Ship victory. German civil ships received by the USSR for reparations. On the main deck

The tragedy with the Pobeda liner, which happened in the early autumn of 1948, was practically not mentioned anywhere for many years. The information was immediately hidden under the heading "secret". However, there was a man who, years later, still managed to thoroughly unwind this tangle of mysteries - a naval historian, a retired captain of the II rank, Oktyabr Bar-Biryukov.

The correspondent of "MK" happened to meet with him more than once during the life of Oktyabr Petrovich. He spoke in detail about what he could learn about this fiery catastrophe.

For starters, concrete facts. On July 31, 1948, Pobeda, serving the international line Odessa-New York, set off from the coast of America on a return flight. There are more than 300 passengers and several dozen crew members on board. The voyage lasted a whole month, and at the very end of it an emergency occurred.

On September 1, a severe fire broke out on the ship. The flames spread so fast that the sailors didn't even have time to give an SOS signal. Coastal services raised the alarm only almost a day later, when the ship did not appear in Odessa by the appointed time. Rescue ships reached the scene only on the morning of 3 September. By this time, the liner's sailors and passengers had already managed to neutralize the fire. However, dozens of people died from the flames and smoke. Including the "most important passenger" - Chinese Marshal Feng Yuxiang.

Competitor of the Great Pilot

During the years of revolutionary upheavals in China and the struggle against the Japanese aggressors, this man gained immense popularity among his compatriots. Since the mid-1920s, the military leader has “sinned” with politics, and in 1924 he even carried out a coup d'etat and captured Beijing, being at the head of loyal troops. After that, the future marshal for some time went over to the side of the Kuomintang Party and actively supported Chiang Kai-shek, who headed it. However, with the beginning of active military opposition to Japan, which occupied part of the Celestial Empire, Feng changed his political coloring and tuned in to rapprochement with the Chinese Communists (which caused considerable anger of the American administration). In addition, the politician with marshal's shoulder straps adhered to pro-Kremlin positions and repeatedly stated in public speeches that only the Soviet Union is and will continue to be "a true friend of the Chinese people."

The end of World War II, which ended with the surrender of Japan and the liberation of China from the invaders, found Feng in America. Meanwhile, a civil war was still going on in his homeland, in which the success of one of the opposing sides was clearly outlined: the Communist-led People's Liberation Army of China smashed troops loyal to the bourgeois Kuomintang. It was already clear that in the near future in the most populous country in the world a new government would have to be created that would unite the nation. But who will lead it?

Mao Zedong seemed confident as the No. 1 candidate. However, the last word had to come from the Kremlin: by this time, China was too dependent on the military support of the USSR. So the main "fixer" was Stalin. And the generalissimo, although he patronized Mao, was still not completely sure of him. Probably, the cunning "leader of the peoples" had another card up his sleeve to play the Chinese party.

Such a card could be Marshal Feng Yuxiang. At the very least, his journey in 1948 from America to China in a roundabout way through the USSR suggests that the “bride-in-law” of this politician was scheduled in the Soviet capital before deciding on his possible coming to the most important state post in the Celestial Empire.

Did Mao Zedong know about this? Surely he knew. Was he afraid of a competitor? It would be foolish not to be afraid. Therefore, the sudden death of the marshal turned out to be very beneficial for the future Great Pilot. It is so profitable that it makes you think: is it possible that the fiery state of emergency was set up on board the Pobeda?

To draw some conclusions, let's restore the chronology of the tragedy with the help of the facts collected by Bar-Biriukov.

At one time, Oktyabr Petrovich explained to the MK correspondent how he managed to connect to this topic: “In 1949, after graduating from the Caspian Higher Naval School, I was assigned to Sevastopol. I saw "Victory" there. Severely burned, she stood in the roadstead, waiting in line for repairs. Later, through the employees of the shipyard, I had a chance to get acquainted with the participants in the events - members of the crew of the liner. From them I learned the details of this incident. And then I was lucky to get to some documents ... "

Cinema is a hindrance to the guardhouse

Here is what happened on board the Pobeda, according to the official version.

On the afternoon of September 1, the liner passed the beam of Novorossiysk, about which the captain transmitted a corresponding radio message to the Black Sea Shipping Company. However, after that, the connection with the ship suddenly disappeared.

