Reconstruction of the flotilla of Plant No. 74 on the Izhevsk Pond

Domestic literature on river transport of the Soviet period usually considers only shipping companies and other structures subordinate to the Ministry of River Fleet. Even in works reviewing water transport of the region, all conclusions, as a rule, are based on data on the work of shipping companies. The reasons for this should be sought in the source base, which is usually optimized for the main activity of the enterprise, mentioning the fleet only occasionally. In this regard, the development of methods that make it possible to reconstruct the biographies of ships based on existing office documentation, as well as to identify the composition and evolution of fleets for organizations where this activity is not their core business, is a topical issue, without which it is impossible to compile a picture of the development of water transport in the entire region and the country. Using the example of Udmurtia, it can be argued that the total fleets of the ministries and departments not subordinate to the Ministry of River Fleet exceeded the composition of the Kama River Shipping Company fleet operating in the region by more than two times. The object of the proposed study is the water transport of Plant No. 74 (until 1939 No. 180, previously No. 10, now PO Izhmash, part of the Kalashnikov concern), for which water transportation has never been the main area of activity. Because of this, the plant's water transport is mentioned in the office documentation extremely eclectically, and it is not possible to form a complete picture of the composition and evolution of the plant's flotilla. In this regard, the following methodology was used to resolve this issue: based on the office documentation contained in the enterprise's archival fund in the Central State Archive of the Udmurt Republic, a reconstruction framework is compiled, which is supplemented by data from journalistic and local history literature, as well as available photographic materials. As a result, it was established that in the period 1916-1956 Plant No. 74 had eight boats, with three to four vessels on its balance sheet at a time. The constancy of the number of personnel proves the relative constancy of the enterprise's transport tasks. During the period under review, the plant's flotilla underwent a complete technical re-equipment only once, and the average service life of the boats was about two decades. It was established that the plant was engaged in its own shipbuilding, having built at least two boats: Temp and Planeta, and, possibly, Epron. The remaining boats were received mainly "by chance": after nationalization (Besposhchadny and No. 22) or for the protection of the water area during the war (Kirovets). The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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