To the Arctic in a Balloon. Flight to Severnaya Zemlya

In Memory of Olga Krasnikova

The daring project to explore the Arctic by airship had a solid ground to take off, which was created by the events of previous years, when successes and failures, forming a bizarre mosaic, served as important lessons for future explorers.

You can find the details of these events in our previous articles.* A brief account of them should, first of all, mention the balloon flight of the Swedish polar explorer Salomon Andrée to the North Pole in the summer of 1897 (this flight ended tragically); international meteorological observations with unguided aerial vehicles (balloons, probes, and aerostats), initiated by the Russian inventor Mikhail Pomortsev; the Arctic journeys of the great polar explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen, and others; and the 1910 expedition to Spitsbergen organized by Ferdinand von Zeppelin’s company. Finally, an important milestone was the discovery in 1913 by the Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition of an unknown archipelago north of the Taimyr Peninsula, which was named Emperor Nicholas II Land (since 1926, Severnaya Zemlya). It is Russian scientists who joined the permanent Polar Commission, set up to explore this archipelago, who are the main characters of this last chapter of our story, which has been gradually unfolding on the pages of our magazine.

Research in the Arctic came to a halt with the outbreak of World War I; only in 1919, Walther Bruns, a German pilot and former airship commander, put forth the idea of commercial use of aircraft by proposing a trans-­Arctic airship route from Europe to Japan and the United States, which substantially reduced the flight time. This idea received great support from hydrographer and zoologist Leonid (Ludwig Gottlieb) Breitfuß, one of the most active members of the Polar Commission. He also made an important addition to the proposal: the reconnaissance route was to pass over Emperor Nicholas II Land. It was this project that laid the cornerstone for establishing in 1924 the International Society for the Exploration of the Arctic Regions by Means of the Airship (the Aeroarctic), with Nansen himself becoming the society’s chairman.

The project was submitted to the Soviet government for consideration and forwarded to the Polar Commission of the Academy of Sciences. In this project, the émigré Breitfuß, being a true patriot of the North, particularly emphasized its importance for Russia’s Arctic regions: “…Captain Bruns’ project, as presented below… should bring enormous progress to all branches of both special polar research and technical equipment in hard-to-reach polar regions since it will provide full capability to easily and quickly overcome huge, inaccessible areas; carry out all kinds of research; deliver, to any location, both people and cargo, such as radio and geophysical stations with full equipment and substantial life supplies; and, finally, rescue people and valuable cargo from wrecked ships, etc. <…> for the rational use of the forest, fish, fur, and mineral resources of North Siberia and proper development of sea and river shipping along with a hydrometeorological network, it will also be necessary to build a more extensive network of cultural and administrative centers throughout the vast Siberian taiga, which could lead to the appearance of nearby settlements of future Kulturträger <…> Another, more extensive application of Bruns’ project should result in a grand undertaking with global implications and revive the ice-bound polar desert, opening up trans-­Arctic traffic between Europe and the cultural centers on the northern shores of the Pacific Ocean.”

The Soviet press gave the project a warm reception, but the Polar Commission reacted negatively although meteorologist and hydrologist Vladimir Yu. Wiese called it the first step toward using the Arctic as an air route, which would help maintain reliable communication with the network of polar meteorological stations at high latitudes. Nevertheless, the Academy of Sciences decided against the participation of the Soviet Union in the implementation of the project, citing its insufficient backing and extremely high cost. Admittedly, these reasons for refusal are compelling, but one cannot ignore the role of the political situation – ​Emperor Nicholas II Land had not yet been explored by Russian scientists, and the Soviet Union was reluctant to grant this right to foreign expeditions while the Soviet party, who had prepared rescue stations for the foreigners, would have to remain merely a passive observer.

And here the situation finally changes. The project is given official status and approved for review by the highest government agencies. The reason is simple: this time, Soviet Russia becomes a full participant in the expedition, and Russian scientists are granted membership in the Aeroarctic Society.

