 Kommuna at Sevastopol in 2008 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 → → Russian Empire → Soviet Union → Russia | |
| Name | Kommuna |
| Ordered | 30 December 1911 |
| Awarded | 5 May 1912 |
| Builder | Putilov Company, St. Petersburg |
| Laid down | 12 November 1912 |
| Launched | 17 November 1913 |
| Commissioned | 14 July 1915 |
| Status | Active |
| General characteristics (as built)[1] | |
| Type | Submarine rescue ship |
| Displacement | 3,100 long tons (3,100 t)full load |
| Length | 96 m (315 ft 0 in)o/a |
| Beam | 18.57 m (60 ft 11 in) |
| Draught | 3.65 m (12 ft 0 in) |
| Depth | 8.4 m (27 ft 7 in) |
| Propulsion | 2 × Felser 6-cylinder diesel engines, 600 hp (447 kW) |
| Speed | 10 kn (19 km/h) |
| Complement | 99 |
Kommuna is asubmarine rescue ship[1][2] in service with theRussian Navy'sBlack Sea Fleet and the world's oldest active duty naval vessel.[3]
Acatamaran,[4] she waslaid down at thePutilov Factory (nowKirov Factory) inSt. Petersburg in November 1912 asVolkhov. The ship waslaunched the following year, andcommissioned on 14 July 1915. She was renamedKommuna on 31 December 1922.[1] Prior to 1974, the ship focused on salvage andsubmarine tending and had no submarine rescue capabilities.[5]
Kommuna served in theRussian Imperial,Soviet, andRussian Federation navies through theRussian Revolution, two World Wars, theCold War, and theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[6]
The ship was the first Russiantwin-hulled vessel, and was developed by order of the Naval General Staff. The German shipSMSVulkan (1907) was used as the model.
The contract to build the ship was won by the Putilov company, who received Order No. 3559 from the General Directorate of Shipbuilding on 30 December 1911, and the contract for construction was signed on 5 May 1912. The ship waslaid down in thePutilov works on 12 November 1912 under the supervision of naval architect N.V. Lesnikov.[7][unreliable source?] On 17 November 1913 the ship waslaunched under the nameVolkhov, and wascommissioned into theBaltic Fleet of theImperial Russian Navy on 15 July 1915.[1]
Volkhov was initially based atReval where she served as asubmarine tender, capable of carrying 10 sparetorpedoes and 50 tons of fuel, as well as accommodation for 60 submariners. She serviced Russian submarines, and also BritishE andC-class submarines.[1]
Volkhov made her first successful salvage of a submarine in the summer of 1917, raising theAmerican Holland-class submarineAG 15, which had sunk offÅland. On 24 September 1917,Volkhov refloated theBars-class submarineEdinorog from a depth of 13.5 metres (44 ft).[5][1] From late 1917Volkhov participated in theRussian Civil War, serving the submarines of the Russian Baltic Fleet.
On 31 December 1922 (just days after thefounding of the USSR) she was renamedKommuna in theSoviet Navy. Under her new name she continued in service in the Baltic, extinguishing a fire aboard the submarineZmeya, and raising the despatch boatKobchik, and the boatKrasnoarmeyets. In mid-1928Kommuna raised the British submarineHMS L55, which had been sunk in theGulf of Finland in June 1919, from a depth of 62 metres (203 ft), and which then served as the prototype for theLeninets class.Kommuna continued to serve as a salvage and repair ship, also raising a tug, a torpedo boat, and a crashed aircraft.[1]
Following theGerman invasion in June 1941Kommuna was based atLeningrad, and although damaged by bombing continued to serve throughoutthe siege. In March 1942 she recovered fourKV tanks, two tractors and 31 vehicles fromLake Ladoga, which had fallen through the ice road, called the "Road of Life", which was Leningrad's only supply route. That year she also repaired sixM-class submarines, as well as salvaging theShchuka class411, the tugboatAustra, the schoonersTrud andVodoley-2, and several other vessels. In February 1943, the crew ofKommuna were sent to theVolga where they recovered the tugIvan and anIlyushin Il-2 aircraft. In 1944,Kommuna recovered 14 wrecks, totalling 11,767 tons, and repaired 34 ships. Following the end of the siege the entire crew were awarded theMedal "For the Defence of Leningrad". The ship continued to serve after the war, and in 1954 she was refitted and her engines were replaced by more modern Dutch ones. In November 1956 she located the submarineM-200, and in October 1957 raised theM-256.[1]
In 1967, the ship sailed from the Baltic to theBlack Sea, and was refitted at a cost of 11 millionrubles to carry submersibles. In 1974 she was equipped with a Type AS-6Poisk-2 submersible, which on 15 December 1974 made a record dive to a depth of 2,026 metres (6,647 ft).[1] In 1977 it was used in the search for aSukhoi Su-24 aircraft that crashed and sank off the Caucasus at a depth of 1,700 metres (5,600 ft).[6]
In 1974,Kommuna underwent modernization to serve the Soviet Navy as aDeep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) mothership, and could handle a 50-ton submersible able to conduct rescues of up to 20 submariners per descent.[5]
In 1984 the ship was laid up for transfer to theRussian Academy of Sciences and the crew was removed from the ship. She was at one point of time looted, and the Academy refused to take on responsibility for the ship. Remaining under the auspices of the navy, a retired naval captain was assigned to the vessel, overseeing her restoration from April 1985.[1]
After thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1993,Kommuna came into the possession of theRussian Federation Navy.
In 1999 she was re-designated from "salvage ship" to "rescue ship".[1]
In October 2009 she received the British-built submarine rescue submersiblePantera Plus, capable of operating to depths of up to 1,000 metres (3,300 ft).[8] As of January 2012 she formed part of the detachment of rescue vessels based atSevastopol.[1]
In April 2022, during theRussian invasion of Ukraine, the ship was deployed after thesinking of the guided missile cruiserMoskva.[9] TheMoskva sank 80 miles (130 km) off the coast from Odesa in 45 to 50 metres (148 to 164 ft) of water.[10][11] The size of theMoskva, which sank in one piece, makes bringing it to the surface impractical.Kommuna reportedly assisted in recovering weapons, bodies, and other sensitive material that foreign powers might be interested in.[12][13]
On 21 April 2024, Ukrainian sources claimed that theUkrainian Navy had struckKommuna with anR-360 Neptune missile while she was docked at thePort of Sevastopol. Russia's Black Sea Fleet had previously removed most of its warships from Sevastopol, out of the range of Ukrainian missiles, withKommuna one of the few remaining.[5][14][2][15] The governor of Sevastopol reported that an anti-ship missile had been repelled in Sevastopol and that "fragments caused a small fire, which was quickly extinguished".[16] Subsequent satellite images did not reveal any damage.[4]
Media related toKommuna (ship, 1915) at Wikimedia Commons
