To pave a road through the ice of the Northern Sea Route, it is necessary vessel, possessing enormous power of the main mechanisms, a large displacement, a multi-month fuel supply and perfect ice reconnaissance means. Only a nuclear ship can satisfy all these requirements, the construction of which can only be achieved by a power with a well-developed industry.

At the next congress of the CPSU, a decision was made to build icebreaker called "Lenin" with atomic. A ship was about to appear in the world, driving force which the energy of the atom was supposed to become. How did Soviet scientists and engineers solve this difficult problem?

Energy source for icebreaker is a nuclear reactor. The nuclear installation and all its communications are reliably isolated from other premises. It is surrounded on all sides by special protection, and the reactor itself is enclosed in a steel casing filled with water. In the reactor of a nuclear icebreaker, a chain reaction of fission of the uranium atom is continuously maintained, while a large number of thermal energy. Coolant water moving under high pressure through the reactor channel is heated to several hundred degrees and enters the steam generators. Here the coolant gives off its heat. After which it is pumped back into the reactor. The water in steam generators is heated by a coolant to a boil, resulting in the formation of steam. The steam drives the turbine generators, then condenses into water, which is pumped back to the steam generators by feed pumps. The electrical energy generated by turbogenerators is supplied to the electric propeller motors that rotate the three propellers of the nuclear icebreaker. During operation of the reactor, some radioactivity may appear in the air surrounding it - a special ventilation system continuously pumps out this air. Passing through special filters, it is completely cleared of radioactive impurities and only after that is released into the atmosphere.

construction of the nuclear icebreaker "Lenin"

Soviet icebreaker« Lenin"was built by the whole country. About 30 research institutes, 60 design bureaus and more than 250 industrial enterprises participated in its design, experimental development and construction. Its body was assembled from separate sections, which were made of special high-strength steel. In the compartments of the atomic icebreaker equipment and mechanisms of the engine room and reactor were located. The shipbuilders worked together and harmoniously. Deep inside the ship, they welded bulkheads and individual parts of the hull. From the height of a six-story building they could be seen on the deck, where at every step the bright lights of electric welding sparkled and sparks flew from under the abrasive wheels. Teams of assemblers and welders competed with each other, driven by a burning desire to complete the construction job as best as possible. the first nuclear icebreaker in the world. In the workshops of the plant, reactors were prepared for installation on the ship. The reactor vessel and all its parts were thoroughly cleaned. In the same workshop, the reactor was enclosed in a casing made of stainless steel. It was both the protection of the reactor and its foundation. Then they slowly and carefully lowered into the hold of the ship the most important part of its equipment, in which wonderful life-giving energy would be born nuclear icebreaker. Thick plates were assembled from stainless steel sheets to represent the protective frame of the reactor compartment. They had to protect ship's crew from radioactive radiation. Then on nuclear icebreaker The loading of the main mechanisms began - the turbogenerator gearbox, weighing more than 10 tons, it transmitted the rotation of the turbine shaft to the shafts of the electric generators. Then one of the recirculation pumps was installed in its place. Nuclear icebreaker I quickly became saturated with technology.

Members of its crew could often be seen on the ship under construction. They became familiar with the complex mechanisms even before the systems were installed. Pipelines were clearly installed in the hold of the ship. During loading, the propeller shafts were covered with boards so as not to damage their polished surface during installation. To secure the icebreaker's propeller to the propeller shaft like a giant flower that weighs several tons, a very impressive size wrench was needed.

Soviet icebreaker "Lenin"

Soviet icebreaker "Lenin" in the ice

icebreaker "Lenin" in dock

icebreaker-legend in our time, port of Murmansk

Launch day was approaching Soviet icebreaker. For greater safety of descent, the shipbuilders prepared two pontoons, each with a volume of several hundred cubic meters. The pontoons were placed under the stern and bow of the vessel.

Launching nuclear icebreaker« Lenin"weighing about 11,000 tons was produced on December 5, 1957 at the Admiralty Shipyard in Leningrad. After the flagship construction phase Soviet nuclear Arctic fleet Long sea trials of the ship followed.

Soviet icebreaker had increased survivability and unsinkability, that is, the ability to remain afloat in the event of water penetration into the ship during an accident. To do this, its body was divided into several waterproof compartments. The sinking of one or even several of them was not dangerous for the ship. The compartments housed the ship's mechanisms, instruments, storage facilities and part of the living quarters of the ship's crew.

