Georgy Ushakov

Who was Georgy Ushakov?

Georgy Alexeyevich Ushakov was a Soviet explorer of the Arctic, Doctor of Geographic Sciences.

In 1926, Ushakov founded the first Soviet settlement on the Wrangel Island and was its head for three years. In 1930-1932, Ushakov headed the Severnaya Zemlya expedition and established a polar station called Остров Домашний.

He and geologist Nikolay Urvantsev were the first ones to explore Severnaya Zemlya and established that it was an archipelago. In 1932-1936, Georgy Ushakov was employed at the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route.

In 1929 and 1930 the icebreaker Sedov carried groups of scientists to Franz Josef Land and also to Severnaya Zemlya, the last major piece of unsurveyed territory in the Soviet Arctic. This archipelago was completely mapped under Ushakov between 1930 and 1932. This voyage allowed to obliterate enormous "white spaces" on the Arctic map.

In 1935, Ushakov led the first Soviet high-latitude expedition on an icebreaker Sadko. The cruises of the Sadko went farther north than most; in 1935 and 1936 the last unexplored areas in the northern Kara Sea were examined and the little Ushakov Island was discovered.