group of Soviet scientists until his death. Arctic Schmidt was an explorer of the Arctic. In 1929 and 1930, he led expeditions on the steam icebreaker Georgy Sedov, establishing the first scientific research station on the Franz Josef Land, exploring the northwestern parts of the Kara Sea and western coasts of Severnaya Zemlya, and discovering a few islands. In 1932, Schmidt's expedition on the steam icebreaker Sibiryakov with Captain Vladimir Voronin made a non-stop voyage from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific Ocean without wintering for the first time in history. From 1933 to 1934, Schmidt led the voyage of the steamship Cheliuskin, also with Captain Vladimir Voronin, along the Northern Sea Route. In 1937, he supervised an airborne expedition that established a drift-ice station "North Pole-1". In 1938, he was in charge of evacuating its personnel from the ice. Otto Schmidt was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the first convocation (1938 -1946). Legacy The authorities awarded Otto Schmidt three Orders of Lenin, three other orders and many medals. Schmidt Island in the Kara Sea, Cape Schmidt on the coastline of the Chukchi Sea in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, as well as the Institute of Earth Physics at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, among other places, bear Schmidt's name. A minor planet, 2108 Otto Schmidtdiscovered in 1948 by Soviet astronomer Pelageya Shajncommemorates him. The icebreaker originally bore the name Otto Yulyevich Schmidt. Honours and awards Hero of the Soviet Union Order of Lenin, three times Order of the Red Banner of Labour, twice Order of the Red Star See also Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route Frobenius group Notes References Sources Aleksey E. Levin, Stephen G. Brush The Origin of the Solar System: Soviet Research 1925–1991. AIP Press, 1995. Brontman, L.K. On top of the world: the Soviet expedition to the North pole, 1937–1938, New York, 1938. McCannon, John. Red Arctic: Polar Exploration and the Myth of the North in the Soviet Union, 1932–1939. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Otto Iul'evich Shmidt: Zhizn' i deiatel'nost'. Moscow: Nauka, 1959. External links 1891 births 1956 deaths People from Mogilev People from Mogilyovsky Uyezd (Mogilev Governorate) Communist Party of the Soviet Union members First convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Belarusian encyclopedists Baltic-German people Soviet polar explorers Belarusian people of Latvian descent Belarusian people of German descent