Ivan Papanin was born in the city of Sevastopol on November 26, 1894. His father was a port sailor. He earned very little, and the large Papanin family was in need. They lived in a makeshift shack in Apollo's Gully, located on the Ship side of the city. Ivan Dmitrievich recalled his childhood as follows: “Chekhov has a bitter phrase:“I had no childhood in my childhood.” Here I have the same thing. Each of the Papanins' children from a young age tried to earn at least some penny on their own, helping their parents.
At school, Ivan studied excellently, but due to a difficult financial situation, having finished the fourth grade in 1906, he left his studies and got a job at the Sevastopol plant as an apprentice turner. The smart guy quickly mastered this profession and was soon considered a skilled worker. By the age of sixteen, he could independently disassemble and assemble a motor of any complexity. In 1912 Ivan, among other capable and promising workers, was enrolled in the staff of the shipyard in the city of Revel (now Tallinn). In a new place, the young man studied a number of new specialties, which were very useful to him in the future.
In early 1915, Ivan Dmitrievich was called up to serve. He got to the Black Sea Fleet as a technical specialist. Two years later, a revolution took place, and Ivan Dmitrievich, who by that time was twenty-three years old, did not hesitate to join the ranks of the Red Army. After a short time, he was appointed head of the armored forces workshops of the 58th Army. In the difficult summer of 1919, Ivan Dmitrievich was repairing damaged armored trains. At an abandoned railway station, he managed to organize a large workshop. After that, the young man worked as a commissar of the headquarters of the river and sea forces of the Southwestern Front.
After the main forces of the White Guards retreated to the Crimea, Papanin, among others, was sent by the leadership of the front to organize a partisan movement behind enemy lines. The assembled Rebel Army inflicted considerable harm on Wrangel. In the end, the White Guards had to withdraw some of the troops from the front. The forest, where the partisans were hiding, was surrounded, but with incredible efforts they managed to break through the cordon and go into the mountains. After that, the commander of the Insurrectionary Army, Alexei Mokrousov, decided to send a trusted and reliable person to the headquarters of the Southern Front in order to report the situation and coordinate further actions. Ivan Papanin became such a person.
In this situation, it was possible to get to Russia through the Turkish city of Trebizond (now Trabzon). Papanin managed to negotiate with local smugglers to transport him across the Black Sea. In a flour sack, he safely passed the customs post. The journey to Trebizond turned out to be unsafe and long. Already in the city, Papanin managed to meet the Soviet consul, who on the very first night sent him to Novorossiysk on a transport ship. Twelve days later, Papanin managed to get to Kharkov and appear before Mikhail Frunze. The commander of the Southern Front listened to him and promised to provide the partisans with the necessary assistance. After that Ivan Dmitrievich set off on his way back. In the city of Novorossiysk, the future famous writer-playwright Vsevolod Vishnevsky joined him. On a boat with ammunition, they reached the Crimean coast, after which Papanin again returned to the partisans.
For organizing the actions of partisan detachments behind enemy lines, Ivan Dmitrievich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After the defeat of Wrangel's army and the end of the Civil War, Papanin worked as commandant of the Extraordinary Commission of the Crimea. In the course of his work, he was thanked for the preservation of the confiscated values. Over the next four years, Ivan Dmitrievich literally could not find a place for himself. In Kharkov, he held the post of military commandant of the Ukrainian Central Executive Committee, then, by the will of fate, was appointed secretary of the revolutionary military council of the Black Sea Fleet, and in the spring of 1922 he was transferred to Moscow to the place of commissar of the Administrative Directorate of the Main Naval Technical and Economic Directorate.
Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to trace the change in Ivan Dmitrievich's worldview over these terrible years, during which he went through all imaginable and inconceivable difficulties. Undoubtedly, the bloody events left many scars on his heart. Being by nature a benevolent, humane and conscientious person, Papanin, in the end, made an unexpected decision - to do science. We can say that from that moment on he began the "second half" of his life, which turned out to be much longer - almost sixty-five years. Ivan Dmitrievich demobilized in 1923, moving to the post of chief of the security of the People's Commissariat of Communications. When in 1925 the People's Commissariat decided to establish the first stationary radio station at the Aldan gold mines in Yakutia, Papanin asked to send him for construction. He was appointed deputy chief for supply problems.
