State archive of the Murmansk region. Cruise liners of the Murmansk Shipping Company

Three sisters

In history, as in life, everything is ambiguous. The seventies and eighties of the last century, nicknamed stagnant, became the heyday of the passenger fleet in our region. Starting from 1975, the most modern for that time ships "Maria Ermolova", "Alla Tarasova" and "Klavdiya Elanskaya" were accepted into the Murmansk Shipping Company. Our sailors called them lovingly - three sisters. However, there were more “sisters”, or, as they also said, “artists”. In Yugoslavia, by order of the Ministry of the Navy, a series of eight passenger ships was built for shipping companies, on the sides of which the names of People's Artists of the USSR flaunted.

The first was a handsome liner - "Maria Yermolova". The ship was 100 meters long and 16.2 meters wide. This modern, comfortable three-deck ship, equipped with stabilizers, had open and closed decks, a large music room, bars, a cinema, and a restaurant. Each cabin is equipped with a shower, toilet and air conditioning. The ship could take on board 262 passengers. A year later, "Alla Tarasova" came to us. And on December 30, 1977, the State Flag of the USSR was hoisted on the third passenger liner, the Claudia Yelanskaya. So, within a little over three years, the Murmansk Shipping Company began to have the youngest passenger fleet in the country. In 1978, his average age was only 6 years old.

With the receipt of new liners, it was necessary to rebuild the entire operation of the passenger fleet. Until 1975, the ships of the shipping company practically did not go abroad. The new ships, with a total passenger capacity of 786 seats, had to find a worthy application. The passenger service of the MMP, headed by Semyon Kogan, managed to solve this problem. The ships not only operated flights on local lines, but were also leased to the English travel company STS, Intourist, and transported military contingents to Cuba. Regular cruise flights to the Arctic were resumed, which were very popular among compatriots, annual Baltic cruises were operated on the Leningrad-Riga-Tallinn-Gdynia-Warnemünde line. Tourists from different parts of the USSR became frequent guests on board the snow-white liners.

I would like to touch here on one of the important issues in the navy and, in particular, in the passenger fleet. This is a question about women in ship crews.

In any crew of MMP cargo ships there were only a few females - a barmaid, an orderly, a cook, a kitchen worker, and perhaps that's all. On passenger ships, both coastal and foreign navigation, there were up to 40% of female crews, i.e. 30-50 girls and women, with a total crew of up to 120 people. A decent number of women were on icebreakers and on fishing mother ships. With the receipt of three new modern passenger ships, a completely new era in the life of the crews began at MMP. In the staff of a numerous crew of a sea vessel, almost always, among the traditionally oriented sailors, of course, there was a desire for close ties with them. For this, there were such positions on the ships in the USSR as assistants to the captain for political affairs - pompolites. The Pompolitans identified and regulated these extramarital affairs. They broke off such a "connection" by writing off one of the partners at the disposal of the personnel department. If a connection was revealed among bachelors, then they tried to marry them. The husband went to sea, and the wife remained on the shore. Every sailor wanted to work on the ships of foreign navigation, but due to careless "communication", it was possible to "rattle" for a long time in cabotage.

You ask, why are couples not welcome in the Navy? There may be several answers. When spouses do not have the opportunity to pay enough attention to each other, others can come to the rescue ... And it is not a fact that such contacts will remain purely friendly. If the spouses work in the same area, then production problems also often lead to family conflicts. Well, if one of the spouses is in charge, then a bunch of problems cannot be avoided: from simple corruption schemes to envy and claims of colleagues. By the way, at one time in the Navy it was practiced to allow wives, if there was free space, just like that, as passengers, to go on a flight with their husbands. This had to be abandoned soon, as it caused a lot of complaints: not all crew members had such an opportunity (for the most part, only command staff), there were problems with resettlement, wives toiled from idleness and sometimes were the cause of purely male showdowns. Having seen enough of the living conditions and everyday life of the ship, they began to terrorize their husbands even more, suspecting them both in the case and for no reason. Yes, and husbands in the presence of the second half on the ship did not feel quite at ease. One of my friends even got divorced on this basis. As he explained to me, his wife, previously modest in requests and even stingy, was changed after the flight. She, seeing for the first time in her life the shelves of Western stores, began to make such demands to her husband in the future that he simply did not “pull” ...

The fleet is the abode of single mothers and divorcees, single men and Don Juan, who have several families and pay a lot of alimony.

Young sailor girls often bring confusion to the minds of the male part of the crew, acting as a catalyst for remarkable interpersonal conflicts. Often, their frivolous behavior or innocent flirting results in a showdown, ending in write-offs to the shore and the collapse of a career for those who succumb to their provocations. How can one not recall the sea belief here: “A woman on board is in trouble!”

Well, these are all problems, as it were, isolated ones. But there are things that affect many and can make life difficult for the entire crew. I mean the correct selection of the crew and the selection of its members. Much here depends on the captain, his life experience, knowledge of people and ... the ability to withstand pressure from the personnel department and the management structures of the shipping company. It's no secret that many of the bosses are trying by hook or by crook to promote their protégés - children, relatives, acquaintances, and so on - to the crew. Previously, such work was considered one of the most prestigious and monetary.

I especially remember the year 1980 - the year of the Moscow Olympiad. "Klavdiya Yelanskaya" delivered European tourists to the port of Tallinn, where the Olympic sailing regatta was held. During this period, I happened to work on the ship as an understudy for the captain. These were unforgettable cruises that took place in many ports of Europe.

But the beginning of the economic reforms of the 90s turned into a collapse for the passenger fleet. If in Soviet times the fleet was subsidized by the state, then from the moment the companies were corporatized, it turned into a loss-making one. Our first passenger ship, which became redundant for the MMP, was the Maria Yermolova. She was transferred to the Novorossiysk Shipping Company, where she worked until 2006. Then the liner was sold again, and after repair and re-equipment, she began working on the Caspian cruise lines. And here is what they wrote about the work of “Maria Yermolova” in 2006: “A cruise route across the Caspian Sea has been opened. The first voyage of the ship "Maria Yermolova" under the program of the Caspian cruise line will take place on October 5-11." This is what Evgenia Slyusareva, director of Tourist LLP, said: “Yesterday, the cruise ship Maria Yermolova set off from Astrakhan on its first voyage across the Caspian Sea. The flight is timed to coincide with the international festival "The Caspian Sea - the Sea of ​​Friendship", which will be held in Aktau, the Republic of Kazakhstan. A large delegation of Astrakhan entrepreneurs and officials will arrive on board the ship in Kazakhstan to strengthen bilateral partnerships and demonstrate the potential of the Astrakhan region. The cruise will pass along the route Aktau - Baku - Makhachkala - Astrakhan - Aktau. A rich program awaits the participants, which includes excursions, visits to museums, shopping, various exhibitions right on board the ship and a lot of entertainment programs.”

Motor ship "Alla Tarasova" in 1998 was bought by a foreign US ship owner, then the ship was reconstructed for 13 million dollars in Sweden, turned into a modern comfortable motor ship and now makes voyages to Europe, the Canadian Arctic, North and South America and Antarctica. Now it is called "Excellent Adventurer" - "Clipper Adventure" - "Alla Tarasova" - cruises in Antarctica. "Clipper Adventurer" came to Murmansk in the fall of 2007 and stood at the maritime station near the southern wall. And it so happened that the snow-white beauty “Klavdia Elanskaya”, the only one of the three “twin sisters” who remained to work in the North, was standing nearby. It was possible to visually compare how much time left its mark on each of the "artists". Since quite recently, already in 2015, I saw on the Internet another new name for the vessel - "Sea Adventurer".

And only Klavdia Elanskaya still operates flights on the Murmansk-Ostrovnoy line. Only it connects this once large military garrison, which, according to old memory, is still often called Gremikha, with the mainland. But how long the ship will remain in business is not very clear. “Everything is brought here by sea: from food and essentials to cars, snowmobiles and other equipment,” says one of the inhabitants of Ostrovnoye. - On the "Klava" they go on vacation and come back. Sometimes they even drive to Murmansk for the weekend with their cars, spending the night on board in a cabin during their stay in the city. Due to the status of ZATO, which Ostrovnoy has, budgetary financial subsidies are allocated for the maintenance of the vessel. Therefore, the fare is affordable for many - only 340 rubles per person; about the same (depending on weight) is paid for the car. But, they say, soon the status of ZATO can be removed from Ostrovnoye: will people stay here then? A few years ago, there was a base for nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet, and life was in full swing, the population reached 35 thousand people. Now, when the nuclear-powered ships have been withdrawn, there are barely more than two thousand left ... "

The last message in the Murmansk press made me very happy: on March 11, 2014, the interregional working group on cruise tourism visited the ship of the Murmansk Shipping Company "Klavdiya Elanskaya". This was reported by the press service of JSC "Murmansk Shipping Company". The working group included representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Roads and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Murmansk Region, the Agency for Tourism and International Cooperation of the Arkhangelsk Region, the Russian Arctic National Park, the Murmansk Shipping Company and tour operators involved in the formation and implementation of the Arctic tourism product. The proposed route includes the delivery of tourists from Murmansk to the Franz Josef Land (FJL) archipelago, the Solovetsky Islands and Arkhangelsk. The guests examined the liner, checked the condition of the cabins and the conditions for passengers to live in them, assessed the places on the ship for comfortable rest and entertainment for tourists, and found out the nuances necessary for planning the route. As a result of this trip, a meeting was held in the Government of the Murmansk Region with the participation of all interested parties, at which the details of the route and issues of an organizational and technical nature were discussed. All participants expressed their options and suggestions, identified areas for further development of the tourism product. Murmansk Shipping Company is a pioneer of high-latitude tourist flights with a rich history of cruise voyages. With the participation of the shipping company's specialists, many tourist routes to the Arctic were developed, which gained popularity far beyond the borders of our country, thanks to which the polar Murmansk became known all over the world. In 1966, the Murmansk Shipping Company organized the first Arctic cruise along the Arkhangelsk-Igarka line, calling at Dikson and Dudinka, and on the way back to Vaigach Island, Solovki and the port of Arkhangelsk. Since 1967, the Vaclav Vorovsky began to operate Arctic high-latitude cruises calling at the FJL. Here, for the first time, tourists were landed on Hayes Island, which was surrounded by floating icebergs and ice. Polar bears roamed around, and huge walruses lay on the ice floes - a real polar exotic.

