Four people on an ice floe and a dog named Vesely: inside the "polar camp" at the exposition "Geography Lessons"

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Imagine yourself on an ice floe in the middle of the ocean, at a temperature of –30°C. At the exposition "Geography Lessons" at the National Centre RUSSIA, visitors can step into the camp of the world’s first drifting station, "North Pole-1". You can enter a tent, "warm up" by a campfire, examine expedition gear, and imagine yourself as part of one of the boldest expeditions of the 20th century.

The section dedicated to the journey of Soviet Arctic explorer Ivan Papanin is located in the second hall of the exposition "Geography Lessons" — "Courage. Expeditions, Discoveries". Here, the routes of Russian pioneers and navigators come to life. Visitors can trace the paths of famous explorers who ventured where no human had set foot before.

The idea of creating a drifting scientific station was presented at the Kremlin by Soviet polar explorer and Hero of the Soviet Union Otto Schmidt. He chose to rely on the survival experience of the crew of the sunken steamship "Chelyuskin". At that time, the people — including Schmidt himself — spent three months on an ice floe, but were eventually rescued and returned home safely.

The station "North Pole-1" became the world’s first drifting research station. Expedition leader Ivan Papanin, meteorologist and geophysicist Yevgeny Fedorov, radio operator Ernst Krenkel, and hydrobiologist and oceanographer Pyotr Shirshov spent almost nine months on the ice floe at temperatures as low as –30°C.

Initially, the drift was expected to last one and a half years, but reality proved harsher than the calculations. The ice floe carrying the station drifted from the pole towards Greenland. In the Greenland Sea, it began to melt rapidly, then was caught in a storm and broke apart — according to recollections, at one point the stable ice area shrank to about 200 metres. Despite this, every six hours the polar explorers continued to conduct observations and transmit data: for oceanography and cartography, these were unique insights into ice movement, currents, and the climatic conditions of the Arctic.

To avoid freezing and losing communication, the winterers used a dynamo machine — one of the exhibits near the tent recreates this "manual power station". It had to be operated at around 47 revolutions per minute: this is how they charged batteries and ensured the radio station kept working. In fact, as guides note, life on the ice floe was closer to a space expedition. It meant a strict routine, constant observations, limited resources, and complete isolation. It is no coincidence that later it was said polar explorers were trained almost the same way future cosmonauts would be.

A special figure in this story is the fifth member of the expedition — a dog named Vesely (Funny), given to the team by the winterers of Rudolf Island so that life on the ice floe would not be too monotonous. Ivan Papanin wrote that the dog served faithfully: it alerted them to approaching polar bears, kept night watch, and woke people with loud barking in case of danger. But it could also get into mischief. In their memoirs, the polar explorers recalled how Vesely would pull out a piglet and large pieces of meat from the expedition’s "refrigerator", for which it was put on a leash and a "diet".

The "North Pole-1" expedition was not about setting records. It produced scientific data that made it possible to look at the Arctic in a new way, continue the development of the Northern Sea Route, better understand the planet’s "climate system", and reinforce the USSR’s leadership in exploring this region. At the same time, it became an example of human courage: four scientists and one dog spent 274 days on an ice floe, drifting from the pole to the shores of Greenland, until in February 1938 they were rescued by the icebreaking steamships "Taymyr" and "Murman". In memory of this and subsequent polar expeditions, Russia established a professional holiday — Polar Explorer’s Day.

The exposition "Geography Lessons" is an educational project of the National Centre RUSSIA, created for children and their parents. It features maps from different eras, expedition finds, multimedia installations, and objects such as a polar tent — all of which help visitors see geography in a new light, as the story of people who dared to step into the unknown.