Sibiriakov

(Aleksandr Sibiriakov), a Soviet icebreaker. The Sibiriakov was built in 1909 in Glasgow for commercial hunting in the arctic; its English name was Bel/aventure. It had a displacement of 1,383 tons and a speed of 13 knots (23 km/hr).

The icebreaker was purchased by the Russian government in 1916 and named in honor of A. M. Sibiriakov. During World War I it was used in ice conditions to transport military cargo that had arrived from the West across the White Sea. After the war the icebreaker worked in the seas of the Arctic Ocean. In 1932 the Sibiriakov made the first nonstop voyage along the Northern Sea Route from the White Sea to the Bering Sea. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 the Sibiriakov, renamed the Led-6, was part of an icebreaking detachment of the White Sea Flotilla; it was armed with two 76-mm guns, two 45-mm guns, and machine guns.

On Aug. 25, 1942, the Sibiriakov engaged the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer in the Kara Sea near Belukha Island and was sunk after a heroic but unequal battle. In 1945 a new icebreaker of the Northern Icebreaking Fleet was named Sibiriakov.