We had to get to the city of Aldan through the dense taiga, Papanin himself wrote about this: “We went to Irkutsk by train, then again by train to the village of Never. And after another thousand kilometers on horseback. Our small detachment, provided with weapons, moved without loss, despite the fact that the time was turbulent - and they almost drowned in the river, and we had a chance to shoot back from the bandits. We got to the place barely alive, there were severe frosts, and we got pretty hungry. " The station was built in one year instead of the planned two, and Papanin himself said: “During the year of work in Yakutia, I turned from a resident of the south into a convinced northerner. This is a very special country that takes a person without a trace."
Returning to the capital, Ivan Dmitrievich, having only four classes of elementary school behind him, entered the Planning Academy. However, he never completed the full course of the academy - in 1931 Germany turned to the Soviet Union for permission to visit the Soviet part of the Arctic on the huge airship "Graf Zepellin". The official goal was to clarify the location of the islands and archipelagos and to study the distribution of the ice cover. The USSR agreed on only one condition that Russian scientists would also take part in this expedition, and copies of the data obtained at the end of the trip would be transferred to the Soviet Union. The world press made a big noise around the flight. The Arctic Institute organized a trip to Franz Josef Land for the icebreaking steamer Malygin, which is to meet a German airship in Tikhaya Bay and exchange mail with it. The novice polar explorer Papanin, as an employee of the People's Commissariat for Post Office, headed the post office at Malygin.
Malygin reached the Tikhaya Bay, where the Soviet station was located, on July 25, 1931. The expedition members were met by the first shift of polar explorers, who lived here for a year. And by lunchtime the next day, the airship "Graf Zeppelin" flew here, having landed on the surface of the bay. Papanin wrote: “The airship - a huge swaying heap - lay on the water, reacting to any, even very weak wind. The mail transfer process was brief. The Germans threw their correspondence into our boat, we gave them ours. As soon as the mail was delivered to Malygin, we took it apart and handed it out to passengers, the rest of the messages were left to wait for the mainland."
Having said goodbye to the airship, "Malygin" visited a number of islands in Franz Josef Land. Ivan Dmitrievich gladly took part in all coastal landings. This is how Papanin recalled a member of the voyage, writer Nikolai Pinegin: “I first met this man in 1931 in the mail cabin“Malygin”. It seemed to me that he has some kind of gift to cobble people into friendly teams. For example, those who wanted to hunt had not yet had time to express their proposals, as Ivan Dmitrievich had already lined up people, aligned, distributed weapons, cartridges and announced the rules of collective hunting, as if all his life he did nothing but shoot polar bears …"
Papanin liked the North, and in the end he decided to stay here. He wrote: “Isn't it too late to start life anew at thirty-seven? No, no and NO! It's never too late to start your favorite business. And the fact that work here would become a favorite, I did not doubt at all, I felt that it was for me. I was not afraid of difficulties, I had to go through them enough. Before my eyes stood the blue of the sky and white expanses, I recalled that special silence, which there is nothing to compare with. This is how my journey as a polar explorer began …"
While still in Tikhaya Bay, Papanin, having carefully examined the polar station, came to the conclusion that it needed to be expanded. He shared his thoughts with the head of the expedition, the famous polar explorer Vladimir Vize, while offering his services. After returning from the expedition, Vize recommended Ivan Dmitrievich's candidacy to the director of the Arctic Institute, Rudolf Samoilovich, which resulted in the appointment of Papanin as the head of the station in Tikhaya Bay. It should be noted that this station was given great importance in connection with the scientific event held in 1932-1933, called the Second International Polar Year, designed to unite the efforts of the leading powers in the study of the polar regions. It was planned to turn the station in Tikhaya Bay into a large observatory with a wide range of studies.
In January 1932, Ivan Dmitrievich moved to St. Petersburg and was admitted to the staff of the Arctic Institute. He spent day and night in the warehouses of the Arktiksnab, choosing the necessary equipment and looking closely at the "personnel". In total, thirty-two people were selected for the work, including twelve research assistants. It is curious that Papanin took his wife with him for the winter, which was a rarity for those times. To deliver everything it needs to Tikhaya Bay, Malygin had to make two flights from Arkhangelsk. The construction team that arrived on the first flight immediately took to work. Before their arrival, the station had one residential building and a magnetic pavilion, but soon another house appeared next to them, a mechanical workshop, a radio station, a power station and a meteorological station. In addition, a new house was built on Rudolf Island, thus creating a branch of the observatory. Nikolai Pinegin, who went to look at the construction, wrote: “Everything was done solidly, prudently, economically … The work was perfectly organized and the debate was extraordinary. The new boss has put together an amazingly well-coordinated team."
