Malygin was built in 1912 as the SS Bruce for the Newfoundland shipping company and sold to Russia in 1915. The ship was originally named Solovei Budemirovich (Соловей Будимирович) after Nightingale the Robber. She was renamed Malygin in 1921.
In 1928, she took part in the search of the Umberto Nobile's dirigible expedition. In 1922-1939, she performed hydrological research in the Arctic Ocean. In July 1931, Professor V. Yu. Vize led an expedition on the Malygin to Franz Josef Land and the northern part of the Kara Sea. Captain D.T. Chertkhov was in command of the Malygin. Other members included technicians whose mission was to locate a suitable place for a Soviet floatplane base in Franz Josef Land. During this expedition German airshipGraf Zeppelin made a memorable rendezvous with icebreaker Malygin at Bukhta Tikhaya in Hooker Island, Franz Josef Land.