Everyone has heard of Scott, Amundsen, and Peary in the West, but few may be aware of the pioneering Soviet explorers in the 30's.
I. D. Papanin was one of these, and Commander of an expedition in 1937 to set up the first Soviet drifting Polar station where he and four other scientists flew to Syevernye Polyus-1, or North Pole 1, a small ice floe, in order to study the ocean, and set up a temporary scientific station on the drifting ice.
Flying for ten hours from Rudolf Island in a TB-3 bomber converted with skis, they finally landed on the Polar pack on the 21st of May 1937. Then they put up a "residential tent" made of eiderdown in silk cover and weighing 17 kg, a radio tent, a tent for the hydrological laboratory, and the radio masts.
Several messages to Pravda then followed.
"We are happy that our powerful country has entrusted us the realization of the dreams of mankind. We will do everything to give the Soviet science a valuable and complete material. Here, in a region, to which in all times the best and most intrepid representatives of mankind have strived, our large country's flag is streaming. Through the editors of Pravda we send our warmest polar researchers' greetings to our compatriots, to our Soviet government, to the Central Committe of the Party, and to the inspirer and organizer of our victory comrade Stalin. We ask the Soviet government to endow our polar station, the drifting ice-floe at the North Pole, the name 'Stalin'"
Their stay in the Arctic Ocean marked the beginning of the study of the Arctic from the drifting ice, and in primitive and hostile conditions, the intrepid men managed to survive for 274 days, before finally being picked up by the two Soviet icebreaking ships Taimyr and Murman on February 19th 1938.
On their arrival home, I. D. Papanin and the other four members were awarded the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union', an award Papanin was to win again during the GPW for his work helping with the defence of the Polar regions, making him one of only 154 people to hold this decoration twice.
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