"Klavdia Elanskaya" in the Soviet years transported foreign and Russian tourists along the route Murmansk - FJI - Dikson - Dudinka - Norilsk - Varnek Bay (Novaya Zemlya) - Solovki - Arkhangelsk. Such flights were in demand among passengers - the registration for these cruises stretched for years to come. According to tour operators, even today there are many who want to see this amazing and mysterious Arctic with their own eyes, with its icy expanses, unique flora and fauna.

For the last 13 years before retiring, I worked as a captain-instructor in the SBM. And all these years, in addition to 13 cargo ships of the Dmitry Donskoy type, diesel and nuclear icebreakers, I also had passenger ships - Klavdia Elanskaya and Polaris. In recent years, the captain on the ship "Klavdiya Elanskaya" was my pupil and a very good friend - Captain Rapatsevich Nikolai Vasilyevich, with whom we worked since 1987, even on the mv "Vatslav Vorovsky". Nikolai Vasilyevich became one of the best captains of the Murmansk Shipping Company with me. He was not just a wonderful captain, but also a very good crew organizer, as well as a competent and professional navigator, and most importantly, an excellent sailor. Every year, on the ship's birthday - December 30, he arranged wonderful holidays not only for his crew, but also for many captains and veterans of the ship who had ever worked on this ship. Almost every year, I was invited by Nikolai Vasilyevich to this ship's holiday. It was always a real ship's holiday! It was an unforgettable holiday that will forever remain in the memory of those who attended this ship's birthday party. And I dedicate these verses to him and other real captains!

Only the Captain is on duty. To be at sea is his calling. He is not afraid of a hurricane, he stands alone, like a statue. We are all hostages of fate, and what awaits us - no one knows how good the old days are ... Let someone call death. But the Captain is always ready to fight against the elements of the sea, he doesn't need big words... He doesn't aspire to become the Messiah. Hold on, man of God, you will take all the passengers, we will never forget you. There are captains stronger than steel.

Reviews

Dear Vyacheslav Vasilyevich, good time for the literary watch.
I remember you young, ironic, sparkling with energy on the pier at the Seaport, next to m/v "Kanin", which looks like a donkey. You will remain so for me and for many of your comrades in the MMP passenger fleet. I liked your style and frankness of the story. The style is honed on good books, but the truth is straight from life.
I remember how the m/v "Vatslav Vorovsky" was derogatory about Viktor Konetsky himself: "And he writes about what everyone knows. And he described it incorrectly. But I, such a pepper, was not noticed at all and was not noted." And time passed. And already few people know what "was known to everyone." This is why your fixation of the facts of the then uncomplicated, but our one and only life is valuable. Sometimes you wonder when you remember how they got sausage in Gremikha or bought used cars more expensive than new ones. And abroad seemed fabulous, not like now: once - and there, "ol inclusive." And I, as a sailor, drank beer in the West several times, I couldn’t afford it. It is difficult to explain these features to young people. Rich-poor.
But in that life there was also ancient simplicity and beauty, recorded by you. The youth of mankind, so to speak, when we could engage in the game of a mind free from excessive Western burdens, without worrying especially about tomorrow. As they said: "Iron is enough for our age." Thank you for the pleasure and the good memories that came flooding back. Many of the stories remind Kafka after years. But although we were not born, we were brought up to make Kafka come true.
The sailors of the merchant fleet of that time were free people who knew the world and were financially independent, according to the then concepts and needs. “I found my husband on the Kola Peninsula. The sailor himself, the whole polar woman, thank you, Lord. I don’t remember any of my colleagues scolding MMP. By the way, I don’t remember a single Navy officer who would praise his service. I remember my work in the passenger fleet with great warmth. It was interesting to read, for example, who came from where. After all, you come to any ship and perceive it as a formalized unit. And the crew was formed, it turns out (:)), decades before the meeting and in different parts of the country. Formed, and then formed young sailors. Basically good. What was the cost of one "pestalozzi" Mikhail Gansovich Kask. I was surprised at Konetsky, where he fished out his gloomy types. Then I realized - from the BMP. Our sailors were excellent people. Better than them - only sailors.
Thanks again and stay away from doctors.
Bogdan.

Murmansk residents of the older generation remember well the ship, named after the great Russian actress. The ship was built at the Yugoslav shipyard and handed over to the Soviet customer in 1975. The Murmansk Shipping Company of the Ministry of the Navy of the USSR became the owner of the vessel

She was already spoken of during her lifetime as a great actress. For more than fifty years she played on the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre, and since the beginning of the thirties, almost every new work of hers has become an event in theatrical life. For many years of activity in the theater, she has played dozens of outstanding roles. Today is 115 years since her birth.

Alla Konstantinovna Tarasova was born (January 25) on February 6, 1898 in Kyiv in the family of a professor at the medical faculty of Kyiv University. She studied at the Kiev-Pechersk Women's Gymnasium. Since 1916 - actress of the Moscow Art Theater.

She was the leading actress of this theater, an outstanding student of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, a wonderful performer of the roles of her contemporaries and the classical repertoire - Elena Talberg in "Days of the Turbins" by M. Bulgakov, Elena in "Fear" by A. Afinogenov, Lisa in "Winners" B .Chirskov, Negina and Yulia Gugina in the plays by Ostrovsky, Nastya in "At the Bottom" by M. Gorky, Masha in "Three Sisters" by A. Chekhov, Anna Karenina. The theater has always been Tarasova's home.

In the cinema, her fate was not so happy - no more than a dozen roles were played by the actress in films. But three of them entered the golden fund of Soviet art and became classics of the Russian screen. Katerina in The Thunderstorm (1934), Catherine in Peter the Great (1937-1938), Kruchinina-Otradina in Guilty Without Guilt (1944) - in these three images, the original talent of the actress was interestingly and deeply revealed, all the main facets of her artistic individuality.

Murmansk residents of the older generation remember well the ship, named after the great Russian actress. The ship was built at the Yugoslav shipyard and handed over to the Soviet customer in 1975. The Murmansk Shipping Company of the Ministry of the Navy of the USSR became the owner of the vessel.

And in 1992, OJSC Murmansk Shipping Company sold the Alla Tarasova to Western shipowners, who rebuilt the ship at a Danish shipyard. In June 1997, the ship was renamed the Clipper Adventurer and received a residence permit in the Bahamas; Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, became its permanent home port.

Now Clipper Adventurer makes cruises to the polar regions of the Earth.

On the picture: motor ship "Alla Tarasova" at work in the Arctic (together with another "actress" - "Maria Yermolova"); "Clipper Adventurer" in high latitudes.

MMP-1979-1984 flights to Cuba.

In 1974-1978. in Yugoslavia, by order of the USSR, 8 ice-class passenger ships were built, named after Russian actresses - "Maria Yermolova", "Maria Savina", "Lyubov Orlova", "Olga Androvskaya", "Olga Sadovskaya", "Clavdia Elanskaya", "Alla Tarasov" and "Antonin Nezhdanova". Three of them - "Maria Yermolova", "Alla Tarasova" and "Klavdia Yelanskaya" were transferred to Murmansk, and five others - to the Far East.

Motor ships served lines in the Okhotsk, Japanese, Barents and White Seas, they could walk in broken ice. In addition to passenger transport lines, they went on an "Arctic cruise" - to the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land. One ship was almost always on a business trip - it carried foreign tourists around the world: around Europe, to America, to Canada (at that time our shipping companies actively offered their services on the international market). "Alla Tarasova" even made voyages to the shores of Antarctica, although this was on the verge of the design range of the ships of this project.

Currently (2010), three ships have been sold abroad, two have been scrapped, and one was lost in a hurricane. It was recently mentioned that the Maria Yermolova is drifting in the Atlantic like a ghost ship - the Flying Dutchman. And only the Klavdia Elanskaya still runs along the coast of the Kola Peninsula on the last passenger transport line in the Barents Sea, and the former motor ship Alla Tarasova, sold to an American company, flies to Antarctica.

In history, as in life, everything is ambiguous. Nicknamed stagnant, the seventies and eighties of the last century, became the heyday of the passenger fleet in our region. Starting from 1975, the most modern ships for that time were accepted into the Murmansk Shipping Company: "Maria Yermolova", "Alla Tarasova" and "Klavdiya Elanskaya". Our sailors called them lovingly - three sisters.

The first ship to enter the MMP was the handsome liner Maria Yermolova. The ship was 100 meters long and 16.2 meters wide. This modern, comfortable three-deck ship was equipped with stabilizers, had open and closed decks, a large music room, bars, a cinema, and a restaurant. Each cabin was equipped with a shower, toilet and air conditioning. The ship could take on board 262 passengers.

And a year later, a second ship of the same kind came to us - "Alla Tarasova". On December 30, 1977, the State Flag of the USSR was hoisted on the third passenger liner, the Claudia Elanskaya. So, within a little over three years, the Murmansk Shipping Company began to have the youngest passenger fleet in the country. In 1978, his average age of all five IMP vessels was only 6 years old.

With the receipt of new liners, it was necessary to restructure the work. Until 1975, the ships of the shipping company practically did not go abroad. The new ships, with a total passenger capacity of 786 seats, had to find a worthy application.

I want to note such an important point as the female gender on the new passenger cruise ships. If on the "old steamers", where I started working at the beginning of my career, women in the crew were no more than a quarter of the entire crew, then on the cruise ships "Maria Yermolova" and "Klavdiya Elanskaya" the female gender already occupied up to 40%. This arose mainly due to an increase in the crews of the ship's restaurants, bars, cafes and the entire passenger service of the ship as a whole.

A large influx of women began in the Murmansk Shipping Company. The personnel service constantly recruited women in various specialties, including from other shipping companies. I want to clarify why women went to the navy? Each, of course, had its own case, and each had its own curved path to this case. The motives were different, but each motive can be understood and respected. I sometimes talked to women on passenger ships, asking why is she here? And such a picture emerged... Someone was breaking out of his stagnant swamp, and there were enough depressive regions in the USSR. Someone was walking, as it does not sound funny, precisely for this very romance. Someone wanted to see and feel this very tropical paradise with their own hands. Someone wanted to dress up with foreign clothes. And someone just wanted to get married ... Once again, there were many motives, and each had his own. To build mockery of these motives is stupid. And why? If a person comes to the ship, does his job well and knows - everything is fine! What the hell does it matter why a woman came here.

