EPRON
The Expedition for Underwater Work of Special Importance (EPRON) ( Russian Экспедиция подводных работ особого назначения, ЭПРОН ) was a state organization of the USSR , whose task was the lifting of shipwrecks and sunken submarines .
The organization was founded in 1923 and was initially under the Joint State-Political Headquarters (Russian: Объединенное государственное политическое управление - ОГПУ ) under the Council of People's Commissars . The reason for the establishment was the search for the wreck of the steamship SS Prince off Balaklava . A large amount of gold was suspected on board the Prince , which sank in 1854 .
In 1931 it was subordinated to the People's Commissariat for Transport and Communications (Russian: Народный комиссариат путей сообщения - НКПС or Наркомпуть ), in 1936 to the People's Commissariat for Shipping and in 1939 the People's Commissariat for Shipping. In 1941 EPRON had more than 3,000 employees. Departments of EPRON existed in Leningrad , Arkhangelsk , Odessa , Baku , Novorossiysk , Tuapse , Kerch , Astrakhan , Vladivostok and Khabarovsk . A total of 450 civil and military ships with a displacement of around 210,000 t had been lifted up to this point and 188 wrecked ships had been salvaged. In 1929 the organization was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor .
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War , the organization of the naval war fleet was subordinated and reclassified to the average and rescue service of the fleet (from 1979 search and rescue service). Emergency assistance was provided to 745 ships during the war. 840 ships were salvaged from shallows and more than 1920 wrecks of various sizes with a total displacement of more than a million tons were lifted.
In 1934, on the recommendation of academician AN Krylow Ruben Orbeli, the EPRON was won over, which laid the foundations for underwater archeology in the USSR.
On August 11, 1941, on the instructions of the People's Commissariat of the Naval War Fleet, the reconnaissance department of the Baltic Fleet with the help of parts of the EPRON formed the unit for special use (Russian: Рота особого назначения - РОН ). The unit consisted of 146 soldiers and divers who received special preparation at the Medical Academy of the Naval Navy. The unit was dissolved in 1945.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article EPRON in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
- ↑ Mends, Bowen Stilon: Life of Admiral Sir William Robert Mends, GC B , J. Murray, London, 1899; P. 203.
- ↑ Военно Морской Словарь 1990г.
- ↑ М.Ю. Сорокина В поисках затонувших кораблей - In search of sunken ships (ru) ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. «Природа» № 1, 2001 г.
literature
Н. А. Залесский «Краб» - первый в мире подводный заградитель. Ленинград. Судостроение. 1988 год.