Volga River Steamers - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Volga River

The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...

is Europe's longest river, and a major trade artery in that continent. The technological arrival of the steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

allowed cargoes to be more easily moved upstream. The use of steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...

s on the Volga River began in the year 1821.

Volga Boatmen

Formerly, tens of thousands of burlak

Burlak

A burlak was a Russian epithet for a person who hauled barges and other vessels upstream from the 17th to 20th centuries. The word burlak originated from Tatar word bujdak, 'homeless'...

i, or Volga boatmen, were employed in dragging boats up the Volga and its tributaries, but this method of traction has disappeared. Horses were still extensively used along the three canal systems. Steamers really took hold in the 1840s.

First Steamers

In 1843 Czar Nicholas I

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

issued a license to the "Along the Volga" Company in 1843, which became the premier Volga Flotilla until the Soviet takeover. The first steamer "Volga" visited Samara

Samara, Russia

Samara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...

in 1846. Nizhniy is the chief station of the Volga steamboat traffic. The first steamer made its appearance on the Volga in 1821, but it was not till 1845 that steam navigation began to assume large proportions.

The first large steamers of the American type were built in 1872.
Thousands of steamers are now employed in the traffic, to say nothing of smaller boats and rafts. Many of the steamers use as fuel mazut or petroleum refuse. . In 1870, the first Russian open hearth furnace

Open hearth furnace

Open hearth furnaces are one of a number of kinds of furnace where excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of the pig iron to produce steel. Since steel is difficult to manufacture due to its high melting point, normal fuels and furnaces were insufficient and the open hearth furnace was...

was built in Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

, followed by a two-decked steamship "Perevorot" just a year later. In 1913, it produced a dry bulk cargo ship "Danilikha". The shipyard built 489 ships between 1849 and 1918. The first Volga steamers 'Komar', 'Shmel', and 'Tungus' were constructed between 1908 to 1917 in the Nobel Shipyard in Rybinsk

Rybinsk

Rybinsk is the second largest city of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, which lies at the confluence of the Volga and Sheksna Rivers. Population: It is served by Rybinsk Staroselye airport.-Early history:...

Many Cargoes

The Volga is the main street of European Russia. To this end many loads are moved from their source to the market—coal from the Donbass Region

Donets Basin

Donbas or Donbass , full rarely-used name Donets Basin , is a historical, economic and cultural region of eastern Ukraine. Originally a coal mining area, it has become a heavily industrialised territory suffering from urban decay and industrial pollution.-Geography:Donbas covers three...

, iron ore, minerals, timber, wheat, fish, watermelons, zeks or exiles, machinery, cement, limestone, and oil.

Various Troubles

In 1897 the New York Times reported "FORTY DROWNED IN THE VOLGA.; Steamer Tsarevitch Run Down by the Malpitka Near Astrakhan." Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...

built fifty steamers at Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

to move Caspian

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

oil. He also built the MS Vandal

Vandal (tanker)

Vandal was a river tanker designed by Karl Hagelin and Johny Johnson for Branobel. Russian Vandal and French Petite-Pierre, launched in 1903, were the world's first diesel-powered ships...

, which in 1903, was the ship propelled by a diesel engine. In 1902 Karl Hagelin, "a veteran of the Volga and sometime visionary", suggesting mating diesel engines to river barges. He envisioned direct shipment of oil through a 1,800-mile route from the lower Volga to Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

and Finland. In 1858, the Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

Machine Factory produced the first Russian steam dredger. The amount of suspended matter brought down by erosion is correspondingly great. All along its course the Volga is eroding and destroying its banks with great rapidity; towns and loading ports have constantly to be shifted farther back.

The Russians move large amounts of timber for export to Europe. Large barges of 300 ft (91.4 m) length to 1000 tonne are purpose built for the single journey
in the season. Large numbers of the boats and rafts are broken up after a single voyage. The wood barges are towed by tug.

In 1913 there were over 5,000 steamers on the Volga river system.

Soviet Era

The Soviets ran fleets are armed riverboats during the Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

. The Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

and the White Army

White movement

The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...

had small naval battles on the river. Later, during the Russian famine of 1921

Russian famine of 1921

The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia...

, steamers became a way out of misery. With the Red control of Russia, rebuilding infrastructure became paramount.
The Soviets nationalized the Volga and Mercury company's fleets.

The largest fleet of any of Soviet rivers is that on the Volga, where in 1926 there were 1,604 steamers with an indicated total horse power of 300,595. On January 1, 1927, the Internal Waterways Steamship Co. had at its disposal 2,020 steamers.
(Presumably the Russian Civil War accounts for the destruction of more than
half the fleet)

Batashev's steamers were on par with the world-famous engines produced by Berdov, and were installed on the majority of Volga steamships.

World War II and beyond

At the start of the Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...

, and before the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

reached the city itself, the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

had rendered the River Volga, vital for bringing supplies into the city, unusable to Soviet shipping. Between 25 and 31 July 1942, 32 Soviet ships were sunk, with another nine crippled.
However, the Russians put up a valiant defence. During the Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad

, one indomitable tug "Krasnoflotets" crossed the river towing barges of men, food and ammunition, constantly under the fire of the German guns. The tug made many journeys until it was too damaged to continue. One hospital ship was struck by German artillery 11 times.