At the same time, one of the crew members, radio engineer Kovalenko, who also acted as a projectionist, decided to prepare his film industry for an imminent arrival at the home port. Among the urgent tasks is to rewind and pack in tin boxes the films that Kovalenko has shown in recent days. The entire film library taken on a voyage was stored in a small room next to the cabins in the central part of the liner.

Here's an interesting fact. According to the stories of some members of the team, the Pobeda had a special pantry for storing films and working with them. It was located on one of the upper decks not far from the saloon, where films were played in the evenings. However, by order of the shipping company, shortly before the fatal voyage, this room was converted into a ship's guardhouse. The boxes with the film library that remained “homeless” as a result - and more than 40 of them were taken on that flight - had to be attached to a cramped closet that was completely unsuitable for this.

So, it was necessary to wind the watched parts of the films onto their "native" reels. Kovalenko instructed the sailor Skripnikov, assigned to help, to do this. The work is simple: know how to turn the handle of the machine! But at some point, the sailor apparently overdid it. In a hurry to quickly complete a tedious task, he dragged the film too quickly. And it was made according to the then technologies, from a very flammable material. From increased friction during fast rewinding, the film heated up - and suddenly flared up! The flame instantly spread to the rolls lying nearby. However, according to another version, the sailor, violating safety rules, lit a cigarette in the back room and overlooked the smoldering cigarette ...

Be that as it may, the fire broke out in a matter of seconds engulfed the room. Clothes on Skripnikov caught fire. Losing consciousness from suffocating clouds of smoke, he barely had time to jump out into the corridor.

The fiery element that had been roaming in the pantry broke free after him. Tongues of flame fled along the carpet paths, along the wooden paneling of the walls. A few minutes later, the fire penetrated the gangway to the deck located above, then attacked the bridge ...

Very quickly, the flames engulfed the entire central part of the liner. The cabins located here, the navigation and wheelhouses were on fire. The “Red Rooster” also entered the radio room - the watch radio operator Vedeneev was taken by surprise by fire and, saving his life, jumped out of the room through the porthole. He did not have time to send a radiogram about a fire that had started on the ship or an SOS signal. It was also not possible to use a spare walkie-talkie: it burned down in the chart room. Therefore, the ship in distress did not inform anyone about the tragedy that had unfolded on board. For coastal services and other ships, Pobeda turned into a ghost ship for several hours. But this "Flying Dutchman" was on fire.

Finally, the fire alarm sounded on the liner. By that time, the flames had already spread quite widely - and not only up, but also down: the fire approached the engine room. However, the sailors who were there, as soon as the first clouds of smoke entered the compartment, immediately batten down all the doors and hatches, preventing the flame from penetrating inside. From the fire in the adjacent hold spaces, the metal walls of the compartment heated up so that the paint began to swell with bubbles. I had to water these bulkheads with outboard water from hoses. As a result, the “heart” of the ship managed to be defended.

After the announcement of the fire alarm, the Pobeda crew acted with dignity. Part of the team launched the boats and organized the evacuation of passengers, others fought the fire. The sailors were also assisted by many of the male passengers. Unfortunately, not all regular fire extinguishing equipment turned out to be efficient. For example, some of the large fire extinguishers "sour". During the subsequent investigative check, it turned out that someone was smuggling contraband in these red cylinders: the bodies of fire extinguishers were stuffed with bundles of imported panne velvet fashionable in those years ...

And yet the fire managed to curb. And even before help arrived.

The final elimination of the fire and checking the condition of the compartments took almost a day. After that, the emergency liner, surrounded by military and rescue ships, reached the port of Odessa on September 5 under its own power. The passengers of the Pobeda were taken there on another ship - the Vyacheslav Molotov.

Alas, the incident on the liner was not without human casualties. Two crew members were killed (one of them was the same sailor Skripnikov who rewound the films). And besides - 40 passengers. Including 19 women and 15 children.

Feng Yuxiang also appeared on this sad list.

"Accident"

Among the passengers who were on board the liner, there were many "elite". Including - employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade, returning with their families to their homeland after a long trip abroad. A few of the best cabins were occupied by the Chinese marshal, his wife, son and daughter.