Nuclear icebreaker had inclination, as well as bow and stern trim tanks. When pumping water from the tanks of one side to the tanks of the other side or from the stern tanks to the bow tanks, a roll (trim) was created. vessel. Rocking icebreaker "Lenin" by pumping water it helped break up very thick ice.

Soviet icebreaker at the same time it was also an electric ship, since the rotation of its propellers was carried out by electric motors, which made it easier ship control. The power plant was controlled from a central control station. There were instruments there, thanks to which processes occurring in ship units and systems with automatic control were controlled.

On December 5, 1957, the world's first surface ship with a nuclear power plant was launched in Leningrad. This wonderful news, shortly before the 42nd anniversary of the Great October Revolution, spread throughout the world.

Foreign newspapers were full of headlines: “The Russians commissioned a nuclear-powered ship”, “The polar colossus of the Soviets is on the Neva”, “Victory on the peaceful front of using atomic energy was won by the Soviet Union”...
1. The decision to build the world's first nuclear icebreaker was made at a meeting of the USSR Council of Ministers on November 20, 1953. The new vessel was necessary for the development of navigation along the Northern Sea Route. Conventional diesel icebreakers had a very high fuel consumption, which reduced their efficiency, while a nuclear icebreaker could sail virtually indefinitely.
2. About 300 enterprises and research institutes of the Soviet Union were involved in the construction of the world's first nuclear icebreaker. The construction of the icebreaker was carried out in the open air, since none of the existing workshops were suitable for the construction of a ship of this scale. Despite this, from the laying of the vessel at the Leningrad shipyard named after. A. Marty less than a year and a half passed before it was launched - from August 25, 1956 to December 5, 1957.


Construction of the nuclear icebreaker Lenin.
3. The project of the world's first nuclear icebreaker, named Lenin, turned out to be completely unique in terms of openness - during construction and sea trials, it was visited, in particular, by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and US Vice President Richard Nixon.
4. The nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" had not only a nuclear power plant, but also an advanced design, unusual for Soviet ships of that time - on board there was a cinema hall, music and smoking lounges, a sauna, a library, and the crew cabins were designed for 1-2 people. The interior of the ship was decorated with Karelian birch and Caucasian walnut.

The nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" leaves the slipways.
5. The launching of the first nuclear icebreaker frightened the NATO countries and... the leadership of Leningrad. When the ship left the shipyard, the city authorities demanded guarantees that nothing would happen on the Lenin. nuclear explosion. During the passage from Leningrad to Murmansk, the Lenin was accompanied by NATO warships, which analyzed the radiation background around the ship. The fears turned out to be unfounded - during all the years of operation of the icebreaker, not a single member of its crew suffered from radiation.
6. Officially, the nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin was added to the Soviet fleet on December 3, 1959. Pavel Akimovich Ponomarev was appointed the first captain of the world's first nuclear icebreaker. Interestingly, Ponomarev was previously the captain of the icebreaker Ermak, the world's first Arctic-class icebreaker.


7. In 1961, the icebreaker Lenin carried out the first ever landing of a drifting research station from a ship. The North Pole-10 station was opened on October 17, 1961 and operated until April 29, 1964. From that moment on, landing polar expeditions from an icebreaker became a common practice.
8. On November 4, 1961, Boris Makarovich Sokolov became the captain of the icebreaker "Lenin", who did not leave his post for almost 30 years, until the ship was withdrawn from the fleet in 1990. In 1981, Boris Sokolov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.


9. After the commissioning of the nuclear icebreaker "Lenin", the navigation time in the western region of the Arctic was increased from three to 11 months. Lenin operated successfully for more than 30 years, exceeding its design life by five years. Over these years, the icebreaker covered more than 654 thousand nautical miles (563.6 thousand in ice), guiding 3,741 ships through the Arctic ice. The icebreaker Lenin became the first ship to be on continuous watch in the Arctic for 13 months.
10. After decommissioning in 1990, the icebreaker Lenin was in danger of being scrapped. However, the veterans of its crew managed to achieve the creation of a museum on its base. Currently, the world's first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" is permanently moored in Murmansk, becoming one of the symbols of the polar city.

