medal number 35.

Camp Schmidt

First day. Government commission. Everything is mobilized for our salvation. On dogs to Schmidt's camp. Discipline, discipline, discipline! Newspaper “We will not give up.” Meeting of the party cell. Headquarters tent. How we lived on ice. Government radiogram. Our airfields. Schmidt's stories. Lyapidevsky saves women and children. The ice is breaking our camp. Along with the planes, airships are ready to go. Schmidt's disease.

I don’t know whether God was satisfied on the first day of creation, but I saw the faces of the Chelyuskinites crawling out of their sleeping bags on the morning of February 14 with my own eyes. Looking around the tent city built overnight, we did not feel particularly delighted. After the cozy cabins, the cold tents, where people lay on top of each other, were not at all pleasant. However, no one complained. Everyone understood perfectly well that only the very first, most difficult hours had passed. It should be easier further. Our fate now largely depended on ourselves.

Of course, while still adrift, we knew that the threat of death hung over the ship like the sword of Damocles. Understanding our situation, we prepared for the most unpleasant thing. Now it was necessary to adapt to the current situation, and this was not at all easy...

A dozen lopsided tents, a pole proudly called a radio mast, a dull airplane and cargo scattered here and there... Not very fun.

Worldly wisdom says: what cannot be changed must be tolerated.

Even in tragic conditions there was room for jokes and laughter. Our senior mate Sergei Vasilyevich Gudin, a smart sailor who had sailed for twenty-two years out of his forty years, was responsible for order on the ship. Goodin performed this duty with enviable pedantry. There was laughter when Pyotr Shirshov talked about how scary eyes Gudin looked at him when Petya, instead of running around for some instruments he really needed, without thinking twice, broke the window in the cabin and took everything out through the broken glass.

And just think! Deliberately, deliberately break the glass of the cabin!

There was no need to strain to imagine the condemning expression on the face of our strict and unshakable Sergei Vasilyevich in matters of order. And someone has already told a different story:

Guys, did you hear what our senior mechanic did? The Chelyuskin was sinking, and he went into his cabin, opened the closet, and there was a brand new foreign suit. He looked at it and closed the cabinet: well, why take it on the ice, it will get wrinkled and dirty. It's easier to wear the old one!

Our place, even in the Arctic, was considered a remote bear corner. There was no hope for a quick rescue. Hence the conclusion: do everything possible to prevent the elements from swatting us away like a fly. At the site of the ship's death, people were constantly swarming around, diligently extracting everything that the ocean had returned. There were carpenters, stove makers, and engineers among us, but the construction was not easy. We had experience of sailing, experience of drifting, experience of wintering, but we had no experience of shipwrecks. In the absence of such, we were guided, however, from memory, by literary sources. It was easier for the heroes of these books. Robinson Crusoe, as you know, ended up not on an ice field, but on a tropical island, where, by the will of Daniel Defoe, he found many different things...

Having looked at the results of the night-time lightning construction in the morning, we realized that our structures were not suitable for very long. Without delay, we began reconstruction.

Oh, these reconstructions! They had to be produced several times. As a result, tents, in which at first it was not only impossible to stand, but even barely possible to sit, began to turn into a kind of frame houses with canvas walls, insulated on the outside with snow.

The ice floe produced a certain revaluation of my work. Communication has become even more important to us than on the ship. That's why radio operators were relieved of other duties. We had one task: not to let go of the invisible thread of communication with the mainland.

Moscow, and behind it the whole world, knew about the death of our ship. The message about the disaster with “Chelyuskin” was published with lightning speed. On February 13 we sank, on the 14th we transmitted Schmidt’s first telegram, on the 15th the full text of this telegram appeared on the newspaper pages.

With captivating frankness, the Soviet government published this message, which was especially sad because it came only a week and a half after the grave news of the death of comrades Fedoseenko, Vasenko, and Usyskin on the Osoaviakhim stratospheric balloon. No sooner had the pain of one tragedy subsided than another one loomed...

The fight for a hundred human lives began without a moment's delay. A few hours after Schmidt’s message, Valerian Vladimirovich Kuibyshev instructed Sergei Sergeevich Kamenev to convene a meeting to urgently outline plans for organizing assistance.

The choice of Kuibyshev was not accidental. S. S. Kamenev, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and Deputy People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, was involved in the Arctic for many years and was a great expert on it. Back in the spring of 1928, S.S. Kamenev headed the initiative group that created the Osoaviakhim committee to rescue the Nobile expedition, and then to search for the missing Amundsen.

A year later, Kamenev became the chairman of the commission for drawing up a five-year plan for the development of the Arctic. This commission, which included prominent scientists and polar explorers O. Yu. Shmidt, A. E. Fersman, V. Yu. Wiese, R. L. Samoilovich, N. M. Knipovich, G. D. Krasinsky, N. N. Zubov and others, became the center of all Arctic affairs, such as the creation of the Arctic Institute in Leningrad, drawing up a five-year plan for the development of the Arctic, coordinating the activities of various institutions dealing with issues of the north...

