DETAILS OF VOLGA-DON CANAL OPERATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700090314-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2011
• Sequence Number: 314
• Publication Date: November 5, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/11: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700090314-2
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY INFOF TION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
REPORT
CD NO.
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
USSR
T
DATE OF
1952
HOW
ransportation
portation - Inland water
DATE DIST.
S- Nov 1952
PUBLISHED
Daily, semiweekly newspapers.;
monthl
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b
y,
em
mon
y,
imonthly periodicals
WHERE
NO. OF PAGE
S 4
DATE
PUBLISHED 6 Feb - 6 Aug 1952
SUPPLEMENT
REPORT NO.
TO
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Numbers in parentheses refer to appended sources.]
The Volga-Don Canal was officially opened on 27 July 1952 (1), after more
than 300 ships had passed through the canal (2), the first of which had entered
on 3 June 1952.(3)
The canal is 101 kilometers in length; 56 kilometers run through an
artificial concrete channel, and 45 kilometers through reservoirs. This new
waterway runs from IL asnoarmeysk to Kalach on Don and consists of three
reservoirs and 13 navigation locks. Four locks are located on the Don River
side of the Yergeninskiy watershed, nine on the Volga side. The Varvarovskoye
Reservoir, located at the highest point in the canal system, holds 125 million
cubic meters of water. It is joined by a lock to the Bereslavskoye Reservoir,
which has a capacity of 48 million cubic meters. The third and largest reservoir
of the Volga-Don Canal, the Karpovskoye Reservoir, has P. capacity of 155 million
cubic meters. The total length of the three reservoirs is 45 kilometers.-
Water required for lockage is supplied to the canal by three powerful
pumping stations, each with capacities of 45 cubic meters of water per second.
Two of these stations are equipped with large impeller-type pumps which are
mounted in immense towers largely underwater.(4) The impeller-type pumps 'raise
the water from 10 to 12 meters, the contrifugal pumps more than 20 meters. Each
pumping station has 3 aggregates with a 15-cubic-meter-per-second capacity each.
All three pumps are controlled from one point.(4a') The flow of water is from the
Don to the Volga.(4)
BY 5 August, the Karpovskoya Pumping Station, equal in height to a 12-story
building, had pumped LOO million cubic meters of water into the Karpovskaya
Reservoir from the Don River, maintaining a normal water level along the entire
canal route.(5)
STATE
ARMY
NAVY
XJAIR
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
NSRB
FBI
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To make the Don River navigable, the Tsimlyanekaya Dam was 150
kilometers from the canal in erected
the direction of Rostov, This dam forms a 180-
by 30-kilometer reservoir which has a capacity of 21,500,000 cubic meters of
This water reserve satisfies the requirements of the Volga-Don Canal
an 'Makes the Don navigable for large diesel freighters from Kalach to the Azov
during the entire navigation season. The dam itself consists of a spillway,
a hydroelectric station, a fish elevator, two locks with a 55-kilometer by-pass
canal for allowing ship passage, and an installation for dischar
the Don Main Irrigation Canal. anal. The lock gates are automatica ging
water into
only one person is required to operate them.(4) During uY con ntrolled and
water will have to be released from the de to the first 2
Don River during the low-wa navieble~s' much
the route.(6) ter season. Later, more locks will b depths in the
e built along
The Tsimlyan kayo Dam is crossed b long
Railroad, (7) y a highway and the 174-kilometer-long
waves on the Tsimlyanskaya Sea may be as much as 3.5 meters high and
thus dangerous for certain types of vessels, special emergency points have been provided for. Some of them are simply eat Prove
s formed and
the flooding of river valleys. New signal equipment en d elop for by
along the entire route (4), and installation hequipmn ev
s for use
completed. 8 equipment
( ) The usual beacons have been re is
by metal i_sha
beacons which are 3 and h meters high. placed
barrels. Steel towers, Pyramid shaped
They are su
50 to 60 meters hi oundd by huge steel floating
foundations to serve as light indicators. 'ese mounteed on f ferro concrete
erro
of kilometers, Electric searchlights lights will be visible for tens
will be used to assure safe shi and radio-navigation a ui
p Passage on the artificial seas.(pmen on 4)t ships
Trent~Y Ports and piers are being docks built being connection with the new waterway.
y-six floating passenger he
and Rostov (9), and large ports are be are
ng installed between Krasnoshmeysk ing
and Ust-Donetskiy. The latter port, which the ports Saloon, the
kaYa,
new water route, will. be completed a short time after the canal is ope along the
is Planned to transship considerable quantities of coal viathis port for. It
dustrial centers of the Volga basin and to transship pit Props and deco construction iti
lumber for the Donbass, The port will be e ui odern inset
can Process sh+-'s of q reed with ructon
3,000 tons in several hours. modern machinery which
The port of Tsirtiyanskaya will also be opened duri
season. It will serve as a large transshi i r6 the r95navigation :u
Stavropol' city and adjoining oblasts. The post for lumber )
portal and floats port will. be equipped (water to rail
aortal an. fl atihis anes, automatic loading machines, trwith
under and other shipping
heavy modern equipment. got expansion and is being equipped with
Large roadsteads are being constructed at Krasn
both ends of the canal, for forming ~tk and
and breaking up transit it shi ~v~' at
Altogether several thousand Pments.(6)
during the 1952 navigation seaships will pass through the Volga-Don Canal
during Line 952 in opationon season.( 10) Long passenger lines such as t
Resto oLined.. Among (u) mad more t he
lines are
the latter ~ ten nos- and suburban lines son b Don, Rostov on Don - Tsimlyanska ee the following lines: Sta l i
Don - os 5 Port, Krasnoarmeyak - Stalingrad, - Kachco on
Novyy Rozachik, and others.(12) Twenty diesel of on
Moskvich type have been assigned to these local runs, passenger ships of the
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The Ministry of River Fleet has confirmed schedules for the longer A ship will be dispatched every third day on the Moscow -
and ship turnaround will on lines.
