Day of the Russian Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet
Russia is the only country in the world with a nuclear icebreaker fleet
She inherited this rich inheritance from the collapsed USSR Throughout history, 11 ships of this type were built and all of them were designed and created in the USSR and Russia The nuclear icebreaker fleet opens up great opportunities in the development of the Far North They are the ones who ensure the unhindered passage of ships through the waters of the Northern Sea Route
The history of the Northern Sea Route goes far back, back to the time of Ivan the Terrible It was then that the first English expedition was undertaken by Sir Hugh Willoughby, who tried to find the Northeast Passage to China Although the brave navigator died, his comrade-in-arms completed his work We will not go so far into history, but we note that the Northern Sea Route was the result of the hard work of many explorers, navigators and enthusiasts - Willem Barents, Semyon Dezhnev, Pyotr Chaplin, Mikhail Lomonosov, Stepan Malygin, Khariton Laptev, Semyon Chelyuskin, Fridtjof Nansen , Adolf Nordenskiöld, Dmitry Mendeleev, Alexander Kolchak, Otto Schmidt and many others
The Far North united extremely promising, but poorly studied territories, which were very reluctant to reveal their secrets The idea of making a shorter route through them from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic excited the minds of many sailors and researchers Its implementation would also make it possible to radically change the economic life of remote regions of the USSR
The first to come as close as possible to this goal were members of Otto Schmidt’s expedition, who traveled from Arkhangelsk to the Bering Strait on an icebreaker Then there was an unsuccessful attempt at an expedition on the icebreaker Cheklyuskin, whose hull burst under the pressure of the ice that bound it The researchers were rescued by polar pilots, but the mission was a failure A year later, the team of the ice cutter “Fedor Litka” managed to undertake a through voyage in one navigation A year later, transport ships passed along the same route
Today, the development of the Northern Sea Route continues Many large Russian companies mine mineral resources in these territories The nuclear icebreaker fleet conducts convoys of ships in harsh Arctic conditions, breaking through ice up to 3 meters thick
December 3 is celebrated as Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet Day The date opened the first, at that time still blank, page in the history of the nuclear icebreaker fleet It was on this day in 1959 that the world’s first nuclear icebreaker “Lenin” was accepted, which a year later became part of the Murmansk Shipping Company
The ship's design was developed by TsKB-15 under the leadership of the outstanding shipbuilder Vasily Ivanovich Neganov "Lenin" was created for the sole purpose of escorting caravans along the Northern Sea Route for 6-14 months During the work, specialists encountered a number of difficulties They didn't have the necessary experience to draw on The biggest difficulties arose during the layout of the engine room, but the experts found a way out - they created a wood model on which they worked out all their solutions
Electric motors, hull steel, and ship turbines for the icebreaker were created at various factories in Leningrad, and turbogenerators in Kharkov In total, more than 500 different enterprises were involved in this project, which developed and manufactured special equipment “Lenin” aroused keen interest among representatives of other states, so during the entire period of construction and testing, numerous foreign delegations came to see it
The world's first icebreaker was decommissioned in 1989 In fact, he served for 30 years and during this time he sailed 3,740 ships Today “Lenin” retired The same fate befell his successors - the icebreakers "Arktika", "Russia", "Sibir" and "Soviet Union", but they were replaced by the "Sevmorput", "Taimyr", "Yamal" and the new "Arktika", which received deserves the title of the most powerful icebreaker in the world The construction of a nuclear icebreaker fleet continues to this day Some vessels have already started sea trials, others are being completed or are still waiting to be launched, so we can safely say that no one is going to put an end to the project, the first “stone” of which was laid back in 1959