Alekseev Anatoly Dmitrievich
(22.12(04.01).1902–29.01.1974)

Polar pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, colonel, member of the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars.
Born in the town of Lomza in Poland. He lived with his parents in Zagorsk (Trinity-Sergievsky Posad), where in 1918 he graduated from high school. In 1920 he was drafted into the Red Army.
In 1921 Alekseev graduated from training courses at the Military Electrotechnical School commandership and was appointed an instructor on the radio of the Sevastopol United School of Naval Aviation.
In 1928 the crew of B.G. Chukhnovsky Alekseev participated in the search for the Italian expedition of U. Nobile. They managed to find and report the coordinates of the location of two people, Tsappi and Mariano from the group of F. Malmgren, who set off on foot from the place of the fall of the airship to Svalbard. On the way back, the plane made an emergency landing, but Chukhnovsky, with the unanimous consent of all crew members, refused immediate assistance before rescuing the Italians. For his actions in this rescue expedition, Alekseev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Since 1930 his work began as a pilot of the Polar Aviation Administration of the Northern Sea Route.
The next milestone in Alexeev’s biography was the participation in 1936 of the "Stalin" and "Voykov" squadrons of the destroyers to the Pacific Ocean during the passage of the Northern Sea.
On July 2 the ships left Kronstadt, along the White Sea-Baltic Canal, they moved to Arkhangelsk, and then accompanied by an ice-cutter “F. Litke” went to Novaya Zemlya, where they were awaited by detachments of ships allocated to supply the expedition with fuel, food, and spare parts. By that time, the  icebreakers "Yermak" in the Kara Sea and the "Krasin" in the East Siberian icebreaker entered the transition route. Together with “F. Litke" they were supposed to provide wiring ships in the ice. Alekseev led a group of three aircraft that provided airborne ice reconnaissance.
The transition, especially in the Kara Sea, proceeded in very difficult ice conditions.
On October 17 the destroyers "Voykov" and "Stalin" became part of the Pacific Fleet. The experience of this expedition was widely used in the subsequent pilotage of ships to the Far East.
In March-June 1937 Alekseev, as the commander of the G-2 “USSR N-172” aircraft, participated in the expedition to disembark at the North Pole of the I.D. Papanin.
On May 21 at 11.35 Vodopyanov for the first time in the world, landed a plane at the North Pole. On May 25 three remaining airplanes left the island of Rudolph to the pole, but only Molokov managed to reach it safely, on the first attempt. Due to bad weather, Alekseev was forced to land a plane seventeen kilometers from the pole and was able to fly to the pole only two days later.
There was not enough gasoline on the way back, however, Alekseev refused to leave the car and landed on an ice floe near the 84th parallel, to which he was soon delivered P.G. Golovin. On June 27 Alekseev as part of other members of the expedition was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Gold Star No. 38 and the Order of Lenin.
In the subsequent pre-war years in the asset Alekseev participated in the fall of 1937 in search of the crew of S.A. Levanevsky, in the spring of 1938, he headed the squadron to rescue the crews of icebreaking steamers “A. Sibiryakov", "Malygin"and  "G. Sedov", drifting in the northern part of the Laptev Sea. Brave pilots took 184 people. For this assignment, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
In 1939–1941 Alekseev worked as a test pilot at aircraft factory number 22. He conducted factory and state tests of an experienced long-range bomber DB-240, launched into the series under the symbol Ep-2, as well as all subsequent modifications of this aircraft. In early 1941, he flew from Moscow to Omsk to Moscow without landing in Omsk, dropping 1,000 kg of conventional bombs there.

Since July 1941, Alekseev participated in the Great Patriotic War. In accordance with the Decree of the State Defense Committee of July 14, 41, No. GKO-143ss “On the Long-Range Aviation Division”, he was seconded from the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry to a heavy bomber aviation group. Commanding the squadron TB-7, Alekseev made 27 combat missions on the bombardment of military facilities in the rear of the enemy, including in Koenigsberg and Vilna.
During the years 1944-1958 he worked as a test pilot, 72 types of aircraft passed through his hands, including the latest jet engines. In recent years, Alekseev served as deputy chief of the Polar Aviation Flight Service.

In total, Alekseev was a holder of three orders of Lenin, five orders of the Red Banner, three of orders of the Red Star, the  World War I First Classof  and many medals.
He died in Moscow, was buried in the columbarium of the Novodevichy cemetery.

The island (Pilot Alekseev) in the Kara Sea northeast of Taimyr Island. For the first time noticed E.V. Toll in 1901. The name was given in 1936 by an expedition to icebreaking steamer "G. Sedov".
An island north of the Barents Island in the Svalbard archipelago.