modelled as the four Soviet polar explorers Ivan Papanin, Ernst Krenkel, Evgenii Feodorov and Petr Shirsov with Papanin's dog Jolly, after a design by Natalia Danko, modelled by Ivan Kuznetsov, stamped dark green factory mark and iron red jubilee mark, incised initials IK (Cyrillic)

Hillwood Museum, no. 58; Pushkin Museum, no. 43

Oda k Radosti/Ode to Joy, p. 165, cat. no. 101; for comparison, see Nosovich and Popova, p. 573; Agitatsiia za schast'e, St Petersburg, 1994, p. 272; and Revolution, Life and Labor, New York, 1992, p. 28, pl. 24.

Generally in very good condition with restoration: The flag has been replaced and is now formed of a non-porcelain material, most likely plaster. This appears to have been done not to repair a break, but with the entire flag intentionally removed, probably done to 'de-Stalinise' the object. (Another known example of this model incorporate a flag moulded or painted with Stalin's face; another has the top of its flag removed.) There are small separations at points where the flag meets the figure, with apparent re-touching; also where the flag meets its pole. There are some small inherent firing flaws and a few small chips to the underside of the base. A handful of small areas overall illuminate under UV light, indicating spots of re-touching.
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This monumental, multi-figure composition by Natalia Danko is based loosely on the famous image (fig. 1) taken by photojournalist Iakov Khalip on 19 February , 1938. For nine months, these four scientists had conducted meteorological and biological experiments from a moving ice floe. When the ice began to break up under a blizzard the Soviet government sent an icebreaker to rescue the team, including Khalip to capture the moment of recovery on 19th February 1938.

In March 1938, Ivan Papanin and his team of three – hydrobiologist Pytor Shirshov, geophysicist Yevgeny Fyodorov and radioman Ernst Krenkel -  returned to Leningrad as Heroes of the Soviet Union having successfully established the first manned drifting ice station on the North Pole. The expedition repre𝓡sented the new Soviet Union’s ambitious and pioneering attitude to scientific research and exploration that was also behind☂ the great Space explorations after the Second World War. That previous British and American attempts had been significantly less conclusive and often tragic, made the expedition all the more worthy of celebration.

The Lomonosov State Porcelain Manufactory chose its leading and long-serving designer, Natalia Danko, to produce a commemorative model that would do justice to and encourage the propagation of such an eminent Soviet achievement. The close relationship between the new ideology and the porcelain manufactory is strongly conveyed by the contemporary critic Erikh Gollerbakh, who commented in 1929 that porcelain from Danko’s hands had become “a mirror of the ☂revolution”. Accompanied by their faithful dog Jolly the group, supported and surmounted by a large red flag, forms a dramatically directional and sturdy, triangular composition which captures the atဣtention and imagination as vividly today as it would have in those early years of the Soviet Union.