The Lenin icebreaker began to be assembled in 1956 at the Marti shipyard. Scientists, installers and welders worked on a unique project under the guidance of physicist Anatoly Alexandrov.

Design Features

Many technical solutions at the time the icebreaker was created were innovative.

Fuel economy
Per day, instead of tens of tons of oil, the icebreaker consumed 45 grams of nuclear fuel, which could be contained in a matchbox. The economical use of energy allowed the nuclear icebreaker to visit both the Arctic and the coast of Antarctica in one voyage.

44 thousand horsepower
Each of the three reactors was 3.5 times more powerful than the first in the world nuclear power plant THE USSR. The total power of the power plant was 44 thousand horsepower.

Radiation protection
Steel plates, a thick layer of water and concrete reliably protected the crew and the environment from radiation.

Anti-ice ballast system
The designers installed special ballast tank systems on the nuclear-powered icebreaker to prevent the icebreaker from getting stuck in the ice. When water was pumped from the tank on one side to the tank on the other, the ship began to rock. Thus, the sides broke and pushed the ice apart. Scientists installed the same tank system in the bow and stern.

Icebreaker Museum

In 2009, a museum was opened on the nuclear icebreaker. Museum guests can see how sailors lived and worked on the nuclear-powered ship. The guides will take you to the cabins, crew mess and medical unit for sailors with an operating room, laboratories, X-ray and dental rooms. The ship also houses a “museum within a museum,” where the former crew put together a small memorial exhibition.

The technical equipment of the icebreaker can be seen in the engine room. At the energy and survivability station, everyone will learn how the ship's power plants were controlled. Through observation windows, visitors will see top part nuclear reactors and the captain's salon, and from the captain's bridge they will look into the navigation and operating radio room.

One of the important attractions of Murmansk is the nuclear-powered icebreaker "Lenin", permanently moored at the pier of the sea terminal, which has not been operational since 1989 and is now a museum. The nuclear icebreaker fleet is already a unique phenomenon; only 13 of them were built throughout the world, and all in the USSR and Russia (still, no one else has such vast territories in the Arctic). And "Lenin" is precisely the very first nuclear icebreaker, which, firstly, for its time (it was built in 1956-1959) was a breakthrough in scientific and technical thought, and secondly, in the following decades it became a whole legend and one from the symbols of Soviet civilization. Therefore, of course, it is very interesting just to see the famous icebreaker with your own eyes, and even more so to be inside.

The icebreaker, by the way, was the first place I went to after arriving in Murmansk and spending the first night. It was after visiting the icebreaker that I went further to explore the city. They visit the icebreaker on a guided tour, in groups of about twenty people. On Sunday around noon, such a group accumulated quite quickly over the course of about 30-40 minutes. That is, you don’t need to sign up there in advance; you just need to come to the pier near the sea terminal and wait.

2. Here it is - the legendary icebreaker, which probably every Soviet schoolchild has heard of, stands in the Kola Bay. Now he is an honored veteran and is retired. The ship is not loaded - it is clear that the waterline is located high above the water.

Construction of the nuclear-powered vessel began in 1956 on the slipway of the Andre Marty shipyard (Admiralty Shipyards) in Leningrad. Over the course of a year, the ship's hull was being built there, at the same time various parts engines were also produced by other enterprises: the Leningrad Elektrosila produced rowing electric motors, the Kirov Plant produced ship turbines, and the Kharkov Electromechanical Plant produced turbogenerators. On December 5, 1957, the icebreaker was launched, but at that time it had not yet become nuclear - the nuclear power plant was built two years later and launched on August 6, 1959. It is 1959 that is considered the date of birth of the world's first nuclear icebreaker.

3. And he was given the name of the leader of the world proletariat:

4. Mooring lines:

5. Order of Lenin on the facade of the wheelhouse:

6. And on the pier there is a stand with a short history icebreaker On the left, by the way, is a photograph of Pavel Ponomarev, the first captain of the icebreaker. In Murmansk, one of the streets is named in his honor.

7. Finally, the group gathered. We go to the floating pier, from which you can get on board the ship via a ladder. By the way, on the hull there is a symbol indicating what energy the icebreaker operates on. Nuclear icebreakers are suitable for the role of a beautiful symbol of the peaceful atom.