The passenger service, headed by Semyon Kogan, managed to solve this problem. MMP ships not only operated flights on local lines, but were also leased to the English travel company STS and Intourist, they also transported military contingents to Cuba. Regular cruise flights to the Arctic, which were very popular among compatriots, resumed again, and Baltic cruises began to operate on the Leningrad-Riga-Tallinn-Gdynia (Poland)-Warnemünde (GDR) line. Tourists from different parts of the USSR became frequent guests on board the snow-white Murmansk liners.

At the end of October 1979, I came to work on a new liner, the Claudia Yelanskaya. I especially remember 1980, the year of the Moscow Olympiad. Klavdiya Elanskaya delivered European tourists to the port of Tallinn, where the Olympic sailing regatta was held. I had the opportunity to work on the ship during this period. These were unforgettable cruises that took place in many ports of Europe.

From 1979 to 1988 at different periods I worked for all the "three sisters" ...
But the beginning of new economic reforms, begun by Gorbachev and continued by Yeltsin, turned into a collapse for the passenger fleet not only of the MMP, but also of all other shipping companies of the Soviet Union. If in Soviet times the passenger fleet of shipping companies was subsidized by the state, then from the moment the shipping companies were corporatized into joint-stock companies, the fleet turned into a loss-making one.

Our first passenger ship, which became redundant in the MMP, was the Maria Yermolova. She was transferred to the Novorossiysk Shipping Company, where she worked until 2006. Then the liner was sold, and after repair and re-equipment, it began to work on the cruise lines of the Caspian Sea, and the end, for the first of the sisters, turned out to be generally sad ...

Alla Tarasova, who soon lost her job, was bought by the Americans. She has been refitted under the new name Clipper Adventure and cruises in Antarctica. In 2007, the former "Alla Tarasova" came to Murmansk and stood at the maritime station near the southern wall. And it so happened that next to the black motor ship "Clipper Adventure" stood a snow-white beauty - "Klavdia Yelanskaya", the only one of the three "twin sisters" who remained to work in the North. It was possible to visually compare how much time left its mark on each of the "artists".

"Klavdiya Elanskaya" still makes flights on the Murmansk - Ostrovnoy line. Only she connects this once large military garrison, which, according to old memory, is often called Gremikha with the mainland. But how long the ship will remain in business is not very clear.

“Everything is brought here by sea: from food and essentials to cars, snowmobiles and other equipment,” says one of the residents of Ostrovnoye. On the "Klava" they go on vacation and come back. Sometimes they even "drive" to Murmansk for the weekend with their cars, spending the night during their stay in the city on board in the ship's cabin.

Due to the status of ZATO, which Ostrovnoy has, budgetary financial subsidies are allocated for the maintenance of the vessel. Therefore, the cost of travel on a ship is affordable for many - only 340 - 500 rubles per person; about the same (depending on weight) is paid for the car. But they say that soon the status of ZATO can be removed from Ostrovnoye: will people stay here then? A few years ago, there was a base for nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet, and life was in full swing, the population reached 35 thousand people. Now, when the nuclear-powered ships have been withdrawn, there are barely more than two thousand people left ... In general, the further operation of the Claudia Yelanskaya may also become uncertain.” So said one of the regular passengers of the Claudia Yelanskaya.
This is the fate of each of the three "sisters", who were once the pride of the Murmansk passenger fleet.

On November 16, 1979, for the first time, I boarded the Claudia Elanskaya on the Murmansk-Havana flight, having on board a special contingent of passengers who had the status of "agricultural workers." In the period from 1979 to 1984, I made 12 such flights on the Claudia Elanskaya. In 1985, my last flight was to Liberty Island, as we then called Cuba. It was my 13th flight, and it turned out to be unlucky for me.

On May 7, 1985, we moored in Havana, and on the morning of May 8, I received a radiogram from my wife that my father had died. But more on that later...
In general, all flights were similar to each other. They only differed in some features - ports of departure-arrival and seasons. Sometimes there were differences in the stops in the port of Havana. Usually the parking was 3 days, but in 1982 we stayed in Havana for 11 days. It was already too long that everyone wanted to leave the port as soon as possible.

The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest ocean on the planet after the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has a total water area of ​​about 91.4 million square kilometers, about one quarter belongs to the inland seas.

In the Atlantic Ocean, the area of ​​coastal seas is small, no more than 1 percent of the surface. The ocean has a volume of water of approximately 329.7 million km3, which is approximately 25 per cent of the total volume of the world's oceans.

The Atlantic Ocean has an average depth of about 3,600 meters, and the deepest point is in the Puerto Rico Trench at a depth of 8,742 meters. The Atlantic Ocean has a salinity of approximately 35 ppm. The Atlantic is characterized by a heavily indented coastline and pronounced bays.

The following seas are located on the territory of the Atlantic Ocean: the North, Baltic, Azov, Irish, Sargasso, Adriatic, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, Marmara, Mediterranean, Balearic, Black, Caribbean and Aegean.

The Atlantic Ocean includes large bays - Mexican, Biscay, Hudson and Guinea. Large islands in the Atlantic Ocean: Iceland, British, Greater and Lesser Antilles, Newfoundland and Canaries.

The meridional Mid-Atlantic Ridge divides the Atlantic Ocean into two approximately equal regions - western and eastern. On the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, there are warm currents, for example, the Gulf Stream, South Trade Wind, Brazilian, North Trade Wind and North Atlantic, and cold currents, for example, West Winds, Benguela, Labrador and Canary.

In the Bay of Fundy, the maximum height of the tides is up to 18 meters. The average ocean temperature at the surface near the equator is about 28 degrees. In the northern and southern latitudes, the Atlantic Ocean is covered with ice.
The Atlantic Ocean accounts for approximately 2/5 of the world's fish catch. Herring, cod, sea bass and tuna are harvested here.

Our main voyage took place in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is generally accepted that the Atlantic Ocean is divided into northern and southern parts. The northern boundary of the Atlantic Ocean is usually drawn along the Arctic Circle.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Atlantic Ocean has a heavily indented coastline. Its relatively narrow northern part is connected to the Arctic Ocean by three narrow straits. In the northeast, the Davis Strait, 360 km wide (at the latitude of the Arctic Circle), connects it with the Baffin Sea, which belongs to the Arctic Ocean. In the central part, between Greenland and Iceland, there is the Danish Strait, with a width of only 287 km at its narrowest point. Finally, in the northeast, between Iceland and Norway, is the Norwegian Sea, about 1220 km wide. To the east, two water areas deeply protruding into the land separate from the Atlantic Ocean. The more northern of them begins with the North Sea, which to the east passes into the Baltic Sea with the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.

To the south there is a system of inland seas - the Mediterranean and the Black - with a total length of about 4000 km. In the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the ocean with the Mediterranean Sea, there are two oppositely directed currents one below the other. A lower position is occupied by a current heading from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean, since the Mediterranean waters, due to more intensive evaporation from the surface, are characterized by greater salinity, and, consequently, greater density.

Another bay that I have repeatedly had to cross in different directions and on different ships is the Bay of Biscay. Sailors know what it is!
Whoever did not walk through it in ballast in winter is not a sailor. So they say.

Biscay, Biscay! It is in your harsh power to raise wolves from little wolf cubs
Sea Wolves! It's not often that I began to meet with you on the courts.
Yes, the hardened caste, salted on the seven winds, is dying out.
There are fewer wolves. Basically - jackals: the same species ... The breed is not the same!

Hucksters, grabbers and rogues. Working with them is a bad idea.
They know the laws of every atom, correctly, quietly gobble up.
How about wolves? Well, they will obscene. They will impose, but they will not let you die!
They stand a test of the harsh life, they know a lot about the seas and people.

Therefore, I will be proud to the grave, since one day they will say: this is the Wolf!
Stormy, Biscay! Wash away people with waves - jackal spirit!
Yes, your work is not easy: shake the guys and blow with the winds,
Drive! Teach! And the wolves will grow up!

Traveling by sea, even in our time, is full of dangers. And yet, not every place on the map of the World Ocean has such a bad reputation as the bay between the Iberian Peninsula and the mainland off the western coast of Europe - the Bay of Biscay. Its insidiousness lies in the activity of cyclones on the polar atmospheric front of the Atlantic Ocean (wind speeds can exceed 113 km / h), which leads to the emergence of frequent storms. The water element is especially insane in the winter months, when the bay can storm without interruption for 11-12 days a month. Fortunately, in the thirteen voyages I made to Cuba, we were only caught in severe storms three times in the Bay of Biscay. Once, when the ship was sailing to the English Channel from the Atlantic side, we almost died, because the list of the ship sometimes reached 50 degrees or more. It was something! These moments I will never forget for the rest of my life.

I remember a strong storm in November 1983, when we went to Cuba on the Klavdia Elanskaya for the fourth time in a year. And although I endure stormy weather normally, but this time the storm got me too. All crew members endure a strong storm in different ways: who is better, who is worse, depending on the vestibular apparatus, but they all have approximately the same symptoms - nausea, headache and lack of appetite. Although, in any rule, there are exceptions, and on each ship one or two people wake up with an unhealthy appetite, the so-called zhor. So on the "Klavdiya Elanskaya" we had an assistant captain for PTC Tolya Tishchenko. Here he always had a special zhor in a storm. Many sailors tried not to go to the wardroom in strong rolling. It was then that our fireman took his soul off, eating two plates of the first and three of the second for lunch, and even managed to take 5-6 cutlets from the barmaid Rai to his cabin. Tolya was small in stature and had a good athletic figure. We always wondered - where does all this fit into it? But sometimes Tolya washed down for 3-4 hours and then we didn’t see him in the wardroom at all ... In a word - a fireman! But if the storm drags on for several days, then, all the same, the crew has to go down to the dining room or wardroom for a meal, and then someone is already sick at the mere sight of a person eating soup or eating sausages straight from the galley tank ...