S. S. Kamenev was an invariable participant in all the big events that took place in the Arctic.

If we add to this that under the leadership of S. S. Kamenev, G. A. Ushakov’s expeditions to Severnaya Zemlya and the campaigns of “Sibiryakov” were organized, that S. S. Kamenev was a great friend of O. Yu. Schmidt, then it will become clear that the best V.V. Kuibyshev simply could not choose an assistant.

At the direction of Kamenev, the first outlines of the rescue plan were drawn up by Georgy Alekseevich Ushakov. The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to organize a Government Commission. It was headed by Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.V. Kuibyshev. The commission included People's Commissar of Water N.M. Yanson, Deputy People's Commissar of Military Sea S.S. Kamenev, Head of the Main Air Fleet I.S. Unshlikht and Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route S.S. Ioffe. The names of these people, who occupied very responsible positions, testified to how great the powers of the commission were.

A few more hours - and the commission began to act.

However, even for the most authoritative commission, the ten thousand kilometers separating Moscow and Schmidt’s camp were a serious obstacle. It was impossible to delay; it was decided, first of all, to use local means, forming an Emergency Troika in Chukotka under the chairmanship of the head of the station at Cape North, G. G. Petrov.

A radiogram from the Chukchi Sea worried millions of people. She appeared on the front pages of Pravda and Izvestia. Next to Schmidt’s first radiogram, newspapers published the Resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR “On organizing assistance to the participants of the expedition of comrade. Schmidt O.Yu. and the crew of the lost ship “Chelyuskin”.

Perhaps there will be skeptics who will say that I have taken on the wrong business, that instead of presenting in detail what I saw with my own eyes, I devote an unjustifiably large amount of space to what, of course, there is no way to see while on the ice. could not.

Let me disagree. Of course, I didn’t see everything, but my profession as a radio operator made me a witness (or rather, a listener) of a lot.

We often say: the concern of the party, the concern of the government, the attention of the people... The number of such expressions can be increased without the slightest difficulty; moreover, from immoderate use, words are erased and, perceived by hearing and sight, do not always reach the mind, the heart.

For me personally, the history of our salvation filled all these familiar expressions with great content, but, strangely enough, this history has not yet been truly written in its entirety. Written down on newspaper sheets, it never made it into books. Even the excellent thick volume “How We Saved the Chelyuskinites,” created right on the heels of the events and containing many exciting details, cannot claim completeness of presentation, since it tells mainly about the feat of seven pilots, the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union.

The feat of these people is enormous, and I will try to write everything I remember about them, especially since I became very friendly with some of the pilots. But while paying tribute to these wonderful people who found themselves at the forefront of the attack, one cannot remain silent about the enormous work of many others, about the swift and precise measures of the state, which did everything to ensure that this feat was accomplished.

Re-reading old documents, I want now, almost four decades later, people of the middle generation - those who were just running to school or just born, people of the younger generation, who were not even born then, to know about this immortal feat, the feat of more than one a person, not a dozen people, but the entire people, the entire country, which sent a hundred people to difficult work and mobilized thousands to help these hundred out of trouble. I was among those who were rescued. It is my duty to tell about those who saved us. I would be a great debtor to my people if I did not write down this whole story, if I did not publish most of the forgotten and unknown details associated with our salvation.

The Government Commission and newspaper editorial offices received many letters. Volunteers put themselves at the disposal of the commission. Young, strong, trained, they were ready to take any risk, any hardship for the sake of our salvation.

Then an incredible fountain of inventive imagination began to flow. Many different projects were born, and although most of these projects were extremely utopian, I cannot help but remember the warm words of their authors.

One advised making a huge ice hole near the camp so that a submarine could dive into it. Another proposed equipping airplanes with balloons with a diameter of 4–5 meters. In his opinion, such a combined device should have been much safer than a conventional aircraft when landing on uneven ice. The third recommended using the catapult he invented to make it easier for planes to take off from the ice floe. The flow of projects was truly inexhaustible. Conveyor rope with baskets for lifting people onto a moving aircraft. Amphibious tank. Bouncing balls.

Thank you all, dear friends. Time has done its work. From ardent youths we have turned into people of respectable age, but even today, remembering these, sometimes naive ideas, there is no need to be ashamed of them. All these projects, including the most incredible ones, were generated by the best feelings, and therefore deserve respect...

