Eight local athletes, two women and eight men, participate in the relay. They are accompanied by a small group of people on an off-roader. The skiers are to cover 722 kilometers and reach Dudinka, the administrative center of the Taimyr autonomous area.
According to Dikson mayor Nikolai Petukhov, the skiers started the relay after attending the local museum and other memorial sites. Dikson is known to have seen the easternmost battle with Wehrmacht units. In an attempt to paralyze the navigation of cargo vessels on the Northern Sea Route, the Nazi command sent the Admiral Scheer battleship to Dikson in August 1942. A landing operation was launched, however, a howitzer battery under Lieutenant Kornyakov's command inflicted serious damage on the Nazi vessel and forced it to retreat.
Having observed a moment of silence near the tomb of those killed in the battle, the skiers headed southwards.
They are expected to arrive in Dudinka on April 17, the date of the referendum on the unification of Taimyr, Evenkia and the Krasnoyarsk territory into a one constituent entity of the Russian Federation. On Thursday the skiers arrived from Dudinka in Dikson on board the Taimyr atomic ice-breaker. They brought the necessary equipment and foodstuffs from the administrative center.