The storm continued for two more days... I remember how several people gathered on the navigation bridge at 10 pm - the captain, the navigator on duty, the helmsman and several commanders who were off duty. Everyone looked at the menacing waves of big waves and was silent, but this silence was deceptive, like the calm before the storm. Any carelessly spoken word could break this silence. The only sound was the tinkle of teaspoons in glasses of tea. In the beam of the searchlight, it was clear how huge waves were still hitting the bow of the ship and it was burrowing into one or another wave, shuddering with tension, and the propellers, jumping out of the water on a wave, began to spin wildly. Wave after wave rolled over the deck... The Claudia Yelanskaya became like a submarine on the surface. The next moment, the bow of the ship lifted up to the sky, and with an effort it began to climb onto the next wave. With each blow of the wave, the rattle of the ship's hull was heard, and it even seemed to the senior engineer Vita Sutormin that it was the sound of tearing metal, but he drove away these bad thoughts from himself, and even more so did not ask me or the captain about it. At such moments, everyone thought only about his own ...

A storm is not only a test for the strength of ship structures, but also a test for the "strength" of each crew member. In an emergency situation, you can immediately see who is worth what. Everyone in these moments thinks only of his own. In such weather, there was nothing to think about going out on the boat deck, and all that remained was to hope for the strength of the hull and the reliability of the ship's engines. Mentally, many in such a storm gave themselves a word that they would light a candle to Nikolai Ugodnik, the patron saint of sailors, and at the same time the Kazan Mother of God, as soon as the ship arrived at the port ...

After midnight, I, as an understudy captain, provided the second navigator's watch. It was getting light. The storm began to subside. The lambs were still foaming on the crests of the waves, but the wind began to weaken. We have already left the Bay of Biscay and headed for the Azores. Now the wind also changed direction and blew us directly into the stern, urging the ship. And the ship still dived and climbed from one wave to another wave, but the roll became almost imperceptible. And pitching is always much easier to carry than onboard ...

Leaving Biscay, we usually plotted a course for the Azores, and then followed west along the tropic, drinking the dry wine laid out in these places for sailors. After 7-8 days we entered the Sargasso Sea, in order to then get into the Old Bahama Strait. And there already to Havana - and within easy reach. But getting into the strait was not so easy, even very difficult. There were flights when the sun was not visible for many days. There was a haze over the ocean and closeness. Sleeping in the cabins at night was difficult, despite the fact that the air conditioner was constantly on the ship. The sheets and pillowcases were damp from the moisture and heat of the tropics. And without the sun and stars, what is the definition of one's location in the ocean?

It became easier for us when our first Soviet satellite receiver "Schooner" was installed on the ship. It was something! The Schooner receiver was designed to determine the observed coordinates of the ship's position according to the Cicada SNS data. In the intervals between observations and during the navigation session, the dead reckoning of the vessel's path was provided according to the heading and speed data, taking into account the parameters of the total drift.

The Schooner receiver is designed to determine the observed coordinates according to the Cicada SNS data. In the intervals between observations and during the navigation session, dead reckoning is provided according to the heading and speed data, taking into account the flow parameters.

The "Schooner" receiver provides full automation of the process of determining the position of the vessel, starting with the search for a signal and ending with obtaining the observed coordinates. Upon receipt of reliable observations, the numerical coordinates are corrected. During the navigation session, an indication of the Moscow winter standard time is provided with a discreteness of 1 s. The results are displayed on the display and printer. According to the data of the last two observations, if the interval between them exceeds 1 hour, the parameters of the total drift are generated - speed and direction.

The use of the Schooner receiver has no restrictions on navigation areas, time of day or weather conditions. The equipment provides for continuous operation.

The main technical and operational characteristics of the Schooner receiver are given below:
Number of frequency channels 2 (400 MHz, 150 MHz)
UPC for determining coordinates with accurate registration of speed and heading 0.05 miles
Additional error in determining coordinates due to an error in accounting for speed of 1 knot 0.2 miles
The range of working elevation angles of satellite 15-75°
Reference oscillator warm-up time 3 hours
Types of gyrocompasses with which the interface "Kurs-4", "Kurs-5" is provided,
"Vega", "Amur".
Types of lags with which IEL-2, IEL-2M Onega, MGL-25, LG-2 are interfaced
Power consumption 300 W.

The Schooner equipment is not critical to the accuracy of entering the initial values ​​of the latitude and longitude of the ship's position. Permissible input errors are 1° for each of the parameters. However, in order to obtain accurate reckonable coordinates in the interval before the first observation, it is advisable to enter these data with an error of no more than 1 kb. Time is recommended to be entered with an accuracy of a few seconds. The error in entering the antenna height above the ellipsoid should not exceed 5 m. This parameter is the sum of two values ​​- the antenna height above sea level and the sea level at a given point above the ellipsoid, determined from a special table.
After completing the preparatory operations, the equipment switches to the operating mode.

In the "Schooner" receiver, a fairly strict rejection of navigation sessions is implemented. The session is considered to be of high quality, and its results are used for automatic correction, if the elevation angle is within 15-75°, the session symmetry conditions are met, the received array of orbital data and the performed measurements of navigation parameters meet the specified reliability criteria. This achieves a high degree of reliability of the observed coordinates, although the number of observations is noticeably reduced in relation to the total number of satellite passes.

The control of the operation of the "Schooner" receiver-indicator and the control of its functioning were carried out from the remote control built into the main device. The Schooner's remote control contained a type-setting push-button device that provided switching modes of operation and data entry, a digital indicator, as well as control and management controls for manual tuning of the receiver. The use of the Schooner receiver had no restrictions on navigation areas, time of day or weather conditions. The equipment provided for continuous operation. There were no such devices on any of the ships of the shipping company at that time. True, only one remote control of the Schooner weighed at least 40 kilograms !!! This GPS receiver today can be put in a shirt pocket, and its weight is no more than 100 grams. But then we rejoiced at the Schooner like children.

The "Schooner" product (military version of the "Sluice") for determining the position of the ship at sea using satellites of the Cosmos series weighed about 70 kg. A box with spare blocks was relied on for it. -5 kg. In addition to the fuses, nothing was attached - as unnecessary. Feel the difference..."

"... the Schooner receiver (the forerunner of PI GLONASS) was the size of a small refrigerator, multi-block and worked very badly ... But when Furuno and Magnavox receivers began to be purchased on ships - the size of three cigarette packs - a monoblock and excellent work - then we all shrugged our shoulders in sadness..."

Several times we followed to Cuba even through the Canary Islands, which were located much south of Azores. But it was only 2-3 times.

It was interesting to note that as soon as the ship broke away from the European continent, there were fewer and fewer opposite-cross ships every day. Sometimes during the entire passage across the Atlantic we could meet only one or two ships, and sometimes not a single one. Only ships appeared in the Sargasso Sea ...

The Sargasso Sea is an area in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean surrounded by ocean currents and is the only sea without a coast. It is bounded in the west by the Gulf Stream, in the north by the North Atlantic Current, in the east by the Canary Current and in the south by the North Equatorial Current. This system of currents forms the North Atlantic subtropical gyre.

This sea is called Sargassum by the name of algae in a huge number of living in very calm waters of the sea. Why is the sea not included in the Atlantic Ocean, but separated into a separate unit? Because it is located between the four Atlantic currents, and in itself the water is almost stagnant.

Every time the Elanskaya reached the Sargasso Sea, I sent a sailor on duty in the morning to collect all the flying fish that flew onto the deck of the ship. The fish were decent - up to 500-700 grams in weight. Ukha and roast always turned out great.

Sargasso algae and flying fish have appeared, which means that 2-3 days are left to go to Havana. It was a sure sign for me. I liked to watch them in the morning hours, when the tropical sun appeared over the horizon.

Usually, a flying fish is in flight for no more than 10 seconds and flies several tens of meters during this time. But sometimes the duration of the flight increases to 30 s, and its range reaches one or even two cables. In the presence of a weak wind or ascending air currents above the water, flying fish fly long distances and stay in flight longer. The flight height usually does not exceed 1 - 2 meters, but in the morning flying fish often flew to us on the open deck of the ship, rising 5 - 7 meters above the water. Fish fly onto the deck only while the ship is moving and always from the windward side: apparently, they are attracted by the ship's lights and fall near the side into the upward air current, which lifts them high.

Passing among floating Sargassum seaweed and flying fish, we entered the Old Bahama Channel, which led us to Havana, the final port of our parish.

And now, finally, we come to the island of Freedom, as we called Cuba then. Cuba - how many thoughts about this island, country, and a simple piece of paradise in our beautiful world! This island is located in the Caribbean Sea, probably there is no person on earth who has not dreamed of visiting Cuba at least once?! The shores are strewn with sand crystals, and the water beckons with its mirror beauty, the reefs of various corals are incomparable, fishermen will delight in the shallows, where they can spend time fishing with pleasure. The flora and fauna here are unique.

Several times it turned out that we had to approach Havana at the end of the day. At night, the Cuban pilot did not start passenger ships in the port of Havana, and we waited for the morning dawn. I suggested to Captain Kononov not to hurry with the arrival to Havana, but to find a convenient place in the strait and conduct ship exercises with the crew there. And only then, the crew, well trained in all types of alarms, could enter the port without a twinge of conscience. We were not allowed to just stand and laze around in the sea, but to lie adrift and conduct exercises - as much as our heart desires!

On this very first voyage, I decided to train the crew in sailing, rowing, the ability to survive at sea in a hot climate, the ability to tow lifeboats and save people. The exercise was planned to be held within 5-6 hours. To do this, I agreed with the captain that we will launch all six lifeboats and land 85% of the crew members on them. Only the necessary minimum of people will remain on the ship. After launching the boats into the water, the captain had to give the ship full speed ahead and disappear over the horizon, while I would remain the senior among the boat landing crew from the crew members that had landed on the waters of the Starobogamsky Strait.

The crew knew nothing about our agreement with the captain. To say what happened next, and how the crew behaved over the next 6 hours, left alone with the sea, means to say nothing. After all, the crew is used to the fact that all alarms or exercises are carried out within 30-45 minutes, but here everyone was “thrown” into the sea, teeming with sharks and the sun at its zenith with 40-degree heat. Many members of the crew did not carry water, NZ food, or blankets into the boats. Most went to the exercise without hats, life jackets, in T-shirts and slippers. I forced all my crew members to take out everything that was required by the boat alarm schedule - “Abandoning the ship” into my boat. As a result, only my boat managed "without casualties." And on the other boats, there were mostly sunburned, dehydrated and hungry, who looked with envy as the crew members on my boat ate NZ, washing it down with fresh water and hiding from the sun with blankets and rugs.

