Rudolf Samoylovich

After graduating from the Mariupol Gymnasium (ru), he studied physics and mathematics at Imperial Novorossiya University where he became involved in revolutionary activities and came under police surveillance.

While in Germany he remained politically active, including by shipping to Azov copies of the underground newspaper Iskra.

In 1910, he was allowed to relocate to the nearby city of Arkhangelsk where he became involved in Arctic studies and met Vladimir Rusanov.

In 1928 he commanded the icebreaker Krassin in a mission to rescue survivors of the airship Italia which had crashed during an expedition to the North Pole.

He led the scientific team on the 1931 Arctic expedition of the airship Graf Zeppelin, which studied magnetism and mapped Franz Josef Land.

In The Red Tent, a 1969 Soviet-Italian film about the Italia expedition, Samoylovich is played by Grigory Gai (ru).