Lavrov Alexey Modestovich 
(17.02(03.03).1887–29.06.1942)

Russian hydrograph, member of many Arctic expeditions, engineer-rear admiral. 
Born in Kolpino, St. Petersburg Province, in the family of a master Izhora plants. 
In 1900, Lavrov entered the Naval Cadet Corps, after which, in 1907, sailed a midshipman on the Bogatyr cruiser, visiting England, Norway, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Germany. Then he served as a midshipman on the destroyers of the Baltic Fleet. 
From 1911 to 1915, Lavrov participated in all the voyages of the High-Level Overseas Organization aboard the icebreker steamer "Taimyr", for which he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav of the 2nd degree. During the wintering together with N.I. Eugenov first described   the Gafner bay on Taimyr, protruding 40 km into the coast.

After the expedition was completed, during the First World War, he served in the Baltic Fleet as a senior assistant on the destroyer Ussuriets, in 1917-1918. commanded the destroyer Molodetsky and, as part of the squadron, made the famous Ice Campaign from Helsingfors to Kronstadt on it. Taking the side of the Soviet government, Lavrov in 1918 - 1922 he. served in the Minsk division of the Baltic Sea as the head of the division and commander of a destroyer.

From 1922 until the end of his life, Lavrov worked in the Hydrographic Administration of the Navy, without separation from service in 1921-1925. listened to the course of the Leningrad Geographical Institute.

Until the mid-1930s, Lavrov took an active part in the Arctic voyages. In 1926, he was the head of ice reconnaissance on the icebreaker steamer "G. Sedov" in the Karsky expedition; in 1928, an assistant chief of the expedition participated in the navigation of the icebreaking ship “Malygin” to rescue the crew of the airship “Italia”; in 1932, he led hydrographic surveys in the northeastern part of the Kara Sea on the hydrographic vessel "Taimyr", completing an exceptional research work on hydrographic and hydrological studies of little known areas in the Severnaya Zemlya and the western coast of Taimyr; In 1935 he worked in the western sector of the Arctic on the icebreaker "Yermak". During his arctic campaigns, Lavrov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Red Star. 
A lot of work Lavrov invested in the popularization of Arctic research, the study of the North, the development of the Northern Sea Route. He was the scientific editor of the Russian translation of the collected works of R. Amundsen, wrote prefaces to each volume. From 1929 to 1941 in the journal "Notes on Hydrography" he published 19 scientific articles.

With the beginning of World War II, it was decided to evacuate the Cartographic Department of the Hydrographic Administration of the Navy in Omsk.

In the process of evacuation, almost all equipment, most of the teachers and cadets died. The building of the Omsk River School was assigned to the Hydrographic Institute, where Lavrov and his colleagues had to start almost from scratch. Thanks to the organizational skills of Lavrov, in the shortest possible time it was possible to establish uninterrupted cartographic production.

Intensive, overworked work had a detrimental effect on Lavrov’s health. Sudden death from hemorrhage in the brain interrupted his vigorous activity.

Lavrov was buried in the Cossack cemetery, which was later demolished. In the description of the graves of the demolished cemetery, made before the demolition of the Omsk scholar of local history A.F. Palashenkov indicated that there was a white marble monument in an iron fence on the grave.  

In 1960, Lavrov was transferred to the Old-Northern Cemetery, where for many years the grave was in complete oblivion. Only in the mid-1980s. she was found by Omsk local historian, retired major F.K. Nad (1929-1995). Here is how he describes this event in his letter published in No. 5 of the Military History Journal for 1988:“Several years ago, in the territory of the Northern Military Cemetery of the city of Omsk, our family discovered an abandoned grave. From under the fallen leaves and dry branches only the edge of the gravestone was peeping. When they cleared the mound, they found a stone with the inscription “Engineer-Rear Admiral Lavrov Alexey Modestovich. 1887-1942. It became painful for such an attitude towards a military sailor .... Such a person, and what a disrespectful attitude to his memory”.

The Nadia family began caring for the grave, then they turned for help to the Omsk River College. They treated the case with understanding and took patronage over the grave. In 1987, a monument of granite in the form of a stele mounted on the foundation was erected on the grave. On the face of the stele, a photo is placed and the text is stamped: “Lavrov Alexey Modestovich. 17. II.1887-29.VI.1942". Below is an image of the anchor. At the foot of the stele there is a granite flower garden on which a marble slab with the text is installed: “Engineer Rear Admiral Lavrov Alexey Modestovich. 17.II. 1887- 29.VI. 1942". The grave is fenced with metal posts with chains stretched between them.

Cape Bay Gafner fjord on the north-west coast of Taimyr. Described and mapped without a name by a hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean in 1915. Named by Soviet hydrographs in 1937. 
Cape and island in the south-eastern part of Severnaya Zemlya. The cape was discovered and named in 1913 as a hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean. The name of the island originated in the late 1940s from the name of the cape and was approved by the decision of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Executive Committee in 1952. 
Strait between the islands of Gall, Wilczek, Salm and Hochstetter of the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Named in the 1950s by Soviet hydrographs.