This was my first exercise and immediately taught the entire crew that you can't play with the sea. The sea of ​​jokes does not understand and does not forgive, especially if the sailors treat him disrespectfully. Subsequently, I conducted such exercises on almost every flight to Cuba, and the crew trained in such a way that they could carry out any drill, as they say, with their eyes closed. Everything was worked out to automatism. Especially the work of the crew of the ship "Klavdiya Elanskaya" was liked by all the inspectors, when everything on the ship was carried out quickly, clearly and in accordance with the alarm schedule.

The boat of the 4th mate Vladimir Shlyakov is trying to raise the sail. 4th assistant captain Shlyakov Vladimir sits and smokes. Lots of damage! The boat commander himself smokes during the exercise, which is strictly prohibited. Crew members do not wear life jackets, are undressed and without headgear. As a result, the commander of the boat, Shlyakov, turned out to be the most injured, as a result of a fall from the mast of the yard with a sail on his head and because of the inability to set the boat sail correctly.

All crossings across the Atlantic, if they were carried out by the "tropical route", i.e. along the equator, passed calmly and monotonously. The ships are not visible, the sun is warm, although it does not shine, and the crew spends all their free time on the upper deck, where most of it sunbathes. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner! Meetings, conferences, technical studies, training alarms. And so from day to day. The somewhat monotonous lifestyle was brightened up by holding evenings of rest, quizzes, swimming in the ship's pool, a sauna and meetings with leaders of "agricultural workers" in the rank of majors - colonels.

Sometimes the director of the restaurant, Yura Andrianov, when "Elanskaya" crossed the conditional median line of the Atlantic, cooked a ram on a spit for us. Then we gathered in a bar, where, at a feast and conversations, we finished off a fried lamb. Of course, the watch service was on the bridge as it should be, ensuring the safety of the ship's passage across the ocean. At such dinner parties, the leadership of the military contingent was usually invited to get to know our new friends more closely. Subsequently, during our next visits to Havana, we were the closest friends of the military authorities. Cuban saunas were always ready for us in the brigade, in the training center or in the local KGB. The military competed among themselves in which of them would better organize the reception and leisure for us. The military organized excursions for the crew around old Havana, took the crew to the famous beaches of Cuba, brought tons of pineapples, coconuts, mangoes, papaya and other Cuban exotics onto the ship. Various beautiful shells - caracals, stuffed crocodiles, sea turtles and models of tanks, missiles and aircraft, our military friends prepared for us for each of our arrivals.

On December 6, in the morning, the Claudia of Elanskaya lay down to drift opposite the entrance to Havana - at the fortress-fort El Moro - the famous defender of Havana.
At 10 am we moored in the port of Havana. Authorities arrived on board to formalize our arrival - doctors, customs and border guards.

A bit of history.
Cuba was one of the first islands to be set foot on by members of the Columbus expedition in 1492. Spanish colonization led to the complete destruction of the indigenous population and the settlement of the island by immigrants from Spain. Like all Caribbean islands, Cuba was a staging post for the trade in slaves brought from Africa. Many of them were used right there on coffee and sugar plantations. In the XVIII century, the island became the subject of a dispute between England and Spain, and for a short time became a British possession. However, he was soon traded by Spain for part of Florida. Unlike the rest of Latin America, Spanish rule ended here only in 1898. During the Spanish-American War, the United States landed in Cuba and were supported by the fighters for independence. Cuba gained full independence in 1902 under a peace treaty between the United States and Spain in Paris.

Since 1902, the country has been ruled by a string of corrupt military regimes linked to the mafia. And finally, on January 1, 1959, the “triumph of the revolution” took place in Cuba. A group of rebels led by Fidel Castro Ruz captured the presidential palace and overthrew the dictator Batista.

Havana was founded by Spanish settlers in 1515. Before the conquest of the island by the Spaniards, Indians lived in this place (in particular, Siboney and Taino), but the cruel oppression of the enslavers, disease and hunger led to the almost complete destruction of the indigenous population. The Spanish conquerors made up for the lack of labor in the city with Negro slaves, who already at the beginning of the 17th century were a significant part of the population of Havana.

At the end of the 16th century, Havana became the administrative center of the Spanish colony of the island of Cuba, which by that time had received the status of captaincy general. Since the end of the 16th century, it has been the main outpost of Spain in the Antilles and a transshipment base for sending gold stolen in America to Spain. In 1728 a university was founded in the city.

In 1762, the British army captured the city, but the war did not last long, and the invaders left Havana already in 1763. By the end of the 19th century, Havana became the center of the liberation movement against the rule of the Spanish colonialists, and in February 1895 a revolution broke out in the city, and then a "people's liberation" war that swept the whole country.

In September 1895, Cuba's independence from Spain was proclaimed in Havana. In 1898, the Spanish government recognized the independence of Cuba, but reserved the right to appoint a governor general. In the same year, the United States intervened in the conflict between Spain and the Cuban Republicans, declaring war on Spain. In 1898, at the time of hostilities between Spain and the United States, American troops invaded Havana, occupying the city and blocking the coastal areas of the island. The American occupation regime continued in Havana until 1902.

In 1902, when the liberated Cuba gained independence and a republican form of government was introduced on its territory, Havana was declared the capital of the newly formed Republic of Cuba.
As a result of long hostilities and coups d'état, the economy of Havana fell into decay; the situation improved with the coming to presidential power (1925) of the Cuban General Machado. The highway connected the capital with other cities of the island. In addition, its relations with foreign countries began to develop. However, Machado's policy led to a mass strike in Havana (1933), which paralyzed the economic life of the city. A series of military coups that took place from 1930 to 1959 and were the result of a tense political situation in the country, also destabilized the economy in the capital, which is both a commercial and industrial center of Cuba.

In the 1960s, after the establishment of the communist system, the construction of residential areas began in Havana. The rise of the city's economy has been observed since the 1970s, during the tenure of Fidel Castro. The export of local products from the seaport of Havana was established, as well as the import of various goods from other countries (the main partner of Cuba in the foreign market was the USSR). With the assistance of the USSR, industrial enterprises, residential buildings, schools were built in the capital, roads were laid.

Fidel Castro for many years, starting in 1963, became the best friend of the USSR and its leaders, who, understanding the military importance of Cuba for the USSR, supported the socialist regime of Fidel Castro in everything, including military assistance.
And for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel was always friend No. 1.

Since then, Cuba has lived under the rule of the "iron fist" Fidel, and since February 2008, his brother - Raul Castro. From the side of the closest neighbor - the United States, harsh economic sanctions are still in effect against Cuba. Until 1991, the country lived off financial subsidies from the former USSR in the amount of 4 to 6 billion dollars a year, according to various sources. In the 1990s, Cuba experienced a severe crisis. But, unlike the countries of Eastern Europe, the communist regime survived here and adapted to the new conditions. Cuba withdrew its direct military support for the rebels in other countries and paid more attention to its internal problems.

I climbed and examined Havana and its environs in four years not bad: the old city, the zoo, the oceanarium, the famous Havana cemetery, the beaches of Varadero. But, the first and indelible impression on me was left by the El Moro fortress and Jose Marti Square.

I got a lot of positive emotions from visiting the fortress of San Carlos de la Cabaña and the fortress of El Moro, which are located in the neighborhood. Both fortresses are located on the shore opposite the east coast of the harbor. Initially, in 1515, it was planned to build a city here, but after 4 years it was decided to build it on the western coast, where it is now. At the beginning of the 20th century, an underground tunnel was built, which now connects the eastern shore and the Old City.

I have been to El Moro fortress several times. I advise all connoisseurs of antiquity to spend the whole day here, if someone from reading my memoirs will ever be in the capital of Cuba. Since the local landscapes are impressive and inspiring, and the expositions of the many museums of these two fortresses fascinate at the first touch of the huge ancient cannons that are hoisted on the bastions. Here you can trace the evolution of the weapons of the forts, ranging from the "hammer" for knocking out the gates and ending with powerful fortress cannons and personal weapons of warriors.

The second famous place I visited in Havana in December 1979 was Revolution Square. For Cuba and Cubans, Revolution Square is like Red Square in Moscow for us. Revolution Square is the main square of the capital and the country. The architectural center of the square is the monument to José Marti. In front of the monument stretches the square itself, where rallies are held.

Around the monument to Jose Marti are the buildings of the Central Communist Party of Cuba, the Ministry of Communications, Construction, the Armed Forces of Cuba, the National Library, the National Theater.

On the Revolution Square in Havana, an incredible structure rises, its gloominess reminiscent of Orwell's utopias. The high (109 meters) gray concrete tower is lined with marble and does not have a single window. At the top of the tower is an observation deck, the highest point in Havana. Inside is a museum of Jose Marti, Cuban Lenin, the founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, who first proclaimed the ideals of freedom and independence in Cuba. In every city of the country there is a monument to Jose Marti, streets and squares are named after him. But this obelisk is the most unusual monument to a Cuban. At the base of the monument, built in the form of a five-pointed star, is an 18-meter marble statue of a revolutionary. From here, as from a podium, every year on May 1st, Fidel Castro delivered pathetic speeches to his people. While at the helm...

But let's look a little at the old Havana, where my friends and I wandered repeatedly, visiting various metropolitan establishments. In 1982, my Cuban friends (then they both died in Angola) invited me to visit the world-famous cabaret - Tropicana. It was, of course, the Soviet era ... But in Cuba, even then, you could get a lot for money. Of course, I didn’t have Cuban pesos, and even more so the currency. My friends, the Cubans and the military, paid for everything. I visited various cabarets with them, but I have not yet been to the Tropicana. It was in 1982, I think in November.

Spectacular shows in Cuba, as a rule, then represented the cabaret. And the skill of the dancers in the Tropicana has been honed in these shows for more than a dozen years. They entertained us in Tropicana with their truly colorful performances and show program. The cabaret was opened in 1939, but it is still very popular in Havana. After the end of the show, we were invited to join the Cuban dancers on stage and enjoy the body movements to the rhythms of the music…

One of the most popular attractions in Cuba is the old part of the city of Havana. In 1984, when I was in Havana, the sights of Havana were inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. This complex of architectural buildings, most likely, should be considered as a single landmark of Cuba, since they are all located close to each other. And the significance of each of them does not occupy, namely, thanks to them, the capital of Cuba continues to retain its colonial appearance and at the same time be one of the most beautiful capitals in the world.

