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Dear George,
While you were writing this, I posted some web reference:
(14:59:09 EDT).
It seems that my memories of 1960-s are not precise:-(
The ships do pass the whole way now in one navigation.
Moreover, apparently the modern icebreakers make
it navigable around the year.
Sorry, I just did not follow the development since late 60-s.
Your guess was right: Dudinka does not freeze because of the
powerful Enisei current.
Which is surprising for me: Enisei itself DOES freeze,
as almost all rivers in Russia do:-)

I've actually traveled to many of these places in 1960-s,
as a child, including Archangelsk, Murmansk and Dudinka.
(On passenger cruise ships. The scientists/professors were
in so high esteem in SU at that time, and so well-payed,
that my father
could afford
such cruise with his family every summer:-)

But the travel on Enisei was in July,
and we were told that some tours visit Dudinka and some
don't, depending on whether there is ICE or not! This I remember
clearly. So I was surprised to read on the web that Dudinka
is open the whole year now.

Alex.




On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, George Huxtable wrote:

> After saying that I wished to know more about this topic, Alex Eremenko
> kindly replied-
>
> >After I touched this topic, I soon realize
> >that this can be almost completely unknown
> >in the West. For example, my Encyclopaedia
> >Brittanica of 1960 does not mention ANY Soviet
> >activities in the Arctic. Unfortunately all I read
> >on the subject, I read while in Soviet Union, that is
> >20-30 years ago, so I can rely on my memory only.
> >If there is interest to it, I can try to find
> >some literature here in the US.
>
> If you can find any such references, Alex, I would be most grateful, if
> only to fill in my immense area of ignorance about this matter.
>
> He added, about vessels that were forced to overwinter-
>
> >They had several harbors on the way to spend the winter.
> >Dikson and Dudinka are the names that first come to my mind.
>
> Does that imply that the fresh water of the Yenisei river was sufficiently
> ice-free, even in the depths of Russian winter? Such a question betrays my
> ignorance of Siberian geography, I fear.
>
> What happens to the crews over the winter?
>
> I bet that's a trade that Doug Royer is pleased not to be in!
>
> Another question that I wonder about is this-
>
> With the great draught of modern shipping, are there sufficiently deep
> passages South of the islands such as Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya,
> Novosibirskiye Ostrova? Or must the trade route pass North of, or perhaps
> through, these island groups? I recall that in Nansen's passage in "Fram"
> he had to compromise, finding an ice-free path near the mainland,
> presumably the result of the warmed freshwater summer outflow from the
> river drainage. On the other hand, near the mainland he was bedevilled by
> shoals and islands, presumably the result of that same outflow from those
> great rivers. How does the modern trade route solve those problems, I
> wonder?
>
> Nuclear power does seem appropriate for an icebreaker, which requires
> immense driving power, consuming great quantities of fuel, yet needs to
> remain in non-stop action through the summer season without the need to
> return to port to refuel.
>
> George.
>
> ================================================================
> contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at
> 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
> Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
> ================================================================
>

   

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