The Russian flag is lowered in August 2009 at the conclusion of work at the "North Pole 36" research station.
Russian explorers plant a flag in the polar ice at "North Pole-32" research station in 2003.
Famed Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov fires a pistol into the air to celebrate establishment of a new research station in 2003.
Russian President Vladimir Putin aboard an exploration vessel on the Barents Sea in 2005
Source: www.kremlin.ru
Front view of the MIR submersible as it is hoisted into the water
The "Akademik Fyodorov," a Russian scientific diesel-electric research vessel, the flagship of the Russian polar research fleet
Nuclear icebreaker "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory") escorting the "Beluga Fraternity" and "Beluga Foresight" through the Northern Sea Route in 2009
Three polar bears approach the starboard bow of the submarine "USS Honolulu" while surfaced 280 miles from the North Pole in 2003
Canadian HMCS Goose Bay moored at the future site of the Nanisivik Naval Facility, during Operation Nanook, in August 2010
At a press conference, Artur Chilingarov holds a photo of the Russian flag his exploration team planted underwater at the North Pole.
In 1932, the icebreaking ship "Sibiryakov" proved the single-season navigability of the Northern Sea Route.
2001 Belorussian stamp set commemorating 110 years since the birth of Otto Shmidt. The stamps depict his Arctic triumphs: Northern Sea Route, Cheliuskin rescue, North Pole-1, Arctic flight.
Participants of the North Pole-1 expedition. Otto Shmidt is in the middle, with one of the airplanes that they landed at the North Pole.
Envelope commemorating 50 years since the historic 1937 flight of M. M. Gromov from Moscow to San Jacinto over the North Pole
Statue in Nizhnii Novgorod celebrating the Arctic pilot V. P. Chkalov. The pedestal displays the route of his historic 1937 flight from Moscow to Vancouver, WA via the North Pole.
