The decade of the 1930s represented one of the darkest chapters in the history of the USSR; millions of people from every walk of Soviet life were “repressed,”; often without rhyme or reason, the degree of “repression”; varying from simple dismissal, through exile, imprisonment and torture to execution. Those working in the North were no exception. Scientists, ship captains, and leading northern administrators were all at risk. Those involved in the disastrous 1937 navigation season, when 26 ships were forced to winter at various points along the Northern Sea Route, suffered particularly. In this exposé the author details, as far as he can, the fates of many famous arctic scientist and explorers, including such individuals as R. L. Samoylovich, M. M. Yermolayev, N. I. Yevgenov, and N. N. Urvantsev.