Editing Krassin (1916 icebreaker)

{{Short description|1916 icebreaker  for Russian Navy}}
{{about||another ship of the same name|Krasin (1976 icebreaker)|the Polish village|Krasin, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship}}

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{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=Ледокол Святогор в 1917 году.JPG
|Ship caption=Icebreaker ''Svyatogor'' (renamed ''Krassin'') as completed in 1917
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|Ship country=[[Russia]]
|Ship flag=[[File:Naval Ensign of Russia.svg|60px]] [[File:Naval Ensign of the Soviet Union (1950–1991).svg|60px]]
|Ship name=''Svyatogor'' then ''Krassin'' or ''Krasin''
|Ship namesake=[[Svyatogor]] then [[Leonid Krasin]]
|Ship owner=[[Imperial Russian Navy]], then [[Soviet Navy]]
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|Ship builder= [[Armstrong Whitworth]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne]]
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|Ship yard number=904
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|Ship launched=3 August 1916
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|Ship completed=February 1917
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|Ship status=[[Museum ship]] in [[Saint Petersburg]]
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|Ship class=[[Icebreaker]]
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|Ship tonnage=*{{GRT|6048}} 
*{{NRT|1687}}
*{{DWT|4,220|metric}}
|Ship length=99,80 m
|Ship beam=21,65 m
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|Ship draft=7,5 m
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|Ship armament=(in World War II) four 76mm guns, seven 20mm AA guns, 10 large caliber machine guns
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|Ship notes=<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.scs-shipping.com/EnglishHome/Vessels/krasin.html| title=Krasin: Ships particulars and potted history| publisher=SCS Shipping| access-date=2008-07-20| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080508003149/http://www.scs-shipping.com/EnglishHome/Vessels/krasin.html| archive-date=2008-05-08| url-status=dead}}</ref>
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The first icebreaker '''''Krassin''''',  or '''''Krasin''''',<ref>{{cite web |title=Official museum website |url=https://www.krassin.ru/en/ |website=Ледокол Красин |publisher=Russian Federation, Ministry of Culture |access-date=22 November 2021 |language=Ru, En |quote=Uses both spellings in English}}</ref><ref name=USCG>{{cite web| url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Krassin_1917.pdf| title=Krassin| publisher=US Coastguard| access-date=2011-12-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170521004706/http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Krassin_1917.pdf|archive-date=21 May 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> ({{langx|ru|Красин}}) was built for the [[Imperial Russian Navy]] as '''''Svyatogor'''''. She had a long, distinguished career in rescue operations, as well as a pathfinder and explorer of the [[Northern Sea Route]]. She has been fully restored to operating condition and is now a [[museum ship]] in [[Saint Petersburg]].

==History==
The icebreaker was built by [[Armstrong Whitworth]] in [[Newcastle upon Tyne]] under the supervision of [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]].<ref name="Myers">{{cite web |url=http://www.seaham.i12.com/myers/zamyatin.html |title=Zamyatin in Newcastle |access-date=2007-05-11 |last=Myers |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Myers (translator) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100427044846/http://www.seaham.i12.com:80/myers/zamyatin.html |archive-date=27 April 2010|url-status=dead}} (updates articles by Myers published in ''[[Slavonic and East European Review]]'')</ref> The vessel was launched as the ''[[Svyatogor]]'' on 3 August 1916 and completed in February 1917.<ref name="Myers"/> Up to the beginning of the 1950s she remained the most powerful icebreaker in the world.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.krasin.org/eng/history.html| title=The Icebreaker ''Krasin''| publisher=krasin.org| access-date=2008-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831112931/http://krasin.org/eng/history.html|archive-date=31 August 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

During the [[North Russia Campaign|allied intervention against the Bolsheviks]] in Northern Russia (1918–19) she was [[scuttling|scuttled]] by Bolshevik forces to block the port at [[Arkhangelsk]]. The [[Royal Navy]] raised her for use in the [[White Sea]] and later brought her to England.<ref name="Myers" /> She was moved from Devonport to [[Scapa Flow]] for crushing hurdles put up to prevent German submarines entering. During this time she undertook [[Naval mine#Mine sweeping|minesweeping]] duties.

''Svyatogor'' was returned to the USSR under the [[Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement|Krasin trade agreement]] in 1921.<ref name="Myers"/> In 1927 she was renamed by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] government to honor a recently deceased early Bolshevik leader and Soviet diplomat [[Leonid Krasin]].

Perhaps the most famous duty the ''Krassin'' performed was rescuing General [[Umberto Nobile]] and his surviving crew when their airship ''[[airship Italia|Italia]]'' crashed on the ice upon returning from the North Pole in 1928. On return from this mission ''Krassin'' helped to repair the German passenger ship ''[[MV Monte Cervantes|Monte Cervantes]]'', with 1,835 passengers on board, after it hit an iceberg and its hull was severely damaged.