So, the Emergency Troika had to take the first practical steps. It was both a great honor and no less responsibility. The position of the Emergency Troika turned out to be far from simple. Only two types of transport - dogs or airplanes could become a real life-saving means. However, in a land equal in area to two of France, in a land where only 15,000 people lived, both the oldest transport of these places and the youngest were represented very modestly. Chukotka had only a few aircraft. The N-4 pilot F.K. Kukanov, having completed a lot of work on removing passengers from wintered ships, was at Cape Severny with a damaged landing gear. Other planes were stationed in the Wellen area. On one of them, the crew of A.V. Lyapidevsky (co-pilot E.M. Konkin, flight engineer L.V. Petrov) was the first to reach Schmidt’s camp.

At the suggestion of S.S. Kamenev, it was decided to bring the planes closer to our camp. The dogs carried fuel from the Northern Cape and Uellen to Vankarem.

The pace of rescue work can only be described as amazing. The government commission did not have time to communicate its decisions to local workers, but district party and Soviet organizations in Wellen had already begun to act. A rescue expedition was organized: across the ice on sleds with dog sleds to Schmidt’s camp. The expedition was led by meteorologist N. N. Khvorostansky, head of the Wellen polar station.

All this became known when the following radiogram was received:

“We have organized an emergency commission, we are mobilizing all dog transport. By order of the district party committee, I intend to leave tomorrow at the head of an organized expedition on dogs to meet you. There is a snowstorm in Laurentia. When the blizzard ends, planes will take off. I am waiting for your orders and further instructions.

Khvorostansky."

There are about 150 kilometers across the ice from the mainland to the camp, but the shortness of the distance was relative, the distance was small, but very difficult to overcome.

Should we be rescued by dogs or by air? Opinions differed on this matter, and even the cautious Schmidt, responding to Khvorostansky’s radiogram, initially considered his option quite real.

“Since there are no planes yet,” I relayed Schmidt’s answer to Khvorostansky, “and our airfield can be damaged, then, apparently, the most realistic way is to help with dog sleds, which you started preparing. I just remind you: you need to take with you a navigator or surveyor with a sextant and a chronometer to determine the route, because your operations will be very difficult. It is necessary to immediately mobilize, perhaps more sledges, including in Naukan, Yandagai and other places. It’s better to set out later, but with 60 sledges, to finish the job at once...”

Having dictated the answer, Schmidt called us to a general meeting, one of the most unforgettable meetings of my life. A hundred people gathered, covered from head to toe and therefore sometimes simply unrecognizable. The stand is an ice floe. The main speaker, the head of the expedition, Otto Yulievich, talks about everything: that communication with the shore has been established, that a sleigh expedition is being prepared, and that planes will fly to us at the first opportunity.

Schmidt reports on measures of assistance being prepared in a large, distant world, and formulates what we have to do. He talks about organization, discipline, love and respect for each other.

The main idea of ​​the speech is clear - in the conditions that befall us, we are obliged, first of all, to remain true Soviet people.

The Arctic knows many tragedies in which death triumphed as a result of confusion and discord between people. This is the worst thing, when opinions diverge and parties of adherents of one or another version of salvation are formed. A sad fate befell the American expedition on the Jeannette, which perished in the area of ​​the New Siberian Islands. Shortly before the revolution, a tragedy occurred with the crew of the St. Anne, lost in ice, when navigator Albanov left the ship and set off on a difficult two-hundred-kilometer journey south, to Franz Josef Land. Calmly, without affectation, Schmidt told us about all this. We had such enormous faith in this man that the feeling of isolation from the whole world receded, we remained a team that had been tightly knit together during the months of sailing and rush jobs.

Otto Yulievich's position at this meeting was not easy. The composition of the expedition looked motley. Among us were scientists who had visited the Arctic more than once, experienced sailors, experienced people who had repeatedly gotten into trouble, but there were also people who were purely land-based. Many of them grew up and were formed even before the revolution.

Otto Yulievich suddenly uttered a phrase that was completely unlike him. Finishing his thoughts about iron discipline, he suddenly said unexpectedly harshly:

If anyone leaves the camp without permission, keep in mind that I will personally shoot!

We knew Otto Yulievich very well as a man who not only shot, but also gave his orders as requests. And yet, perhaps, these words were accurate and timely. They very accurately formulated the most important thing for all of us: discipline, discipline and discipline again!

As for the shooting, it happened only once, when Pogosov killed a mother bear and her cub, providing us with meat. The only person who left the meeting upset was cameraman Arkady Shafran. Cloudy weather and lack of light did not allow him to film this event.

True to his professional duty, Shafran tirelessly impressed upon Schmidt that the meeting must be repeated only when the weather was clear. In order not to upset the enthusiast, Schmidt nodded his head in agreement, although a repetition was out of the question. There were too many things to do every hour to make such sacrifices on the altar of cinematography. The first of these urgent matters was the construction of a barracks. Of course, it would have been better not to drown, but when this did happen, one could not help but be glad that we had a team of builders with us, who never ended up on Wrangel Island. These were professional carpenters, healthy and strong, in whose hands the ax felt like playing. They were excellent masters of their craft, but I won’t lie - they didn’t read Shakespeare.

