Steamer Tovarishch Stalin

SS was a Soviet steamship, a class leader of the eponymous ship class of timber carriers. She was active in the Arctic during the 1930s.
SS and three other steamships—,, and —were the I series of -class timber carriers and first merchant ships built in the Soviet Union.

History

In 1933 Tovarishch Stalin, under Captain Sergeyev, took part in the first Soviet convoy to the mouth of the Lena River along with the steamers and. The convoy leader, Captain M. A. Sorokin, was on board Volodarskiy. This convoy was led by the icebreaker .
On the way back, severe ice conditions in the Vilkitsky Strait, forced the three freighters to winter at Ostrov Samuila in the Komsomolskoy Pravdy Islands. A shore station was built and a full scientific programme maintained all winter by leader scientist Nikolay Urvantsev and his wife, Dr. Yelizaveta Urvantseva, the expedition's medical officer.
These ships were released in the following year by after much effort to break a channel through the thick ice. Once freed, the freighters separated and Fyodor Litke escorted Tovarishch Stalin. Both headed west through the Vilkitsky Strait towards Arkhangelsk.