MKL-201912 Naval Collection 2019/12: Lenin Russian Nuclear-Powered Icebreaker
Photos, schemes, colour pictures. 36 pages, soft cover, text in Russian (we provide translation to English).

Sixty years ago, on December 3, 1959, the world witnessed a historic moment as the first nuclear icebreaker, "Lenin," was inaugurated. Its creation marked a pivotal milestone in the utilization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and the advancement of icebreaker technology. Throughout its three decades of service in the Arctic, "Lenin" executed numerous operations that have left an indelible mark on the annals of high-latitude development. Today, this remarkable icebreaker is permanently docked in Murmansk.
THE BIRTH OF A PIONEERING INITIATIVE.
In the latter half of the 1940s, the leadership of the Soviet Union confronted a glaring reality—there were insufficient icebreakers in operation to guarantee the Northern Sea Route's viability as a year-round transportation corridor. Simultaneously, this era witnessed vigorous endeavors in the utilization of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes across technically advanced nations, including the USSR.
In April 1949, the first heavy water research reactor, TVR, in the USSR and Europe, was put into operation at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics. In May 1950, the Soviet government adopted a resolution titled "On research, design, and experimental work on the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes." Four years later, near the Obninskoye station (now the city of Obninsk, Kaluga Region), the world's first nuclear power plant was connected to the common electrical network and began producing electricity.
In June 1955, I.V. Kurchatov and A.L. Alexandrov spearheaded a program for the expansion of nuclear power in the USSR, envisioning its extensive application in transportation and various national economic sectors. Naturally, shipbuilders and sailors were eager to participate.
The world's first nuclear-powered ship was the American submarine Nautilus, whose construction commenced on June 14, 1952, and was commissioned on April 22, 1955. The ship "Savanna" was subsequently developed, drawing upon the experience gained from operating the "Nautilus." Its construction, with a cost of 42.5 million dollars, was not driven by economic considerations (building a tanker would have been more profitable) but by the aspiration to establish a floating laboratory for experimental nuclear power plant operations. The commercial operation of the Savannah, along with other nuclear-powered merchant ships predominantly built in the 1960s in various countries, starting in 1964, proved to be unprofitable.
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