Against the background of this brigade, its leader, travel engineer Viktor Aleksandrovich Remov, stood in sharp contrast. Very neat, extremely polite, he confidently commanded his masters. Long before the death of the ship, Remov had to prove himself when, at the first encounter with ice, our ship was damaged. While I was transmitting and receiving radiograms in which Schmidt consulted with Moscow on what to do: go further or return, Remov and his carpenters were strengthening the ship from the inside. Thus, our Viktor Aleksandrovich Remov answered the classic question “to be or not to be” to a certain extent positively with his actions.

When the ship sank, the ropes holding the building material were cut. When the Chelyuskin, standing on end, went under the ice, most of the building materials surfaced and became our inheritance.

True, to receive this inheritance, hard labor was required. Hummocking continued even after the sinking of the ship. Boards and logs interspersed with pieces of ice in a chaotic disorder. Getting them out of this mess was no easy task. I had to break the ice, which clamped all this vermicelli.

The site was cleared and the builders began building the barracks. Of course, there were no projects or drawings approved by the relevant authorities. The logs were probably not sawed. The length of the logs and beams largely determined the size of the barracks.

Such construction required ingenuity and resourcefulness. The technical supply department of our ice floe could not always provide the builders with a full range of necessary materials. No one was bothered by the lack of window glass. When it came to glazing, they used washed-out photographic plates and bottles, which were lined up, pressing, against each other in the window openings, and the gaps between the bottles and logs were caulked with any rag that could be found at hand.

At the same time as the construction of the barracks, a little to the side, the carpenters were building a galley.

Another, no less important job that fell to our lot was the construction of airfields. Concern for their research and equipment began long before the death of the ship, after Lyapidevsky’s group was aimed at removing people from the drifting ship. Perhaps the word “airfield” sounds too loud for a patch measuring one hundred and fifty meters by six hundred, but these patches required a lot of effort to find and maintain in proper form.

An aviation literate person could find the airfield. This work was entrusted to Babushkin. Each new movement of ice, and they occurred here often, turned the smooth fields into icy chaos, least of all suitable for landing such a thin apparatus as an airplane.

The sites found did not last long. The ice raged and broke them. The number of airfield prospectors had to be increased. Babushkin prepared a group of people who, having dispersed in different directions, could complete the task assigned to them in the shortest possible time.

One of the airfields, found a day or two before the death of Chelyuskin, became the first airfield of the ice camp.

This damn spot was quite far from the camp. In the mornings the first batch of workers went there, and in the middle of the day the second shift left.

The work was hellish. If the ice was compressed and hummocked, then the formed shafts had to be cut down and then pulled to the sides on plywood sheets - drags. If cracks appeared, then it was necessary to urgently drag ice on the same drags to caulk the cracks.

Since there were severe frosts all the time, within a matter of hours everything was set again, and our little patch, proudly called the airfield, was again ready to receive planes. Nobody knew when these planes would arrive, but we had to be ready to receive them every day, every hour.

Our airports were short-lived. It was necessary to create a special airfield team. It consisted of mechanics Pogosov, Gurevich and Valavin. Our airfield workers lived on their own farm. In case sudden cracks cut them off from the camp, they had an emergency supply of food and prepared their own food.

From the very first days, everything necessary was done to accept the help of the Mainland. Everything that happened on the ice floe was of interest not only to our family and friends. After the death of “Chelyuskin”, the life of the camp on the ice floe interested the whole world. That is why, after hard work, journalists took notes, artist Reshetnikov made drawings, and cameraman Shafran and photographer Novitsky continued filming. The press and cinema did not offend us with their attention, but we offended the press. From the first days of our stay on the ice floe, we had to save batteries very much - so much so that not a single private radiogram was transmitted either to or from the camp. No exceptions were made. No matter how much we tried to persuade Schmidt to send at least five words of greetings to his son on his birthday, Otto Yulievich categorically refused.

The journalists who found themselves among us ground their teeth in anger. It's no joke, sitting on information that the whole world was eager to receive, and not being able to convey this information! But there was simply no other way out. Break the thread of communication for the sake of newspapermen? We couldn't afford such luxury.

And there, in Moscow, far from us, the newspaper world continued to live its usual life. In all editorial offices, journalists were preparing to leave for the Arctic - and not those naive young people, hung from head to toe with weapons and cameras, who sometimes went to the North. The most experienced, most skilled people were called into the editorial offices to send them closer to us, closer to the information that was so difficult to get in Moscow.

The experience of experienced editors suggested that the aces of journalism should go ahead. A big and very important job awaits them. This conclusion was logical and accurate.

While the journalists were sharpening their pens, not yet having the opportunity to swing at full width, the Government Commission began its information. She regularly published communiqués that appeared in print signed by Kuibyshev. The commission became the center where everything that was done for our salvation flowed.