8. We get on board. From the deck you can see the Kola Bay and Abram-Cape on the other side.

9. Even though the Lenin was withdrawn from the fleet in 1989, there is still a crew here!

After the entrance there is a small foyer where the museum’s ticket office is located, combined with a souvenir and book store on relevant topics.

10. My gaze fell on the model of the icebreaker and the Soviet primer:

11. There is also an exhibition of photographs of the Arctic taken by the chief mechanic of the icebreaker Vladimir Kondratyev on different voyages.

From the hall, two symmetrical staircases rise to the upper tier. True, for some reason I didn’t capture it in a wide shot, but the railings of one of them are visible in the frame above on the left.

12. Opposite the gangways is a beautiful bronze bas-relief with a map of the Soviet Arctic. By the way, it is interesting that the map is made in accordance with the Mercator geographic projection, which is usually used in maps of the world, and not of individual continents or countries. Although this is logical, it was originally created for navigation. For three decades, the icebreaker sailed through the cold polar seas along the Northern Sea Route.

13. Also an interesting detail. The font is immediately recognizable as being from the fifties and sixties. The same letters can be seen at St. Petersburg metro stations built in those years.

14. And the interiors are impressive. The corridors and cabins are well decorated with wood. However, in August I had the opportunity to travel around Western Siberia on rare motor ships built in the 1950s (though they were built in the GDR), with similar interiors, but much smaller in size. And the nuclear-powered submarine is, of course, a very large vessel. And there are so many identical corridors here that, if you fall behind the excursion group, it’s easy to get lost and find your way out only by tomorrow. According to the guide, this is the main reason why single visitors are not allowed here.

It’s a pity, however, that the tour shows only a very small part of the icebreaker’s premises.

15. Visible on the left Mailbox with the Soviet coat of arms. Quite a few of these have survived in cities on residential buildings. Including, by the way, a similar box at my house in St. Petersburg.

16. Dining room. Pay attention to how the chairs are attached to the floor. Probably, being on such a spacious ship, sometimes you can forget that this is, in fact, a ship. But during storms, the chairs could fall if they were not secured.

17. Here, in addition to the piano, pay attention to the edge of the white screen on the right. The dining room doubled as a cinema hall.

In general, while the icebreaker plowed the expanses of the Arctic Ocean, there was always a full-fledged life on board. The crew consisted of 243 people, and the maximum navigation autonomy was 12 months! For a whole year, the icebreaker could navigate the Arctic without ever touching the shore! Just a city on the water. The icebreaker even had its own small hospital with an X-ray machine (advanced technology for the 1950s!) and an operating room.

18. We go into the engine room:

19. Lenin engine power is 20 thousand horsepower. At that time, the figure was huge, and even now it is impressive. An engine of such power was manufactured in the USSR for the first time, and specifically for a nuclear icebreaker.

21. And this is a compartment of a nuclear reactor. It is reliably protected by lead, but now this is no longer required. The reactor itself was dismantled when the icebreaker was removed from the active fleet, and the figures of people in chemical protection suits are mannequins.

22. What the Lenin nuclear reactor looked like can be found out at least thanks to the model.

23. Another corridor. Sometimes, to take a shot like this, you have to wait until the whole group has passed and disappeared behind a doorway or corner.

24. Ilyich’s words are still relevant a hundred years later. The only pity is that there is very little passenger water transport left in the country.

25. The next stage of the icebreaker tour is the ascent to the wheelhouse.

26. Steering levers:

27. And the young navigator of the icebreaker:

28. Communication center:

29. And this is the view from the wheelhouse. The size of the ship's bow is impressive. The landscape of Murmansk is already recognizable: on the left is the marine terminal, among the bushes you can see a granite monument to port workers who died in the war, on the right is a ship repair yard, and in the background is urban development. It’s a very interesting feeling to imagine where the ship I’m on now was. After all, from the same window one could see the white silence arctic ice, northern lights, a spotlight cutting through the darkness of the polar night. The icebreaker has also been off the coast of Taimyr and Chukotka, near the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Finally, at the North Pole! He also visited much more southern latitudes - "Lenin" went as far as Vladivostok.

