For the earlier icebreaker with the same namesake, see Icebreaker Tovarich Stalin.
Picture of the Joseph Stalin taken from the Komet.
The Icebreaker Joseph Stalin was the first Soviet icebreaker built in a native shipyard. Owing to many delays, it took over two years to finish. It was built at the the Ordzhonikidze Yard in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) between 1937 and 1938. The Joseph Stalin was the biggest icebreaker of the Soviet fleet at that time. In 1938 it reached the arctic in its first expedition. Icebreaker Joseph Stalin, freed Icebreaker Sedov on January 18th 1940 between Greenland and Svalbard after it had been drifting as a scientific Soviet Polar Station for a long time. In the summer 1940, the Joseph Stalin led the Komet, a Kriegsmarine vessel camouflaged as Soviet cargo ship called Dezhnev, across the ice of the Northern Sea Route.
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