Volga ships and steamships in old photos. The assets of one of the largest Russian shipping companies are being consolidated under a new name Samara River Shipping Company

The second largest river cruise market in Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg, is the Volga region, the third is Crikamye. Which, in general, is natural, and quite fair. The Volga and Kama river travel markets have been established for a long time and have not undergone significant changes in the current season. As before, their leaders are both local companies - Samara "Sputnik-Germes", Nizhny Novgorod GAMA, and the capital - Moscow "Vodokhod" and St. Petersburg "Infoflot". Kama, relatively small but numerous Perm operators, also lives an active cruise life.

It should also be noted that in the current navigation they have to work in difficult conditions, taking into account the fact that the water situation on the Volga in the Nizhny Novgorod region turned out to be extremely tense. Limited depths do not allow today the largest 4-deck motor ships to pass through the Gorodetsky locks. However, there are not so many cruise ships of this class in the cities located down the river, and therefore the majority of operators did not have to seriously change their planned cruise routes.

Samara

Samara has long been a trendsetter for cruise "fashion" on the Volga. A company from the capital's operators works here "Vodohod". This time she sent her four-deck liner here. "Konstantin Korotkov"(project 301). In addition, the residents of Samara and Kazan are served by another Vodohodovsky ship - "Semyon Budyonny"(project 92-016). The Samara branch of the St. Petersburg company has been operating for several years "Infoflot". This year, he, acting as the general agent of two shipowners - Bashkir river shipping company and Volgograd "Cruise", organizes tours on their two- and three-deck motor ships "Salavat Yulaev" And "Alexander Nevskiy" projects 305 and 588, respectively. The Perm operating company also stepped up its activities in Samara "Express Tour", which has its sales office here. Her ship "Great Rus'"(project 588, former "General N.F. Vatutin") will be in this city at the end of the season, from where it will go to Rostov-on-Don and Kerch.

Among the local operators is a travel agency "Samara travel". This year she operates two motor ships: "Kabargin" (project 588) and "Pallada"(project 305). A month ago, Kabargin became the property of the company and was renamed "Prince Donskoy". The ship goes on 2-6-day voyages, and will also go on long tours for 1-2 weeks to Astrakhan, Goritsy, Moscow, and has already visited Rostov-on-Don. The second ship "Pallada" from July to mid-September is planned to be used both on short routes to Kazan, Ulyanovsk, and on longer routes to Murom, Nizhny Novgorod, Astrakhan, Perm.

Company "Volgaples" this season operates two own motor ships: “A.I. Herzen"(project 588), which also serves tourists from Kazan and Saratov, and "Dmitry Pozharsky"(project 588), covering a wider client geography, which includes many cities of the Volga region and St. Petersburg. The operator's other vessels are on lease: "Captain Pushkarev"(project 26-37) - in Perm at VolgaWolga, "Cosmonaut Gagarin"(project 588) - in Nizhny Novgorod at Infoflot. Another veteran of the Samara market of river cruises, Aquarius-Tour, after last year's failure with the ship Caesar, seems to have stopped its cruise activities.

The leading cruise company of the Volga region is still "Sputnik-Hermes". In its fleet today there are four motor ships: four-deck "Fedor Dostoevsky"(project 301), "Surgeon Razumovsky", “F.I. Panferov"(projects 588) and three-deck "Valery Chkalov"(project 26-37). Of these, "Chkalov" is the company's own ship, and the rest belong to the Kama Shipping Company and are located at Sputnik-Germes on a long-term lease with a crew. This means, says the CEO Natalya Denisova that the shipowner has a license for transportation, and the charterer is fully engaged in the cruise service of the vessel. It is also assigned to the re-equipment and repair of motor ships, of course, at its own expense, which, in accordance with the requirements of the river register, should be carried out regularly. We note one more fact, very important for a certain contingent of travelers: all the company's liners have their own wi-fi.

As Ms. Denisova told us: “Since last year, the company has slightly changed the usual schedules for its cruise ships. And now if, for example, we go to Astrakhan, then we go with an overnight stay. That allows those who wish to go to the Volga Delta for fishing, and then catch up with the ship on the way. On the Kama, we paid special attention to the parking lot in Sarapul. From here it is possible to organize interesting excursions to Izhevsk, which is only 60 km away. We try to insert other innovations into the existing programs of our cruise tours. So, they began to build a weekend flight Samara - Kazan a little differently, it would seem that everyone has long been familiar with it. Now our ship leaves on Friday and comes back on Sunday not in the morning, as before, but in the evening, which allows tourists to stay longer in Kazan.”

