Ermak

a city (until 1961 a village) in Pavlodar Oblast, Kazakh SSR. It is a landing on the Irtysh River 33 km above Pavlodar and the terminus of a 21-km railroad branch from the Pavlograd-Tselinograd line. Population, 28,000 (1970). Ermak’s factories produce ferroalloys, metal structures, and reinforced-concrete items. The Ermak State Regional Electric Power Plant is located there. The general technical department of the Pavlodar Industrial Institute, a physical culture technicum, a cultural and educational school, and a medical school are located in Ermak and the Irtysh-Karaganda canal originates nearby.

an icebreaker of the USSR’s Arctic Fleet, named in honor of the cossack ataman Ermak Timofeevich. Displacement, 8,730 tons; length, 97.5 m; width, 21.6 m. It was built in Newcastle (Great Britain) and was commissioned in 1899.

The idea of building the Ermak was S. O. Makarov’s, and he supervised the engineering commission and the construction of the ship. The Ermak was the first icebreaker in the world capable of forcing its way through heavy ice and ensuring safe passage for vessels. In the summer of 1899 it made its first voyage to the arctic under the command of Makarov. It reached 81°28’ N lat. In its first 12 years the Ermak led more than 1,000 vessels through the Gulf of Finland. It took part in the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet in 1919. Beginning in the 1930’s it did a great deal of work in various regions of the Arctic Ocean, and in February 1938 it helped rescue the crew of the Severnyi Polius station, headed by I. D. Papanin, from an ice floe. During the Great Patriotic War it supported vessel movements through ice in the Baltic. It was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1949 and was decommissioned in 1963.