After the stationary observations were debugged, scientists began observations at distant points of the archipelago. For this, dog sledding trips were undertaken in the first half of 1933. The result was the determination of several astronomical points, the refinement of the outlines of the straits and shores, the discovery of a placer of small islands near Rudolf Island, which were named Oktyabryat. The outstanding polar explorer, astronomer and geophysicist Yevgeny Fyodorov recalled: “Ivan Dmitrievich's motto:“Science should not suffer”, was resolutely brought to life. He did not have any systematic education, however, having visited all the laboratories, regularly talking with each of us, he quickly figured out the main tasks, in the sense of the research being carried out. He did not seek to delve into the details, however, being by nature an insightful and intelligent person, he wanted to know how qualified each scientist is, loves his job, and is devoted to him. Having made sure that all specialists are trying to do their job as best as possible, he no longer found it necessary to interfere, turning all his attention to helping them."
The second station shift in Tikhaya Bay was taken out by the icebreaking steamer "Taimyr" in August 1933. After reporting to the Arctic Institute on the work done, Papanin went on vacation, and then reappeared in Visa's office. During the conversation, Vladimir Yulievich informed him of his new appointment - the head of a tiny polar station located at Cape Chelyuskin. In four months, Ivan Dmitrievich managed to select a team of thirty-four people and deliver scientific pavilions, prefabricated houses, a wind turbine, a hangar, a radio station, all-terrain vehicles and many other equipment to the city of Arkhangelsk. It is curious that together with Papanin, without hesitation, most of his colleagues went to winter in Tikhaya Bay.
The travelers set off in the summer of 1934 aboard the Sibiryakov icebreaker. There was a solid coastal fast ice at Cape Chelyuskin, which allowed the polar explorers to unload directly onto the ice. The total weight of the cargo reached 900 tons, and all of it, up to the last kilogram, had to be dragged three kilometers ashore. This work took two weeks. During this period the icebreaker "Litke", the tugboat "Partizan Shchetinkin", the icebreaker "Ermak" together with the steamer "Baikal" approached the cape. Papanin also managed to attract the crews of these vessels to carry them. Simultaneously with the delivery of things and materials, a team of builders took up the construction of scientific pavilions, warehouses, houses and a wind turbine. Everything except the ovens was ready at the end of September. In this regard, in order not to detain the icebreaker, Ivan Dmitrievich, leaving the stove-maker for the winter, dismissed the rest of the workers. Throughout the winter, the researchers were engaged in observations, made one-day sledding trips. In the spring, one group of scientists on dog sleds set off on a long hike to Taimyr, and the other, together with Papanin, moved along the Vilkitsky Strait.
In early August, the ice in the strait began to move, and the Sibiryakov left Dikson with a new group of winterers. Ivan Dmitrievich was pleased with the work done - a radio center and a modern observatory were created, and scientists have accumulated valuable material. Comfort and cleanliness reigned in the pavilions and the residential building, which was the merit of the wives of Fedorov and Papanin. By the way, Anna Kirillovna Fedorova acted as a geophysicist and cultural manager, and Galina Kirillovna Papanina as a meteorologist and librarian. Soon the icebreaker steamer brought a new shift and, unloading food, set off eastward to other stations. He was supposed to pick up the Papanins on the way back. It was unreasonable to be crowded at one station for two shifts, many wanted to go home to their families, and Ivan Dmitrievich, taking advantage of the passage by the cape of the steamer "Anadyr", persuaded the captain to take his detachment with him.
After returning from the campaign, Papanin began to enjoy well-deserved authority among the polar explorers, but the next expedition of Ivan Dmitrievich forever inscribed his name in the history of the development of the Arctic spaces. For the USSR, the opening of permanent navigation of ships along the Northern Sea Route was of great importance. For this, a special department was established - the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route, or Glavsevmorput for short. However, in order to operate the Arctic lines, it was necessary to carry out a number of multifaceted scientific studies - to study the routes of ice drift, periods of their melting, to study underwater currents and much more. It was decided to organize a unique and risky scientific expedition, which consisted in the long-term work of people right on a floating ice floe.