30. Map of the Arctic Ocean indicating sea routes. There is some inexplicable attraction in these endless cold spaces. Islands New Earth, the ports of Dikson and Tiksi, Providence Bay - all these points on the map warm the soul much more than the names of cities in Western Europe :)

31. Type of felling:

32. On the table lies a shipping guide for the Kola Bay:

33. And the ship's logbook for 1986:

34. There is a radio room next door. If the communication center in the pilothouse serves for internal radio communications on the ship, then the radio room is responsible for external communications - negotiations with ports, other ships, etc.

36. Signal flags:

37. And this is the wardroom. Sorry, the photo didn't turn out well. The walls of this room have seen a lot famous people who visited the ship. Including, for example, Fidel Castro and Yuri Gagarin.

38. On the wall is a wooden carved panel depicting the Arctic. There are ice floes, icebergs, fishermen, sailboats, and, finally, the Lenin himself on the right. And the aurora shines above. On the panel there is Lenin in quotation marks, that is, an icebreaker. And Vladimir Ilyich, here he is, sitting in the foreground. By the way, the sculpture is from the painting “Lenin and Stalin at the end of the summer of 1917 in Razliv.”

39. Exit from the wardroom:

40. Chief mate's cabin. Here, by the way, there is another bust of Lenin - standing on the table.

41. And these are the leisure rooms next to the wardroom. There is also a chessboard.

42. And the piano (right):

43. And with this we will complete the inspection of the icebreaker and take another look at it from the outside. The nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" is one of the most striking symbols of Arctic exploration, and in general, a legend Soviet era. In fact, it was even hard to believe that I was seeing it with my own eyes.

The world's first nuclear icebreaker, named "Lenin", was launched in the Northern capital 57 years ago - on December 5, 1957.

Box with atom

The history of the unique vessel began with a decision of the USSR Council of Ministers, which was adopted on November 20, 1953. By this day, it became clear to the country's leadership that Soviet Union a powerful icebreaker is needed that will serve the Northern Sea Route, connecting the west and east of the state: the waterway was covered with heavy polar ice for many months.

In the fall of 1953, the USSR had icebreakers with a diesel power plant at its disposal. But the fuel reserves in the vehicles making their way through the ice were used up extremely quickly. In addition, caravans could be stuck on the road for many months, waiting for spring to free themselves from ice captivity. The country needed a ship capable of going on long raids in the Arctic.

The government decided to begin work on the creation of nuclear power plants for transport purposes and to build an icebreaker, on board which was to house a nuclear reactor. It was planned that the ship would travel vast distances using fuel resources that fit in a matchbox.

The ambitious task of making the world's first nuclear icebreaker was set for the Leningrad Admiralty Shipyard.

"Project-92"

By 1956, passenger icebreaking ships “Dezhnev” and “Levanevsky” had been built in Leningrad, and even the famous “Ermak” had been repaired - it was brought to the Admiralty Shipyard, then still called the Andre Marty Shipyard, and brought in 1928. The icebreaker, made at the shipyards in Newcastle, became good for the “Admiralty” who repaired it teaching aid, which helped in implementing the order of the Soviet leadership.

"Lenin" was laid down on August 25, 1956. The rapid pace of construction of the huge icebreaker led to the fact that the ship was launched a little more than a year later.

An innovative icebreaker for its time, it involved the implementation of complex tasks in creating a power plant, an unusually strong hull and, most importantly, automation of nuclear plant control. At the stage of design, experimental development and construction, about 30 research institutes, more than 250 industrial enterprises and 60 design bureaus of the USSR were involved. Initially, the icebreaker had the working name “Project-92”, in honor of the source of uranium nuclear energy - it is number 92 in the periodic table.

Particular attention was paid to the shape of the Lenin's bow. The nuclear-powered ship was chosen with contours that made it possible to increase the pressure on the ice. Passability in ice when reversing and reliable protection of the propellers and rudder from ice impacts was achieved through the special design of the aft end.

Of course, according to the plans, the innovative nuclear-powered ship was not supposed to get stuck in the ice, either bow, stern, or sides. This problem, common to many icebreakers of that time, was solved using a special system of ballast tanks. Water was pumped from the tank on one side to the tank on the other, the ship swayed and broke the ice. This system was repeated in the bow and stern.

The nuclear-powered ship was chosen with contours that made it possible to increase the pressure on the ice. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

The engineers managed to make the ship unsinkable. The hull was divided into compartments by 11 main transverse watertight bulkheads. The icebreaker would not have sunk even if the two largest compartments were flooded.

