The 'Kommuna' is a unique ship in the world. To begin with, she has been active for more than a century, since she was launched in 1913, before the Russian Revolution. Despite its age, it continued sailing and was an important vessel in the Russian Navy, having specialized in submarine rescue since the First World War. Now, her future is a mystery.
The 'Kommuna' was attacked at dawn on Sunday in Sevastopol, the port where the Black Sea Fleet is located and which has become almost a clay pigeon shooting scene for Ukrainian missiles, which since the beginning of the invasion has managed to sink around twenty ships in the area. Among them, the 'Moscow' – her flagship – and also landing ships and a submarine. By some estimates, Russia has lost a third of its fleet anchored in Crimea to missile and drone attacks from kyiv. For now only images have appeared of the 'Kommuna' docking area with a large cloud of smoke. Spokesmen for the Russian Fleet have assured that this historic ship suffered minor damage when it was hit by the remains of a missile shot down by the anti-aircraft defense.
Weapons and corpses
The 'Kommuna' was a very special ship. To begin with, she is a two-hull ship, with a superstructure equipped with cranes capable of lifting tons from the seabed. The last known mission is the attempt to refloat the 'Moscow'. However, removing this gigantic missile launcher from the bottom of the sea was impossible for such a veteran ship and its devices only served to recover weapons and bodies from the ship.
The history of this ship is the recent history of Russia. She was launched on November 17, 1913 under the name 'Volkhov' and joined the so-called Baltic Fleet. It was the time when Tsar Nicholas II still ruled an empire. Initially, she functioned as a submarine supply ship, a naval weapon that at that time was almost experimental in nature. She served to supply them with torpedoes and fuel. In 1922, after the October Revolution, the Soviets changed its name and baptized it with the more Marxist 'Kommuna'. In 1928 she carried out a special mission.
Tanks sunk in ice
Since 1919, the Russians knew that the British submarine HMS L55 was sunk in the Baltic Sea, where it had intervened to support troops fighting against the communists. Nine years later, the 'Kommuna' managed to find it, refloated it and Russian engineers copied the British technology to incorporate the same model into their fleet. In World War II, this rescue ship was used to recover submarines, warships and planes shot down by the Nazis. Some of her most spectacular missions consisted of refloating battle tanks from the bottom of Lake Ladoga, a surface of water that when frozen in winter was used to supply the besieged city of Leningrad.
The 'Kommuna' remained active during the Cold War and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, joined the fleet of the new Russian Federation. But with a century of history under her belt, she was no longer the leading ship she had been. In August 2000 the Russian nuclear submarine 'Kursk' sank with its entire crew on board after an accident on board. Rescue efforts were carried out by Norwegian crews and ships. The historic 'Kommuna' did not intervene in the recovery tasks of the submersible. In 2012 she was transferred to the Black Sea and settled on the Crimean Peninsula. There she has witnessed how Ukraine has decimated her fleet. Her until it was her turn.
#Ukraine #attacks #39Kommuna39 #historic #Russian #ship #built #century #tsar #Basque #Journal