However, at some point, the ship was literally overflowing with passengers with a completely different "rating". When the Pobeda was approaching Gibraltar, the captain received a radiogram from the shipping company: to enter the Egyptian port of Alexandria and take on board 2,000 Armenian repatriates returning to their historical homeland. As a result, the living quarters on the ship were filled with people beyond all norms. But all the Armenian families were safely delivered to the Russian shores and landed in the port of Batumi. This happened a couple of days before the tragedy.

As it turned out during the investigation, most of the victims on Pobeda died by suffocation in the smoke. As for the Chinese marshal, he, having not suffered in the first minutes of the fire, then showed real courage, actively helping the sailors to fight the fire. At some point, Feng Yuxiang discovered that his daughter was not among those evacuated from the zone attacked by the flames. The man rushed to the cabin, which she occupied, and tried to get inside. Subsequently, he was found lying there on the floor: apparently, the Chinese died by inhaling carbon monoxide. His daughter also died...

The incident on the ship Pobeda was immediately reported to Stalin. Apparently, on his “go-ahead”, an official publication about this tragedy appeared a day later. On the last page of the Red Star, in small print, there is a short TASS message entitled "Accident on the ship Pobeda":

“... In early August, the ship Pobeda left New York, heading to Odessa ... On the way, a fire broke out on the ship due to careless handling of films that caught fire. There are victims. Marshal Feng Yuxiang and his daughter are among the dead… An investigation is underway.”

This text, probably coordinated with the Kremlin, published at a time when firebrands in the Pobeda compartments had not yet cooled down, already indicated the cause of the emergency. It was hard to expect that the commission of inquiry, which then worked for several months, would risk putting forward some other version. And so it happened.

At the beginning of 1949, several members of the Pobeda crew were tried. However, the one who was considered the main culprit of the tragedy - the sailor Skripnikov - was already dead. And from among the other sailors of the liner, 5 people fell under the distribution. Senior assistant Nabokin, who was in charge of fire safety on board, was condemned the most severely: he was sentenced to the maximum possible term at that time - 25 years in the camps. The captain of Pobeda Paholok and projectionist Kovalenko each received 15 years in prison. The captain's assistant for political affairs, Pershukov, was given 10 years, and the radio operator Vedeneev, who did not broadcast the SOS signal, was given eight years.

Death from "disinfection"

Now it's time to mention what was left "overboard" of the official conclusions of the investigation. The fact that the emergency on the ship "Victory" could be the result of a terrorist attack. Here are just a few facts that Bar-Biryukov learned about.

It turns out that the fire on board the liner was preceded by very mysterious events. For example, shortly before sailing from New York, at the request of the port authorities, the Americans suddenly started disinfection work on the ship. All the time they were spent - almost two days! - the crew of the Soviet ship lived in a hotel, and some American specialists hosted the Pobeda. What could they leave behind somewhere in a secluded nook and cranny of a huge ship?.. The Soviet team that returned on board had no time to conduct a thorough inspection: the scheduled sailing dates were running out.

There is also specific evidence pointed out by people who survived the tragedy on Pobeda: according to them, many interior items - carpets, curtains, cabinets, tables, even bulkheads of cabins, treated by the Americans with some kind of "disinfectant" solution, during a fire ignited literally with reactive speed.

A suspicious episode also occurred during the landing of passengers in the port of New York. In front of numerous witnesses, the wife of one of the Soviet diplomats suddenly announced that she did not want to return to the USSR. After that, the woman managed to escape from the ship to the shore, where she was taken under her wing by representatives of the American intelligence services. And all the luggage of the defector remained on Pobeda. For some reason, none of the ship's authorities thought to check the contents of these several suitcases and boxes. They safely sailed to Odessa, being together with other luggage in one of the rooms in the central part of the ship. Some of the crew members later claimed that the fire did not start from the back room with films at all, but from this compartment located next door. And for some reason, the load folded there burned, scattering bright sparks around, like huge sparklers ...