In the very first message of the Government Commission it was said that the entire vast Arctic apparatus was involved in the rescue work.

“All polar stations,” Comrade Kuibyshev concluded the message, “have been asked to maintain continuous vigil to receive Comrade Schmidt’s radiograms and transmit them out of turn. Polar stations in the eastern sector were asked to provide reports four times a day on weather conditions, ice conditions and preparations for both transport and the organization of intermediate food and feed bases in the direction from the station to the location of the camp. Radio communication with Comrade Schmidt is maintained continuously.”

A special category of radiograms was introduced, code-named “Equator”. “Equator” went out of line, breaking through all sorts of traffic jams.

It was a big emergency in which the entire Arctic took part. Despite its wide scope, this emergency was only the beginning, and a beginning with considerable difficulties...

The old saying “the first pancake is lumpy” quickly received another confirmation during the organization of our salvation. Supporters and opponents of going to the camp on dogs did not argue for long. The very next day after the death of the ship, Khvorostansky, carried away by the idea of ​​a sled throw, mobilized 21 teams and set off, with the expectation of mobilizing the remaining 39 teams along the road.

Border guard Nebolsin, a great connoisseur of dogs and an experienced person in using this transport, was very much against this campaign. He considered Khvorostansky’s campaign to be reckless. The mobilization of 60 teams threatened to leave the Chukchi without hunting, which meant starvation.

Khvorostansky moved for four days. On the fifth day, Nebolsin caught up with the dog caravan and conveyed the order of the Chairman of the Emergency Troika, Petrov, to stop the expedition. In a word, the luge option (sitting on the ice floe, we knew nothing about it) was relegated to the background. Aviation came first.

Meanwhile, while the general line of our salvation was being groped, life in the Schmidt camp went on as usual. Gradually everything fell into place.

After the general meeting, a camp newspaper was born with the proud name “We Will Not Surrender.” We really didn’t want to give up, which was immediately felt in the greatest creative activity of all the correspondents of our newspaper with the address “Chukchi Sea, on drifting ice.” A lot of people were busy with the newspaper, and the first issue (there were three in total) came out great.

“This newspaper, published in such an unusual setting - in a tent on drifting ice on the fourth day after the death of Chelyuskin, is a clear evidence of the vigor of our spirit. In the history of polar disasters, we know few examples of such a large and diverse team as the “Chelyuskinites” meeting the moment of mortal danger with such great organization,” wrote one of its editors, Sergei Semenov, in the editorial of our wall newspaper.

“We're on the ice. But here too we are citizens of the great Soviet Union. Here too we will hold high the banner of the Republic of Soviets, and our state will take care of us.” This is from an article by Schmidt published in the same first issue of “We Will Not Surrender.”

A variety of authors, a variety of correspondence. If Fedya Reshetnikov drew pictures for the newspaper in which a walrus, a bear and a seal demanded that Schmidt present his passport with registration on an ice floe, and in another drawing, which did not fit in the dimensions of the tent, he was depicted lying on the snow with a radio transmitter, then other authors, published very serious correspondence in the same newspaper. The “information department” reported on the organization of the Emergency Troika under the chairmanship of Petrov, and the “science department” represented by Gakkel proposed to burn and carve the inscription “Chelyuskin, 1934” on all suitable objects. Gakkel approached his proposal as a scientist, believing that with further drift, these wooden objects will give researchers another piece of information. As for another scientist, Khmyznikov, he burst into a detailed essay about the fate of polar expeditions that found themselves in a situation similar to ours.

It is no coincidence that I describe our wall newspaper in such detail. I want the reader to feel the role she played.

The leadership of the expedition and the party organization paid great attention to the moral state of the inhabitants of the ice floe. Maintaining firmness of spirit in our conditions was no less, but rather more important, than physical strength, of which a lot is required in the conditions of the polar Robinsoniad.

On February 18, the party bureau met for its first meeting. The protocol has been preserved, as well as a drawing by Fyodor Reshetnikov, who depicted this meeting in one of the tents, under the light of a bat lantern. There was only one question - “Message from O. Yu. Schmidt.”

"ABOUT. Yu. Schmidt, - written in the protocol, - begins by noting with great pride the organization, discipline, endurance and courage shown by the entire team of Chelyuskinites at the time of the disaster. The team, very diverse in its composition, nevertheless showed itself to be united at the most crucial moment of the expedition.”

Schmidt qualified this behavior of the team as an act of high consciousness, explaining it largely by the work carried out by the party organization of the expedition. Even before the Chelyuskin went to sea, Schmidt turned to the Leningrad Transport Institute with a request to select a group of senior students, intelligent, honest and enterprising communists who would become the party core of the expedition. Schmidt’s wish was granted, and our expedition included a number of good, smart and energetic people, for whom the trip became not only an excellent industrial practice, but also a serious life test.

