2nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition

The Second Soviet Antarctic Expedition was led by Aleksei Treshnikov on the continent; the marine expedition on the "Ob" was led by I. V. Maksimov. The "Ob" left Kaliningrad on 7 November, 1956.

Three ships were used to transport the expedition, all diesel-electric. The two main ships were as for the first expedition: RV Ob (flagship; captain Ivan Man)) and RV "Lena" (captain A. I. Vetrov). The third ship was Kooperatsiya (captain A. S. Yantselevich), used mainly as a transport vessel.

The tasks of the expedition were:


 * 1) Relief of the first expedition
 * 2) Full scale scientific work for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) This included glacier mapping and wildlife tracking, among other things.
 * 3) Organisation of two IGY scientific stations near the south geomagnetic pole and pole of relative inaccessibility
 * 4) An inland tractor-sledge traverse for glaciology
 * 5) Oceanography

List of features named by the expedition

 * Lena Passage, named after the ship Lena
 * Lednikov Bay (Bukhta Lednikovaya), named for location