В статье отражена деятельность Нижневолжского речного пароходства по перевозке грузов и пассажиров на заключительном этапе Великой Отечественной войны. Детально показаны итоги работы пароходства и выяснено значение водного транспорта Нижней Волги в данный период. Определена специфика навигационной деятельности Нижневолжского речного флота как в 1944 г., так и в навигацию 1945 г., проходившую в основном уже в мирное время.

Introduction. The paper reviews the Lower Volga shipping industry before the Great Patriotic War and after the Battle of Stalingrad. The goal is to establish the loss inflicted by the invaders upon the facilities of the Stalingrad section of the Lower Volga Steamship Line that suffered most from the hostilities. Methods and materials. The study is based on the objectivity principles and applies general scientific as well as specific historical methods. The paper is based on unpublished archival materials as well as on scientific publications on the Lower Volga Steamship Line. Analysis and results. The Lower Volga Steamship Line was created in 1934. It was a big economic entity. The territory of its operation stretched along the Volga from Kamyshin down to Lagan. The Steamship Line comprised two basic sections – the Stalingrad and Astrakhan ones. Before the Second World War the Steamship Line included five production establishments (ship repairing yards and workshops), 17 transit piers, a passenger river-boat station, two local piers with registered fleet, three crossings and other facilities. The Stalingrad section was the largest. Within its boundaries the principal Steamship Line unit was situated – the Stalingrad transit pier. 90 percent of it was destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad. The Stalingrad section of the Steamship Line suffered most from the hostilities. The total amount of damage of the Steamship Line has been established.

No abstract

Introduction. The paper deals with the condition of industrial establishments of the Lower Volga water transport before the Second World War. The goal of the work is to establish the technical and economic condition of these Lower Volga steamship line facilities in the second half of the 1930s. All objects were studied in detail. Materials and methods. The study is based on the principles of objectivity, it applies both general scientific and specific historical methods. The paper is based on unpublished archival materials, as well as on scientific publications on river transport. Analysis and results. In 1934 the Upper Volga, Middle Volga and Lower Volga steamship lines were organized. They were big economic entities in the Volga region. At that time industrial facilities of the river transport infrastructure were developed. Those were shipyards, repairing facilities, and workshops. In the latter half of the 1930s, the Lower Volga ship repairing establishments were in the middle positions in terms of their output among the other Volga steamship lines. The Lower Volga steamship line did not have a shipyard. The equipment was mainly run for ship repairing (in winter as well) and for making spare parts. The balance of the Volga transport industrial establishments was changing. The facilities were repeatedly exchanged among the steamship lines and agencies. When the Lower Volga steamship line was just formed it had 10 industrial establishments. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War there were half as many. The facilities were ranked in classes. The biggest establishment during the entire period studied was the Stalingrad ship-repairing works. The production capacity of the ship-repairing facilities made possible to increase workload, but the facilities needed renewal, required renovation, as well as the entire material base of the Lower Volga steamship line. When the war began the condition of the industrial establishments aggravated.

After the war began water ways became one of the most important means of transportation. The goal of the article is to determine the significance of river transportation during the 1941 navigation. The task is to show fulfillment of the target amounts of people and cargo transportation for the Front, as well as transportation of the wounded, civilians and industrial facilities to the rear. The study is based on the objectiveness and historical principles as well as the systematic approach. The general scientific, special historical and quantitative methods were applied. The study uses both published sources and archival ones. It has been established that after the beginning of the war the significance of river transportation grew dramatically and it came to be of the utmost importance. River cargo traffic and turnover of goods changed, the Volga included. The strategically important goods transportation (oil included) grew. At the same time the amount of ships at river transport organizations (at the Volga organizations particularly) across the country fell sharply due to mobilization for military needs. This greatly affected the amounts of civil cargo and passenger transportation that had to be risen. Besides river transportation suffered from the lack of workforce. Workers were supplied from various sources, the workforce-training system included. Nevertheless this problem had been acute until the war was over.