After the sinking of the ship, the communists were distributed throughout all the tents of the camp and largely contributed to maintaining good spirits and discipline.

One should not think that everything from the first to the last day of the drift was flawlessly smooth. We also had breakdowns, which it would be dishonest to keep silent about, although they were so insignificant and happened so rarely that some boss would simply prefer to turn a blind eye to them so as not to “spoil the overall impression,” but Schmidt was not like that, not This is how members of the party bureau looked at the matter. That is why the meeting of the party bureau, which took place on February 18, turned out to be stormy and passionate.

The facts that became the subject of lively debate among our communists were indeed not major: one or two people, when unloading the sinking Chelyuskin, gave preference to personal belongings over expeditionary property, which, for the good of the cause, had to be saved, first of all. The other two people, when loading food, grabbed a couple of cans of canned food, which, however, were returned to the common pot without a sound at the first request. Well, and finally, the last emergency happened on the day of the meeting itself. While waiting for Lyapidevsky’s plane, which, by the way, failed to break into the camp that day, one of the participants in the campaign tried to transport his foreign gramophone, which he valued very much, to the airfield in order to take it to the mainland.

Each fact in itself is small, but the trend looked extremely dangerous. That is why, without talking to each other, members of the party bureau demanded harsh measures, and when Schmidt proposed organizing a “tent court” over the offenders, his proposal, despite the high authority of our boss, was rejected by the majority.

They were punished differently. All members of the expedition gathered in the barracks building where the friendly trial took place. The guilty were ashamed. The most severe sentence was given to the owner of the gramophone: “At the first opportunity, be among the first to be sent by plane.”

There was nothing like this in our lives during the difficult two months of the ice camp’s existence.

The tents were set up in such a way that they soon had to be reconstructed. The headquarters tent, which housed the radio station, was no exception. Of course, in the form in which it was erected immediately after the disaster, it was extremely uncomfortable.

The appearance of the tent with its low-sagging ceiling is firmly etched in my memory. We didn't heat at night. By the morning, frost, which turned into breath, decorated the tent with snow-white noodles and made our home especially impressive.

At first, Schmidt settled separately in a tiny tent that had traveled with him on mountaineering trips in the Pamirs, but his loneliness was short-lived. It was more convenient for the head of the expedition to live next to the line of communication that we radio operators held in our hands, and besides, it was warmer here, and Otto Yulievich moved to the headquarters tent.

Having written about Schmidt's small tent, I do not want the reader to think that the headquarters tent was some kind of palazzo. It was only relatively large and comfortable. There are tarpaulins and some rags thrown on the floor, with plywood laid on them. There was no need to think about standing up to full height. The visitors (and there were many of them due to the move of the head of the expedition) crawled into the tent bent over and could no longer straighten up. So on their knees they crawled to Schmidt for reports. The spectacle was unique. The bearded Otto Yulievich sat cross-legged and listened to the kneeling visitors, like an eastern ruler who, due to some misunderstanding, was accommodated not in a luxurious palace, but in a nasty, cold tent. Since we obviously had to spend more than one day on the ice floe, the problem of comfort immediately became vital. Each tent - and people gathered into tent groups mainly on professional grounds, forming communities of scientists, stokers, machinists, sailors - tried to outstrip their neighbors in the convenience of life. The more convenient it is to live, the easier it is to work. Hence the desire for improvement.

Tents began to be placed on wooden frames and dug somewhat into the ice to reduce the blowing out of the most precious thing for us on the ice - heat. In this regard, many of our tent groups have been very successful. In some places it was even possible to stand at full height, and some even had two “rooms” set up. And finally - this was our pride - we managed to build the most monumental building - our famous barracks, where the weak, sick, women and children were immediately resettled.

The builders were erecting a covered space for the galley. The most interesting thing was the kitchen equipment that our mechanics made. From two barrels and a copper boiler, they managed to combine a device that one of the Chelyuskinites called a union of a soup maker and a water heater.

The economy of this union was remarkable. After the fuel gave off heat to the soup maker, the combustion products went up the chimney, melting the ice along the way, preparing the necessary fresh water.

Thus, experience gradually accumulated, which significantly made our existence easier. A threat arose - lack of fuel. Twenty bags of coal could not last long. We solved this problem too.

Heating at the highest level was arranged by Leonid Martisov - a man about whom I want to speak with great respect, and although the words “golden hands” sound like a banal, shabby cliche, you can’t find others to define his skill. Probably, I, as an old “pot maker” who soldered and repaired a lot of junk during the years of war communism, more than anyone else, appreciated the level of professional skill of this man and his comrades.

