🗓 On October 26, 1988 Soviet sailors rescued a family of whales stuck near Alaska.

Eskimo Roy Ahmagoak discovered three trapped gray whales near Cape Barrow. Long-term layers of ice prevented them from going to sea. For two weeks, local residents and American rescuers tried to free the animals. But the US barge could not reach the scene. Then the Americans turned to the USSR for help.

Soon the icebreakers "Admiral Makarov" and "Vladimir Arsenyev" arrived. Alas, by that time one of the whales had died, suffocating in the ice, and two continued to fight. Hope remained only on Soviet icebreakers.

The powerful "Admiral Makarov" broke through the ice to the entrance to the lagoon, then "Vladimir Arseniev", risking running aground, cut the ice in the strait. Along this path, the whales were able to swim out into the channel cut by the Americans, and then into the open sea.

The whale rescue operation was over. It was one of the rare moments when the US and the USSR rallied, forgetting about the Cold War.