Khmyznikov Pavel Konstantinovich 
(22.02.1896 – September 1943)

Famous Soviet hydrograph. 
He was born in St. Petersburg in the family of the children's writer Klavdiya Lukashevich, who was popular in those years, and the manager of the Petersburg office of the Alapaevskiy mining plants of the outdoor councilor Konstantin Vasilyevich Khmyznikov. 
A boy from childhood dreamed of the sea and did not see for himself a different fate, except for service in the navy. However, he was denied admission to the Marine Corps for a formal reason - the absence of noble origin. For him, this was a life tragedy, he locked himself in his room with grief and went on a hunger strike. The mother was forced to make a personal request to the Marine Minister, and the boy was accepted into the corps as an exception, out of respect for the authority of the mother. 
After completing his studies in 1915, Khmyznikov, in the rank of midshipman, was appointed watch supervisor for the cruiser “Russia”. Calm on the concepts of wartime position did not suit him. He submitted a report on his transfer to “scuba diving” and continued serving as a mine officer on the submarine “Wolf”. In 1918 this boat participated in the famous Ice Campaign, which allowed 236 ships of the Baltic Fleet to be rescued from the advancing Germans. In this campaign, Khmyznikov had to take over the command of the vessel instead of the deserting commander. The transition was extremely difficult, especially for unsuitable for navigation in the ice of submarines. A terrible nervous and physical stress affected his health. Khmyznikov became ill with a severe form of eczema, which relapses happened to him throughout his later life, especially in extreme situations that he had experienced a lot. 
Military service had to be interrupted. When parting, the grateful team presented him with the emblem of the boat as a souvenir - a picture hanging in the mess room. It depicts a wolf on top of a hill. 
After treatment, Khmyznikov, who could not imagine life without the sea, served in Arkhangelsk as a mine officer on the submarine Saint George, then in the Naval Ministry under the Kolchak government, and in the spring of 1920 was registered with the Red Army. 
In 1920, with the participation in the Lena Hydrographic Expedition, equipped with the East-Siberian Water Transport Authority, Khmiznikov began his glorious work on the study of the Arctic. The result of the work of this expedition was the atlas of the Lena Delta with Tiksi Bay and the atlas of Lena below Yakutsk. 
In 1922, Khmyznikov went to work at the Main Hydrographic Office and, receiving the title of hydrograph, participated in an expedition to Novaya Zemlya to organize a polar observatory in  Matochkin Shar Strait. 
After a short work at the Hydrological Institute, he moved to the Yakutsk expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he headed the Nizhnelensky geomorphological unit. His small, three-person group on the boat under sail, oars and towpath covered 1850 km and filmed for 700 km, supported by seven astronomical sites. 
During the years 1927-1929 Khmyznikov was the head of the Yansky hydrological detachment of the Yakutsk expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who conducted instrumental surveys of the Lena Delta and areas adjacent to the Yana basin. In the same period in the spring of 1928, he made a trip to the New Siberian Islands, passing on dogs from the village of Kazachiy to the Kotelny Island. They carried out significant hydrological work in the straits of Dmitry Laptev, Etherik and Sannikov. The works of 1928 almost ended in tragedy. Khmiznikov with a part of the staff decided to go home by sea on a boat from Yansky Bay to Tiksi, assuming that he would quickly get to Yakutsk along the Lena River. At Cape Buor-Khaya, the boat was thrown to the shore by wind and waves. This killed appliances, collections and food. Polar explorers went south along the coast and, fortunately, in the fishing hut found a warehouse of dried fish, which saved them from starvation. From the mouth of the Omoloy with the help of local residents managed to get to Verkhoyansk. 
In 1930 and 1931 Khmyznikov was part of an expedition aboard the ship "Belukha", which investigated the practically unexplored eastern part of the Kara Sea. 
While still a student at the Geographical Institute, he met Valentina Lesnitskaya, who became his wife and participated with him in many Arctic hikes. He carried love for her through all 15 years of their life together.

Without interrupting work related to frequent and lengthy expeditions, Khmyznikov graduated from the Leningrad Geographical Institute (now the Faculty of Geography of the University). According to the results of many years of research into the hydrology and hydrography of the Yana River basin, which ensured regular navigation in the Yansky basin, Khmyznikov was awarded the degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences in 1935. In the same year, as the most authoritative Arctic hydrologist and hydrograph, he was elected a full member of the Polar Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 
The apogee of his life was the legendary, tragic expedition on the steamer “Chelyuskin”, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Khmyznikov was one of the authors of the project of an air expedition to the North Pole, held in 1937. 
In May 1938, Khmyznikov was arrested. For the first time he came for him during his business trip in Moscow. Returning, he went to the Big House himself, sought the investigator and asked what was the matter. He was told that an error had occurred, and they carefully asked to calm the family .... And that very night they arrested me. By resolution of the Special Meeting of December 23, 1939, Khmyznikov was sentenced to 5 years in camps for participation in an anti-Soviet organization. 
His last letter from the camp is dated December 23, 1942, and in September 1943 his relatives received a postcard from comrade Pavel Konstantinovich with a message about his death. 
Cape (Khmyznikovsky) on the island of Taimyr in the Nordenskiöld archipelago. The name was proposed by the Commission on Geographical Names of the State Enterprise of the Minor Fund and approved by the decision of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Executive Committee in 1976. 
Strait between the islands of Oleniy and Krugly in the skins of Minin. Named by Dixon hydrographs in 1964. The name was approved by the decision of the Dikson regional executive committee of December 14, 1964.