The famous polar explorer, director of the Arctic Institute, talented leader of the legendary expedition on the Chelyuskin, who ensured the rescue of people after the sinking of the ship and their survival in unprecedentedly difficult conditions of ice drift... Otto Yulievich Schmidt is truly a symbolic person, the personification of the unbending courage of entire generations of Russians explorers and the best traditions of Russian science, the image of an ideal scientist - impeccably honest to himself and his colleagues, to the topic of his research. In the new book of the honorary polar explorer, Doctor of Geographical Sciences Vladislav Sergeevich Koryakin, which Veche publishes jointly with the Russian Geographical Society, the biography of the outstanding The scientist and traveler are presented exclusively fully. Academician Guriy Ivanovich Marchuk in the preface to the book recalls that O.Yu. Schmidt was a pioneer not only in the vastness of the northern seas, but also in such an “armchair” science as mathematics - even before the start of his Arctic epic - and subsequently in geophysics. Afterword written by Doctor of Historical Sciences Sigurd Ottovich Schmidt, the son of a scientist, emphasizes the encyclopedic nature of his knowledge and multifaceted activities, which is so unusual for our time, and the uniqueness of his very personality, which clearly and individually manifested itself in a difficult and heroic period of national history.