To the 50th Anniversary of the Geodynamics Project

As a flagship of the Soviet research fleet, the research vessel “Vityaz” participated in a number of international projects devoted to the World Ocean exploration. In 1960–1980, she made a large-scale geological and geophysical research of the Earth’s crust and the upper mantle under the oceans within the international project “Upper Mantle and Its Effects on Development of the Earth’s Crust” and the Global Geodynamics Project. However, the information on these projects deserves much more attention. Based on all the published archival and museum materials, the article tries to present a coherent picture and show a scale of the research made by the USSR; to compare and evaluate significance of the works performed on board the R-V “Vityaz” within the above-mentioned projects.

R-V “Vityaz”, ocean study, international programmers, international cooperation, upper mantle, Earth’s crust