Noteworthy is the Cathedral Square and the Cathedral of Havana, also called the Cathedral of St. Christopher. It is the best example of colonial baroque, at least in Cuba. The walls are decorated with copies of paintings by Rubens and Murillo. You can also admire the paintings that came out from under the brush of the French artist Baptiste Veremey. The ashes of Christopher Columbus rested in this cathedral in 1796-1898.

No less interesting are the other buildings that the capital has. It is worth seeing the Santa Clara Monastery, which was built back in 1644, the City Hall, built in 1792, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the construction of which was completed in 1656. It is also interesting to look at the building of the Havana Capitol built in the 1920s. Due to the fact that it was built in the Renaissance style, it resembles in appearance the American Capitol in Washington or St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. An excellent example of colonial baroque is the Grand Theater of Havana.

To get a better idea of ​​the history of the Cuban Revolution, I went to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana. The Museum of the Revolution is located in the historic center of Havana. At the entrance to the museum is a Soviet tank, on which Castro smashed the conspirators in the Bay of Pigs. The museum is housed in a luxurious former presidential palace (from where Batista fled). Luxurious, however, only outside. Inside, everything is very, very shabby and peeling, and the exposition consists mainly of photocopies of various kinds of documents and photographs, often of rather poor quality. There are, however, Raul's boots, Fidel Castro's trousers, Che's famous beret, the gun from which Fidel and all his associates fired, the Moncada stormtroopers' tunics stained with blood, schemes and panoramas of the actions of the rebel army. In general, not very interesting ...

Behind the building is a large glass pavilion that houses the yacht Granma, on which Fidel Castro and his revolutionary supporters crossed from Mexico to Cuba. Around the yacht are the rockets that shot down the American Lockheed U-2 aircraft during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as engines from this aircraft.

There is also a pirate boat, on which emigrants landed in the Bay of Pigs in order to overthrow the Castro regime, as well as a tractor converted into a tank, on which brave peasants wanted to participate in the victory of the revolution, but did not have to, a bobbik, in the chassis of which they transported weapons, and some other mechanisms and devices.

Having been in Havana 13 times, I visited the Havana Zoo three or four times with the crew. I remember such a case ... One afternoon we went on a tour of Havana. There, when visiting the zoo, there was an embarrassment that polluted Pompolit Bogomolov V.A. literally.

The famous chimpanzee monkey lived in the zoo. She smoked cigars and attracted visitors in every way. Those who knew about her pranks always kept aloof. Our group approached at the moment when she amused the people. Waving a cigar in her left paw and making faces, the "artist" imperceptibly collected her own manure in her right "hand" and suddenly threw it into the crowd. So, when the pompolit tried to take a closer photo, he came under fire with droppings. Minor, but still noticeable, marks were left on his white shirt.
None of us dared joke out loud about it. But everyone thought
- She knew, they say, whom to mark. Feeling this, he began to avoid the direct gaze of our eyes, so as not to see a smirk in them.

Another attraction of Havana I remember forever - the Malecon.
I have been here several times. This is a favorite place for walking in Havana. Here the evening breeze brings coolness, and here until late at night you can meet young people walking and sitting on the parapet.

At the very sea of ​​a bizarre shape, with caves and grottoes, old, time-eaten corals, behind them is a stone wall designed to protect the embankment from sea waves (which it does not always succeed in). The wall is high from the side of the sea and only waist-deep from the side of the Malecon. The length of the Malecon promenade is 7 km.

There are many benches in the center of the Malecon, but they are almost empty, but the wall is all strewn with vacationers. Dangling their feet to the sea, the Havanese spend hours admiring the sea, the sky or watching the fishermen who settled on the corals and from time to time extract quite large fish from the water. However, for the sake of truth, I want to note that the time of mass festivities and fishing, as a rule, do not coincide. Anglers most of all go out with rods and spinning rods early in the morning, and walk along the Malecon after sunset, when the heat of the day subsides. Many come specially to watch the sunset and then walk in the darkness. Indeed, in Cuba there are almost no evenings in our understanding of the word. When the sun goes down to the horizon, all events unfold with cinematic speed. The sun does not float slowly and majestically, as we do, for a long time sending the last farewell, no longer burning rays. No, it's different here.

The sun seems to be in a hurry to go somewhere, it has no time to entertain people with the spectacle of its sunset and is generally not up to people. Busily and very quickly the sun dives into the sea at a right angle. There is no evening dawn, she, too, hurries after the sun, quickly dissolves in the advancing darkness. Twilight passes with lightning speed, and immediately night falls, a dark tropical night. If we do not talk about city lights, then only the moon at the right time will now illuminate the sea, the embankment, those walking, the silhouettes of tall buildings and slender palm trees in the distance.
The Malecon embankment is a place where hearts come together and unite. Embankment of tenderness and love, infinity of feelings. Malecon is a great place to spend a romantic evening, admire the sky, the sea, fishermen and lovers…

Therefore, for a long time, and maybe forever, I remembered those moments that I spent a couple of times on the fabulous Malecon. From the Malecon embankment in the Centro area begins the main street of Havana - Paseo del Prado or simply Prado, long and even, in the lanterns - a shady boulevard, fenced with magnificent figured bars. To the west lie the small chapel of El Templete and the beautiful architectural complexes of the squares with stately buildings.