Soviet Aeroarctic

In order to elaborate Bruns’ project, a special commission was set up under the USSR Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom). The commission was chaired by Academician Nikolai P. Gorbunov, who was then rector of the Bauman Higher Technical School (Moscow). In February 1926, he addressed a proposal to Glavnauka (i. e., the main administration for science, arts, and museums), the USSR Academy of Sciences, Aviakhim (i. e., the Soviet mass public organization dedicated to promoting aviation and developing chemical industry), and other leading public agencies and departments to nominate candidates for the future Soviet Aeroarctic group. The lists of candidates communicated by the agencies included distinguished individuals, excellent specialists in their fields, many of whom were members of the Polar Commission of the Academy of Sciences or had participated in its activities.

At a regular meeting of the Polar Commission in May 1926, its academic secretary, Alexander I. Tolmachev, while introducing his colleagues to new international polar exploration projects, spoke about Bruns’ proposal and Breitfuß’ initiatives and publications and invited his colleagues to join the Aeroarctic. Wiese supported Tolmachev, noting that some of the Russian scientists were already members of the society. The audience welcomed the idea of establishing a Soviet Aeroarctic group, and the very next day, at a meeting of the Commission for Supporting the Activities of the USSR Academy of Sciences, it was proposed to introduce into this group Alexander P. Karpinsky, the Chairman of the Polar Commission, as well as the commission’s active members: Alexei A. Byalynitsky-­Birulya, Arkady V. Voznesensky, and others. The support given by the Russian scientists to the Aeroarctic was largely due to the legendary Nansen being the society’s chairman; moreover, many of them had experience of working together with Breitfuß in previous years.

In order for Soviet scientists to participate in the upcoming international congress held by the Aeroarctic, one had to urgently put the Soviet Aeroarctic group on an official footing, which was done on October 21, 1926. At a meeting on November 3, attended by 30 people, a presidium was elected, which included hydrobiologist B. L. Isachenko (as chairman), director of the Botanical Garden; mining engineer R. L. Samoilovich, director of the Institute for the Study of the North under the USSR Supreme Council of the National Economy; geologist A. E. Fersman, vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences; and others.

The first meeting of the Aeroarctic Society (referred to in Soviet documents as the International Congress for Arctic Exploration by Airships) took place on November 9–13, 1926 in Berlin. The opening of the congress, held in the Prussian Landtag, was attended by the Interior Minister of Germany Wilhelm Külz and other dignitaries. The congress brought together about 300 participants, including a Soviet delegation led by Academician Fersman. Communications on the progress and results of this meeting immediately appeared in the Soviet central and regional press; the minutes and reports were published under Breitfuß’ editorship (in supplementary editions to Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, 1927, N 191).

The status of the Soviet group was fixed in documents only a month later. On December 16, 1926, the USSR Sovnarkom’s Commission for Supporting the Activities of the Academy of Sciences held a meeting, where it heard Fersman’s report and resolved to “consider the participation of USSR scientists in the activities of the society as desirable, encouraging it as a form of international scientific work, especially since this work may prove to be of practical use for the USSR as a country with a vast polar territory. It is advisable to maintain organizational ties between USSR scientists and this society through the Institute for the Study of the North.”

The decision to approve the new organization – ​the Soviet group of the International Society for the Exploration of the Arctic Regions by Means of the Airship under the Institute for the Study of the North – ​was made at a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Directorate (STD) of the Supreme Council of the USSR National Economy, with Veniamin M. Sverdlov himself acting as the key speaker. The task of overseeing the group’s activities was commissioned to Gorbunov, then a member of the Presidium of the STD Board.**

Crash of the Italia

Soon began the preparations for the Second Congress of the Aeroarctic Society, while in Friedrichshafen, Germany, airship constructors embarked on building the LZ‑127 airship (later named Graf Zeppelin), which German aeronaut Hugo Eckener had promised to provide for the polar expedition planned by the Aeroarctic. It was intended that the participants of the upcoming congress would be involved in preparatory works for this project; the program even included a trip to Murmansk for everyone to inspect the site of the LZ‑127’s mooring mast.