The “invasion” of 2,000 Armenian repatriates in the port of Alexandria could also come back to haunt the fire. Where is the guarantee that there were no agents in this crowd who, once on the ship, carried out “preparatory measures” for a future emergency, and then, without drawing attention to themselves, went ashore in Batumi together with Armenian families? After the Batumi unloading, crew members found strange “souvenirs” in different places on the ship, most likely left by one of these passengers - pieces of some substance resembling ore. According to the stories of some sailors, when they tried to set fire to the "ore", it flashed with a bluish flame, creating a high temperature ...

All these strange and suspicious episodes were ignored by the investigation - at least in the official conclusions. Although you can find indirect evidence that the version of the terrorist attack on Pobeda was considered seriously, and at the highest state level. Just one of the arguments in favor of this: just a few days after the tragedy off the coast of Crimea, on September 14, 1948, a decree of the USSR Council of Ministers was issued on the immediate curtailment of the program for the repatriation of Armenians.

By the way, the son of Feng Yuxiang, who survived the fire, subsequently did not hide the fact that he considers the death of his father marshal a pre-planned sabotage.

"Island of bad luck"

The facts and evidence collected by Bar-Biriukov still did not help him to fully solve the mystery of the fire on board the ocean liner.

Most of the victims were then buried in Odessa. A memorial complex appeared at one of the cemeteries with the inscription: “To the sailors and passengers of the m / v Pobeda, who tragically died on September 1, 1948.” Well, the coffins with the bodies of Feng Yuxiang and his daughter were sent by plane to Moscow, where they were cremated in accordance with the wishes of the marshal's widow. Later, the ashes of the commander were buried with military honors in China.

As for Pobeda itself, after repairs, it again continued to work on the lines of the Black Sea Shipping Company until the end of the 1970s.

The most interesting thing is that the ship, whose history is overshadowed by such a tragic secret, is well known to almost every adult inhabitant of Russia. The fact is that during the filming of the famous comedy by Leonid Gaidai "The Diamond Hand" in the role of the cruise liner "Mikhail Svetlov", on board of which many events of the film unfold, two Black Sea ships - "Victory" and "Russia" were filmed at once. The scene in which the hero of Andrei Mironov sings a song about the island of bad luck was filmed on the upper deck of the Pobeda - where a fire had raged 20 years before that killed dozens of lives ...

Construction history

The ship was built by order of the German shipping company HAPAG at the Schichau Werft shipyard in the city of Danzig (Polish Gdansk) in 1928 for operation on the Europe - Central America - West Indies line. The first flight was on December 29, 1928.

Two-shaft power plant of two 8-cylinder diesel engines "Sulzer" brand 8SM68 with a capacity of 3,500 hp each. With. each at 105 rpm. allowed the ship to develop a speed of about 15.5 knots, working on two 4-bladed propellers.

On August 31, the ship headed for Odessa. There were 310 passengers and crew members on board. On September 1, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the radio station of the Black Sea Shipping Company in Odessa received a scheduled report from the ship that they had passed Novorossiysk and that they were expected to arrive in Odessa by two o'clock on September 2. After that, radio contact with the ship ceased.

On the morning of September 2, the Black Sea Shipping Company began to take measures to find out the reasons for the silence of the ship, requesting ships at sea and ports along the route of the liner: no one had any connection with Pobeda and did not hear SOS signals. The leadership turned to the command of the Black Sea Fleet for help, and search aircraft of naval aviation were sent to the sea. At 21.00, one of the pilots reported that he had found the charred motor ship Pobeda 70 miles southeast of Yalta, there were five boats with people near it. Help was sent to the emergency ship from Feodosia, Sevastopol and other places. From Odessa, cadets and teachers of the Odessa Higher Nautical School were sent to help.