Cape Svyatoi Nos - nearby You can't measure life by the number of years lived. If a person has nothing to remember, he can live up to a hundred years and not notice that life has flown by. Graham Green. Traveling with my aunt. The plane landed in the village of Murmashi around noon. Our things were in the cabin and after getting off the plane, we immediately went to the bus to Murmansk. The weather was beautiful: bright sun, not a cloud in the sky. About an hour later we were in Murmansk, and an hour later we were settled in a hotel. Our next step was the Seaport of Murmansk, where we had to purchase tickets to the final destination of our journey - the village of Gremikha. And here Murphy's first law worked, which says: if trouble can happen, it happens. The cashier pointed out to us that only Murmansk was mentioned in the pass to the border zone of one of our colleagues and there was no entry about Gremikha. We, extremely gently, sparingly using profanity, spoke out against our irresponsible colleague, who threatened to disrupt our business trip. Leaving the building of the Seaport, we held a blitz meeting: after carefully examining the form of a pass to the border zone, made on stamped paper, we found that all the inscriptions on it were made in black ink and, most importantly, there was free space for the inscription “Gremikha”. The first step towards solving the problem was outlined: we went to the stationery store and bought a bottle of black ink, a student insert pen, some student pens, and writing paper. For the next few hours, one of us sat alone in the hotel, studying the handwriting in the defective pass, copying individual letters and handwriting on a piece of paper and choosing a suitable pen. In the end, everything worked out in the best possible way - the forgery in the pass was a success. We returned to the Seaport, applied with our documents to another box office and freely purchased tickets to Gremikha. The ship departed for Gremikha at noon the next day, and we had time to get to know the city and visit its famous fish shops throughout the Soviet Union. We managed to see only part of Murmansk - the city turned out to be more than 20 kilometers long along the rocky eastern coast of the Kola Bay, 50 kilometers from the exit to the open sea. Murmansk left the impression of him as a completely European city, quite clean and with a well-organized city traffic. True, some part of wooden houses and wooden pavements still remained in the city. Fish shops were above all our praise. Loaded with fish dishes, we returned to the hotel. The time was approaching evening, but our room was brightly lit by the sun: Murmansk is located beyond the Arctic Circle and the sun does not set at this time of the year. With great difficulty, we somehow managed to curtain the windows. The first night in the Arctic Circle was not the best, we, alas, got a corner hotel room. The curtains did little to stop the sun from slowly creeping across the room. In my head, as in a kaleidoscope, the images of the past day were changing. When we woke up, we came to our senses for a long time. Then, overcoming a sleepy state, they shaved, washed, and sat down to breakfast. An hour and a half before the ship's departure, we arrived at the Seaport. In the hotel, having examined the ticket for the ship, I found out that we would go to Gremikha on the ship "Petrodvorets" and immediately remembered that the ship with that name had recently sailed along the Black Sea. Seeing the ship from the pier, I was convinced that this is really the same ship! Boarding the ship went smoothly - the updated pass did not disappoint. Our cabin was on the second deck. Entering the cabin, we found in it a young pretty woman, four beds, a miniature table and several chairs. At the top of the cabin were two portholes. A young woman was returning from vacation from the mainland to Gremikha. Her husband, a sailor, has been serving at this naval base for several years. We gave the lady the right to choose a bed, settled ourselves, and went to inspect the ship. By this time, the motor ship had set sail from the pier, we felt it by the vibrations of the cabin floor, as well as by the noise of the engine behind the cabin wall. After boarding the ship, we carefully examined our documents and found that travel certificates and certificates of admission to closed work did not raise questions, but in the passport of our colleague, whose border zone pass we had to finalize, the note on the extension of the passport was not on the right passport sheet. Lucky that she still turned out! Another problem is how to get out of this situation in the future. After examining the ship, we found a very cozy salon, a spacious restaurant and a beer bar. When we saw the Czech beer "Budvar" on the shelves of the bar, our mood, dejected by the events with the border pass, began to improve. And we spent the next one and a half to two hours at the bar, enjoying Budvar beer. At some point, we noticed that most of the bar's patrons drink other beers. The bartender said that it was Murmansk beer and added that the Czechs had built a brewery in Murmansk that produces beer according to Czech technology using local water, which gives the beer a special taste. We tried Murmansk beer and found it to have excellent taste and aroma. All the subsequent time of our trip on the ship, we consumed exclusively Murmansk beer. During walks on the decks of the ship, we managed to talk to the captain's assistant, and he told us the history of the ship "Petrodvorets". The ship was built before the Second World War in Finland in the city of Turku and was called "Bore II". He made regular flights on the route Turku - Stockholm. After the war, "Bore II" passed on reparations to the USSR and at the end of 1944 made the transition from Turku to Leningrad. The ship received its new name - "Petrodvorets", and Leningrad became its home port. However, Petrodvorets turned out to be of little demand in the Baltic basin, and the ship set sail around Europe to Odessa, which became its new home port. The ship began to make passenger flights along the Crimean-Caucasian line. Due to its small size and shallow draft, the "Petrodvorets" could enter not only large ports, but also approach the berths of small settlements, or stand in the roadstead in the immediate vicinity of the coast. In the fifties, the ship "Petrodvorets" became one of the most popular small passenger ships that were then operating on the Black Sea. In 1967, "Petrodvorets" was transferred to the Murmansk Shipping Company and sent to its new home port - Murmansk. Here the vessel performs various voyages on regular lines, making single special voyages. Such flights connected Murmansk by sea passenger lines with many settlements on the coast of the Barents and White Seas. In those years, this was often the only means of transport and postal communication between these settlements and the outside world. The motor ship often stopped in the roadstead opposite numerous small fjords and bays, in which, as we were told, fishing collective farms were located, and gave a few short beeps. Immediately after the whistle, a whole flotilla of fishing boats, led by a motorboat, headed towards the ship. There were several people in each boat. After the motorboat was moored sideways to the lowered gangway, each boat was also moored sideways to the side of the motorboat. Then all the passengers of the motorboat and boats, except for one, climbed the ladder aboard the ship and went straight to the beer bar. Some time later, one of the guests descended the ladder with a large string bag of beer bottles and passed this string bag to the fisherman who remained in the boat. From the ship we watched how the fisherman greedily drank bottle after bottle, throwing the empty ones into the sea. All these bottles floated around the boat with their necks up, forming a fancy necklace. An hour later, sometimes a little earlier, an appeal to the guests of the ship with a request to leave the ship was repeatedly transmitted over the speakerphone of the ship. With great reluctance, the guests left the ship, while each of them carried several bags with bottles of beer. Then the whole company got into boats and returned to the shore in the same cavalcade. Usually the ship goes to Gremikha in a day, but taking into account the stops in the fiords, we went to Gremikha for about two days. Gremikha met us on a foggy morning. Border inspection passed without remarks. A small part of the passengers, mostly military, landed on the shore. Our neighbor landed with us and told us how to find the headquarters of the military unit. The headquarters was in a three-story state-owned building. Two sailors were on duty in the hall of the headquarters, one of them, miniature to the point of improbability, demanded our documents: passports, travel certificates and certificates of admission to closed work. Having carefully examined them, he nodded to the second sailor in our direction, and quickly, quickly ran up the stairs to the second floor. We, knowing about the somewhat unfortunate place mark in the passport, with some anxiety expected the continuation of the action. After a short time, an overweight naval officer appeared on the interfloor platform, accompanied by a mini-sailor, as we later determined the captain of the second rank. Having descended the stairs, the officer carefully examined us. Then, frowning, he said: - Comrade physicists, how is it that you are going on a responsible business trip and one of you arrives with a passport that has already expired? I have no idea what to do with you now? Here I enter into action: - And whose, in fact, passport is expired? Officer: - This one! And he hands me the passport of our colleague. I take my passport, open it to the renewal page, and return it to the officer. The subsequent scene after my gesture somehow reminded me of the final episode from N.V. Gogol's play The Inspector General. The officer cast a withering glance at the mini-sailor, who, as it seemed to us, in the blink of an eye plunged waist-deep into the firmament of the earth. I got the impression that the captain of the second rank took the current situation and himself too seriously. I made a deeply concerned face: - Comrade captain of the second rank, this oversight in the passport was noticed by us even in the passport department of the police, which extended the validity of the passport. The head of the passport office apologized for this oversight, citing the inexperience of the employee who put the mark on the renewal of the passport, and even offered to make another mark in the right place in the passport, but said that the second mark could cause unnecessary suspicion. The officer pretended to think, frowned, then said that he needed advice and went up the stairs. He returned a few minutes later with an enlightened face and said that he managed to settle this vexatious issue, but he hopes that this will be a good lesson for us. We warmly thanked him in return. Then they made us arrival marks in travel certificates, took away our admission certificates, and gave us a direction to the officer's hostel and a pass to the military unit - the object of our business trip. The officer's dormitory is located in one of the four multi-storey buildings located in the form of a square with entrances in the inner part of the square. The three-room apartment provided to us had all the necessary amenities, with the exception of hot water. We unpacked our things, decided on rooms and beds, and decided to devote the rest of the day to exploring the village. The village as a whole was a bizarre mixture of many styles, and given the fact that a significant part of the village was military personnel, everything felt something temporary. Separate areas of the village had a completely urban look, while others were built up with barracks. In the village, we found two stores, one food and the second - manufactured goods. All of them had the most provincial look, but in each of them you could buy everything you need, there were even walnuts on the counter. The House of Officers, located nearby, was practically no different from similar structures in military garrisons. After walking around the village, we headed to the hotel. Even during the first visit to the hotel, we noticed that booths with double doors were attached to each entrance, and in the apartment we were surprised to find triple frames in the windows. It seems that the struggle for warmth in these harsh conditions was carried out in the most serious way. I think it's time to talk about the purpose of our trip to Gremikha. In July 1970, on one of the nuclear submarines, full-scale tests were planned in the northern latitudes of the new equipment developed by our enterprise. We were already preparing for the trip, when the command suddenly arrived that the tests were postponed to July 1971. When we arrived in Gremikha in July 1971, then. naturally, did not represent the reasons for the transfer of tests. On the morning of the next day after arrival, we went to the military unit and were surprised to learn that our submarine was in the dock. Arriving at the dock, we introduced ourselves to the senior officer of the submarine, and he attached to us a midshipman from the boat's navigator's team. When we got through the cabin hatch into the inner part of the boat, the midshipman led us to the compartment where the cabins of the officers of the boat were located. On the way, the midshipman told us that our equipment had to be installed in the navigator's cabin. Later, when we got used to the boat and visited all the compartments, it became clear to us why our equipment ended up in the cabin. To say that the combat compartments of the boat are a bit crowded is to say nothing! Moreover, all the equipment installed in the compartments is made with such a degree of strength that during a combat alarm, no sailor's ass could damage this equipment. Even the telephone set was so massive and durable that it seemed that it could withstand a light projectile. The terms of reference for the development of our equipment included extremely stringent requirements for weight and dimensions, as well as for ensuring the operability of the equipment in the most severe temperature conditions. This led to the most compact design solution, usually used in the creation of space equipment. It was considered inappropriate to place equipment of this type in the usual compartments of the boat. We did not waste time and began to test the performance of our equipment. During the short periods of time from work, we examined the compartments of the boat with great interest, got acquainted with where and how the crew of the boat is located, and came to the conclusion that the boat is quite comfortable. I had something to compare with: in 1945, in Leningrad, in the area of ​​the Peter and Paul Fortress on the Neva, a captured German submarine was moored, into which free access was open - we boys spent all our free time in it. We were introduced to the crew of the boat as physicists, the attitude towards us was the most friendly. During the lunch break, we were announced that we were on allowance and invited to dinner. I can't remember the menu, but everything was very tasty and satisfying. In general, on the second or third day, we felt like members of the team. The midshipman who took care of us, to our puzzled questions about why the boat was in the dock, explained that this was not at all the boat on which full-scale tests were planned in 1970. And he told us a sad story about what happened to that boat. It was the nuclear submarine, later infamously known as "K-8". In April 1970, the Soviet Navy conducted the largest Ocean maneuvers in its history. The K-8 nuclear submarine set sail from the Gremikha base in February 1970. She performed the tasks of military service in the Mediterranean Sea. According to the plan, the boat was supposed to return to Gremikha on April 10. But due to Ocean maneuvers unfolding, her return was delayed. She was to participate in maneuvers in the North Atlantic. April 8, 1970 at 21.30 in the Bay of Biscay, several hundred miles from the coast of Spain, a fire broke out on board a boat in the 3rd compartment, caused by the ignition of regeneration cartridges. The reactor's emergency protection system worked, and the boat, which floated to the surface, was left with practically no electricity. Diesel generators could not be used due to a malfunction. On the second day, the air supply was used up, which made it difficult to equalize the trim and maintain buoyancy. The crew fought for the survivability of the boat for more than three days, but they failed to save the K-8. Outboard water began to flow into the seventh and eighth compartments. April 12 at 6.18 the boat sank at a depth of 4680 m, taking the lives of 52 crew members. Some people were evacuated to Soviet ships that approached the accident site. The commander of the boat, Captain 2nd Rank V. Bessonov, was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Streets in Gremikha are named after him and the head of the medical service, captain of the medical service Nightingale. By a closed Decree, the officers, conscripts and those who died were awarded the Order of the Red Star, and the conscripts who survived were awarded the Ushakov medal. The boat commander was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. . The midshipman took us to the site to several two-story buildings that housed the crews of nuclear boats at the time when the boat was at the base. A panel with a portrait of the commander of the nuclear submarine "K-8" Hero of the Soviet Union Vsevolod Borisovich Bessonov stood out between the buildings. Hearing this sad story, we thought and shuddered, because on this boat, after it returned to the base, full-scale tests of our equipment were to be carried out. If we consider this situation from the standpoint of positive psychoanalysis, then it can be called "an accomplished noble act ... of fate." During several days of hard work, we carried out all the test work with our equipment and made sure that it was fully operational and compatible with the power supply network of the boat, both in terms of mutual influence and noise immunity. We used the time left before the end of the trip to get acquainted with the surroundings and the nature of this corner of the Kola Peninsula. We were lucky - the weather was fine all the days of the trip and ... the sun shone around the clock. In a short time, of course, we did not adapt to sleep in these conditions and several times at night we went into the tundra. The tundra seemed to be covered with a multi-colored carpet, in places it was thinned by small shrubs. By the way, on the Kola Peninsula, tundra is called not only a treeless tundra zone, but, for some reason, treeless mountain ranges. The coast is indented by numerous capes, fjords, bays and coves. During one of the walks, we liked the creek with a long sandy strip, and we went down to the water. As we were told, the temperature of sea water in this part of the Barents Sea in summer does not exceed 8 - 9o C. I decided to take a dip, there were no more people who wanted to. I undressed and quickly entered the water, but also quickly left it - the feeling of swimming in this water was unforgettable, as if I had been doused with ice water. Unfortunately, we did not happen to see either the tides or the tides. It is said that in the Mezen Bay of the White Sea the water rise during the bay reaches ten meters, in the port of Murmansk the difference between full and low water is about four meters. I have been to the Baltic and the Black Sea, but the tides are almost invisible there. Also, I did not have a chance to visit a cape located on a small peninsula, called the Holy Nose. From this cape, the border between the Barents and White Seas is drawn. They say that under certain weather and lighting, you can see and determine this border by the difference in the color of the water of the Barents and White Seas. In the summer, it is impossible to get to the Holy Nose from Gremikha, which is 20 km away, by land: between them lies the Yokanga River, which in the lower reaches is 150-200 m wide, and the ford, if it exists, is tens of kilometers upstream. The Svyatonossky lighthouse is located on the cape. This lighthouse is one of the oldest operating lighthouses in Russia. 22 meters in height, and if you add the hill on which it stands - 94 meters above sea level. The tower appeared here in 1828, and in 1835 the Naval Ministry of Russia, having decided to build 9 lighthouses in these parts, to simplify navigation in the White and Barents Seas, adapted the tower for a lighthouse. The lighthouse itself is a valuable historical object. .. Our business trip quietly came to an end. It seemed that in such a short time it was difficult to get used to the place of temporary stay, however, we somehow got attached to this inhospitable shore, once again convinced of the validity of the old proverb: it is better to see once than hear a hundred times. It only remains for me to add that the border control when boarding the ship "Vatslav Vorovsky" passed without remarks, our voyage to Arkhangelsk was not remembered by anything remarkable, except that I would like to look at Severodvinsk and the Solovetsky Islands, which lay to the right of our route. Then by train from Arkhangelsk to Leningrad, and then by plane home. Yuri Venediktov.