Nizhny Novgorod

The company acts as the leading cruise operator in Nizhny Novgorod, the former capital of the Volga. GAMA. It again manages 6 cruise passenger ships. One of them, three-deck “A.S. Popov"(project 588), again went to St. Petersburg - the place of his permanent summer deployment, where he continued to perform numerous 3-day flights to Valaam. Two other motor ships, double-deck "Alexander Sveshnikov" And "Aldan", go all over the Volga, taking on board tourists, both from the Lower and from other centers of the Volga region.

But the main concern and pride of the company is, of course, the transport and passenger line Moscow - Astrakhan, which operated back in Soviet times. GAMA was able to preserve and restore it, however, in a somewhat different form than before. Nevertheless, the same, from among the surviving, three-deck motor ships of project 26-37 continue to run on the rolled water route according to the schedule: "Afanasy Nikitin", "October Revolution", "Ivan Kulibin".

In addition, comfortable liners of the Vodokhod company have been based in Nizhny Novgorod for many years: four-deck "Georgy Zhukov" And "Mikhail Frunze"(both projects 92-016). In navigation in 2014, they will again go along the Volga routes familiar to them, as well as to the Don, Kama and Belaya.

Kazan

There will not be so many direct river cruises that are formed directly in Kazan this year, since only two ships remain, compared to last year's four, based in this millionth city. And among them is a modernized 4-deck liner “F.I. Panferov" operated by the company "Sputnik-Hermes". A few years ago, by the way, Parfenov was chartered by the local company Volga Travels. And in this navigation, she organizes cruise tours on a 2-deck passenger ship "Boris Polevoy"(pr. 305), which is going to be bought from its former owner - another Kazan travel agency "Admiral". "Polevoi" goes on weekend tours and long hikes along the Volga, reaches Bolgar and Tver, visits Perm, Astrakhan and Yelabuga. In addition, a number of operator companies for navigation will perform several tours directly from Kazan. Among them will be motor ships of the companies GAMA, Vodokhod, Infoflot and some others.

Permian

A significant number of cruise operating companies have long and firmly settled in this regional center on the Kama. Although for some reason not many, even among the tourist industry, know that Perm and its environs, primarily the Urals, lead a very intensive cruise life. As a natural result, the region's river market is regularly expanding. This summer, more passenger ships are again operating here than a year earlier.

In particular, the ship comes here for the first time "Anatoly Papanov"(project 588) Rostov travel agency "Voyage", which opened its branch in the city. From June 20, Papanova's cruise schedule includes both 3-day voyages to Tchaikovsky and back, and 17-19-day voyages to St. Petersburg and Rostov. A new company has also started working in Perm "Kama Tour Fleet" affiliated with OJSC "Shipping Company" Kama River Shipping Company "- the main shipowner of this river basin. Together with the company "Kama-Travel", she is engaged in servicing the motor ship "Pavel Bazhov" (project 588), in navigation-2013, which was under the supervision of the VolgaWolga company.

In turn, the Perm operator "VolgaWolga"- the cruise division of the local travel company Sputnik RMK charters two passenger ships for navigation-2014: "Mikhail Kutuzov" And "Captain Pushkarev", three-deck ships, but of different designs - 588 and 26-37, and shipowners - Kama Shipping Company and Volgaples (Samara), respectively. Moreover, if the company has already worked with the first ship for ten years, then it was the first time it chartered the second one.

Operator firm "Hunter" organizes cruise programs on two motor ships of project 588: “N.V. Gogol", which has been dealing with for more than a season and "Ural", with him the company works for the first time. The last ship was previously called "Taras Bulba" and belonged to the no longer existing SK "Ural". "Hunter", according to the leading specialist of the company Konstantin Kletskov, pays special attention to the entertainment program during cruises. Accordingly, its main clientele are young people or those who consider themselves to be such. For more than five years, another operator company, Kama-Travel, has been chartering a ship "Kozma Minin"(project 588) from the Kama Shipping Company - its official partner. This year, the ship under her command is carrying out cruise tours from Perm from June 23 to October 10. Routes - from Tchaikovsky to Astrakhan and Yaroslavl.

