A Short Story of the Legendary USSR Steamer
Ninety-three years ago today, on 11 March 1933, the steamer Lena was launched at the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen. Later renamed, the steamer Chelyuskin was afloat only for a year, yet became one of the most prominent Soviet legends. The ship was built on commission from the Soviet Union and named after the Lena River, reflecting its original intended purpose: navigating the sea route between the Lena delta and Vladivostok. It was not a full-fledged icebreaking vessel—rated 100 A1 class, strengthened for navigation in ice.
On 19 June 1933, the steamer was renamed Chelyuskin, after the 18th-century Russian polar explorer Semyon Chelyuskin. The new name would soon belong not just to a ship, but to a chapter of Soviet legend.
The Expedition
On 10 August 1933, the Chelyuskin departed from Murmansk, heading for Vladivostok. On board were 112 people in total. The expedition’s task was to determine the possibility of traveling by a non-icebreaker through the Northern Sea Route in a single navigation season. The expedition was led by Arctic explorer Otto Schmidt, with Captain Vladimir Voronin commanding the ship.
The beginning of the voyage was quite successful: within a month Chelyuskin had covered three-quarters of the route, reaching the Chukchi Sea in early September. It had, ironically, already passed Cape Chelyuskin on 1 September.
The ship even came agonizingly close to its goal—open water lay just ahead when the pack ice finally held Chelyuskin in its grip. On 6 November 1933 the steamer was just 20 km from free water—but the ice began moving backwards, trapping the ship and forcing it back into the Chukchi Sea. On 13 February 1934, the hull was fractured by ice, and within an hour or two the ship was sinking.
Chelyuskintsy
104 people—including 10 women and two small children—were stranded on the ice. Thanks to the foresight of the crew, essential supplies had been moved to the deck beforehand and thrown onto the ice as the ship went down. A camp was established on the drifting floe.
A stamp devoted to the 50-year anniversary of the Chelyuskin expedition
The rescue operation lasted nearly two months and became a showcase of Soviet aviation. Pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky managed to land his plane on the ice only on his 29th attempt. The women and children were airlifted out by Lyapidevsky on 5 March, but the remaining men were not rescued until April, with the final flight on 13 April 1934.
Seven pilots—Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Sigizmund Levanevsky, Vasily Molokov, Mavriky Slepnyov, Mikhail Vodopianov, Nikolai Kamanin, and Ivan Doronin—became the first people in the country to be awarded the newly established title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The wreck was finally discovered in September 2006, at a depth of about 50 meters in the Chukchi Sea: 68°18’05” N 172°49’40” W. The Chelyuskintsy had long since passed into Soviet cultural mythology—their name a byword for endurance, solidarity, and survival against impossible odds.