Around the same time, two trans-­Arctic airship flights took place under the command of Umberto Nobile, a renowned Italian polar explorer, pilot, and airship constructor. In the spring of 1926, the airship Norge flew from the Spitsbergen Peninsula across the North Pole to Alaska. Amundsen, too, was part of this expedition of 16 people. On the night of May 11–12, the Norge reached the North Pole, and the explorers spent two and a half hours above the pole. Although the expedition encountered some difficulties, it ended successfully, which became yet another proof of the feasibility of using airships to explore polar regions.

Nobile, who was reaping his laurels, began to prepare for his next flight by launching the works to build the airship Italia. The second expedition set out from Spitsbergen on the morning of May 23, 1928, and by nightfall, with a strong tailwind, they had reached the North Pole. There, the expedition members dropped onto the ice the Italian flag and the oak cross they had received from the Vatican. But on May 25, when flying over the Barents Sea, the airship got encased in ice and crashed. The rescue operations involved several missions from Italy, Norway, the Soviet Union, and other countries. These dramatic events unfolded less than a month before the start of the second congress of the Aeroarctic.

The Second International Congress on Arctic Exploration by Airships was held in the Soviet Union from June 18 to 23, 1928. At that time, Soviet Russia was vigorously participating in the international exploration of the Arctic, so no wonder that Leningrad became the congress venue. Its chairman Nansen said in his welcoming speech at the opening ceremony in the Great Conference Hall of the USSR Academy of Sciences that that meeting was ushering in a new era in the history of the Arctic and informed those present that one of the congress’ goals was to formulate a program for the practical development of the North.

ARCTIS FOR THREE DOLLARS The First Congress of the Aeroarctic Society, held in Berlin in 1926, made the decision to publish a specialized journal, released four times a year, which would allow scientists to exchange views on all the aspects of polar research. The journal was supposed to publish papers not only in German but also in other languages.
However, publication of the journal was delayed due to financial reasons. The journal was to be distributed by subscription, and the annual subscription price was initially quite high, requiring J. Perthes Publishing House to secure substantial extra funding. Speaking at the opening of the Second Congress in Leningrad, Prof. Georg Wegener, chairman of the German Aeroarctic group, expressed hope that the subscription price could be reduced to allow all members of the Society to subscribe.
Thus, the annual subscription price was soon set at three dollars, and the first issue of the new Arctis journal was published in April 1928.
The funds to support the Aeroarctic Society and publish the journal came from membership fees (at least one dollar per year) and from contributions made by the governments of the countries partici­pating in this international cooperation. These contributions depended on the population size of the countries. Thus, countries with populations of less than 2 million people paid $10, while those with populations exceeding 50 million paid $300. As a result, since 1928, the total amount of all government subsidies averaged approximately $2700 annually (for comparison, the average monthly salary of Soviet workers and employees in 1928 was 59 rubles, or $30)

Of course, throughout the congress, the scientists were closely following the progress of the rescue operations in the Barents Sea: the search for the surviving members of Nobile’s expedition and their rescue by the Soviet icebreaker Krasin. News updates on this story made headlines worldwide. Nansen himself called the crash of the Italia a lesson and a warning for all explorers of the polar regions.

The Second International

The congress (conference) carried out extensive preparations for the international Arctic airship expedition, scheduled to take place in 1929. The participants developed a detailed plan for a trans-­Arctic air route from Europe to Asia via Siberia, designed to reduce the travel time from 16 to 5 days. The route began in Berlin and went via Turukhansk, Olekminsk, and Harbin to Osaka.