Another Perm company "Kuban" since the mid-90s has been operating a three-deck motor ship "Alexander Fadeev"(project 588), renting it again from the Kama Shipping Company. And from May 30 to September 27 continues to work with him in the navigation of the 14th year. The main cruise contingent on board this ship are people of middle and above age and corresponding income. Interestingly, "Kuban" refused short tours, lasting 2-3 days, largely because the people often, and quite rightly, call them "drunken flights". This was done, according to the Deputy Director Anna Gulyaeva, so as not to harm the image of the company, "positioning itself as a serious river operator." So this season, Fadeev operates cruises lasting 6-18 days to Kazan, Volgograd, St. Petersburg and other destinations.

Company "Express Tour"(she is Cruise Fleet Rusich) is the owner of the ships "Native Rus'"(project 26-37, former names "Klement Gottwald", "Catherine the Great") and "Great Rus'", which has already been mentioned. "Native Rus" carries tourists from Perm mainly along the Kama, the middle and lower Volga, and also goes on long-distance crossings. "Rus Velikaya", which has a nautical status, operates flights to the Solovetsky Islands with a direct passage through the White Sea, moreover, from the current navigation it will begin to enter the Azov and Black Seas. However, this ship will spend the coming season not on its native Perm land, but mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It remains to be said about cruise shipping on the largest tributary of the Kama - the Belaya River. Here, in Ufa, for the second year in a row, tourists are served by a small double-deck motor ship "Bashkortostan" project 305. Its navigation this time will last from May 25 to September 17. The operator and at the same time the owner of the vessel is based directly on Belaya. In navigation, Bashkortostan announced cruise trips to Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Astrakhan, as well as a new route to Cheboksary lasting from 7 to 17 days.

Prepared by Igor Gornostaev

Distribution of cruise ships in river navigation in 2014.
(Volga region and Kama region)

Bankrupt Volga Oil Shipping Company Volgotanker may be given a chance to save the company. Vitaliy Shemigon, the bankruptcy trustee of the enterprise, initiated the procedure for replacing the company's assets, under which the fleet and other assets of the shipping company can be transferred in full to the successor company. Experts believe that in this way the manager is trying to save the once largest shipping company in central Russia.

Vitaly Shemigon, bankruptcy trustee of the bankrupt OJSC Volga Oil Shipping Company Volgotanker, intends to launch an asset replacement procedure at the enterprise. The relevant issue was included in the agenda of the meeting of creditors scheduled for January 26. This is stated in the message of the manager dated January 11, published in the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information.

OAO Volga Oil Shipping Company Volgotanker was registered in Samara in 1992. According to the SPARK-Interfax system, 73.85% of the company's shares are owned by Trinfico CJSC, another 20% is controlled by the Federal Property Management Agency. The company's revenue in 2016 amounted to 209.5 million rubles, net profit - 97.6 million rubles.

By the early 2000s, Volgotanker was the largest oil shipping company in central Russia. The company owned 353 vessels with a total carrying capacity of more than 1.2 million tons and accounted for about 10% of the total volume of Russian fuel oil exports. Until 2000, the shipping company belonged to the structures of Yukos, but subsequently changed owners more than once. In 2007, the Federal Tax Service initiated the bankruptcy of the company, which continues to this day. Alexander Volzhanin supervised the procedure, in February 2014 he was replaced by Vitaly Shemigon, a member of the Moscow NP SRO NAU Delo. At the enterprise competitive production is entered.

With the introduction of the monitoring procedure, the debt to the fiscals amounted to 3.3 billion rubles. By 2011, according to SPARK-Interfax, accounts payable increased to 6.02 billion rubles. According to the minutes of the meeting of creditors in April 2015, the debt decreased to 1.3 billion rubles. The register of creditors includes the Federal Tax Service with claims for 1.29 billion rubles, Samara CJSC Nefteflot (3.8 million rubles) and PKP Tanker-Service LLC from Astrakhan (350 thousand rubles).

It was not possible to find out why the manager decided to start the replacement procedure: in a telephone conversation, Mr. Shemigon said that he had just returned from vacation and he “needed a time-out to immerse himself in business.”

As lawyer Dmitry Natarius told Kommersant-Volga, asset replacement is one of the types of satisfying creditors' claims and restoring the company's solvency, which is used if the manager is faced with the task of maintaining the enterprise as a single property complex.

In this case, on the basis of the bankrupt's property, a new joint-stock company is created, the shares of which are sold by public subscription. The proceeds from their sale are used to pay off the claims of creditors. If this allows you to fully pay off the debts of the bankrupt, the solvency of the company is considered restored and the bankruptcy procedure is terminated.

“Usually, asset substitution is used if the whole property complex of an enterprise is of greater value than the sum of its assets. Breaking up property and putting it up for auction may mean depreciation of property,” said Mr. Natarius.