A water-pressurized nuclear installation was installed in the central part of the icebreaker. It generated steam for four main turbogenerators. They fed three electric propulsion motors with direct current, which drove three huge propellers. The nuclear steam generating plant was constructed and placed on the icebreaker in such a way that the crew and population were protected from radiation, and environment- from contamination with radioactive substances. To this end, at possible ways To prevent the release of radioactive substances, four special protective barriers were created.

The power of the Lenin power plant was 44 thousand horsepower. At the same time, the nuclear-powered ship spent only 45 grams of nuclear fuel per day on the way - an amount that just fits in a matchbox. A small amount of fuel allowed the icebreaker to reach the shores of Antarctica in one voyage.

The designers and builders of the legendary ship also took care of the crew members who had to carry out long watches on the Lenin. The ship had a cinema hall, a smoking lounge, a library and even a piano.

The ship, ready almost a year after the start of construction, was very heavy. "Lenin" weighed 11 thousand tons. Launching it into the water seemed problematic. However, the engineers were able to make the correct wooden structures that released the nuclear-powered ship from the shipyards.

The length of the ship was 134 meters, width - 27.6 meters, and side height - 16.1 meters. The nuclear-powered ship had a displacement of 16 thousand tons and could reach a speed of 18 knots.

The moment the icebreaker "Lenin" was launched Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

We were waiting for war

After the icebreaker was launched, installation and testing of the nuclear reactor continued for another two years. The Lenin left for sea trials in September 1959 under the command of the captain of the icebreaker Ermak, Pavel Ponomarev.

The progress of testing of the nuclear-powered submarine was monitored by the leaders of the world's leading states. Fidel Castro, Harold Macmillan and Richard Nixon managed to visit Lenin. There is an opinion that it was thanks to “Lenin” that the expression “peaceful atom” was established. The icebreaker was built at the height of the Cold War and the race for technological superiority, but for peaceful purposes. However, NATO did not fully consider the ship to be peaceful, so they closely monitored its tests, just in case.

In December 1959, the icebreaker was transferred to the Ministry of the Navy, and in 1960 it became part of the Murmansk Shipping Company. The innovative power plant allowed the Lenin to cross ice with ease. The nuclear-powered ship was able to extend the navigation period.

Postage stamp of Russia. year 2009. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

A year later, Boris Sokolov, who since 1959 had been Ponomarev’s backup on the captain’s bridge, became the captain of the Lenin. He had practice on the icebreakers Ilya Muromets and Vyacheslav Molotov, as well as participation in the fourth Soviet Antarctic expedition.

Under the leadership of Boris Sokolov in 1961, the crew of the nuclear-powered ship was able to reach the area heavy ice in the Chukchi Sea. Photo: “Heroes of the Country”

Under his leadership, in 1961, the crew of the nuclear-powered ship was able to go to the heavy ice area in the Chukchi Sea, delivering an expedition to the ice floe that built a drifting polar station"North Pole-10". Also, thanks to the icebreaker, it was possible to place 16 drifting automatic radio stations. In 1970, Sokolov and his team completed an experimental flight and the first extended Arctic navigation to remove Norilsk ore from the port of Dudinka. A year later, Lenin was the first of the surface ships to pass north of Severnaya Zemlya. After another five years, Lenin will conduct the diesel-electric ship Pavel Ponomarev to the Yamal Peninsula, after which flights there will become regular.

During its entire operation, Lenin covered 654 thousand nautical miles, of which 563.6 thousand miles were in ice. The nuclear-powered ship, according to the most widespread data, carried 3,741 ships through the ice.

Became a museum

The icebreaker "Lenin" was decommissioned in 1989, after 30 years of service. However, we had to fight for the ship. The nuclear-powered submarine could have been destroyed, but they decided to make a museum on it. “Lenin” was permanently parked in Murmansk, becoming a real symbol of the city.

The captain of the icebreaker, Boris Sokolov, who made a lot of efforts to ensure that the nuclear-powered ship was not destroyed, lived in Murmansk until the end of his life. After his death, a memorial plaque was hung on the house where he lived. Sokolov was buried at the Serafimovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg - the city where the icebreaker was born, which he controlled for almost 30 years.