This site requires a Java Script enabled browser. Please enable Java Script to view book.

1(left). Order of the People's Commissariat of the Marine Fleet dated September 22, 1939 No. 239 "On the organization of the Murmansk State Maritime Dry Cargo and Passenger Shipping Company".

2 (right). The building of the Murmansk Shipping Company. 1970

3 (left).Steamboat "S. Perovskaya" - one of the first ships of the shipping company

4 (right). Steamer "Selenga" - one of the first ships of the shipping company

5 (left). Tanker "Nenets". 1959

6 (right). Steamboat "Tbilisi". 1960.

7 (left). Steamer "Sukhumi" at the pier in Arkhangelsk. 1961.

8 (right). Motor ship "Stepan Khalturin". 1965.

9 (left). Motor ship "Petrodvorets". 1970.

10(right). Steamboat "Vologda". 1972

11 (left). Steamboat "Severomorsk". 1972

12 (right). Motor ship "Shura Kober" in the port of Murmansk. 1972

13 (left). Motor ship "Sasha Borodulin" near Vize Island. 1973

14 (right). Motor ships "Alla Tarasova" and "Maria Yermolova" at the pier of the Murmansk Marine Station. 1983

15 (left). Motor ship "Kandalaksha" in the port of Dudinka. 1984

16 (right). Ships "Vaclav Vorovsky" and "Alla Tarasova". 1987

17 (left). Motor ship "Captain Chukhchin" in the Arctic. April 1989

18 (right). Vessel “A. Lyapidevsky" off the coast of Sweden. December 1989

19 (left). Vessel "A. Sibiryakov". 1989

20 (right). Diesel-powered ship "Ob" in Antarctica in Delo Bay. January 1956

21 (left). D / e "Angara" in the Murmansk port. 1957

22(right). D / e "KuibyshevGES" goes to the aid of the ship "Stepan Khalturin" that got into an accident. North Sea. 1956

23 (left). D / e "Navarin" in the ice of the St. Lawrence River. July 1969

24(right). D / e "VolkhovGES". 1972

25 (left). D / o "Indigirka" under unloading in the port of Dudinka. 1973

26 (right). D / e "Navarin" on about. Svalbard. 1989

27 (left). Icebreaker "Ermak" on the 81st parallel. 1957

28(right). Ice cutter "F. Litke"

29(left). Icebreaking steamer “S.A. Levanevsky" in the port of Murmansk.
1966

30(right). Icebreaker "Captain Voronin" escorting ships in the Gulf of Finland. 1965.

31 (left). Icebreaker "Moscow" in the Laptev Sea. August 1966.

32 (right). Icebreaker "Kapitan Melekhov" piloting ships in the Baltic. May
1970

34 (right). .Icebreaker "Captain Belousov". 1973

35(left). Icebreaker "Captain Nikolaev" MMP. On January 31, 1978, the state flag of the USSR was hoisted on the icebreaker. 1978 .

36(right). Nuclear-powered ship "Lenin". 1960

37(left). Nuclear icebreaker "Siberia". 1980.

38(right). The nuclear-powered ship "Leonid Brezhnev" (since 1986 "Arktika") is the first-born of a series of second-generation nuclear-powered ships. For the first time he made surface navigation to the geographic point of the North Pole, laid the foundation for year-round navigation. 1983

39(left). Nuclear icebreaker "Russia". 1986

40(right). Nuclear icebreaker "Vaigach" in the Arctic. August 1989

41(left). Nuclear-powered lighter carrier "Sevmorput" at the pier. 1991

42(right). Caravan of ships of the Murmansk Shipping Company in the Laptev Sea. 1941-1945

43(left). Unloading equipment from the depot "Baikal" on the ice fast ice on about. Hoffmann (Franz Josef Land). September 1957.

44(right). The depot "Baikal" brings the lighter "Tunguska" and the steamer "Kholmogory" out of the ice to clean water. Vilkitsky Strait. September 22, 1957

45 (left). Unloading depot "Baikal". The boat is brought to the ice fast ice by a boat. Arctic. 1957

46(right). At work, the chef of the Angara school, Baturin A.N. 1957

47(left). Tanker "Nenets" in the Sea of ​​Japan during a storm. 1959

48(right). Motor ship "Sukhumi" in the Gulf of Ob. Unloading work.October
1961

49(left). Unloading the ship "Stepan Khalturin" in one of the Arctic voyages. 1965

50(right). Motor ship "Stepan Khalturin" in the port of Zeleny Mys on Kolyma. September 1966

51(left). Port of Igarka. 1966.

52(right). Unloading d / e "Ob" in the Mirny area. March 1969

53(left). Deck team of the Navarin d/e for painting the superstructure. 1969

54(right). Steamboat "Adam Mitskevich" under loading" in Barentsburg. 1971

55(left). Motor ship "Stanislavsky" under loading in the port of Cleveland. 1973.

56(right). Motor ship "Stanislavsky" after a long voyage to Europe and America in the port of Murmansk. 1973

57 (left). Motor ship "Captain Khromtsov" came to the port of Murmansk with a cargo of Norilsk copper-nickel ore. 1977

58(right). Motor ship "Mikhail Kutuzov" in the dock. Finland. 1982

59(left). Motor ship "Klavdia Elanskaya" on a cruise off the coast of about. Svalbard. 1982

60(right). A caravan of ships escorted by the Arktika nuclear-powered icebreaker. 1982

61 (left). Cargo for the polar station from the ship "Sasha Borodulin" helps to deliver a helicopter from the aircraft "Lenin". 1982

62(right). Meeting of the crew of the nuclear-powered ship "Siberia" with the polar explorers of the station "North Pole". 1987

63(left). Motor ship "Zarechensk" with a cargo of apatite goes to the berths of the port of Rostock (GDR). 1987

64(right). Pre-election meeting on the ship "Derzhavin". A candidate for deputy of the Murmansk City Council of Working People's Deputies, the head of the political department of the MMP, Alexander Georgievich Likhachev, is speaking. 1951

65 (left). Crew members of the Angara base camp during leisure hours (playing dominoes). 1957

66(right). Chinese guests on the navigation bridge d/e "Baikal". Xingang city (China). January 1958

67(left). Sailors from the depot "Baikal" at the shop window in Singapore. January 1958

68(right). Members of the crew of the ship "Tbilisi" with the Cubans. Havana (Cuba). 1960

70(right). The captain of the ship "Stepan Khalturin" Fedorov A.V. at Niagara Falls.1960s.

71(left). The football team of the m/v "Donskoy" before the match with the sailors of the Northern Shipping Company (3:0 victory). 1972

72(right). Chess tournament on m/v "Zvenigorod". 1972

73(left). Classes at the Correspondence School for Sailors on the Murmansk icebreaker. 1973

74 (right). Sailors of the Zarechensk ship laying a wreath at the grave of Soviet soldiers in Treptow Park. Berlin, 1983

75(left). Captain of the ship "Vasya Shishkovsky" Mironov V.I. (first from right) with the Lebanese. (motor ship "Vasya Shishkovsky" - the first Soviet ship to visit Lebanon). 1984

76 (right). Fomin Ivan Vladimirovich - head of the Murmansk Arctic Shipping Company in the early 1950s. 1972.

77(left). On the nuclear-powered ship "Lenin" the head of the shipping company Levin Yu.G. (first from left), chief mechanical engineer of the nuclear-powered ship, Hero of Socialist Labor Sledzyuk A.K. 1964

78(right). Head of the shipping company Ignatyuk V.A. (second from left) talking with the delegates of the Komsomol conference 4th mechanic of the m/v "Donskoy" Stansky I., electrician of the nuclear-powered ship "Lenin" Raube A., 4th assistant captain of the m/v "Bukhtarma" Ashmyantsev V. February 2, 1972 .

79(left). Matyushenko Nikolai Ivanovich, in 1992-1993. - Head of the Murmansk Shipping Company, in 1993-1996. - General Director of OOT MMP, in 1996-1997. - General Director of LLC MMP. 1996

80(right). Captains Voronin V.I. (in the first row, 4th from the left) and Sorokin M.Ya (5th from the left) with a group of employees of the Glavsevmorput Directorate at a meeting in Moscow. 1950

81(left). Pinezhaninov Andrey Fedorovich - the first captain of the Angara diesel-electric ship. 1957

82(right). Fedorov A.V. - captain of the ship "Stepan Khalturin". 1967

83(left). Smolyagin Vyacheslav Stepanovich - captain of the icebreaker "Captain Voronin". 1971

94(right). Anokhin AI, sea captain, author of a number of books on navigation. 1983-?

95 (left). Kask M.G. - captain of the motor ship "Vatslav Vorovsky", holder of the Order of the Badge of Honor, one of the first workers who received the title of "Honored Transport Worker of the RSFSR". 1983

96(right). Ulitin G.A. - captain of the nuclear-powered ship "Arktika", holder of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Honorary polar explorer. 1987