Investigation

According to the investigation, on September 1, 1948, at about 13:00, the liner passed the port of Novorossiysk. At this time, the radio engineer Kovalenko, acting ship projectionist, decided to prepare a batch of films taken on a voyage for delivery to the cultural base, and asked the sailor Skripnikov to rewind the films after viewing. The films were stored in a small storeroom in the central part of the ship. The part was packed in tin boxes, and the part intended for rewinding lay open on the table. About 2,000 gramophone records were stored in the same pantry. At about 3 pm, while rewinding on a manual machine, the film sparkled and flared up. Coils lying nearby caught fire from it. A few seconds later the pantry was engulfed in flames, the clothes on the sailor flared up. Skripnikov jumped out of the pantry, slammed the door and, shouting for help, ran down the corridor. The hot air in the pantry knocked out the door, and the fiery tornado that escaped engulfed the carpet paths and plywood bulkheads of the cabins. The flame, drawn along the corridor by a powerful stream of air, reached the ladder leading to the vestibule of the upper deck, and from there it reached the upper bridge along two vertical shafts of stairs, igniting everything in its path. In a matter of minutes, the fire engulfed the central part of the vessel, including the navigational, steering and radio room, the cabins of the captain and navigators. The fire began to spread through the living quarters to the bow and stern, to the boat deck, approached the holds and the engine room. The watch radio operator Vedeneev, caught in the fire, jumped out of the cabin through the porthole, not having time to transmit either a distress signal or a message that he was forced to leave the watch. The captain ordered to give an SOS signal on the spare radio, but it had already burned down in the chart room. The ship's general fire alarm was announced only a few minutes later by the ship's bell.

The extinguishing was carried out by several independent, randomly formed groups in different parts of the ship. On the night of September 3, when rescuers approached the ship, the main fire had already been extinguished. The ship was taken in tow, but then it turned out that he could go on his own. On September 5, Pobeda arrived in Odessa, the rescued passengers arrived on the Vyacheslav Molotov turboship.

42 people died in the fire: two crew members - barmaid G. Gunyan and sailor V. Skripnikov and 40 passengers, including 19 women and 15 children, among them were Chinese marshal Feng Yuxiang, a member of the militarist era, with his daughter and the widow of the writer A. N. Afinogenov Evgenia Bernardovna (Jenny Schwartz).

The fire on the ship Pobeda and the death of the Chinese marshal were immediately reported to Stalin. There is an opinion that sabotage was initially suspected in the incident. By a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of September 14, the repatriation of foreign Armenians to the USSR was completely and immediately canceled and the admission of Armenian settlers to Armenia was prohibited.

Consequences

In early 1949, a closed trial took place over the perpetrators of the incident. They were the freelance projectionist Kovalenko, the sailor Skripnikov who helped him, the captain of the motor ship Paholok and his two assistants, as well as the radio operator who did not transmit the SOS signal, and the dispatcher of the shipping company. The ship's captain Nikolay Pakholok and projectionist Kovalenko were sentenced to 15 years in prison, Pompolit Pershukov - to ten, radio operator Vedeneev - to eight. Coastal service workers indirectly responsible for the tragedy received lighter sentences. And the starpom Alexander Nabokin, who was in charge of fire safety, was punished most severely of all: he was sentenced to 25 years in prison - the then highest measure.

Further fate

"Victory" continued to work as part of the Black Sea Shipping Company on domestic and foreign lines. In the mid-1950s, she was among the best ships of the shipping company.

In the autumn of 1948, on the Soviet motor ship Pobeda, which was on a special flight from the USA to Odessa, there was a fire. 42 people were killed, including Chinese Marshal Feng Yuxiang and his daughter."Accident", - stated the Soviet newspapers

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, a number of German ships, restored at German shipyards, entered the USSR merchant fleet. Among them was the Iberia liner, which received the name Pobeda in the Soviet fleet. It was a large ship, designed to carry 340 passengers and 4,000 tons of cargo. During the refurbishment, its capacity was increased to 600 passenger seats.
On July 31, 1948, the motor ship Pobeda left the port of New York with 323 passengers and 277 tons of cargo on board.

