Pustoshny Alexander Matveyevich 
(1892–1943) 
and 
Linnik Grigory Vasilyevich 
(1888 – about 1960)

The sailors, members of the expedition G.Ya. Sedov on the ship "St. Foka" in 1912-1914. 
Pustoshny is a native and resident of the village of Pustosh in the Solombalsk district of Arkhangelsk. 
Were companions of Sedov in his attempt to reach the pole. Sedov’s physical condition was such that the hopelessness and suicide of the march were obvious to everyone, but he did not accept any objections and persuasion. Pustoshny was also unwell: he had nosebleeds, nevertheless, following the order, the sailors set off. Sedov could not move independently, so the satellites were forced to tie him to the sledges, but from them he, losing consciousness, often fell without even noticing it. Soon the sailors were exhausted at the end. At first they hinted to let the commander understand that it would be wiser to return, then they began to openly persuade him. Sedov replied: "Throw and think about the ship", and then fell into oblivion and muttered: "Everything is lost, everything is lost". From the constant wind with frost of 30°  faces of the sailors turned black, they felt that their strength was drying up. Apparently, sensing that the end was near, Sedov ordered to make a stop. The agony began, and he soon passed away. Neither Pustoshny nor Linnik could read the map or work with the sextant. They first wanted to go north to the warehouse of the Duke of Abruzzi expedition, hoping to replenish stocks of kerosene. Leaving the camp to the mercy of fate, they moved north, but soon they saw open water and turned back. Exhausted sailors abandoned their original intention to deliver Sedov’s body to the ship. Wrapping the body in two canvas bags, they buried him in a shallow hole, carved with a pickaxe. A flag was laid near the grave mound, which was intended to be hoisted on the pole. Taking three pebbles from the grave, for themselves and Sedov’s wife, the sailors set off to look for a ship. Their return journey was also incredibly difficult. Having wandered two weeks left in the last six days without kerosene, they dragged themselves to the ship. Both received heart failure, Pustoshnogo's bleeding increased.The sailors believed that they had buried Sedov on Cape Brorok on Rudolph Island, but later it turned out that this was Cape Auk. 
Pustoshny became a pilot port merchant. On December 7, 1937 he was arrested by the Troika of the NKVD in the Arkhangelsk Region and convicted under article 58-10 of Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR after a fortnight for 10 years. August 23, 1939 he was released in connection with the termination of the case. He was buried in the cemetery of the village of Pustosh in the Arkhangelsk region.

In October 2012  Vladimir Vladimirovich Kileso wrote to me, who said that Grigori Vasilyevich Linnik was a cousin of his grandmother and the best friend of his grandfather. Vladimir Vladimirovich kindly provided me with the following information.

“It is known from family history that Linnik Grigory Vasilyevich and my grandfather Kilesso Trofim Filippovich were active Bolsheviks and participated in all the events of the revolution and civil war in the city of Yekaterinoslav, now Dnepropetrovsk. Then Linnik was sent as a commissar to Kremenchug, was the director of a confectionery factory in Moscow, and in the late 1920s he was sent as a commissary to the Chinese Eastern Railway. He went there with his wife Nina and went missing. The grandfather tried to find him several times, made inquiries, but to no avail. This was told by the grandmother. She kept Linnik's diary and photo. In 1953  a writer came from Kiev and took it all to write a book, but he never returned. My cousin, born in 1945, remembers all this and found an archive where all this is stored, but so far I cannot get at least a photocopy”.

I thank Vladimir Vladimirovich and hope to receive new information. 
In honor of A.M. Pustoshny was named bay on the island of Nord of the Nordensheld archipelago, in honor of G.V. Linnik cape in the Bay of Sedov on the island of Nord. Named in 1939 by A.I. Kosoy.