did patch one be 24 days. The Moscow Rostov on will so,
pa ship every y 3 days and shi turnaround - Stalingrad Line will allso
days. One ship daily will be dispatched on the Son this line will be 18
where ship turnaround will be only 2 on the Stalingrad - Kalach on Don Line,
communications between Moscow and Sochi (4(~) Plans are being made for water
Rostov on Don (4,630 kilometers), and 'ooo kilometers), Leningrad and
kilometers)-(13) khangellsk and Rostov on Don (5,450
As reported on 4 June, a ship passed through Volga to Tsimiyanskaya Sea in a little less the
ursga-Doa Canal from the
5 have performed lockage in 12 and 17 minutes 24 the thir(14) Locke 2, 4, and
record by getting the diesel Passenger and tthirtronth lock set a
Lockage time is generally shorter ship Ioa Stalin through in 10 minutes.
than anticipate d,(5)
By 4 August, 400 ships had passed through the canal (15) and on 5 August
the first timber raft passed through. It is Planned to transport 300 timber
rafts through the canal during 1952.(16)
For servicing the Volga-Don water route, the Ministry of River Fleet has
supplied the best ssenger steam and diesel ships and new well-built floating
passenger docks.(7) Before the close of the 1951 navigation season, teas of
tugs, freighters, and passenger vessels, most of them of recent construction,
were selected for operation on the new water routes.
and reinforced for operation truction,
andvril. B on the reservoirs' w sever of ahem were modified
elk freight will be carried along ' new severe rarily bc
on4
vigation freighters.(6) the new routes s primarily by ddiesel
esel
In addition to new ship construction, ships had to be taken from other ship new lines to supplement
to the Volga-Don
leetefrom other ship is incomplete list of ships assigned
p s as follows:
Ships of the Dnepr Ship Line assigned to Volga-Don fleet (delivered to
Rostov on 14 July 1952): the steamships A. Mares'yev, V. Chkalov, and A.
Pokryshkin; and five barges (800-1,000 tons).(17)
Ships of the Northern Ship Line now operating on Tsim7yanskaya Sea: the
diesel tugs Akademik Vavilov and Akademik Skryabin, and others.(17)
Volga River Ships assigned to Volga-Don route: the diesel ships Valeriya
Varsova, Gleb Uspenskiy, and Akademik Vavilov.(18)
Danube Ship Line Vessels supplementing Volga-Don fleet and the
Moskva: Dezhnev, and oottherss..(19)hip Kavkaz, and the lake-type toga Georgiy Sedv1and imenj
Co
Ships operating on Moscow - Rostov on Don Line: Pamyat Shmeleva
Marksist, Krasnaya Zvezda, 800 let Moskva, Sovetskaya Respublika, Roza Lyu
burg, and Grazhdanka. , Radishchev,
lcaem-
Ships operating on Moscow - Stalingrad Line: Lermontov, A. S. Pushkin,
Sergey Kirov, Marshal Voroshilov, Georgiy Sedov, and Staling
keys Konstituteiya.
Ships operating on the Stalingrad - Kalach Line: Nekrasov and V. Varsova.(11)
The Gor'kiy Krasnaya Sormova Plant ites 600-horsepower diesel dry-cargo
freighters and tugs for the Volga-Don pro-
duction a large diesel-electric passenger and is designing ft future This will be 122 meters long of new construction. This ship
n8 (nearly 25 times as long as existing river passenger
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ships), 16.8 meters wide, and will have 5 meters of freeboard. 14 will have a
planned speed of 25 kilometers per hour and will carry 500 passengers.(20) The
ship will have three electric motors, each turning a separate screw. The three
motors will generate 2,700 borne er.(21) Smaller ships carrying 450 passengers
will also be built at the plant .(22)
SOURCES
1. Moscow, Rechnoy Transport, 27 Jul 52
2. Moscow, Pravda, 24 Jul 52
3. Rechnoy Transport, 3 Jun 52
4. Moscow, Molodoy Bol'shevik, No 11, Jun 52
4a. Moscow, Znaniya Sila, No 6, Jun 52
5. Riga, Sovetskaya 1.atviya, 5 hug 52
6. Moscow, Rechnoy Transport, No 2, Mar - Apr 52
7. Rechnoy Transport, 22 Jul 52
8. Vil'nyus, Sovetskaya Litva, 13 Jun 52
9- Baku, Bakinskiy Rabochiy, 6 Feb 52
10. Pravda, 15 Jul 52
U. Rechnoy Transport, 18 Jul 52
12. Petrozavodsk, Leninskoye Znamya, 4 Jun 52
13. Leningradskaya Pravda, 3 Jun 52
14. Ashkhabad, Turkmenskaya Iskra, 4 Jun 52
15. Moscow, Trud, 5 Aug 52
16. Moscow, Izvestiya, 6 Aug 52
17. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 15 Jul 52
18. Pravda, 5 Aug 52
19. Moscow, Vechernyaya Moskva, 26 Jul 52
20. Riga, Sovetskaya Latviya, 26 Jul 52
21. Moskovskaya Pravda, 25 Jul 52
22. Alma-Ata, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, ~0 May 52
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/11 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000700090314-2