Establishment of Glavsevmorput
In February 1932 the Soviet Union established the Chief Administration of the Northern Sea Route, called Glavsevmorput, to conduct administration and management of the NSR in accordance with the Soviet national interest. This body was invested with plenipotentiary authority over the development, management, regulation and preservation of the NSR. O.Yu. Shmidt, leader of the Sibiryakov survey team, was initially placed in charge of Glavsevmorput. In 1941 Ivan Papanin, an illustrious figure in Arctic navigation, was named Head of the organization. Under the guidance of Glavsevmorput, collaboration with government agencies in conducting exploration for strategic purposes became a matter of course, and was added to the task of opening shipping routes. A series of new ports were opened during this time, including Dikson, Tiksi, Mys Shmidta and Provideniya. Four Stalin-class icebreakers were constructed and commercial fleets led by icebreakers were increased, as the volume of the Soviet Union's marine shipping volume grew from strength to strength. Unfortunately, the age of the NSR arrived just as the Second World War erupted, and the distinction between military and civilian applications for the NSR became blurred. In 1942, for example, the first Soviet naval contingent succeeded in navigating the NSR from Vladivostok to Polyarnyi with the support of an icebreaker.
Under the Soviet system, Siberia's natural resources such as grain and lumber were bartered for industrial products from Western Europe. Since no hard currency was required for this trade, The Soviet government was keenly interested in establishing a shipping route via the Kara Sea.
Although not directed at developing commercial shipping as such, some noteworthy developments took place during the Second World War. The Komet, a converted German cruiser, traversed the NSR, and military support materials were shipped from the United States through the Bering Strait to the north coast of Siberia. In addition, American Wind-class icebreakers offered long-term support to Soviet ships in the Arctic Ocean. These valuable achievements and experiences in Arctic navigation provided a wealth of data for future NSR planners to draw upon.
After the Second World War
After the Second World War ended, the Soviets grew increasingly appreciative of the value of the Northeast Passage (NSR) for reasons of defense strategy. Roughly half of the materials provisioned at the Yakutia military base, located in the eastern Taymyr Peninsula, were brought in by sea along the NSR. Beginning in 1978, the seaborne cargo route between Dudinka and Murmansk was expanded to operate year-round, carrying valuable freight such as nickel from Igarka.
In later years, the USSR committed considerable resources to NSR navigation. During the two months of December 1972 and January 1973, the 7,430 metric ton cargo icebreaker Indigirka pioneered the age of winter NSR navigation by voyaging from Murmansk to Dudinka in 12 days. Under the Soviet regime, all shipping in the Arctic Ocean consisted of either the movement of military or strategic cargo or transport for political or administrative purposes. This traffic scarcely fit the definition of shipping based on market principles, but the expertise gathered in the course of this activity was of immense value in approaching the dream of NSR commercial traffic. Data from this period was instrumental in attaining the breakthroughs that brought international NSR shipping closer to reality.
Throughout much of the 20th century the USSR labored to open the NSR with a clear eye on the national interest and the task of nation-building, as well as a keen understanding of the strategic importance of the Arctic region. Before that time, the exploration of the NSR and the Arctic had shifted gradually from efforts to wrest hegemony over the seas from Spain to an international competition with no clear remunerative value.