The Stalingrad epic for "Gasitel" began on July 27, 1942, when the enemy set fire to the oil tankers near Erzovka. The courageous crew risking their lives saved the oil tankers and took the barges with oil to Shadrinsk backwater. In the midst of the battle of Stalingrad, “Gasitel" was used at river crossings. The vessel had received numerous holes, the team repaired them on their own, without going into the backwater. The crew had to constantly pump out the water that came through the holes in the ship . These were all the fiery days of navigation in 1942. For his bravery the steamer captain Peter Vasilievich Vorobiev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In mid-October riddled with bullets "Gasitel" had sunk. One river paddler removing women and children refuges from
the city was shelled and sunk. Three thousand people drowned.

The Soviets doggedly held the ferry building on Sept. 14 with one hundred troops and a semi-operable tank. More troops were rushed in by steamer to the key river landing.
The German armies later overan the ferry landing, while the Soviets stubbornly held on to a sliver of the western riverbank of the Volga. The tug Abkhazets and others moved 7 Soviet divisions across the river to Crossing 62 to provide General Chuikov with new troops.

The Soviet navy built armed cutters, sporting T34 tank turrets. This "Volga Flotilla made the Red Army’s greatest victory possible, keeping open supply lines to the troops fighting for their lives in the ruins of Stalingrad. Gunboats armed with 76 mm (3 in) anti-aircraft guns fought off German Stuka attacks throughout the siege, and those with tank turrets hove close to the riverbanks to provide fire support for the troops ashore. Every night, they ferried reinforcements and ammunition across the river, and brought back the wounded to safety.

“About the role of the sailors of the fleet and their exploits,” wrote Vasily Chuikov

Vasily Chuikov

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Russian lieutenant general in the Red Army during World War II, twice Hero of the Soviet Union , who after the war became a Marshal of the Soviet Union.-Early life and career:Born into a peasant family in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, he joined the Red Army during...

, the Soviet commander in Stalingrad, “I would say briefly that had it not been for them the 62nd Army might have perished without ammunition and rations, and could not have carried out its task.”
The Germans surrendered in the winter of 1943 and the Volga was once again open to steamers after the
removal of war wreckage.

During the Great Patriotic War, river transport carried approximately 200 million tons of cargo for the front and the rear. River workers worked at the military crossings at Stalingrad and on Lake Ladoga. The war caused enormous damage to river transport. The fascist occupying troops sank and seized more than 8,300 river vessels and destroyed hundreds of ports, wharves, dams, dikes, and locks. River transport was rebuilt during the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946–50).

The Soviets embarked on a huge series of dams, canals, barrages, lakes and hydro schemes. Much of this had been planned prior to the
war but that tragedy only delayed their completion. Control of river erosion, and silting was one reason; providing enough draft for large
ships and clearing rapids was anothor. The Volga-Don Canal

Volga-Don Canal

Lenin Volga–Don Shipping Canal is a canal which connects the Volga River and the Don River at their closest points. The length of the waterway is 101 km ....

was one scheme, and the Volga-Baltic Waterway

Volga-Baltic Waterway

The Volga–Baltic Waterway, formerly known as the Mariinsk Canal System , is a series of canals and rivers in Russia which link the Volga River with the Baltic Sea...

another.

Most of the keels on the river were of the paddle steamer type. Up until
1950, the Soviets continued with theis layout.

With the new hydrological and hydroelectric work, new ships needed to be built. In the post-war years, new steamers of the Josef Stalin type were built and navigated the river.

The Soviets then went into hydrofoils and diesel steamers A few steamers have survived. Today, the river is worked by diesel cruise boats and tugs.

On July 10, 2011, the riverboat Bulgaria sank on the central Volga. State news reports said the Bulgaria was built in 1955 in what was then Czechoslovakia and was one of 36 craft sent to the Soviet Union.The 80-metre (260-foot) boat sank in minutes some three kilometres off shore.
One hundred lives were lost in the tragedy.

Notable events

In 1913, the Romanovs boarded the steamer "Mezhen" at Nizhny Novgorod to sail down the Volga river for their 500th Anniversary tour.

Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

, the writer, worked as a cook on a Volga steamer in his youth and thus the Volga river enters Russian literature: stories where a young officer encounters a beautiful stranger on board a Volga steamer.
In Russian life, the Volga is like the sky and air. We breathe the Volga, we are enrapt with her. We sing the most heartfelt songs about her. We teach our children her traditions and legends.

Konstantine Fedin, wrote to his American allies, comparing the Volga to the Mississippi, and reminding them of the rampaging German Army then in conquest in the dark days of 1942.

"The Volga is the homeland of daring, courage, and the people's glory.
The Volga is the homeland of Russian geniuses and talents.

From childhood, people on the Volga dream about their river as the most beautiful of all earthly gifts which have been bestowed upon them.
When I was a child sitting at my school bench, I imagined Volga steamers, rafts, and boats sailing past, like a holiday; green islands stretched out before me; the silver of fish scales sparkled; I breathed the aroma of the swaying shoreline willows. All this was living right next to me. I knew that after lessons I could run along the Volga and touch all this with my own hand.
"

External links

photos of Volga paddle-steamer "Harkov"
Vladimir Gilyarovsky
Vladimir Gilyarovsky
Vladimir Alekseyevich Gilyarovsky , was a Russian writer and newspaper journalist, best known for his reminiscences of life in pre-Revolutionary Moscow , which he first published in a book form in 1926.-Biography:...

, "My Travels (Мои скитания)"

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