By 1928, the Aeroarctic Society had 271 registered participants, i.e., 260 individuals and 11 societies from 20 countries: 11 from Austria, 1 from Bulgaria, 10 from Czechoslovakia, 5 from Denmark, 4 from England, 9 from Estonia, 6 from Finland, 8 from France, 102 from Germany, 3 from Holland, 9 from Italy, 7 from Japan, 2 from Latvia, 7 from Norway, 8 from Poland, 49 from the Soviet Union, 9 from Spain, 6 from Sweden, 5 from Switzerland, and 10 from the United States. The congress was attended by 22 scientists from Norway, Germany, Poland, Italy, Finland, Denmark, and the Soviet Union

Much attention was given to organizational, as well as scientific, issues. Several newly organized special commissions began working, with Soviet scientists on board: Pavel V. Wittenburg was part of the geographical commission; Vladimir Yu. Wiese and Pavel A. Molchanov became members of the commission for meteorology and aerology; Boris L. Isachenko and Petr Yu. Schmidt joined the biological commission; etc. Members of these commissions together formed a Research Council.

Over the course of five days, the congress held nine sessions, at which reports were presented on the various aspects of natural history of the North. The final resolution included decisions on organizing and conducting meteorological observations on northern archipelagos and islands, setting up new weather stations, and carrying out preliminary work for the next International Polar Year.

The meeting’s papers were published in German and Russian. The Russian edition opened with Bruns’ paper “Report on the results of a trip to the Kola Peninsula and Murmansk,” dedicated to choosing a town for an airship base in the Soviet Union and searching for a site for an airship mooring mast.

Regarding the latter, even before the meeting was over, engineer E. P. Ikonnikov had surveyed the towns of Kola, Aleksandrovsk, and Murmansk in search of the most suitable location to set up an airship mooring mast, whose cost was estimated at 20,000 rubles. He deemed the vicinity of Murmansk the most appropriate; when the congress concluded, some of its participants, including Bruns, went there to finalize the choice of the construction site, in accordance with the proposal made as early as in the 1924 draft.

In the summer of 1928, the Arctic Commission, chaired by Sergei S. Kamenev, was established under the USSR Sovnarkom to develop a plan for scientific research in the Soviet Arctic. The commission included members of the Soviet government and leading organizations, such as the USSR Academy of Sciences, Association for the Study of the Northern Seas, Osoaviakhim, etc., as well as the Soviet Aeroarctic group. The primary objectives were declared to be the establishment on Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, and Novaya Zemlya of geophysical observatories with floating facilities and communications equipment and the construction on Soviet territory “of mooring masts as bases for scientific airship expeditions in the Arctic.” The organizing of airship mooring masts and ensuring the very possibility of exploring the Arctic on aboard an airship was entrusted to the Aeroarctic Society. One of the conditions under which the Soviet government granted permission for flights over the USSR territory was the participation of Soviet scientists in the preparations and realization of the flight as well as processing of all the scientific results.

However, the airship mooring mast in Murmansk was never built. Perhaps, as a consequence of the Italia disaster or for some other reasons…

The Aeroarctic in the New World

Simultaneously with the events in Europe and the Soviet Union, efforts were underway on the American continent to establish their own Aeroarctic group. It was chaired by the renowned radio and electrical engineer John Adam Fleming, and the position of secretary was entrusted to Innokenty P. Tolmachoff (Tolmachev), a Russian geologist, geographer, and paleontologist, who had led several crucial polar expeditions and had been living and working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, since 1922. This was likely no coincidence, suggesting that in those years, scientists and scholars from different countries were still able to correspond fairly freely and regularly, exchange opinions, develop scientific plans, and send/receive scientific literature.

Tolmachoff indeed maintained correspondence with many of his colleagues not only from the Soviet Union but also from other countries, including with Breitfuß. Naturally, he knew about the establishment of the Aeroarctic and about Breitfuß’ addenda to Captain Bruns’ project, i. e., to explore the northern polar region, including Emperor Nicholas II Land, by means of the airship. After all, it was Tolmachoff who authored the very first project to explore the newly discovered Emperor Nicholas II Land and initiated the establishment of the Polar Commission under the Academy of Sciences, which was tasked with preparing this research mission. Tolmachoff must have considered this project one of the most fascinating endeavors in his life, and his participation in the American Aeroarctic group could have brought him closer to fulfilling his dream.

