On Christmas morning in 1994, a huge hull of a warship appeared on the ground near the shore before the eyes of the astonished Norwegian fishermen. It soon became clear that this was the former Soviet, and now the Russian cruiser Murmansk, already, however, sold to the Indians as scrap metal. The neighborhood with this specter of the Cold War lasted eighteen years. But the ship of this has its own story. This rusty case could tell a lot, if he could talk. About long hikes, storms and alarms ...
The first "Murmansk"
Yes, once there was another ship that bore this name. During the Tehran Conference, Stalin hinted to the leaders of the Allied Powers that he had not forgotten about the USSR’s share in the division of the fleet of the already capitulated Italy. It comprised four submarines, eight destroyers, a battleship and a cruiser, all of recent construction. Under the pretext of the complexity of delivery, the Americans and the British proposed their own military units, quite old, but after the end of the war they promised to replace them with Italian. Ultimately, in 1944, ships, including the Milwaukee, renamed the cruiser Murmansk, came to the Northern Fleet as a result of reparation. The ship practically did not go to sea, its powerful anti-aircraft artillery was used to protect the sky over the bay of Murmansk, Polyarny and Vaenga, but in this matter it succeeded. After 1945, “Murmansk” - “Milwaukee” was returned to the United States, and later the famous name received a new embodiment.
New "Murmansk"
After the Victory in the USSR, the program of modernization of the Navy took off. In its course, the construction of the latest high-speed cruisers under the 68 bis project began. At the shipyards of Molotovsk, Nikolaev and Leningrad, the hulls of new ships were laid, the first of which was the Sverdlov, and the last, the fourteenth, the cruiser Murmansk. These units were supposed to provide a stable presence of Soviet naval forces in the waters of the entire oceans. The requirements for shipbuilders were dictated by harsh necessity and stiff. With prolonged autonomy, excellent running and maneuverable characteristics should have been provided, and artillery was to become a real smashing tornado of fire if necessary. Shipbuilders coped with the task.
Nuclear-powered artillery cruiser
In 1955, a number of significant events took place in the history of the Soviet Navy, for example, the first atomic torpedo was tested, and the first submarine nuclear submarine was put into service. Once in the shadow of these glorious milestones was another fact, and perhaps it was considered insignificant. On April 24, the last representative of the project 68 bis cruiser Murmansk was launched. A review of its technical characteristics, with all its splendor, did not impress the then military-political leadership of the USSR. Both the First Secretary Khrushchev and the Minister of Defense Zhukov dreamed of something atomic, rocket, and even better - underwater.
A dozen main-caliber guns (152 mm), the same number of auxiliary universal (100 mm), 32 anti-aircraft automatic quick-firing guns, a dozen torpedoes - all this did not impress leaders who were not very versed in naval affairs. With a total displacement of 16.3 thousand tons, the Murmansk cruiser had a length of 210 m, a width of 22 m and a draft of 7.26 m. It could develop a course of up to 31.5 knots (this is very much in modern times) and had a powerful reservation
Nevertheless, the ship laid down under Stalin was already considered morally obsolete. He was threatened with cutting to metal immediately after launching.
Peacetime military service
Fortunately, the light cruiser Murmansk managed to defend the fleet command, although with losses and reductions. Since 1963, the ship has been involved in many exercises far from its native coast. Then he, as the best, is sent on friendly visits to different countries, he defends the North of the USSR during the height of the Cold War, receives the honorary title of "Excellent" (1965), receives on board the Secretary General Brezhnev (1967) and other distinguished guests. During the Arab-Israeli war, he cruises in the Mediterranean Sea together with the hastily created squadron, then serves in the Atlantic. In general, the biography of the ship is rich in events, it’s enough to mention at least that the distance it traveled through the oceans corresponds to the length of eleven equators.
Resignation and last flight
Time is inexorable, but this ship left with honor. In 1989, the last time he "shot", and did it best of all. In December of that year, the cruiser was officially withdrawn from service, and the team was disbanded. At first it stood in a mothballed condition, and in 1994 it was sold to India for cutting into scrap metal.
It’s always sad to watch how the equipment that has served its term is doomed to be scrapped. But the rebellious nature of the ship manifested itself in this last episode of his biography. Storms of the Barents Sea broke towing cables, but carefully put the now dead body on a sandbank. The elements themselves did not want to let go of their favorite, who had plowed her open spaces for so many decades.
For many years he stood on the shore, and only formidable gun turrets reminded that this mountain of metal once constituted the cruiser Murmansk. A photo of the ship was published by the European press, articles were written about it. Ultimately, fearing possible damage to the environment, they began to cut it into metal. By 2013, nothing remained of the formidable ship.