No SOS signal
On September 1, the radio station of the Black Sea Shipping Company received a report from the ship: "Victory" passed Novorossiysk and expects to arrive in Odessa by 2 p.m. on September 2. The ship did not make contact again. However, at first this did not alert anyone. Only on the morning of September 2, the Black Sea Shipping Company requested ships and ports along the route of the liner, but it turned out that none of them had any connection with Pobeda and did not hear SOS signals on the air. The command of the Black Sea Fleet sent search planes, and at 9 pm one of the pilots reported that he had found a burnt ship in
70 miles southeast of Yalta; near him were five boats with people.
On September 5, in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, a mean TASS message appeared on the last page: “In early August, the Pobeda motor ship left New York, heading to Odessa ... On the way, a fire broke out on the ship due to careless handling of films that caught fire. There are victims. Marshal Feng Yuxiang and his daughter were among the dead. The ship was delivered to Odessa. An investigation is underway."
The closed investigation continued for several months. As the investigation found out, on September 1, at about 1 pm, the liner passed the port of Novorossiysk. At this time, the radio engineer Kovalenko, acting ship projectionist, decided to prepare a batch of films taken on a voyage for delivery to the cultural base, and asked the sailor Skripnikov to rewind the films after viewing. The films were stored in a small storeroom in the central part of the ship. The part was packed in tin boxes, and the part intended for rewinding lay open on the table. About 2,000 gramophone records were stored in the same pantry. At about 15 o'clock, when rewinding on a manual machine, the tape sparkled and flared up. Coils lying nearby caught fire from it. A few seconds later the pantry was engulfed in flames, the clothes on the sailor flared up.
Skripnikov jumped out of the pantry, slammed the door and, shouting for help, ran down the corridor. Hot air in the pantry knocked out the door, and the fiery whirlwind that escaped engulfed the carpet paths and plywood bulkheads of the cabins. The flames, drawn along the corridor by a powerful stream of air, reached the ladder leading to the vestibule of the upper deck, and from there along two vertical shafts of stairs reached the upper bridge, igniting everything in its path. In a matter of minutes, the fire engulfed the central part of the vessel, including the navigational, steering and radio room, the cabins of the captain and navigators. The fire began to spread through the living quarters to the bow and stern, to the boat deck, approached the holds and the engine room.
Watch radio operator Vedeneev, caught in the fire, jumped out of the wheelhouse through the porthole, not having time to transmit either a distress signal or a message that he was forced to leave the watch. The captain ordered to give an SOS signal on the spare radio, but it had already burned down in the chart room. The ship's general fire alarm was announced only a few minutes later by the ship's bell.
In principle, the liner was provided with life-saving equipment (about a dozen large boats, life belts and circles), but there were clearly not enough fire-fighting equipment on the ship. The pump installed in the engine room with a flow rate of up to 70 m3 / h was able to help only in case of a local fire; it was beyond its power to put out a large fire. The extinguishing was carried out by several independent, randomly formed groups in different parts of the ship.
On the night of September 3, when rescuers approached the ship, the main fire had already been extinguished. The ship was taken in tow, but then it turned out that he could go on his own. On September 5, Pobeda arrived in Odessa, the rescued passengers arrived on the Vyacheslav Molotov turboship.
The fire killed two crew members (sailor Skrypnikov and barmaid Gunyan, on whom a new thing broke out - a nylon dress) and 40 passengers, among whom were Chinese Marshal Feng Yuxiang and his daughter. At the time of the fire, Feng was watching a movie with his wife and son, and her daughter was taking a bath in her cabin. When the fire spread throughout the ship, the marshal - a man already elderly, overweight, but brave - helped put out the fire and tried to get into his daughter's cabin. But, apparently, he inhaled carbon monoxide and smoke, lost consciousness and died. The marshal's daughter also died, she was found lying in the bath.