From the very beginning of the bankruptcy, Volgotanker's assets were put up for auction, so the company's fleet was significantly reduced. According to the Russian River Register, the company owns 46 vessels for various purposes. A significant part of the company's fleet was transferred to its subsidiary from Ufa - BashVolgotanker Shipping Company CJSC, which has a fleet of 147 vessels.

It was the shares of BashVolgotanker that were considered the main asset of the bankrupt company. The position of the Ufa subsidiary strengthened in 2017, when the company became the winner of a major contract of PJSC NK Rosneft for the transportation of petroleum products in 2018-2022 for a total amount of almost 11.6 billion rubles.

As Dmitry Natarius explained to Kommersant-Volga, the asset replacement procedure allows the transfer of intangible assets to a new legal entity: licenses, trademarks, trade name and shares of subsidiaries.

Also, the assets of the shipping company, which were previously sold under the hammer, can be transferred to the balance of the new legal entity, if Vitaly Shemigon manages to return them to the bankruptcy estate. At the end of 2017, he filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court challenging the results of the auction in 2009, during which ten vessels of various types and purposes were sold to Consultservice Diversified Firm LLC from Astrakhan. Then oil barges of the Belskaya type, the pusher tug Sluzovoy-47, the traveling motor ship Volna, stations for pumping oil and fuel oil and other vessels went under the hammer. Judicial documents do not contain information about their value, experts from the field of river transportation note that the cost of a vessel depends on its condition: ships of the same type can be sold at the price of scrap metal and as a working asset.

However, on December 20, the court upheld the claims of the administrator to impose interim measures on the disputed assets, forbidding the FBU "Administration of the Volga Inland Waterways Basin" to register the transfer, termination or restriction of ownership or change the port of registration of ships.

Dmitry Tsibizov, CEO of the DSTS Finance Consulting consulting group, believes that the manager's attempt to return assets to the bankruptcy estate is a logical step to increase the company's liquidity before starting the asset replacement procedure. By returning part of the sold-out fleet to the company's balance sheet, he increases the company's attractiveness for future shareholders.

“By returning liquid assets to the enterprise and restoring its solvency, he can not only satisfy the requirements of creditors, but also save the company,” Mr. Tsibizov believes.

It was not possible to find out the position of creditors on this issue: the press service of the Federal Tax Service of Russia could not provide an operational comment. Representatives of Nefteflot and Tanker Service refused to discuss this topic. Nevertheless, Dmitry Natarius believes that the bankruptcy trustee has probably discussed the replacement of assets with creditors and it is highly likely that they will support his proposal. The lawyer believes that the value of the shares of the enterprise, which will be created in the process of replacing assets, should cover the claims of creditors.

“The manager should have studied this issue and certainly knows how valuable the assets of the enterprise are in order to initiate the process,” the expert sums up.

None of Kommersant-Volga's interlocutors began to predict what structures could apply for the purchase of the enterprise, which will get the fleet of one of the largest Russian shipping companies. However, given the presence of long-term oil contracts and the solid property base of Volgotanker, it will certainly arouse interest among potential investors, experts say.

Volga ships, steamships (and motor ships) and other floating ships. funds on old photographs and postcards. Part of the photo from the archive of Vladimir Samartsev.

A bit from the history of shipping on the Volga:
For centuries, ships sailed along the Volga only exclusively under sail or with the help of the draft power of animals or people, that is, barge haulers. But in the end, the time of steam-powered ships also came on the great Russian river. The first steamships on the Volga appeared in the late 1810s - early 1820s, they belonged to the landowner D.P. Evreinov. There were also two Volga steamships that belonged to Prince Vsevolod Vsevolozhsky, who in 1817 personally made a trip on one of them to Kazan. The designer of one of the ships was Pyotr Sobolevsky. The formation of shipping on the Volga was slowed down due to the monopoly of the Scottish entrepreneur Carl Bird until 1842, and during this period only 16 steamships were built on the Volga.

In 1843, by decision of the government, the Volga Shipping Company was established with its center in St. Petersburg, and regular steamship navigation has been organized since 1846. Subsequently, other large shipping companies were organized on the Volga - Samolet, Along the Volga, Kavkaz and Mercury, as well as many small companies that competed with each other. Passenger river transportation has long been considered unprofitable, primarily due to the length of travel on steamboats and the high cost of travel. Only after a significant increase in the power of steam engines on the Volga, steamers that were fast enough for that time appeared. In Samara, the first regular passenger flight took place on April 16, 1860.

