Valerian Albanov | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Valerian Ivanovich Albanov (1881-05-26)26 May 1881 |
| Died | 1919 (aged 38) |
| Occupation | Navigator |
| Known for | Brusilov expedition |
Valerian Ivanovich Albanov (Russian:Валериа́н Ива́нович Альбанов; 26 May 1881 – 1919) was a Russiannavigator, best known for being one of two survivors of theBrusilov expedition of 1912, in which 22 died.
Albanov was born in 1881 inVoronezh and was raised by his uncle in the city ofUfa. At the age of seventeen he entered theNaval College at Saint Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1904.
He served on board a number of ships before signing on as navigator aboard theSvyataya Anna, under CaptainGeorgy Brusilov, foran intended expedition to traverse theNorthern Sea Route – a feat which only once before had been successfully completed, by explorerAdolf Erik Nordenskiöld.
The expedition was ill-planned and ill-executed by Brusilov, and theSvyataya Anna became locked in thesea ice of theKara Sea in October 1912. Supplies were abundant, so officers and crew prepared themselves for wintering, hoping to be freed in the following year's thaw. However, during 1913, the sea remained completely frozen. By early 1914, the ship had drifted with the ice northwest ofFranz Josef Land, and did not seem likely to be freed that year either.
Albanov, believing that their position was hopeless, requested permission from Captain Brusilov to be relieved from his duties as second-in-command to leave the ship and attempt to return to civilization on foot. Albanov's aim was to reachHvidtenland, the northeasternmost island group of Franz Josef Land. He usedFridtjof Nansen's inaccurate map, full of dotted lines where the archipelago was still unexplored.
Thirteen other crewmen accompanied Albanov when he travelled south-westwards byski,sledge, andkayak. The progress was difficult because of the cracks in the ice, the numerouspolynias and the abundance of ridges which made progress slow. After a long and gruesome ordeal, only Albanov and one crewman,Alexander Konrad, made it toCape Flora onNorthbrook Island, where they knew thatFrederick George Jackson had left provisions and a hut in a previous expedition. Albanov and Konrad were rescued by timely arrival of theSvyatoy Foka, while they were preparing for the winter.
Albanov was later convinced to write up his memoirs of his adventure, and they were first published in Saint Petersburg in 1917. He returned to the sea, but died only a couple years later.
Accounts of his death vary, with some having him die of typhoid, and some reporting that he was killed in the explosion of a railway wagon carrying munitions inAchinsk, in theGovernorate of Yeniseysk inSiberia.
The data about the drift of theSvyataya Anna on the pack ice of theKara Sea supplied by Albanov were carefully studied in 1924, by Soviet oceanographerVladimir Wiese. He detected an odd deviation of the path of the ship's drift caused by certain variations of the patterns of sea and ice currents. Wiese deemed that the deviation was caused by the presence of an undiscovered island whose coordinates he was able to calculate with precision thanks to Albanov's data. This island was later discovered and namedWiese Island.
In 1975, Arctic expertWilliam Barr wrote, "The name of Valerian Ivanovich Albanov must be ranked among those of the immortals of polar exploration."[1]
A glacier inOctober Revolution Island, in theSevernaya Zemlya group has been named after Valerian Albanov. A Russian expedition in September 2010, following the route of the crew members left behind, found some remainders of them: a human skeleton, a watch, snowshoes, a knife, a spoon with a sailor's initials, and sunglasses made from empty rum bottles' glass in the shores ofFranz Josef Land.[2]
The 2006V/Vm albumWhite Death, which references theBrusilov expedition, features a picture of Albanov on its cover art.[3]
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