Papanin was appointed head of the expedition. He was entrusted not only with the preparation of equipment, equipment and food, but also with the construction of an air base on Rudolf Island. With his characteristic determination, Ivan Dmitrievich also wedged himself into the selection of the station's team. However, of his old companions, he managed to defend only Evgeny Fedorov. In addition to him, the team included: radio operator Ernst Krenkel and hydrobiologist Pyotr Shirshov.
The team of the drifting station has been preparing for work for a whole year. An exception was made only for Krenkel, who was wintering at that time on Severnaya Zemlya.
Papanin boldly set about remaking the existing equipment and designing new ones. He wrote: “Without lighting - nowhere. It is difficult to take batteries, besides, they are unreliable in cold weather. Fuel oil and gasoline - how much is needed! All over, we need a windmill. It is unpretentious, not afraid of frost, rarely breaks. The only negative is heavy. The lightest weighs almost 200 kilograms, and we have a hundred a lot, it is necessary, due to materials and construction, even from this hundred to remove half. I went to Leningrad and Kharkov. He said there: "The maximum weight of a windmill is 50 kilograms." They looked at me with regret - they started, they say. … And yet the Leningrad masters set a record - according to the project of a designer from Kharkov, they created a wind turbine weighing 54 kilograms."
The Institute of Catering Engineers came up with special sets of freeze-dried high-calorie fortified foods for the expedition. All products were sealed in special tin cans weighing 44 kilograms each, at the rate of one can for four people for ten days. In addition, specially for the participants, powerful compact radio stations were assembled and a unique tent was developed that could withstand a fifty-degree frost. Its lightweight aluminum frame was "dressed" with canvas and then a cover that included two layers of eiderdown. Above was a layer of tarpaulin and a black silk cover. The height of the "house" was 2 meters, width - 2, 5, length - 3, 7. Inside there was a folding table and two bunk beds. Outside, a vestibule was attached to the tent, which “kept” warm at the moment the door was opened. The floor in the tent was inflatable, 15 centimeters thick. The "house" weighed 160 kilograms so that four men could lift it and move it. The tent was not heated; the only source of heat was a kerosene lamp.
The starting point for departure to the pole was the island of Rudolf, from which it was only 900 kilometers to the goal. However, there was only a small house for three people. For the air expedition, it was necessary to build a main and reserve airfields, warehouses for equipment, a garage for tractors, living quarters and deliver hundreds of barrels of fuel. Papanin, together with the head of the future airbase Yakov Libin and a team of builders with the necessary cargo, went to the island in 1936. After making sure that work there was in full swing, Ivan Dmitrievich returned to the mainland. The dress rehearsal of the work of the future drifting station was successfully held in February 1937. A tent was erected fifteen kilometers from the capital, in which the “Papanin people” lived for several days. No one came to them, and they kept in touch with the outside world by radio.
On May 21, 1937, in the North Pole area, a large group of polar explorers was landed on an ice floe. It took people two weeks to equip the station, and then four people remained on it. The fifth living creature on the ice floe was a dog named "Merry". The drift of the legendary station "SP-1" (North Pole-1) lasted 274 days. During this time, the ice floe swam over two and a half thousand kilometers. The members of the expedition made many scientific discoveries, in particular, an underwater ridge crossing the Arctic Ocean was discovered. It also turned out that the polar regions are densely populated with various animals - seals, seals, bears. The whole world closely followed the epic of the Russian polar explorers, not a single event that happened between the two world wars attracted such attention of the broad masses.
Papanin, not being a scientific specialist, often worked "in the wings" - in the workshop and in the kitchen. There was nothing offensive in this, without the help of Ivan Dmitrievich, two young scientists would not have been able to carry out an extensive scientific program. In addition, Papanin created the atmosphere of the team. This is how Fedorov wrote about him: “Dmitrich not only helped us, he directed and literally cherished what is called the spirit of the collective - the willingness to help a friend, friendliness, restraint regarding an unsuccessful act and an extra word from a neighbor. He, as a leader, perfectly understood the need to maintain and strengthen the compatibility of the expedition participants, giving all spiritual strength to this side of life."