The first problem that Leonid Martisov and his assistants faced was the tool. Or rather, the lack of tools, since, having picked up everything that could be picked up, Martisov’s team had a hammer, a brace, two fragments of a drill, sewing scissors and a large knife. Agree that this was not enough for serious work, and the almost complete lack of proper materials significantly reduced the already low chances of success. If the carpenters could still, to some extent, count on the fact that their material would float or float, then the metal with which Martisov had to work completely excluded this kind of possibility.

The discrepancy between desires and capabilities threatened Martisov’s team with disaster. While our mechanics were thinking about where to get tools and materials, the camp demanded products - it was urgently necessary to make chimneys necessary for both the barracks under construction and the galley. There was practically no time left for searching and thinking.

Artistic mastery of the profession allowed Martisov, quickly adapting to the situation, to complete this and many other tasks. Martisov had a rare talent. He made everything out of nothing. Using parts of crushed boats and non-working engines, he made many useful and necessary things, including excellent heating in our tent.

The master took a copper tube, used a needle (he simply had no other tool) and punched several holes. It turned out to be a homemade nozzle. He placed a barrel of fuel outside. Through this homemade nozzle, fuel flowed into the firebox, a small cast-iron fireplace, the kind that are usually installed in freight cars when transporting people.

The appearance of the heating system made me very happy, and not because I was afraid of the cold. The radio equipment was afraid of the cold. The equipment was in poor conditions. At the back wall of the tent there was a narrow table made from unplaned boards. There are batteries under the table, a transmitter and receiver on the table. A kerosene lantern hung from above on a wire.

The table was a sacred place, and I would snarl savagely if anyone dared to put mugs of tea or tin cans on it.

The radio equipment received significantly more than its design capabilities provided. At night the temperature dropped below zero. In the morning, when the fire was lit, the equipment began to sweat. No wonder she tried to go on strike.

I had to carefully disassemble the receiver and dry its offal near the fireplace. It was not recommended to talk to me at such moments. I looked like a keg of gunpowder. Poking around in the receiver and transmitter, I muttered all sorts of things under my breath. Aware of the danger of being left without contact, Schmidt watched my actions in silence, without interrupting his angry monologues with a single word. Of course, I really appreciated this sensitivity of Otto Yulievich.

I even slept next to the equipment, covering countless wires and wires with my body.

With no less diligence, I also took care of the radio log, where all outgoing and incoming radiograms were recorded. The journal was kept under my head as a secret document requiring round-the-clock security. Some news coming from outside was not subject to wide publication, because numerous enterprises for our salvation did not always go smoothly, and if pleasant things immediately went into wide circulation, then Schmidt sometimes preferred to remain silent about temporary failures.

All this was business as usual. Just as there is a medical secret, so for us, radio operators, there was a secret of correspondence, especially such an acute one as correspondence on the organization of our salvation.

The day started early. According to the established procedure, it was necessary to get up at six o'clock in the morning. This was the hour of the first conversation with Wellen. At half past five, shivering from the cold, Sima Ivanov got up. During the night, the temperature in the tent usually dropped and by morning differed little from the outside temperature. Ivanov lit a fire and put a makeshift bucket of ice on the fire to prepare water. I was the second to jump up, three or four minutes before six o’clock. He immediately sat down at the transmitter. Wellen was always accurate, so there was no need to repeat calls.

Then everyone else woke up, and the latest news of camp life began to burst into the tent. Voronin reported to Schmidt about visibility, ice condition, cracks and hummocks. Komov presented the weather report. Babushkin reported airfield news. Khmyznikov brought new coordinates. In a word, the flow of information grew and, having reached its maximum, subsided. At noon the cooks were fed lunch. Obesity was not a threat to us. Lunch usually consisted of one dish. Mainly canned food and cereals were used.

At three o'clock in the afternoon the supply manager began to issue dry rations for the next day - condensed milk, canned food, tea, sugar and 150 grams of biscuits - this was our diet.

At 4:30 a.m. the tent was filled with people. The entire expedition headquarters arrived here. Tass reports were coming from the mainland, transmitted specifically for us. From them we learned all the news - international, all-Union and news on the organization of our salvation.

On February 18, the second message from the Government Commission stated: “Measures are being taken to send two additional aircraft from Kamchatka and three from Vladivostok to Providence Bay, which is usually associated with very great difficulties at this time of year.”

In the evenings - the same dominoes. Schmidt, Bobrov, Babushkin, Ivanov occupied the entire tent, and I had only one thing left to do - go on a visit. “I’m going to visit” meant that I was going to bed. I climbed into one of the tents, looked for a free place and fell asleep.

Sometimes he went into the tent of scientific workers. There was a gramophone playing. It was interesting to listen to the voice of Josephine Becker in the dimly lit tent, among the grimy camp inhabitants overgrown with wild beards.

All this happened on quiet, non-flying days. On summer days there was no need to “visit”. I ate lunch in fits and starts between two negotiations, often without taking off my headphones. Communication was required every quarter of an hour, until late in the evening or until the shore reported that the flight was being postponed. It happened that we were informed about the departure of the plane. Women and children got dressed and walked to the airfield, but immediately there was a clear signal: the plane had returned.

