On July 28, a postcard with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 125th Birth Anniversary of Arctic explorer Georgy Ushakov was put into postal circulation in the Geographical Projects of Russia series

Georgy Ushakov (1901–1963) was an outstanding Arctic explorer and the founder of the first permanent settlement on Wrangel Island. He was born on January 30 of 1901 in the village of Lazarevo (currently, in the Jewish Autonomous Region) into a family of Amur Cossacks. In 1916, he graduated from the P.F. Unterberger Second Higher Primary Four-Year Municipal School in Khabarovsk (now V.I. Lenin Secondary School No. 35). In 1921, G. Ushakov entered the Faculty of Geography of Far Eastern University in Vladivostok, but was unable to complete his studies due to the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1924, he became a Full Member of the Far Eastern Regional Geographical Society.

From 1926 to 1929, he was the first representative of Russia for the management and population settlement of Wrangel and Herald Islands. He participated in the famous expeditions to Severnaya Zemlya in 1930 - 1932. In association with N. Urvantsev, V. Khodov, and S. Zhuravlev, he compiled the first map of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, discovered the Shokalsky Strait, and identified a tin ore deposit. His book Through Untraveled Lands is dedicated to this expedition. In 1934, Ushakov was appointed representative of the government commission tasked with rescuing the crew and passengers of the Chelyuskin steamship, which had sunk in the Chukchi Sea. In 1935, he headed the First High-Latitude Expedition of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route aboard the Sadko icebreaker. During that expedition, the polar explorers set a world record for free floating beyond the Arctic Circle and made a number of geographical discoveries. G. Ushakov was the first Head of the Main Directorate of the Hydrometeorological Service of the USSR. He is credited with more than 50 geographical and scientific discoveries.

The name of G. Ushakov was given to the village of Ushakovskoye and Cape Ushakov on Wrangel Island; the Ushakov River in the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago; Cape Ushakov on Nansen Island; Ushakov Island in the Kara Sea; the Ushakov Mountains on Enderby Land in Antarctica; a number of Soviet naval vessels; and the Georgy Ushakov Spit (Chukchi Sea, Wrangel Island). In addition, the western cape of Domashny Island—Cape Chetverykh—is named in honor of the participants in the first Soviet expedition to Severnaya Zemlya in 1930–1932: G. Ushakov, N. Urvantsev, V. Khodov, and S. Zhuravlev.

The main illustration shows a portrait of Georgy Ushakov against the backdrop of the Ushakov-Urvantsev expedition to explore Severnaya Zemlya and the RGO logo; the original stamp provides images that symbolically reflect geographical projects.

In addition to the issue of the postcard with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg.


Design Artists: S. Kapranov, M. Podobed.
Quantity: 3.6 thousand postcards.

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