Water transport Transport in the Soviet Union

a freight boat in moskva river

the russian empire concentrated of investment on constructing new shipbuilding facilities, , not enlarging merchant marine; policy continued in prewar ussr. 1913 85 percent of merchant ships foreign built. merchant marine overlooked during regime of joseph stalin, because ussr traded neighbouring countries in eastern bloc. soviet trade later expanded neighbouring countries in asia. when stalin died in 1953, successor started increase trade non-communist countries, of on other continents. due policy, merchant marine increased 2 million deadweight tonnage in 1950s 12 million in 1968. 1974 had reached 14.1 million deadweight tons, 3 percent of world s total. of 114 million tons moved soviet merchant marine in 1974, 90 million of export , import.

while merchant marine technologically outdated, , slower of first world, still attracted consistent volume of cargo. reason technological backwardness of merchant marine first world induced boycotts of soviet shipping. led soviet union become isolated international shipping industry, , skip on such important innovations shipping containers. under mikhail gorbachev s rule soviet union became largest buyer of new ships in world. because of size of navy, soviet government advocated traditional freedoms of sea.

by 1990 soviet union operated large merchant fleet more 2400 ships of types — world s second largest in number of ships , seventh largest in carrying capacity.

ports

the soviet union had 26 major ports, eleven of them inland ports. there 70 ports in total. none of ports considered major world standards. 1980s majority of soviet ports lagging behind first world technologically. there high number of surplus workers, many of whom become redundant if ussr introduce new, more advanced, technology. also, in northeast territories of ussr ports closed down due cold climate.