The year 1988 marked the 80th anniversary of the birth of an illustrious polar researcher, Mikhail Mikhaylovich Somov. Born in Moscow in 1908, he graduated from the Hydrological Department of the Moscow Hydrometeorological Institute in 1937; he first went to the Arctic to study sea ice in 1938. In 1946 he continued these studies as Deputy Leader of the Eastern High Latitude Expedition aboard the ice breakerSevernyy Polyusand shortly after was a member of the so‐called “jumping”; detachments which landed on the arctic ice to carry out scientific work. In 1950 Somov led theSevernyy Polyus‐2drifting station. In 1955 Somov went south to the Antarctic for the first time as leader of the First Soviet Antarctic Expedition, which established stations at Mirnyy, Pio‐nerskaya and Oazis. Returning to the USSR, Somov became Deputy Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and shortly afterward the permanent Soviet representative on the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research. In 1962–1963 and 1963–1964 Somov led the Eighth and Ninth Soviet Antarctic expeditions, the latter being his final antarctic expedition. He died on December 30, 1973. The flagship of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition,Mikhail Somovin service since 1975, is named after him.