Initially, Tolmachoff launched a massive campaign to support the establishment of the American Aeroarctic group; he sent personal invitations to dozens of people. The preserved correspondence between Breitfuß and Tolmachoff revealed several new pages in this story. For example, the letters contain information about Tolmachoff’s articles published in the journal Arctis, about his plans to participate in the Nansen-led expedition, and about an unsuccessful attempt to organize a Canadian Aeroarctic group.

Tolmachoff personally informed Nansen of his desire to participate in the planned expedition, but later he learned from Breitfuß that the expedition team would be small and would include journalists in addition to scientists and specialists. Tolmachoff would not have been able to join unless the US government had nominated him for political reasons. Therefore, the question of his participation in the expedition never came up again.

As for Tolmachoff’s activities as secretary, they were limited to collecting and sending funds for Arctis subscriptions, sending out questionnaires, etc. The scientist complained that he was wasting a lot of precious time and even considered leaving his position as secretary unless an assistant had been found. In April 1929, he took the post of the Society’s treasurer, believing that at the next reelection, he would “disappear from the scene” altogether.

The American Aeroarctic group ceased operations in 1933, having existed for only about five years…

At the finish line

The Arctic expedition aboard the airship LZ‑127, planned for 1929, never took place. The flight was rescheduled for 1930, but Nansen died that year.

In 1929, the second issue of Arctis published the lists of the Aeroarctic Presidium and members of the Soviet Aeroarctic group.
The multinational presidium included: F. Nansen (Norway), President; G. Wegener (Germany), Chief of Administration; Vice-­Presidents: L. A. Bauer (USA), E. Delcambre (France), J. de Elola (Spain), A. E. Fersman (USSR), U. Nobile (Italy), and N. Shaw (England); W. Bruns (Germany), Secretary General; A. Berson (Germany), Deputy Secretary General; W. Bleistein (Germany), Treasurer; G. Maurer (Germany); H. Arctowski (Poland); H. Backlund (Sweden); F. M. Exner (Austria); Hosokawa (Japan); B. L. Isachenko (USSR); E. Laimins (Latvia); R. L. Samoilovich (USSR); and others.
In 1929, the Soviet Aeroarctic group was quite impressive, bringing together many outstanding Soviet scientists and specialists in a wide range of fields: the renowned geologist and mineralogist A. E. Fersman; polar explorer and oceanographer V. Yu. Wiese; prominent Soviet geode­sist, gravimetrist, and hydrographer V. V. Akhmatov; microbiologist and botanist B. L. Isachenko; the polar explorer and geographer R. L. Samoilovich; and others. The Polar Geography Cabinet of Leningrad State University also joined the Soviet Aeroarctic group as a collective member

In 1929, members of the International Aeroarctic Society gathered in Berlin for their Third Conference. By this time, the USSR Academy of Sciences, although it still remained the country’s highest scientific authority, had already lost its independence. Soviet scientists were invited to participate in the conference, but they could not obtain permission to travel. Nevertheless, the Soviet Aeroarctic group continued to exist for several more years.

In 1931, the LZ‑127 finally made a successful flight over the Arctic. The expedition was led by Eckener, who had taken Nansen’s place. The expedition members came from Germany, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Sweden. Our country was represented by geographer R. L. Samoilovich, meteorologist P. A. Molchanov, engineer F. F. Assberg, and radio operator E. A. Krenkel.

On July 26–30, 1931, the airship flew over most of the Soviet Arctic for scientific (and, unofficially, reconnaissance) purposes. The team conducted detailed aerial photography from the airship as well as aerometeorological studies in various layers of the atmosphere, including the upper ones. The altitude of the radiosondes that Molchanov used in his experiments reached 17,000 meters, largely exceeding the results obtained by the renowned German aerologist Prof. Hugo Hergesell.

