The Honorary citizens of St. Petersburg Vladimir Vasilyev, Mikhail Piotrovsky and the Honorary citizen of the Leningrad Region Pavel Labutin came up with a legislative initiative to include the Antarctic Opening Day as a new memorable event in the Russian calendar. They announced their proposal at a meeting of the Polar Commission of the RGS branch in St. Petersburg.
The sixth continent was discovered by members of the Russian South Polar Expedition led by Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on January 28, 1820. It will be 200 years since this historic events in 2020.
The historian, deputy of the Leningrad Region Legislative Assembly Pavel Labutin made a statement of honorary citizens at a meeting of the Polar Commission of the RGS branch in St.Petersburg.
Honorary citizen of the Leningrad Region, deputy of the Leningrad Region Legislative Assembly Pavel Labutin. Photo: Tatiana Nikolaeva
The meeting participants supported the legislative initiative and sent it to the Legislative Assemblies of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. The proposal will be sent to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for consideration in a case of approval.
Nuclear icebreaker "Arctic" was made at the Baltic plant in Leningrad. It was commissioned on April 25, 1975. The "Arctic" became the first surface craft reached the North Pole in 1977.
The icebreaker was created by the efforts of teams of more than 400 associations and enterprises, research and design organizations. Various mechanisms, units and aggregates of the "Arctic" are still the quality benchmark.The icebreaker was decommissioned in 2009 and since then the question of preserving the icebreaker and assignment it the status of the cultural heritage of the Russian Federation was repeatedly raised.
The collection of signatures for the preservation of the "Arctic" as a museum in St. Petersburg began on the Internet and with the help of special subscription lists in August 2012.It is impossible to dispose the icebreaker on the Neva River within the boundaries of St. Petersburg's bridges and above due to its size. The possibility of installing the "Arctic" off the coast of Kronshtadt is considerating.
Meeting of the Polar Commission of the RGS branch in St.Petersburg. Photo: Tatiana Nikolaeva
Representatives of the professional community of polar explorers took part in the work of the commission. Among them were scientists, naval sailors and hydrographs, members of Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, cadets of military naval universities of St. Petersburg.