Passenger number one
In early 1949, a closed trial took place over the perpetrators of the incident. They declared the non-staff projectionist Kovalenko, the sailor Skripnikov who helped him, the captain of the motor ship Paholok and his two assistants, as well as the radio operator who did not transmit the SOS signal, and the dispatcher of the shipping company. The ship's captain Nikolay Pakholok and projectionist Kovalenko were sentenced to 15 years in prison, Pompolit Pershukov - to ten, radio operator Vedeneev - to eight. Coastal service workers indirectly responsible for the tragedy received lighter sentences. And the starpom Alexander Nabokin, who was in charge of fire safety, was punished most severely of all: he was sentenced to 25 years in prison - the then highest measure. In addition, contraband was found in his cabin - cuts of scarce panne velvet hidden in fire extinguishers.
While not rejecting the version of the flash of the film from its friction on the rewinding machine, the court concluded that the most likely cause of the fire of the film was the smoking of the sailor Skripnikov in the pantry. But the possibility of sabotage was also considered. Having already left New York, the captain of the ship received a radiogram from the Black Sea Shipping Company, in which he was ordered to call at Alexandria to receive Armenian repatriates for transfer to Batumi. On August 22, 2020 repatriates boarded the ship, who were landed in Batumi in the last days of August. The investigation suggested that in Alexandria, while boarding such a large number of passengers, saboteurs entered the ship and set the fire on fire. Moreover, in Batumi, on a ship in different places, pieces of some substance similar to ore were found. According to eyewitnesses, during a trial arson, they burned with a blue flame with a high temperature.
The author of these lines, who was completing his studies at the Caspian Higher Naval School, in the summer of 1948 had an internship on ships in Odessa and Sevastopol. A few months later, having received the rank of naval midshipman, I was again sent to the Black Sea Fleet. There I ended up in Sevastopol, and I had a chance to see Pobeda. She stood on the outer roadstead and waited for a place to be vacated at the quay wall of the shipyard.
At the plant, I had many acquaintances who communicated with the crew of the ship. From conversations with them, I managed to find out some details of the state of emergency. The fire, according to my interlocutors, broke out after the passage of Yalta. In the middle part of the vessel under the captain's bridge, boxes of cargo taken on board caught fire. During the flight, they were repeatedly rearranged from place to place. Some witnesses subsequently claimed that the boxes with unknown cargo burned like sparklers.
Before leaving New York, the wife of one of the Soviet diplomats who were leaving the United States did not want to return to her homeland, and the Americans took her under their care. However, her luggage was loaded onto the Pobeda and was in the middle of the ship, where the fire started. In addition, before leaving New York, local authorities started disinfecting the ship. The crew lived in hotels for two days, while the Americans put things in order on Pobeda, despite the protests of the captain. As a result, according to various indications, many items - furniture, carpets, curtains, and even the surfaces of decks, bulkheads of cabins and other rooms, impregnated with a "disinfectant" composition - burned especially actively. In the end, all of this went unnoticed.
But the most intriguing circumstance is connected with the Chinese marshal. He went to the USSR on an important mission. It was believed that he could take one of the key posts in the government of the new China.
He was a man with a great biography. Feng Yuxiang entered the military during the Xinhai Revolution of 1911-1913 and was soon promoted to command positions. In October 1924, already a general, Feng captured Beijing with his troops in a coup d'état, and in 1926 joined the Kuomintang party. In the summer of 1927, he supported the leader of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek, who broke off relations with the Chinese Communist Party. However, during the years of the war with Japan (1937-1945), Feng was a supporter of cooperation with the communists.
In 1948, the defeat of the Kuomintang army by the troops of the communist People's Liberation Army of China was completed. On the agenda was the creation of a national government. The once all-powerful Feng has already passed the zenith of political glory. But he has just made another political turn, completely going over to the side of the Communist Party.
It is known that Stalin did not trust Mao very much, calling him a “radish”: red on the outside and white on the inside. It is also known that, while providing certain military-technical assistance to the Chinese Communists, Moscow gave priority to the then-legitimate Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek. Perhaps, reflecting on the fate of China, Stalin developed several options with the involvement of "reserve" figures. One of them could be Marshal Feng Yuxiang. His return to China was most likely to disadvantage Mao. Feng's mysterious death on a Soviet ship may have violated Stalin's strategic plans. And, quite obviously, cleared the way for Mao to the supreme sole power.

Page 6 of 7

Four German liners, which also went to the USSR as reparations from Nazi Germany, became a remarkable replenishment of the passenger Black Sea Shipping Company. First to the Black Sea arrived liner "Victory", which already on April 15, 1947, left Odessa on its first flight to the Crimea-Caucasus line.

The history of this liner began back in 1928 at a shipyard in Danzig. The ship received its first name - "Rio Magdalena". The entry into operation of the liner took place on December 14, 1928, and already on December 29, Magdalena set off on her maiden voyage from Hamburg to the West Indies. The vessel was painted in Harag's traditional colors - black hull and white superstructures. For solidity, the liner had two smokers, but during the overhaul in Hamburg they were replaced with one wide pipe. The total (gross) tonnage of the vessel was 9779 GRT, The hull length reached 148.1 m, width - 18.5 m, draft - 10.5 m. Two Shihau eight-cylinder diesel engines had a total power of 6800 hp. and provided a full speed of 15 knots, working on two four-bladed propellers. The overhaul and re-equipment lasted from May 28, 1934 to February 1935, and the liner was named "Iberia" after the repair. The ship could take on board 123 passengers of the 1st class, 102 - of the 2nd class, 106 - of the 3rd class. The crew of the ship was 177 people.

