According to an article recently in Izvestiya (May 23, 1978), 
entitled LEDOVYY EKSPERIMENT (Ice Experiment), the Soviet authori- 
ties were planning to open the Northern Sea Route from Murmansk 
to the Bering Strait two months earlier than normally, in spite 
of still completely ice-covered coastal sea areas. The nuclear- 
powered | ice-breaker SIBIR' was prepared for this new experiment, 
assisting an ice-strengthened ship, KAPITAN MYSJEVSKIY, with cargo 
for Magadan at the Sea of Okhotsk. 
The SIBIR is a sistership of the ARKTIKA with 2 nuclear reactors 
and steam turbines (75,000 shp, 21 knots), displacement 23,460 tons 
standard, full load, and dimensions 446.1 x 91.8 x 36.1 feet or 
about 136 x 28 x 11 metres. Her route was planned in accordance 
with the lines of short dashes in Figure 1l, passing north of 
Novaya Zemlya, crossing the Kara Sea, breaking through the heavy 
ice masses in Proliv Borisa Vilkitskogo, alternatively rounding 
Severnaya Zemlya, crossing the Laptev Sea, passing north of New 
Siberian Islands, crossing the East Siberian Sea, and via the 
Proliv Longa to the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Strait. 
After having assisted the freighter, the route of the SIBIR' back 
again westwards will follow a straight line through the heavy 
ridged multiyear pack-ice masses close to the southern islands of 
the Franz Josef Land and further on direct to Murmansk (the con- 
tinuous line in Figure 11). Such a route through higher latitudes 
is about 1,000 nautical miles or not far from 1,900 km shorter 
than the ordinary Northern Sea Route. 
To all appearances this "Ice Experiment" will be successful, and 
the SIBIR' will be the first ship to complete such a "High Latitude 
Sea Route". 
According to a message in Pravda of May 27, 1978, p. 6, the SIBIR' 
left Murmansk on May 26 for her remarkable and extraordinarily 
important voyage.