Every day Ivan Dmitrievich got in touch with the mainland and talked about the progress of the drift. One of the last radiograms was especially alarming: “As a result of a storm that lasted for six days, in the area of the station on February 1 at eight o'clock in the morning, the field was torn apart by cracks ranging from half a kilometer to five. We are on a wreck 200 meters wide and 300 meters long. The technical warehouse was cut off, as well as two bases … There was a crack under the living tent, we are moving into a snow house. I will inform you of the coordinates today, please do not worry if the connection is broken. The management decided to evacuate the polar explorers. With enormous difficulties on February 19, 1938, not far from the shores of Greenland, the Papaninites were removed from the ice with the help of the approaching icebreakers Taimyr and Murman. Thus ended, according to the outstanding Soviet scientist Otto Schmidt, the most significant geographical study of the twentieth century.
All members of the expedition turned into national heroes, becoming symbols of everything Soviet, progressive and heroic. Polar explorers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and received major promotions. Shirshov became the director of the Arctic Institute, Fedorov became his deputy, Krenkel became the head of the Arctic Directorate, Ivan Dmitrievich became the deputy head of the Main Sea Route for Sea Route Otto Schmidt. Six months later (in 1939) Otto Yulievich went to work at the Academy of Sciences, and Papanin headed the Glavsevmorput. Of course, both in character and in style of work, Ivan Dmitrievich was the complete opposite of the previous leader. However, in those years, the new organization needed just such a person - with tremendous energy, life experience, breakthrough ability. It was here that Papanin's organizational gift really developed. He devoted a lot of effort to the development of the North, organizing the life and work of people who worked on the vast territory of the Soviet Arctic.
In 1939, Papanin took part in a voyage along the Northern Sea Route aboard the Stalin icebreaker. “Stalin”, having passed the entire route to Ugolnaya Bay, returned to Murmansk, making a double through voyage for the first time in the history of Arctic voyages. Papanin wrote: “In two months the icebreaker covered twelve thousand kilometers, including work in ice to pilot ships. We visited the main Arctic ports and a number of polar stations, and I got the opportunity to see their condition, get acquainted with the personnel. This voyage turned out to be truly invaluable for me - from now on I knew not from papers or hearsay the state of affairs and received full information about navigation in the Arctic."
After graduating from navigation in 1939, Papanin went to rest in the south, but was soon summoned to Moscow in connection with the start of work to rescue the crew of the icebreaker Georgy Sedov drifting in the ice. The government decided to send the flagship icebreaker "Stalin" to the rescue, which was also given an additional task to rescue the icebreaker steamer "Sedov". After the urgent completion of the repairs "Stalin" on December 15, 1939 left the Murmansk port. On January 4, 1940, 25 kilometers from Sedov, the icebreaker hit heavy ice. The pressure of the ice floes was so strong that the frames cracked. However, a week later, the compression stopped, and "Stalin", using cracks-loopholes, on January 12 approached the damaged steamer. A special commission recognized the "Sedov" as fit for sailing, and after hard work to free the ship from ice, the icebreaker, taking the steamer in tow, set off on its way back. On February 1, the members of the expedition found themselves in their native land. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to all fifteen participants of the drift and the captain of "Stalin" Belousov. Ivan Dmitrievich became a Hero twice.
During the Great Patriotic War, Papanin with indomitable energy directed the transportation in the North of the country. He was also entrusted with organizing the uninterrupted delivery of military equipment and equipment to the front, coming from England and America under Lend-Lease. In addition, he made a huge contribution to the reorganization of the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. And at the end of 1942, a tank column called "Soviet Polar Explorer", created with the funds of polar explorers, went to the front. In 1943, Ivan Dmitrievich was awarded the title of Rear Admiral. People's Commissar of the Navy Alexander Afanasyev wrote about him: “The short, cast Papanin always came in with a sharp joke and a smile. He will go around everyone in the waiting room, shake hands with everyone and let go of a pun or say warm words, and then be the first to easily enter the government office. … When informing about transportation, he will definitely show concern for the port workers, sailors and soldiers, ask to replace overalls, increase food, put forward a proposal to reward workers of the Far North for completing tasks."
Meanwhile, the years reminded Papanin of himself. Remaining in the eyes of his colleagues vigorous and not knowing fatigue, Ivan Dmitrievich began to feel more and more failures in his body. During the Arctic navigation in 1946, Papanin collapsed with bouts of angina pectoris. The doctors insisted on long-term treatment, and, realistically assessing his capabilities, the renowned polar explorer resigned from the post of head of Glavsevmorput.
