Anufriev Ivan Petrovich
(28.08.1865–06.06.1937)

The famous ice captain, a great connoisseur of marine hunting and swimming in ice conditions.
Born in the village of Kui, located on the shore of the White Sea, in the family of the hereditary Pomor. His life was difficult, and only natural talent, energy, hard work and dedication helped him achieve success. Before enrolling in the Arkhangelsk skipper courses, he had no school education and was self-taught all the training.
From the age of twelve, Anufriev began to participate in winter animal hunting. He was a cabin boy and a cook on small sailing ships, incl. and on the old Pomor boats, reaching the age of eighteen, served as a sailor on the steamers of the Murmansk society. After graduating from skipper courses in 1896, and then the nautical classes of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club (later Peter the Great Naval School of Navigation I) received a diploma of a sea captain, sailed as a navigator, commander of a rescue boat on Murman, captain of a private cargo ship. From a young age, two main directions of its activity were defined: swimming in ice conditions and work on the development of marine hunting.
Back in the early twentieth century, Anufriev pointed to the possibility of winter navigation, in which he became a pioneer. His ideas did not immediately receive recognition from practicing sailors. However, there was a private entrepreneur Maslennikov, at whose expense a small and not strong steamer “Nikolay” was built. In October-December 1910, under the command of Anufriev, he made the first test flight to the Kaninsky coast for cargo of navaga. This successful flight in all respects marked the beginning of the ice fishing navigation of this steamer in the Barents and Kara Seas.
In knowledge of the conditions of the White Sea ice navigation, Anufriev was not equal, he knew perfectly well the ice conditions of other seas.
Among the coast-dwellers and sailors of the North, his voyages as a captain on the ships “Nikolay” and “Gert” are known in order to search for expeditions of G.Ya. Sedov, G.L. Brusilov and V.A. Rusanov to the archipelago Franz-Josef Land in 1914. Anufriev actively acted on the Karsky expedition of 1920, successfully commanding merchant and icebreaking vessels. After the revolution, he sailed for almost 20 years before entering personal pension.
Anufriev took the news of the "Alexander Sibiryakov" flight restrained. Of course, he shared the joy with everyone, but knowing full well the qualities of the steamer, commanded by four navigations, he understood at what cost this breakthrough in the Bering Sea, considered it too high, and the result of the voyage was not a happy coincidence. often.
A year later, according to a government directive, the Chelyuskin was preparing for navigation. The optimistic atmosphere reigned, in some ways even festive. Anufriev soberly assessed the chances of the Chelyuskin and the whole expedition. A vessel that was not adapted to navigate in the ice often could not even follow the icebreaker because of its wide hull, and the lack of a long-term forecast on the crossing route, an impressive distance of part of the route from the ice reconnaissance bases, generally put the experiment in dangerous conditions.
Intuition and experience prompted Anufriev: this time there will be no triumph. He was offered to go to the flight captain, but he refused. The organizers of the campaign turned to his student, Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin, he thought and also refused. Then he was asked to bring "Chelyuskin" from Leningrad to Murmansk, hoping that they would find a replacement for him, but they did not find ...
Anufriev is known as the author of articles on the history of navigation in the North and of hunting in the White Sea, articles on ice science and navigation in the ice. Based on his long-term observations of ice, he argued the reality of the expansion of navigation in the White Sea and the port of Arkhangelsk.
A number of articles Anufriev dedicated to the history of the formation of the Northern Icebreaking Flotilla, created in Arkhangelsk during the First World War. The large article by Anufriev “Ice Practice and Polar Ice Navigation in the Arctic Ocean”, published in 1925, is devoted to the generalization of the experience of the flotilla. Having stopped practical navigational activities, Anufriev gave a lot of effort to public work, was the editor of the polar guide "Satellite of Pomor".
He died in Arkhangelsk. Buried at Ilyinsky cemetery.
Bay and river in the southern part of the Bay of Schubert on the east coast of the southern island of Novaya Zemlya. Named in September 1924 by the Novaya Zemlya Expedition led by R.L. Samoylovich.