Designed by Vice-Admiral S.O. Makarov, the icebreaker was built in Newcastle, Great Britain by Armstrong Whitworth, having been ordered by the Russian Naval Ministry. Svyatogor, as Krasin was originally named, fully lived up to this heroic name.
Contemporaries were greatly impressed by her technical perfection. With a displacement of 10,000 tonnes, she had a length of 99.8 m and a beam of 21.6 m. She had steam engines of over 10,000 hp, giving her a top speed in excess of 15 knots, and could break ice up to 4-5 m thick. Due to her unique abilities Krasin served in the Arctic fleet for over half a century, and until the early fifties remained the most powerful icebreaker in the world.
January 21, 1916 | — | Building commences. | |
October 1 1916 | — | The icebreaker Svyatogor joins the Russian Navy's Arctic Ocean fleet. | |
March 31, 1917 | — | Svyatogor hoists the St. Andrew's flag. | |
1918 | — | Scuttled in the Severnaya Dvina by the Bolsheviks to try to deny access to Arkhangel'sk to the Royal Navy. Refloated by the British and came under British control. | |
1920 | — | At the request of the Soviet Union, and flying the Norwegian flag, she was one of the icebreakers which rescued the icebreaking steamer Solovey Budimirovich (later Malygin) adrift in the ice of the Kara Sea. | |
1921 | — | Purchased from Britain by the Soviet government, with the involvement of L. Krasin and A. Krylov. | |
1922-1928 | — | Operated in the Baltic Sea. | |
1927 | — | Svyatogor renamed Krasin. | |
1928 | — | Rescued survivors from the crash of Umberto Nobile's dirigible Italia (Italy), and the German cruise-ship Monte Cervantes which had run aground off Spitsbergen. | |
1928-1934 | — | Worked in the Arctic. | |
1934 | — | Participated in the rescue of survivors of the sinking of Chelyuskin in the Chukchi Sea. | |
1937-1941 | — | Escorted freighters on the Northern Sea Route . | |
1941-1942 | — | From Vladivostok to Bremerton, Washington, USA for refit; proceeded via Panama Canal to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Reykjavik, Iceland. | |
1942 | — | Part of escort for Allied convoy PQ-15 (20 ships), Iceland to Murmansk. | |
1942-1943 | — | Returned to Vladivostok, completing circumnavigation started in 1941. | |
1943-1945 | — | Worked in the eastern Russian Arctic. | |
1950-1956 | — | Operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company. | |
1956-1960 | — | Modernized in the Wismar shipyards, GDR (East Germany). | |
1960-1972 | — | Escorting freighters on the Northern Sea Route. | |
1972 | — | Transferred to the Soviet Ministry of Geology; supporting geological exploration in the arctic. | |
1974-1989 | — | обеспечивает работу буровых партий на шельфе Арктики | |
1992 | — | Became a historical monument of state significance. | |
1995 | — | First exhibition opened. | |
2002 | — | принят в Ассоциацию военно-исторических кораблей (HNSA) | |
February 10, 2004 | — | Became a branch of the World Ocean Museum, St. Petersburg. | |
March 31, 2007 | — | Hoisted the St. Andrew's flag again. | |
2018 | — | 90th anniversary of the rescue of Umberto Nobile's expedition and Krasin's triumphal return to Leningrad. |