Papanin considered the next two years the most boring in his life. Big holidays for him were the visits of comrades from the drifting station - Fedorov, Krenkel and Shirshov. In the fall of 1948, Pyotr Shirshov, who is the director of the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, invited Ivan Dmitrievich to become his deputy in the direction of expeditionary activities. So a new stage began in Papanin's life. Its tasks included ordering and supervising the construction of research ships, the formation of expeditionary teams, providing them with equipment and scientific equipment.
The energy and efficiency of Papanin's work were noticed. In 1951 he was invited to the Academy of Sciences for the post of head of the department of marine expeditionary work. The task of the department was to ensure the operation of the ships of the Academy of Sciences, of which there were no more than a dozen for sailing in coastal waters and one research vessel for long-distance travel. However, several years later, ocean-going vessels designed specifically for scientific research began to appear in the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then in the research institutes of the Hydrometeorological Service. Without any exaggeration, Papanin was the initiator and organizer of the founding of the world's largest research fleet. In addition, the famous polar explorer organized a separate scientific center on the Volga River, and a biological station on the Kuibyshev reservoir, which later turned into the Institute of Ecology of the Volga Basin of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
It is necessary to note the activity of Ivan Dmitrievich in the village of Borok. Once he, who loved to hunt in the Yaroslavl region, was also asked to inspect the local biological station. It arose on the site of a former manor house and breathed in incense, however, in connection with the construction of the Rybinsk reservoir, they were going to revive it. Papanin returned to the capital with a double impression - on the one hand, the station was an excellent place for scientific research, on the other, it was a couple of dilapidated wooden houses with a dozen bored employees. Arriving at the beginning of 1952 in Borok, Papanin, who headed the station "part-time", launched an active activity. The authority in economic and scientific circles allowed the polar explorer to "knock out" the scarce equipment and materials, barges with metal, boards, bricks began to arrive at the station berth one after another.
Dwelling houses, laboratory buildings, auxiliary services were built, a research fleet appeared. On the initiative and with the direct participation of Ivan Dmitrievich, the Institute for the Biology of Reservoirs (currently the Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters) and the Borok Geophysical Observatory were established in the village. Ivan Dmitrievich invited many young professionals to this place, supporting them with housing. However, his main achievement was the appearance in Borok of a group of outstanding scientists - biologists and geneticists, most of whom had served their time and could not return to Moscow. Here they got the opportunity for full-fledged creative activity. Ignored Papanin and Khrushchev's instructions to send people to retire when they reach 60 years of age.
Thanks to the efforts of Ivan Dmitrievich, the settlement was settled by educated and cultured people. Everything in this place was buried in flowers; on the initiative of Papanin, a special landscaping group was organized, which carried out a number of large-scale wind-barriers, which made it possible to acclimatize imported southern plants. The moral climate of the village was also of particular interest - no one had heard of theft here and the doors in the apartments were never locked. And on a train to Moscow passing near the village, Papanin "knocked out" a permanent reservation for the institute employees for eight compartments.
Intense activity in the venerable years affected Papanin's health. More and more often he fell ill, was in hospitals. His first wife, Galina Kirillovna, passed away in 1973. They lived in harmony for almost fifty years, spent the winter together at Cape Chelyuskin and in Tikhaya Bay. Being a reasonable and calm woman, she perfectly balanced her husband, “descended from heaven” in the years of honor and glory. For the second time, Ivan Dmitrievich married in 1982, the editor of his memoirs, Raisa Vasilievna. The legendary polar explorer died four years later - on January 30, 1986 - and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, where all his comrades in the famous drift had already found peace.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Izrael said: "Papanin was a great man with a kind heart and an iron will." During his long life, Ivan Dmitrievich wrote over two hundred articles and two autobiographical books - "Life on an Ice Floe" and "Ice and Fire". He was twice honored with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he was a holder of nine Orders of Lenin, was awarded many orders and medals, both Soviet and foreign. Ivan Dmitrievich was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences, became an honorary citizen of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Lipetsk, Sevastopol and the entire Yaroslavl region. An island in the Sea of Azov, a cape on the Taimyr Peninsula, a seamount in the Pacific Ocean and mountains in Antarctica were named after him.
