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Nikolaev Nikolay Mikhailovich
(17(29).03.1897–25.12.1958)
 Outstanding
Soviet ice captain.
Born in Petersburg, his father was a hereditary sailor Mikhail
Vasilievich Nikolaev, also an outstanding ice captain.
From early childhood the boy heard the father’s stories about
the sea, about the voyages of the "Yermak" icebreaker, about Admiral S.O. Makarov,
there were frequent meetings with G.Ya. Sedov in
the house of Uncle Nikolayev on the maternal line, long-time
navigator D.D. Fedorov. It
is not surprising that the marine field became the only possible for
him.
After graduating from the naval school, Nikolaev began serving in
the flotilla of the Arctic Ocean on a messenger ship
"Vaigach". The
revolution of 1917 found him in France, from where he moved to
England, to his father, who oversaw the construction of icebreakers. Father
and son decided to return to Russia.
At home in the years 1917-1920 Nikolayev sailed on hydrographic
vessels in the White and Barents Seas. In
1921 he received a navigator diploma, and four years later - a sea
captain.
In 1926 Nikolaev participated in the most difficult leg of
small-size vessels from Arkhangelsk to the Black Sea. He
was a senior assistant on the lead ship "Snow". Upon
his return, having worked for a short time in Leningrad, Nikolaev in
1929 transferred to the Far East and received command of the famous
icebreaker
"Red October", in which in 1924 under the command of B.V. Davydov Canadian
colonists were removed from Wrangel
Island.
In November 1931 Nikolaev took command of an ice cutter
“F. Litke”, which along with the icebreakers
“Yermak” and
“Krasin” was the main pillar of the Soviet ice navigation. In
harsh winter conditions, the ships that were frozen in the port of
Ayan on the western coast of the Sea of Okhotsk were secured to
Okhotsk and Nagaevo.
In 1932 the ice-cutter under the command of Nikolaev provided
the Special Northeast Expedition of the People's Commissariat of
Waterways, the head of which was N.I. Eugenov. During
the years 1932-1933 "F. Litke
"spent 550 days sailing, providing wiring for ships, rescuing those
in distress. Due
to the most severe ice conditions, it was not possible to reach the
drifting
"Chelyuskin".
In 1934 on the same ice-cutter, Nikolayev passed from east to
west from Vladivostok to Murmansk by the Northern Sea in one
navigation, and on the way to the Laptev Sea, he released the
vessels of the First Lena Expedition, which had been wintering in
the straits near the
Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands near
the northern coast of Taimyr Peninsula. The
heroic flight ended with a solemn meeting in Leningrad. Participants
were awarded orders and medals, Nikolaev was awarded the Order
of Lenin.
In 1935 Nikolayev commanded the Sadko icebreaking steamer that
made the First High-Latitude Expedition of the Northern Sea Route
under the command of G.A. Ushakov. The
ship entered the Greenland Sea, spitsbergen circled from the north,
crossed to the north coast of Novaya Zemlya, and then, turning
north, reached 82° 41.6'N -
a record at that time for a free-floating ship. The island
of Ushakov was
discovered.
In the winter of 1935–1936, Nikolayev served in the Commission
for the Supervision of the Construction of New Icebreakers, then he
was engaged in escorting warships, for which he was awarded the Order
of the Red Star. In
the subsequent pre-war years, he commanded icebreakers "L. Kaganovich” in the eastern sector and “Lenin” in the western sector of the
Arctic.
The war found Nikolaev in Leningrad. He
became the commander of the icebreaker "Stepan Makarov", which was
part of the Baltic Fleet.
Since 1945 the honored captain went to teaching, was the head of
the department and the dean of LVIMU. He
dealt with icebreaking and ice navigation tactics. Many
of his students have become captains of modern ships.
He died in Leningrad, buried at the Bolsheokhtinsky
cemetery.
Cape in
the east of the island of Luigi archipelago
Franz-Josef Land. Called
in 1954 by cartographers. |
