The Second Soviet Antarctic Expedition was led by Aleksei Treshnikov on the continent; the marine expedition on the "Ob" was led by I. V. Maksimov.
The "Ob" left Kaliningrad on 7 November, 1956.
The two main ships were as for the first expedition: RV Ob (flagship; captain I.
Man [ru])) and RV "Lena" (captain A. I. Vetrov).
The third ship was Kooperatsiya (captain A. S. Yantselevich), used mainly as a transport vessel.