A hundred years ago the Northern Sea Route for the first time was conquered by Russian seafarers

On the 16th of September of 1915 the hydrographic expedition of Boris Vilkitsky arrived to Archangelsk. The expedition on board of icebreaking ships "Taymyr" and Vaygach" from Vladivostok to Archangelsk took place in 1914-1915. In the history this is the first through navigation on the Northern Sea Route from the east to the west.

As we should note, earlier in 1878-1879 the Northern Sea Route was overcome from the west to the east by the expedition of the Sweden explorer Nils Nordenskjold. It was financed together with the Swedish government, Swedish and Russian business people. The expedition of Boris Vilkitsky passed the Northern Sea Route with a stop for winter near the Taymyr Peninsula. For the first time the Northern Sea Route was passed during one navigation season by the expedition under the leadership of Otto Schmidt on the board of the ship "A.Sibiryakov" in 1932. The through navigation of Vilkitsky on the Northern Sea Route took place within the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition, which took place in 1910-1915. It was organized for development and exploration of the Northern Sea Route. The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition moved on northern water areas from the east to the west. This expedition fulfilled description of the northern coastline of Eastern Siberia and many islands, collected big amount of data about currents, ice situation, climate and magnetic phenomena. The Land of the Emperor Nikolay the Second (now Severnaya Zemlya) was opened in 1913. It became the last considerable geographical discovery on the Earth. The strait was named after Vilkitsky. It separates the Taymyr Peninsula from the archipelago Severnaya Zemlya and joins the Kara Sea with the Laptev Sea. In different time more than 30 officers of the Imperial Russian Navy passed service during 6 years of navigations on the icebreaking ships "Taymyr" and "Vaygach", as IA "Arktika-Inform" informs. The expedition did not succeed in recognition from the side of contemporaries. It was completed, when the war flared up in Europe, and the warring sides were not interested in geographical discoveries behind the Polar Circle. After the revolution the majority of the participants of the expedition decided to emigrate, and they were forgotten. Later Roald Amundsen with regret will say that in peaceful time this expedition would arouse interest of the whole civilized world.