[[File:Первая льдина Карского моря.jpg|thumb|left|The first ice floe of the Kara Sea aboard the first trip on the first vessel to transit the region]]
In 1933 ''Krassin'' became the first vessel to reach the inaccessible northern shores of [[Novaya Zemlya]] in the history of navigation. In  1938, the ''Krassin'' rescued the icebreaker ''[[Lenin (1916 icebreaker)|Lenin]]'' and her convoy, trapped in ice at the end of the previous summer.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Barr |first=William |author-link=William Barr (Arctic historian) |date=March 1980 |title=The Drift of ''Lenin''s Convoy in the Laptev Sea, 1937–1938 |journal=Arctic |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=3–20 |url=http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic33-1-3.pdf |access-date=2008-07-26 |doi=10.14430/arctic2543 |archive-date=2011-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524140448/http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic33-1-3.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Fragment of the painting Launch of the icebreaker Svyatogor for sea trials. 1916 V. Kosov 60x100 oil on canvas. 2016.jpg|thumb|Fragment of the painting Launch of the icebreaker Svyatogor for sea trials. 1916 Vladimir Kosov 60x100 oil on canvas. 2016]]
During [[World War II]], ''Krassin'' participated in many Russian [[convoy]]s. In 1941 the US Government entered into negotiations with the Soviet Government for the purchase or lease of one or more of their modern ice breakers for use by the [[US Coast Guard]] on the east coast of [[Greenland]]. The ''Krassin'' was offered, and crossed the Pacific to [[Bremerton, Washington]]. She was surveyed and found to be in need of repairs totalling about $500,000. Funds were allocated from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Emergency Fund for the President", but negotiations came to an abrupt end on 25 November 1941. Although the ''Krassin'' never served in the Coast Guard, the service gained valuable knowledge about icebreakers that was put to use in the design of the [[Wind class icebreaker]]s.<ref name=USCG />

She continued her journey through the [[Panama Canal]] to [[Great Britain]], where she was armed with surface and anti-aircraft guns and proceeded to Reykjavik, Iceland to join convoy [[Convoy PQ 15|PQ-15]]. She escorted the convoy through the North and Barents Seas, around the Kola Peninsula and into Murmansk.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.hnsa.org/ships/krasin.htm| title=Icebreaker ''Krasin''| publisher=Historic Naval Ships Association| access-date=2008-07-20| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725043442/http://hnsa.org/ships/krasin.htm| archive-date=2008-07-25| url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1942 the ''Krassin'' and ''Lenin'' were spotted at the [[Mona Islands]] in the [[Kara Sea]] by a [[Kriegsmarine]] plane during [[Operation Wunderland]]. The heavy cruiser ''[[German cruiser Admiral Scheer|Admiral Scheer]]'' rushed to find them, but providential bad weather, fog and ice conditions saved the icebreakers from destruction.{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}<!-- also cited for Lenin -->

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-64717-0001, Eisbrecher "Krassin" auf Probefahrt".jpg|thumb|right|Reconstruction of the ''Krassin'' in East Germany, 1959.]]
Between August 1953 to June 1960, under the East German war reparations program, ''Krassin'' was extensively reconstructed at [[Aker Yards|VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft]], [[Wismar]], Germany.<ref name=USCG/> She served the Arctic [[Northern Sea Route]] until 1971, then was used as an Arctic scientific vessel<ref name=museum>{{cite web| publisher=Museum "Ice-breaker Krasin"|url=http://www.krassin.ru/en/historical_notes| title=Historical notes about ''Krassin''| access-date=26 July 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215130723/http://www.krassin.ru/en/historical_notes/| archive-date=15 February 2010| url-status=dead}}</ref> by the International Fund for the History of Science. Fund president [[Arkady Melua]] took part in the ownership transfer on August 10, 1989. The ship was then used for the import of used cars from Europe to Russia, and then sold by Melua to the JSC "Tehimeks." JSC "Tehimeks" planned to sell the icebreaker to the United States of America to be broken up as scrap metal. After the failure of the deal caused by the Russian government it was registered at St. Petersburg, where it was docked as a floating museum.<ref name=USCG/>

==Today==
[[File:Spb Vasilievsky Island Krasin asv2019-09 img2.jpg|thumb|right|"Krassin" as a museum ship, 2019]]
[[File:Aurora and Krasin in Kronstadt.JPG|thumb|''Aurora'' and ''Krassin'' in [[Kronstadt]]]]

After the war, the historic icebreaker took an active part in research expeditions in the Polar Ocean and led Soviet cargo convoys through the polar region. Rather than being destroyed (like the [[Yermak (1898 icebreaker)|Icebreaker ''Yermak'']]) to make way for more modern ships, the ''Krassin'' was preserved and restored. The vessel is now a museum ship in [[Saint Petersburg]], the only icebreaker maritime museum commemorating the Arctic convoys.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/icebreaker-krasin.asp| title=Icebreaker Krasin| publisher=saint-petersburg.com| access-date=2008-07-20}}</ref> She has been fully restored to operating condition<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.visit-petersburg.ru/en/leisure/194602/|title = The Icebreaker "Krasin" Museum}}</ref> and there are plans to sail her to various European ports.

An island in the [[Nordenskiöld Archipelago]] was named after this icebreaker. Postage stamps and a coin have been issued in her honor.

==See also==
*[[Yakov Legzdin]]

==References==
<references />

==External links==
{{Commons category|IMO 5196402}}
*{{cite news |title=Legendary "Krasin" departures on scrap metal |url=http://rusnewsjournal.com/3/192930/ |access-date=22 November 2021 |work=Rus News Journal |date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093214/http://rusnewsjournal.com/3/192930/ |archive-date=4 March 2016}}
* «Sankt-peterburgskie vedomosti» 13.09.91 г. «„Krasin“ is sinking down» [http://krasin.info/index.php/78-my-spasali-krasin/92-krasin-terpit-bedstvie]{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* «Kommersant» Num. 035 от 02-09-91 The legendary Krasin is floating to metal [http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/674]
* The history of the icebreaker «Krasin» [http://krasin.info/index.php/istirya]{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* Federal investigation bearou [http://flb.ru/infoprint/7097.html]

{{Polar exploration|state=collapsed}}
{{Oldest surviving ships (pre-1919)}}
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[[Category:Icebreakers of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Icebreakers of Russia]]
[[Category:Museum ships in Russia|Krassin]]
[[Category:Ships built on the River Tyne]]
[[Category:1916 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built by Armstrong Whitworth]]
[[Category:Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg]]