'The first practical Soviet steps towards getting a foothold in the Antarctic': the Soviet Antarctic whaling flotilla Slava

AfterWorldWar II (WWII), the USSR acquired a whaling flotilla as war reparations from the Germans. This event was the beginning of Soviet whaling in the Antarctic. It also motivated the USSR to sign the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and to use its whaling operations to exercise leverage with regard to political advantage in any future discussions on an international regime for the Antarctic.