He was born in the town of Lukoyanov in the Lukoyanovsky Uyezd of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire to the family of a merchant.
The valuable documents were lying abandoned on the Kara Sea shore near the mouth of the Zeledeyeva River.
[1] In 1930-1932 Urvantsev, together with Georgy Ushakov, explored the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago where they discovered a number of islands.
This venture was led by Nikolay Urvantsev who travelled on the Pravda along with his wife, Dr. Yelizaveta Ivanovna.
The USSR Geographical Society elected him an Honorary Member and awarded him the Great Gold Medal.