Icebreaking Fleet of Russia

Icebreaking Fleet of Russia – includes icebreakers of navigation support of the Far North. The history of the I.F.R. begins in 1899, when the world’s first icebreaker Ermak was built. At the beginning of the 1930s USSR had three steam icebreakers – Ermak, Krasin, and Lenin with the capacity of 10,000 hp each and the icebreaker Litke with the capacity of 7000 hp. Due to the need to solve a fundamentally new problem – sailing along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) – Glavsermorput proved the expediency of building new icebreakers. In 1938 the first Soviet-built icebreaker Stalin was put into operation with steam power engine of 10,000 hp. In 1939–1941 three icebreakers of this type went into operation. In 1944, the icebreaker North Wind and North Polebegan to be used in the area of the NSR, which were delivered under lend-lease from the USA for temporary use. Experience gained working with these icebreakers was taken into account for the further replenishment of the I.F.R. The first...