Ernst Krenkel

Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel
Born	(1903-12-24)24 December 1903
Died
Occupation	Geographer, explorer
Awards

E. Krenkel as Polar radio operator on the cover of Radiofront magazine. 1937

Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel (Russian: Эрнст Теодо́рович Кре́нкель) (24 December [O.S. 11 December] 1903, Bialystok – 8 December 1971, Moscow) was a Soviet Arctic explorer, radio operator, doctor of geographical sciences (1938), and Hero of the Soviet Union (1938). Amateur radio callsigns: U3AA, UA3AA, RAEM.

Early life

Krenkel was born in Białystok, now Poland, to a German family.

Career

Ernst Krenkel was a radioman on polar stations

• Matochkin Shar (1924–1925, 1927–1928),
• Tikhaya Bay (1929–1930),
• Cape Olovyanniy (1935–1936), and
• Domashniy Island (1936).

He took part in Arctic expeditions on the Graf Zeppelin airship (1931), icebreaker Sibiryakov, steamship SS Chelyuskin (1933–1934, callsign RAEM). He was also a radioman on the first drifting ice station North Pole-1 (1937-1938, callsign UPOL). He is known to have set a world record by establishing a long-distance radio communication between Franz Josef Land and Antarctica.

In 1938, Krenkel went on to work for Glavsevmorput. Later in his life he was employed in the radio industry. In 1951, he was hired by the scientific research institute of hydrometeorological instrument-making, becoming its director in 1969.

Ernst Krenkel was deputy of Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1937—1946), chairman of Radio Sport Federation of the Soviet Union, chairman of Philately Society of the Soviet Union.

Biography

He wrote a book of memoirs entitled My Callsign is RAEM (Russian: RAEM - мои позывные).

Death

Ernst died in 1971 and was interred at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Awards

• Ernst Krenkel was awarded two Orders of Lenin, three other orders and several medals.

Popular culture

• Ernst Krenkel Observatory located on Heiss Island, Franz Josef Land is named after him.
• A street in Moscow bears Krenkel's name.
• Mikhail Veller wrote about him in collection of novels 'Legendy Nevskogo Prospecta', 1994

See also

• Awards of the Soviet Union

References

This article includes content derived from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969–1978, which is partially in the public domain.