The liner spent the Second World War in Gotenhafeni (Kiel), was used by the Kriegsmarine as a base ship for German submarines. The USSR liner was transferred for reparation on February 18, 1946 and moved to the Black Sea under its own power. The ship received a new name - "Victory". In September 1948, after leaving Batumi, a fire broke out on the ship with numerous casualties, and Chinese Marshal Feng Yu Xiang and his family were killed. All forty dead passengers and two crew members were buried at the memorial of the 2nd Odessa Christian cemetery. The coffin with the body of Marshal Feng Yu Xiang was sent by plane to Moscow, where he was cremated. After the accident, the ship was repaired in Wismar (Germany) until 1950, after which the updated Pobeda returned to the Black Sea, to its native Crimean-Caucasian line. Demoted and deprived of visas, sailors called the Crimean-Kalymskaya line. And ordinary passengers simply adored the trip from Odessa to Batumi and back. For some little money, they plunged into another world - travel and adventures, southern nights and love adventures. Even if you were completely broke, you could buy a deck ticket, one night on a sun lounger on deck, if you didn’t have enough charm to get better, and you are already in Yalta, or one more night - and you are in Sochi ... The Pobeda had the most beautiful, among passenger ships, a two-story, mahogany-lined restaurant.

And also "Victory" was filmed in a feature film. Together with the ship "Russia" she starred in the comedy by Leonid Gaidai - "The Diamond Arm" as a passenger ship "Mikhail Svetlov", bound for a cruise on the route Leningrad - Odessa - Leningrad, with a stop in Istanbul. It is on the deck of the Victory that Andrei Mironov sings a song about the Island of Bad Luck. The liner was operated until 1977, and then was sold abroad for scrap.

Motor ship "Russia" was considered the flagship of the passenger fleet of the Black Sea Shipping Company. All Odessans of the older generation remember the famous liner. The diesel-electric ship was built in Hamburg (Germany). The ship was launched on January 15, 1938 and it received the name "Patria". Patria was the largest diesel-electric passenger ship in the world at the time.

On August 27, 1938, the liner entered its first regular flight from Hamburg through the Panama Canal to the western coast of South America. With the outbreak of World War II, the Patria moved to Stettin, where it remained until 1942 as a floating barracks. Then the ship was transferred to the parking lot in the port of Flensburg, where it continued to be used as a floating base for the Navy. After the death of Hitler, in the first days of May 1945, the German imperial government, headed by Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, was stationed on the liner. Then the British liked the liner, underwent repairs at the Belfast shipyard and, under the name "Empire Welland", was used for military transportation. In February 1946, the liner was reparated to the Soviet Union and in the same year under the new name "Russia" made a flight from Liverpool to New York.

Since 1948, "Russia" has been on the Crimean-Caucasian line. The liner had a total capacity of 16,595 GRT.

Hull length - 182.2 m, width - 22.5 m, draft - 11.1 m. The propulsion system of the ship consisted of six MAN diesel engines (five 8-cylinder and one 6-cylinder), six diesel generators and two electric motors. The total power of the power plant reached 15,000 hp. and full speed - 17 knots.

The liner took on board up to 730 passengers (since 1969 - 792), incl. 185 first class and luxury. The number of crew and maintenance personnel reached 240-260 people.

The diesel-electric ship "Russia" was very popular with vacationers and often took on board an additional 200 - 250 (and, if necessary, up to 500) "deck" passengers who spent the night in sun loungers on the promenade decks, not having their own cabin places. Such passengers handed over things to the lockers.

In addition to cruise and line flights, Odessans, and not only, are very fond of 2-3-day walks Odessa - Yalta, Odessa - Sevastopol. Over time, the venerable liner looked already old-fashioned, against the backdrop of younger ships built in the 1960s - 1980s, but still somehow unusual, grandiose and very majestic. "Rossiya" sailed without accident until the end of 1984, was decommissioned, and in 1985 was sold for scrap to Japan.