Operation Beluga: Soviet Icebreaker pied pipered thousands to safety

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Operation Beluga — or how a Soviet ice breaker played music to thousands of ice-trapped whales to save them from starving​

The Soviet Union (USSR) is a thing most people today know only from memory or history books. And many parts of its history are unsavory, to say the least. But Operation Beluga (‘Belukha’ in Russian) isn’t one of those.

Operation Beluga was not your typical Cold War covert ops. It involved sending an ice-breaker and blasting classical music at full volume to save a pack of thousands of whales that were trapped by ice in the Chukchi Peninsula.

In 1959, the Finish company Wärtsilä delivered the ice-breaker Moskva to the USSR. The contract for this ship was signed three years prior, and as part of its stipulations, the ship was equipped with one of the most powerful diesel-electric engines at the time. It would go on to help hundreds of ships navigate the iced-covered Northern Sea Route, which spans from Murmansk to Vladivostok, cutting the travel time down to an average of only ten days — which was quite fast for the day.

Moskva’s powerful engines allowed it to break through thicker ice than its peers at the time, which effectively extended the shipping season possible along this route. Crowned with shipping glory, the Moskva was later stationed in Vladivostok and sent to escort ships along the eastern stretches of the Northern Sea Route.

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Operation Beluga -- or how a Soviet ice breaker played music to thousands of ice-trapped whales to save them from starving

Sometimes, you just need an icebreaker and some classical music to make your day better.

www.zmescience.com

 

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So which compositions did they use?

 

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