Virtual journey to the North Pole on the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker "50 Years of Victory"

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The dispute over the conquest of the North Pole has been going on for more than a hundred years. The struggle for its conquest began in the second half of the 18th century and reached its climax by the beginning of the 20th century, when the Americans Frederick Albert Cook and Robert Edwin Peary announced its conquest within a week. The first claimed that he reached the pole on April 21, 1908, the second – that he was there on April 6, 1909. But none of them was able to provide convincing evidence of their victory. Apparently, none of the rivals made it to the pole, and they were prompted to make a loud statement by their unwillingness to concede the victory to their opponent.

In the 20th century, the struggle to reach the North Pole has become a kind of sport. For a hundred years, they managed to conquer it in a balloon, an airship, an airplane, make a parachute jump on it, sail to it on a nuclear submarine and a nuclear icebreaker, and even dive to the bottom of the ocean on the Mir deep-sea submersibles.

In the 70s, 80s and even 90s of the last century, the emphasis shifted from the use of technical means to revealing the inner strength of a person and his ability to overcome ever greater difficulties: in 1978, the Japanese Naomi Uemura was the first to reach the North Pole alone on a dog sled. In 1979, the Soviet team was the first to reach the Pole on skis. In 1986, an international dog sledding expedition became the first to reach the Pole without air support; a woman visited the North Pole for the first time as part of this international "team". In the same year, Frenchman Jean-Louis Etienne became the first to reach the Pole on skis and alone. And in 1994, the Norwegian Borge Ousland was the first to conquer it on skis, alone and without external support. The first successful scuba dive at latitude 90 was made by an international team of divers in 1999.

Virtual journey to the North Pole on the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker "50 Years of Victory"

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Today, reaching the Pole has become much easier. During the short Arctic summer, the nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy manages to travel three times from Murmansk to the top of the world and back. Each such expedition takes two weeks and, since it is designed for tourists, in addition to reaching the top of the earth, it also introduces them to the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

We invite you to take a virtual trip to the North Pole on the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy!

The author of these amazing pictures Andrey Ershov wrote the following after his trip to the North Pole:

“The Russian icebreaker 50 Years of Victory is a huge red and black monster, the most modern and powerful of those that are now in the world. Its creation was completed in 2007, but every line and every detail emphasizes with all its appearance: my homeland is the Soviet Union. In fact, a deep impression. And it is greatly enhanced when this colossus is in its element, in the ice. Meter-thick ice floes scatter from its sides like shells. What is most striking is the speed with which the icebreaker makes its way. I couldn't resist and made a video, although I almost never do it."

Source: airpano.com