In 1933, the newly formed Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route sent Pravda, under Captain Kh.
Pravda's cargo consisted of 2,430 tonnes of equipment and supplies for this important expedition, including four experimental NATI-2 half-track vehicles built by the Nauchnyy Avtotraktornyy Institut in Moscow.
Captain Belitskiy had decided to approach Nordvik Bay from the east, between Poluostrov Paksa and Bolshoy Begichev Island.
Ice conditions in the Vilkitsky Strait (between Severnaya Zemlya and Cape Chelyuskin), forced the three freighters of the convoy to winter at Ostrov Samuila in the Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands.
Feodor Litke made such a great effort to break a channel through the thick ice that it caused damage to its hull.