Breitfuss Leonid Lyudvigovich 
(19.11(01.12).1864–20.07.1950)

Zoologist and hydrograph, Arctic explorer. 
Breitfus's grandfather with two brothers moved to Russia in Catherine's times. Their numerous descendants before the First World War retained German citizenship. 
Breitfuss was born in Petersburg to the family of a tailor. After graduating from the Petrishule School in 1890, he was expelled from Russia for anti-government activities and lived in Germany until 1897, where he graduated from Berlin University and received his Ph.D. Back in Russia, Breitfuss, at the invitation of N.M. Knipovich in 1898 became his assistant in the Murmansk scientific and fishing expedition, engaged in the study of fisheries in the Barents Sea. In 1902, he led the expedition and spent six years in this post. Breitfus represented Russia in the international conference on the status of Spitsbergen, since 1902 has been an expert from Russia at the International Council for the Study of the Northern European Seas. 
In 1912 he was a member of the commission of the maritime ministry, which discussed the draft G.Ya. Sedov to the pole, the project did not support. After the discovery of Severnaya Zemlya in 1913, he suggested that it would be impossible to use the Northeast passage for regular navigation. 
During the years 1912-1920, Breitfuss was in charge of the meteorological part of the Main Hydrographic Office. During this period there was not a single significant event in the Arctic, to which he somehow would not have been involved. Breitfuss devoted his main scientific works to the biology of the Arctic seas, primarily the Barents Sea. He applied no less effort to solving purely hydrological tasks, also mainly concerning the Barents Sea. He has compiled a bathymetric map of this sea, and conducted special studies on its hydrology and the study of fish and animal fisheries. Great are the achievements of Breitfus in organizing a network of polar weather stations, carrying out a whole series of measures to improve the industrial life on Murman, and rationalizing crafts. 
Breitfuss coordinated the search for the missing polar expeditions G.Ya. Sedov, V.A. Rusanov and G.L. Brusilov, started at the request of the Russian public (expeditions on the “Gert” in 1914 and “Andromeda” in 1915), one of the first he proposed to use in the search for aviation (flights of Ya.I. Nagursky in 1914). 
After the revolution, once abroad, he did not return to Russia and from 1918 he lived in Germany. Nevertheless, Breitfuss continued to cooperate with the Soviet authorities.In particular, he contributed to the organization of the expedition of the icebreaker "Svyatogor (Krasin)" to rescue in the Kara Sea l / n "Nightingale Budimirovich." For many years, Breitfus worked in the international organization Aeroarctic, created by F. Nansen, took an active part in organizing the airship flight Graf Zeppelin, and advised on the work to save the U. Nobile expedition. 
Breitfuss made a lot of efforts to popularize Arctic research. He is the author of several articles on polar expeditions, he prepared a capital overview of three thousand polar expeditions, in which the bibliography amounted to 15 thousand titles. Unfortunately, a huge manuscript burned. Breitfuss was the publisher of the book V.I. Albanov "To the south, to Franz Josef Land", wrote a detailed preface to the book of P.G. Kushakov “Two years in the ice of the Arctic on the way to the North Pole with the expedition of Lieutenant G.Ya. Sedov, published in Petrograd in 1920. In 1925 in Berlin in the publishing house "Slovo" published a book by Albanov, calling it "Between life and death". 
In the period 1922-1936, Breitfus worked at the Berlin Zoological Museum, and at the end of his life before 1948, he worked at the Hydrographic Institute in Hamburg.

Awarded the Order of St. Olaf. 
He died in Bad Pyrmont, Lower Saxony Land and was buried in the Catholic part of the cemetery Hamelin- Pyrmonter. 
Cape on the southeast of Hooker Island archipelago Franz Josef Land. He called by V.Yu. Wize in 1913.