Pyotr Pakhtusov Pyotr Pakhtusov Pyotr Kuzmich Pakhtusov () (1800 in Kronstadt – November 19, 1835 in Arkhangelsk) was a Russian surveyor and Arctic explorer. He is credited with the first thorough survey of Novaya Zemlya. Between 1832 and 1835 Pakhtusov undertook two exploratory journeys to Novaya Zemlya. He wintered on the island on the two occasions and took detailed meteorological observations. Pakhtusov carefully surveyed the southern and eastern parts of Novaya Zemlya along with fellow explorer and cartographer Avgust Tsivolko during the last two years of the expedition. Thanks to their work the first reliable maps of Novaya Zemlya's southern shores and
Novaya Zemlya lost more than three-fourths of the merchant ships committed to the convoy — more than one fourth of the losses to American shipping in all convoys to northern Russia. The destruction of PQ-17 significantly affected the people dependent on supplies carried by the ill-fated merchant ships. Karlo Stajner, a Gulag prisoner in Norilsk in 1942, wrote “the German cruiser’s attack on Novaya Zemlya and the sinking of the food transports had catastrophic consequences…the population was left without provisions…supplies in the warehouses of Norilsk [were] distributed among the NKVD, the guards, and the few free civilians that lived in the town.”