He conquered both tops of the Earth. In Antarctica, he became the first representative of the Soviet Union. And the hero owes all his achievements to those who convinced him to get a higher education.
After the success of the first research station by Ivan Papanin on the top of the globe, polar explorers dreamed of conducting such expeditions annually, and the most impudent ones were also going to wave to Antarctica. Among these romantics was our hero. The war forced to postpone all plans. After the victory, Somov was able to realize all his plans.
Childhood
His parents were an amazing couple. My father, also Mikhail, studied at Moscow University. His wife Elena was the grandniece of Alexander Pushkin's friend Konstantin Danzas, received an excellent home education and was engaged in translating fiction. Misha was born in Moscow in the spring of 1908.
Moscow is the city where Mikhail Somov spent his childhood. Postcard of the beginning of the 20th century
The child only strengthened the couple's romantic relationship. In the family, the baby was idolized and indulged in interesting stories. The boy with pleasure flipped through the biology books with which his dad worked. After studying he was engaged in ichthyology, became famous and eventually received the title of professor at the Polar Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography. N.M. Knipovich. From the mother, the baby inherited a vivid imagination and love of art.
Youth
After leaving school, the guy knew perfectly what profession he wanted to get. In 1929, he left for Vladivostok and entered the Far Eastern Polytechnic Institute at the faculty of shipbuilding. Soon, the student realized that he was more interested in not the ships, but the inhabitants of the underwater world. In 1933, he dropped out and became a laboratory assistant at the Pacific Institute of Fisheries. In this service, he arranged his personal life - he married a colleague from Astrakhan Serafima Generozova. Soon the couple rejoiced at the birth of their son Gleb.
Far Eastern Polytechnic Institute, today State Technical University in Vladivostok
The young man was not afraid of difficulties, so he immediately agreed to an invitation to take part in the expedition. His responsibilities included helping scientists who explored the fauna of the Pacific Ocean. Our hero was lucky to work under the guidance of such famous hydrobiologists as Otto Schmidt and Konstantin Deryugin. Mikhail did not hide the facts of his biography, for which he received a reprimand for his older comrades - they did not approve of the young man's refusal from higher education.
Scientist and warrior
Somov did not return to his university. In 1934, he submitted documents to the Moscow Hydrometeorological Institute. This time, our hero chose oceanology as his specialty. After graduating, he became an employee of the Central Institute of Forecasts. In 1938, he and his colleagues visited an Arctic expedition, the purpose of which was to study ice drift. The debutant was able to make the first discovery of his career. The following year, Mikhail was part of the crew of the icebreaker I. Stalin, which in one navigation passed the Northern Sea Route from East to West and returned back.
Such successes inspired the polar explorer in 1940 to become a graduate student of the Arctic Institute in Leningrad. The following year, I had to take a break in scientific activity - Mikhail Somov from the first days of the war asked me to send him to the site where he could defend his homeland from the Nazis. A connoisseur of the Arctic participated in the operations of the White Sea flotilla, in 1942 he participated in the defense of the island of Dixon from the cruiser Admiral Scheer.
Monument to the Defenders of Dixon
Victory
A year before the defeat of the German fascists in the Soviet Union, the demobilization of the most valuable specialists and their attraction to peaceful work began. Among these were Mikhail Mikhailovich. He was sent to Leningrad to continue studying, and in 1945 he was appointed to the post of hydrologist at the Central Headquarters of Naval Operations of the Glavsevmorput.
It took years for the country to resume the pre-war level of development of science. For the first time, our hero saw the top of the world from a bird's-eye view in 1945. Only in 1950 was it possible to repeat the legendary expedition of the Papanin. The head of the North Pole-2 drifting station was Mikhail Somov. They were delivered to the ice of the northernmost point of the Earth by aviators. The whole year the study of the nature of the highest latitudes of the Arctic. After completing the expedition in 1952, the researcher joined the CPSU.
The head of the North Pole-2 drifting station, Mikhail Somov, and his comrade bypass their possessions