Somehow, we already understood these difficulties. In Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka, the steamer "Stalingrad" was in full swing, in order to load aircraft on board and move them as far north as possible. In Vladivostok, another steamer, the Smolensk, was loaded with coal, food, Arctic property and airplanes, on which Kamanin and Molokov set off. The plenipotentiary representative of the Government Commission, G. A. Ushakov, with pilots S. A. Levanevsky and M. T. Slepnev, went to America to purchase Consolidated Flayster aircraft, which were also to be involved in rescue operations. At the same time, our plenipotentiary representative, as ambassadors were called then, in the United States, Troyanovsky, was sent instructions: to make every effort for quick and effective negotiations that Ushakov was to conduct.

The scale of the rescue operations attracted a lot of attention from the foreign press. “The matter of rescue,” wrote the English newspaper “Daily Telegraph,” “will be directly dependent on the endurance of the victims and the speed with which the rescue expedition can reach them. While both sides are talking on the radio.” The German newspaper Berliner Tageblatt was much more categorical: “They have enough food to live, but how long will they live?” She was echoed by another fascist newspaper, Volksstimme: “It seems that we should expect a new Arctic tragedy. Despite the radio, the airplane and other advances of civilization, at this time no one can help these hundred people during the entire arctic night; if nature does not come to their aid, they will perish.”

No, nature was in no hurry to come to the rescue. Rather, it's the other way around. Due to the winds and sea currents, our situation turned out to be too unstable to live without fear for tomorrow. In the first days, nature was relatively merciful, but we understood that complacency would not last long, and therefore we prepared for the worst.

The troubles started in the morning. The first to notice them were those who came to dismantle the wood that had surfaced at the scene of death. The 15-20 centimeter wide crack that opened to the eyes of those gathered looked harmless, but the harmlessness was apparent. At about 10 o'clock in the morning a crash was heard. The ocean went on the attack, and the black stripe ran to where it was least expected - straight to the camp. The first to be attacked was the forest, which had been so laboriously plucked from the icy water. The logs began to fall into the water again. We had to urgently pull them away from the edges, but that was just the beginning. There was a threat to the food warehouse. Its protection was organized instantly and in the hot emergency we quickly transferred the food away from the dangerous place. However, even this seemed to be not enough for the crack. She tore off the wall of the galley and passed under one of the antenna masts. During the existence of the camp, the crack closed and opened more than twenty times. It’s easy to guess that this didn’t give any of us much pleasure.

The first reports have appeared about the preparation of the Litke icebreaker and the Krasin icebreaker for the voyage. It should be noted that this was a difficult step. Both ships, fairly worn out by polar navigation, required serious repairs. In addition, the Krasin was in the docks of Kronstadt, and in order to provide assistance to us, it had to travel around the world.

We didn’t know this then, but later it became known that Valerian Vladimirovich Kuibyshev turned for help to Sergei Mironovich Kirov, who headed the Leningrad party organization, with the following telegram:

“The icebreakers Ermak and Krasin are undergoing repairs in Leningrad. The situation of Schmidt's expedition is such that the final rescue of the entire expedition may take until June or longer due to ice drift. If measures are taken for urgent repairs of “Ermak” and “Krasin”, then they could play a decisive role in saving Schmidt and a hundred people of his expedition... I ask you to familiarize yourself with this matter in detail and raise the entire party organization and the masses of workers to their feet for urgent repairs "Krasina", bearing in mind that, perhaps, the salvation of the heroes of the Arctic will depend on this."

This step of the Government Commission was also approved by the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Polar Commission A.P. Karpinsky. “If before the onset of heat,” he said, “not all Chelyuskinites are delivered to the shore, the Krasin will pick up those who remain on the ice. The Krasina package is a wise insurance policy for this case.”

Communists and non-party workers realized how responsible the work that lay ahead of them was. Hot work began to boil, which became another facet of the great feat that the country was accomplishing. On February 27, Schmidt received a radiogram. Everyone gathered in the barracks in the evening. Questions from all sides:

Ernst, what happened, why were we gathered?

There is some news. TASS has prepared a special review “TASS Summary for Chelyuskinites”...

He answered as indifferently as possible in order to enhance the surprise effect, but our insightful Pinkertons guessed:

Old man, you're darkening something!

I throw up my hands, try to move the conversation to other topics, but they don’t back down. At this moment, Otto Yulievich enters the barracks, and conversations stop. Ugh! You can finally breathe easy.

Schmidt reads out several telegrams about the preparation of aviation matters, then about the progress of the repair of the Krasin and, finally, most importantly, why the team was assembled.

“Camp of the Chelyuskinites, Polar Sea, to the head of the expedition, Schmidt.