Crisis at-126DEG F.

Pressagentry is supersensitive in the U.S.S.R. And so, not until last week did Russia let the world know about a dramatic August 1960 crisis that almost brought disaster to Vostok, the Soviet base near the South Magnetic Pole.

August is the coldest month at Vostok, and during three dark days the temperature fell to the alltime record low of -88.5DEG C. (-126DEG F.). Inside the low, insulated buildings the twelve-man crew was comfortable enough, warmed by the waste heat from the main diesel generator. "But at this temperature," explained Base Chief Vasily Sidorov, "diesel fuel becomes a sticky mass, antifreeze crystallizes and metals get brittle. So it was not perhaps surprising that our main diesel cracked its bedplate."

With the main diesel out, a small emergency generator provided a little heat and electricity. But soon the terrible cold outside struck into the dim-lit quarters. Burning diesel oil in improvised stoves was out of the question. Used in this inefficient way, the supply would not have lasted until help arrived. The best--and probably the only--chance for Vostok was to get the main diesel running again so its generous heat could beat back the cold.

The mechanics took the diesel off its base and tried to weld the crack. Part way through the job, the welding torch ran out of oxygen. Now Vostok was really in peril. Its only hope was a cylinder of oxygen dropped from an airplane the previous autumn. It had broken loose from its parachute and plunged into deep snow. Efforts to find it were abandoned, but the area where it fell--more than a mile from the station--had been carefully marked.

Venturing cautiously into the lung-freezing cold, the crew lit torches and stretched a guide rope through the darkness to the place where the cylinder had fallen. By the light of a bonfire they pitched a tent over the marked spot. Inside the tent they set up a stove and fed it with empty provision boxes and spare clothes soaked in used lubricants. Foot by foot a shaft sank down through the snow. After 30 hours of continuous work, it was 50 ft. deep, but still no sign of the oxygen cylinder.

"Enthusiasm was lagging," said Sidorov, "when Igor Ivanov and Gleb Nikolayev signaled to be lifted up the shaft. Everybody looked down and saw their smiling faces. Nikolayev was holding a rope, the end of which we knew was attached to the cylinder." After eight more feet of digging, the cylinder itself appeared. It was hurried back to the fast-cooling station and used to weld the base plate. Soon the main diesel was chugging again. Vostok was saved.

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