1648. A team led by Cossack ataman Semyon Dezhnev and merchant Fedot Popov set sail from the Kolyma River into the Arctic Ocean, circumnavigated the Chukotka Peninsula, and entered the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Anadyr River.
1686–1688. A trading expedition led by Ivan Tolstoukhov, on three ships, sailed around the Taymyr Peninsula from west to east.
1649. Explorers Mercury Vagin and Yakov Permyakov were the first to visit Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, marking the beginning of the discovery and study of the New Siberian Islands.
1733–1743. “The Great Northern Expedition.” The initiator of this large-scale project was Vitus Bering.
The main goal of the expedition was to explore the northern part of Russia, from the Pechora River to Chukotka, and to create a geographic, geological, botanical, zoological, and ethnographic description of the area. In addition, sea expeditions to the shores of Japan and North America were planned.
1650. On the orders of Empress Catherine II, three ships, under the command of Vasily Chichagov, set off from the port of Kola near Murmansk for “secret expeditions” to Kamchatka and North America. The goal was to discover a “northern sea passage to Kamchatka.” The idea for the expedition belonged to academician M.V. Lomonosov. However, the ships were unable to navigate through the ice and had to return.
1820–1824. Ferdinand Wrangel and Fyodor Matyushkin explored and mapped the mainland coast from the Kolyma River to Kolyuchin Bay. At the same time, Fyodor Litke mapped the shores of Novaya Zemlya.
1912–1915. The tragic expeditions of Georgy Brusilov on the schooner “Saint Anna,” Vladimir Rusanov on the “Hercules,” and Georgy Sedov’s polar expedition on the “Saint Foka.”
1651. The expedition on the icebreaker steamer “A. Sibiryakov,” led by O. Yu. Schmidt, made the first successful single navigation from Arkhangelsk to the Bering Strait, proving the feasibility of the Northern Sea Route.
1652. The odyssey of the “Chelyuskin.” In August, this icebreaker set off from Murmansk to Vladivostok, but became trapped in ice. After five months of drifting, the ship sank on February 13, 1934. The 104 crew members managed to evacuate to an ice floe, and a large-scale rescue mission was launched with the help of Soviet and American aviators. Despite harsh conditions, all crew members were rescued.
1653. The construction of the Norilsk metallurgical plant began.
1654. The volume of cargo transported along the Northern Sea Route reached a record high of 67 million tons.
April 21, 2014. The government adopted a national program for the socio-economic development of Russia’s Arctic zone, aimed at promoting the country’s national interests in the Arctic.
