Item #774 Героический Поход Челюскинцев. [Geroicheskij Pochod Chelyuskintsev; Heroic Campaign of Chelyuskin.]. Photos by, K. Vyalov, Arkadi Shafran, Petr Novitzky, Alexey Strunnikova, Devishev, Cover by.
Героический Поход Челюскинцев. [Geroicheskij Pochod Chelyuskintsev; Heroic Campaign of Chelyuskin.]
Героический Поход Челюскинцев. [Geroicheskij Pochod Chelyuskintsev; Heroic Campaign of Chelyuskin.]
Героический Поход Челюскинцев. [Geroicheskij Pochod Chelyuskintsev; Heroic Campaign of Chelyuskin.]
Героический Поход Челюскинцев. [Geroicheskij Pochod Chelyuskintsev; Heroic Campaign of Chelyuskin.]
Героический Поход Челюскинцев. [Geroicheskij Pochod Chelyuskintsev; Heroic Campaign of Chelyuskin.]
The Chelyuskin Expedition to the Northern Sea Route

Героический Поход Челюскинцев. [Geroicheskij Pochod Chelyuskintsev; Heroic Campaign of Chelyuskin.]

Москва (Moscow): Огиз-Изогиз (Ogiz-Izogiz), 1934. First edition. Complete. Printed in only 5,000 copies. In publisher’s photographic folder. 145 × 105 mm. Folder artistically restored. Price on cover in ink. In very good condition. The postcards are in mint condition.

One of the earliest publications about Chelyuskin. A collection of 34 photographic postcards, with images showing the episodes of the Chelyuskin expedition, the Arctic voyage of the steamship that stuck in ice, the rescue of the passengers and crew by airplane, and the celebration of their homecoming. The story became one of the most glorified events in 1930s Stalinist Russia, and it was mythologized as much as the British expeditions of Shackleton and Scott.

The official professional photographers and cameramen of the expedition were Petr Novitzky, and Arkadi Shafran (1907–1983), who also made a film about the event (Chelyuskin, Heroes of the Arctic; 1934).

Some of the photos were also used in the famous photo book “Geroicheskaia Epopeia” published by the Pravda in 1935.

The steamship Chelyuskin with the leader of the expedition Otto Yuliyevich Shmidt, the captain Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin, the crew and about hundred of passengers on board started its mission from Murmansk, in August 1933. The expedition's task was to determine the possibility to travel by non-icebreaker through the Northern Maritime Route in a single navigation season. In September 1933 the ship got stuck in pack ice in the Chukchi Sea near Kolyuchin Island and after an unsuccessful rescue attempt by an icebreaker, on 13 February 1934, Chelyuskin was crushed by ice. The members of the expedition managed to escape and landed on a drifting ice floe where they built a makeshift airstrip. The Soviet government had taken measures to rescue people by airplanes thus between March 5 and April 13, 1934 all passengers and crew were evacuated, and in June together with the hero-pilots, led by Anatoly Liapidevsky and Sigizmund Levanevsky arrived to Vladivostok. All passengers of Chelyuskin were awarded medals and the pilots were first in the country to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Despite the failure of the expedition the Soviets considered it successful, as it had proven that an ordinary cargo vessel could voyage through the North-East Passage in one season, thus the Northern Sea Route was officially opened and commercial exploitation began in 1935.

Rare, we could not trace any complete set in institutional holdings worldwide.

[Bibl.: Parr, M.; Badger, G.: The Photobook: A History. London: Phaidon, 2004. Vol. 1. p. 164.]

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Price: €3,500.00