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Series facts. The first screw passenger motor ships and the first large
series of the river passenger ships in Russia. The ships had two 6-cylinder diesel
motors of engineer Arshaulov's design; becides that the number of progressive
technical ideas was employed. The ships got comfortable premises of 1, 2, 3 and
4 classes. In many aspects these series had defined the architecture of all later-built
passenger ships.
Serial building. The ships were built on the order of the shipping company
"Kaukas and Mercury" for everyday postal and passenger service Nozhniy
Novgorod - Astrakhan. Since 1911 14 units were planned to be built, but till 1917
only 11 were finished.
Modifications. The ships of the series slightly differed from the first
ship and from each other in construction and exterior.
Designations. Type "Borodino"; "Kolomna motor
ships".
During the Civil war the ships were used for the needs of the Red army
at Tsaritsyn front. "Erzerum" (later "Lenin") was used as
the head-quarters of the Astrakhan-Caspian (later Volga-Caspian) war fleet; as
in some sources, burned down in Tsaritsyn in 1920.
During the World War II the ships participated in the evacuation of
people and wounded soldiers from Stalingrad and carried military cargoes. "Krasnoarmeets"
and "Ilyich" were lost under the german fire during the Stalingrad battle
in 1942. "Akademik Timiryazev" and "Karl Libknekht" were damaged
by the mines and sank near Stalingrad in 1942 and 1943.
In 1954 - 1961 6 remaining ships were radically rebuilt in Astrakhan;
the equipment was renovated, the superstructure and the funnel were changed. Reconstruction
was made on all ships according to almost similar projects (some external differencies
were caused by various state of the hull and the superstructure on each ship).
Later the ships undergone some further modernizations, including replacement of
the wheel-house, after what they got their modern look.
Further operation. The reconstructed ships were operated by Volga Shipping
Company on the passenger line Gorkiy - Astrakhan. "Semnadtsatyy god"
and "25oe Oktyabrya" burned down in 1978 during the winter
lay up in Astrakhan, others served this line till late 80's and then were written
off. In 1986 "Borodino" was given to Kazan port for use as a brandwacht;
scrapped by 1997. Since mid-90's "Parizhskaya Kommuna" was in Khlebnikovo,
later towed to Belyy Gorodok, where burned down 1999. By 1994 "Pamyat tov.
Markina" was transferred to Feodosia (Crimea), where she was used as a floating
restaurant and, perhaps, a hotel; later she was towed to the Crimea seaside near
Sudak, where is staying till present. "Uritskiy" was written off in
1991, after what her location is unknown; perhaps, by late 90's she was scrapped
in Ukraine.
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Russian
River Ships
Passenger Ships of Distant Sail
Copyright: Bill
Worden, Vladislav Prokofyev, Alexander Sosnin, Sergey Petukhov,
Andrey Efremov, Dmitriy Ileskin, Alexey Kirillov, Alexander
Zheltikov, Oleg Chikhirev, Georgy Frolov, Sergey Sakhnovskiy,
Anatoliy Talygin and the publications.