Each company of shipowners had its own, separate group of names of steamships. This was done so that by the name of the vessel it was easy to find out which society they belong to. In particular, the Volga shipping company had the ships Tsar, Tsaritsa, Tsarevich, Tsarevna, Sovereign and Sovereign. The Druzhina Society named its ships after saints - Alexander, Pavel, Mikhail, Vladimir, Oleg and Igor. Names closer to the theme of travel were invented by the Samolet shipping company - Putnik, Wanderer, Tourist, and even Telegraph and Depeche. Some owners assigned their names to the ships - "Subbotin", "Chernov", "Lev Sorokin", "Korolev" and "Ivan Lyubimov". In Nizhny Novgorod there were steamships with the names "Mississippi", "Colorado" and "Niagara".

However, a crisis in the steamship industry on the Volga soon set in. In 1875, about 600 steamboats were operating on the river, and passenger companies began to suffer greatly from mutual competition. Many companies began to operate at a loss, barely covering fuel costs. As a result, the cost of shipping services fell, some companies went bankrupt and were forced to sell ships and other property for next to nothing.

In 1918, the ships of private shipping companies were nationalized. In Soviet times, various state shipping companies operated, and pre-revolutionary ships were used for a long time. Many ships have been renamed. During the Great Patriotic War, the Volga Flotilla operated on the Volga, which carried out military transportation, and on the Upper Volga and near Stalingrad cleared mines and took part in several battles.

01. Kosovye on the Volga

02. Crossing the Volga, №35

03. Volga, in tow, edition of K. Golovkin in Samara

04. Samara, view of the Volga, №60

05. Zaton in Samara

06. Volga, steamer "Mezhen" No. 16 (year of construction - 1884, year of decommissioning is unknown). It was visited by Emperor Nicholas II with his family.

07. Volga, steamship "Mezhen"

08. Volga, ship "Mississippi"

09. Volzhskaya No. 8 bottom cleaning machine "Gryaznukha"

10. Volga, at the pier of the society "Caucasus and Mercury"

11. Volga

12. Volga, a group of passengers on the ship

13. Volga, passenger ship of the society K and M ("Kavkaz and Mercury") No. 30

14. Views of the Volga, departure of the ship

15. Volga, steamer "Peter the Great", No. 5

16. Volga, towing steamer, No. 13

19. Volga, past the Zhiguli, No. 67

20. Volga, "in the mountains"

21. Barges on the Volga

22. Volga, steamship "Goncharov" of the society "Airplane"

23. Caravan on the Volga, No. 20

25. Samara, beach near Annaev's dacha

26. Volga, the ship of the society "Caucasus and Mercury" "Field Marshal Suvorov"

27. Volga, the ship of the society "Caucasus and Mercury" "Field Marshal Suvorov", No. 62

28. Volga, steamship "Alexander II", photographer A.P. Vasiliev in Samara

29. Volga, steamer "Gennady Ratkov Rozhnov" of the society "Airplane"

30. Volga, the ship "Alexander" of the society "Rus"

31. Samara, ship "Nizhegorodets", No. 66

32. Volga, the ship of the society "Airplane", No. 17

33. Volga, steamship "Pushkin", photographer A.P. Vasiliev in Samara

34. Steamboat "Tsarevich"

35. Steamship "Emperor Nicholas II"

36. Volga, the ship of society K and M

37. Motor ship "Tsargrad", later renamed "Uritsky"

38. Volga, steamer "Tsesarevich Nikolay", No. 2

39. Volga, ship "Peter the Great" No. 9

40. Towing steamer "Samara"

41. Volga, ship "Noblewoman"

42. The steamer "Paris Commune", and on the left the tugboat "Poor"

43. Steamboat "Kremlin"

44. Volga, tug "Ukrainian" near the village of Batraki (now Oktyabrsk), 1927

45. Steamer "Vasily Lebedev-Kumach"

46. ​​Volga, steamer near the village. Morkvashi (now Zhigulevsk), 1930s

47. Volga, steamer "K.S. Stanislavsky", photo by Semyon Fridlyand, 1950s (built in 1909, decommissioned in 1973)

48. Volga, ships near Nizhny Novgorod, photo by Semyon Fridlyand, 1950s

49. Volga, ships near Nizhny Novgorod, photo by Semyon Fridlyand, 1950s

50. Volga, steamboats "Pavel Bazhov" and "Vera Figner" at the river station of Kazan, photo by Semyon Fridlyand, 1950s

I invite everyone to the group "History of the Volga region and the Volga River"