Illustrated Guide to Soviet inland passenger fleet

Illustrated Guide to Soviet inland passenger fleet

Cruise liners

Until 1930's Soviet river fleet consisted mostly of old ships (launched in Imperial Russia prior to 1917) of many different classes which, of course, turned their maintenance into a nightmare. Narkomvod (the ministry of waterways) developed a plan for restoration of inland fleet by building new ship classes. Here's one of the first passenger motorship classes (of only 4 vessels) built in 1933: Voyenmor Voroshilov.
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The Second World War put development of inland water transport system on hold so the next large passenger ship class was launched only in 1951. Using a "cheap and cheesy" steam paddle-wheeler concept Soviet shipbuilders created a very successful design: Project 737. A total of 76 ships were built by 1959 in both USSR and Hungary. This was the first ship I submitted to ShipBucket and here is the updated version.
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Later in 1954 the same concept was applied on a smaller scale for the Project 739:
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Apparently Soviet shipbuilders couldn't fulfill all the needs so 36 passenger diesel-electric ships of Project 785 were ordered in Czechoslovakia in 1952.
One of them has sunk last summer killing over 100 people.
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Also from 1953 to 1956 15 sea-going ships of Project 646 were delivered by Germany.
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In addition from 1954 to 1961 49 comfortable river cruise ships of Project 588 were purchased; again from Germany. Thanks to their stack arrangement they earned the nickname: "Camel".
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In 1958 USSR built two large diesel-electric passenger cruise ships that became flagships of the inland fleet: Project 20. They were given very sound names: "Lenin" and "Sovetskiy Soyuz". Ironically, "Lenin" burnt down in 1984 at the exact same time when the Ministry of River Fleet was having a meeting on river ships fire safety.
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49 Hungarian-built ships of Project 305 were delivered between 1959 and 1967. They were nicknamed "Bubble" for their rounded outlook.
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And their Soviet-built spin-off: Project 860. 15 of them were launched between 1958 and 1965 to serve in Siberia.
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9 largest Soviet river cruise ships of the Project 92-16 nicknamed "Crocodile" came from Czechoslovakia in 1976-1983.
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5 ships of the Project Q-065 were built in Austria in 1984-1986. These were very comfortable vessels; along with other Austrian built ships, generally known as "The Qs", they became very popular among tourists.
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River trams

"River tram" is a collective term for any short-range commute vessel or touring boat in Russian language. I've drawn a couple of dozen of them covering pretty much the whole history of Soviet small fleet.
Since these ships are quite small it would be a waste of space posting all of them on SB templates so I've pulled them into a single drawing, showing the timeline of their development.
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Here's some additional info:

"Rechnoy Tramvay" literally means "River Tram": it was the first vessel of this kind and it coined the term.
MK is a pretty generic boat. During the WW2 they were armed with machine-guns and served as river patrol and minesweeping launches.
Levanevsky and Gromov are good examples of classic streamline design of the late 1930's.
"Prigorodny" means "suburban" and that's exactly what it was.
Moskvich is a true workhorse: more than 500 of these were built and many of them are still afloat.
OM is also quite famous and still in service. There were several modifications for lakes and rivers with minor differences.
PS is a very simple and ubiquitous open-deck launch; these were used as pretty much anything including pilot boats, commuters, tour boats, small ferries, etc.
Leningradets as well as Neva and Fontanka are low profile vessels designed specifically for Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) with its numerous canals and bridges.
Dnepr and MO are local commuters.
Nakhimovets and RK are harbor boats.
Kirov and VU are very shallow-draft water-jet powered ships for remote places with underdeveloped waterways.
VT was specifically designed for shallow rivers.
PM was famous for being made mostly of plastics.
Raduga is a sea-going touring boat.
Otdykh and Volga are catamarans for large rivers (such as Volga river).
Moskva is essentially the Neva modified for Moscow river.
Alexandr Grin is a sea-going touring boat and often referred as the best Soviet ship of this type; over 70 of these were (and still are) used throughout USSR and Hungary.
Moskovsky is a design optimized for both short/medium commute and boat tours.
Podporozhye and Volgogradsky are passenger launches designed for suburbs of large cities located on Volga river (such as Volgograd).

The Project R-80 is too large for a "river tram" yet it's classified as a "local commuter" so it goes in this section. Besides, only one was ever built.
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High-speed crafts

This is just a place holder for Soviet high-speed crafts: hydrofoils and surface effect ships.

WOW. This is one comprehensive thread. You've surpassed yourself here WhyMe. This must have taken hours and hours.
It's certainly a through compendium of Soviet civil inland craft. Cant wait to see the hydrofoils etc.

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