The 1931 expedition is extensively covered in literature, so we will not tell its story here. We will only raise one question: Why did the Soviet government ultimately permit a flight over the country’s northern territory? The answer, we believe, lies in the fact that in 1930, an expedition led by geographer Georgy A. Ushakov had already launched its operations on Severnaya Zemlya; thus, Russian scientists retained their research priority, long defended by members of the Polar Commission of the Academy of Sciences.

The international society for Arctic exploration was finally able to fulfill its goal, set already by Breitfuß, i. e., to fly an airship over Emperor Nicholas II Land, by that time called Severnaya Zemlya.

This story weaves together the lives of different people, who happened to be part of amazing events, the most astonishing one being, perhaps, that only a decade had passed from the German airship commander Bruns’ first speeches on commercial trans-­Arctic airship routes to an actual large-­scale exploration flight involving representatives from four countries! Even by today’s standards, this is quite a short time, so it is easy to see what great effort those inspired by this bold idea had to make foe this unique air expedition to become a reality.

The three international congresses of the Aeroarctic Society became important milestones in the history of Arctic research, as they not only summarized the expedition results and analyzed observational data from previous decades but also outlined the main areas for future polar exploration. Although the hopes for aerial exploration of the northern polar regions were yet far from coming true, the efforts of the Aeroarctic gave new impetus to Soviet and international Arctic research.

The Soviet press of the 1920s and 1930s contains numerous publications devoted to the activities of the Aeroarctic Society and the daring project of a trans-­Arctic airship flight. However, only one article among this multitude appears to be directly linked to the name of the Russian–German scientist and Arctic explorer Breitfuß. Priroda (1924, N 7–12), one of the oldest Russian journals, published a long article titled “Captain Bruns’ project for trans-­Arctic aeronautics from Europe to countries south of the Bering Strait and organization of an airship-­based hydrometeorological service in northern Russia and Siberia.” The text of this article largely repeats that of the project submitted by Breitfuß to the Polar Commission.

The numerous articles in the Soviet periodicals of that time tend to concentrate on Bruns: his travels across the Soviet Union, his meetings with specialists and Soviet officials, and his search for a site for an airship mooring mast. These publications paint a clear picture – ​it was the airship pilot Bruns who had conceived the project that Breitfuß wrote about. If you read these documents alone, you would not understand what a great role Breitfuß played in refining and promoting the project as well as creating an organizational framework for it, i. e., the International Society for the Exploration of the Arctic Regions by Means of the Airship (Aeroarctic). After all, as we now know, Bruns’ idea was simpler and, one might say, more modest. It was only about organizing long-distance commercial airship routes, which would reduce travel time for passengers, cargo, and mail. Breitfuß put forward a project that was scientific rather than commercial. He proposed to conduct airship-­based research of the Arctic, which, he believed, would enable large-­scale development of transportation in high latitudes, which, in turn, would greatly transform life in the north of Siberia.

The true meaning of this story, in which both scientific ties and long-standing friendships played a great role, was largely revealed by the discovery of the original text of the project, bearing Breitfuß’ personal stamp. This document, found in the collection of the Polar Commission of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg Branch of the RAS Archives, helped connect the dots between numerous disparate facts and uncover unknown chapters in the history of polar exploration. Judging by the inscription on the first page, the document was given to A. I. Tolmachev, an active member and academic secretary of the Polar Commission. This position was previously held by his father, I. P. Tolmachev (Tolmachoff), one of Breitfuß’ closest friends and colleagues.

