November-class submarine Komsomol" was first underway under nuclear power on 4 July 1958 and became also the first Soviet submarine to reach the North Pole in July 1962, 4 years after the USS "Nautilus". Project 627 had much better performance specifications (for example, submerged speed and depth) than the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine USS "Nautilus". The first commander of "K-3" was Captain 1st Rank L.G. Osipenko (future admiral and Hero of the Soviet Union). All other Novembers except "K-3" belonged to modified project – project 627A. The main visual differences of project 627A were a bow sonar dome in the keel
North Pole-2 North Pole-2 North Pole-2 () was the Soviet manned drifting station. It was established on April 2, 1950 and drifted for about a year between the Bering Strait and the North Pole. It was closed on April 11, 1951, after the piece of ice it was based on broke into two. The commander of the station was Mikhail Somov, who was made the Hero of the Soviet Union for his role in the expedition. North Pole-2 became the first Soviet manned drifting station after North Pole-1 launched in 1937, and established a series of polar expeditions. The station was manned