The document was apparently submitted to initiate discussion at a meeting of the Polar Commission, in a circle of scientists and specialists who would appreciate the new, ambitious ideas that Breitfuß added to Bruns’ project, i. e., the ideas related to the study of Siberia and the Polar Commission’s long-planned project to explore Emperor Nicholas II Land (Severnaya Zemlya). It appears that Breitfuß, fully aware of all the objective difficulties that had prevented this research in previous years, offered his former Russian colleagues a new opportunity to implement their scientific plans.

*For more details about these events see SCIENCE First Hand, 2016, N 3 (45) and 2025, N 3 (70) 

**From the minutes of the meeting held by the STD Board Presidium to the Supreme Council of the USSR National Economy on the issue of organizing a Soviet group of the international society for Arctic exploration by airship (Russian State Archive of the Economy. Archive Ref.: Coll. 3429 / Inv. 61 / Unit 263 / Pg. 68)

References

Aeroarctic, Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Arktis mit Luftfahrzeugen : Verh. der II. ordentlichen Versammlung in Leningrad 18–23. Juni 1928 / A. Berson; L. Breitfuss. Gotha, 1929.

Arctis: Vierteljahrsschrift der internationalen Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Arktis mit dem Luftschiff / Herausgegeben von F. Nansen. Gotha: J. Perthes, 1928–1931. 

Internationale Studiengesellschaft zur Erforschung der Arktis mit dem Luftschiff (Aeroarctic): Verh. der 1. Ordentlichen Versammlung in Berlin 9–13. November 1926 / L. Breitfuss. Gotha : J. Perthes, 1927.

Ellsworth L. and Smith E. Report of the preliminary results of the aeroarctic expedition with “Graf Zeppelin”, 1931 // Geogr. Rev. V. 22. N. 1. (Jan., 1932). P. 61–82.

Tolmachoff I. Dissolution of the American Section of the Aeroarctic // Science. NS. 1933. V. 78. N. 2022. P. 277.

Breitfus L. L. (Breitfuβ L.) Proekt kapitana Brunsa Transarkticheskogo vozdukhoplavaniya iz Evropy v strany, lezhashchiye k yugu ot Beringova proliva… (Captain Bruns’ project for trans-Arctic aeronautics from Europe to countries south of the Bering Strait…) // Priroda. 1924. N 7–12. P. 71–88 [in Russian].

Bruns W. Doklad o rezul’tatakh poyezdki na Kol’skii poluostrov i Murmansk (Report on the results of the trip to the Kola Peninsula and Murmansk) // Proc. 2nd Polar Conference. Leningrad, June 18–23, 1928. Leningrad: Izd. Grup. SSSR Aeroarktik, 1930. P. 14–21 [in Russian].

Gorbunov N. P. Vospominaniya. Stat’i. Dokumenty (Memories. Articles. Documents). Moscow, 1986 [in Russian].

Molchanov P.A. Pervyi nauchno-issledovatel’skii polet dirizhablya “Graf Tseppelin” v Arktiku (The first scientific research flight of the airship Graf Zeppelin to the Arctic) // Priroda. 1932. N. 3. P. 215–236 [in Russian].

Molchanov P.A. Otchet o poezdke v Murmansk gruppy chlenov s’’ezda “Aeroarktik” (Report on the trip to Murmansk of a group of members of the Aeroarctic congress) // Proc. 2nd Polar Conference. Leningrad, June 18–23, 1928. Leningrad: Izd. Grup. SSSR Aeroarktik, 1930. P. 22–24 [in Russian].

Parkhomenko A.A. Gorbunov N. P.: vzlet i tragediya. Shtrikhi k biografii nepremennogo sekretarya AH SSSR (Nikolai Gorbunov: rise and tragedy. Strokes to the biography of the permanent secretary of the USSR Academy of Sciences) // Repressirovannaya nauka (Repressed Science), Leningrad: Nauka, 1991. P. 408–423 [in Russian].

Proceedings of the Second Polar Conference. Leningrad, June 18–23, 1928. Ed. by P.V. Wittenburg. Leningrad: Izd. Grup. SSSR Aeroarktik, 1930 [in Russian].