The death of the "Armenia" liner. Search for "Armenia" classified The death of Armenia in 1941

Everyone remembers the catastrophe of the world scale with the steamer "Titanic"? Of course…. But why do we remember and know so many details about this shipwreck, and do not know about more terrifying and global disasters that occurred on the waters of the world's oceans? But because films about these troubles were not made, many books were not written, and because some of them are still classified.

Motor ship "Armenia"

Armenia…. This is not only a beautiful and friendly little country, not only a city in sunny Colombia, but also the name of one of the ships built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928. Together with this motor ship, the ships "Abkhazia", ​​"Adjara" and "Ukraine" also went out to the open sea. All ships were designed to carry passengers, goods and mail on the Crimean-Caucasian line.

With the outbreak of World War II, the countries involved in the confrontation with Germany used all possible resources, including passenger and cargo ships. They were rebuilt into ambulances to transport the wounded. During the war, the three ships of the Baltic Shipyard were sunk, but the biggest secret is hidden in itself the loss motor ship "Armenia".

In 1941, the ship was commanded by an experienced 39-year-old captain Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky. It was he who received the order from the command of the Black Sea Fleet to save the military hospital and the inhabitants of the city of Sevastopol. For a complete picture of the ship, it is worth writing about the facts that played an important role in the fate of the ship. The ship could take on board 950 people plus a crew of 96 people, but took on board 4.5-7 thousand people, which was many times higher than its capabilities. Eyewitnesses who were in the port of Sevastopol say that every resident of the city was eager to board the ship, everyone was afraid to stay, since the German troops were already nearby. Let us clarify that such an overload threatened the ship with very strong instability on the waves of the Black Sea, it could capsize even with a small storm. The deck and holds of the ship were filled with doctors and residents of the city. After loading people, the ship left the port of Sevastopol at about 17:00 on November 6, 1941 and headed towards the Caucasus, in Tuapse.

But along the way, the ship had two more stops. On one of them, in the port of Yalta, the ship was supposed to evacuate political workers and several hundred civilians. But on the second, take on board the NKVD officers and unknown wooden boxes. The second stop was not far from the coast of Balaklava, where the ship waited for a boat with cargo and NKVD officers. We had to wait about three hours. What was in such valuable boxes, because of which thousands of people were exposed to danger every second, remained unknown, we can only guess about their contents.

There are several guesses about what was transported in wooden crates. The first is the documents of the NKVD, which in no way could have been left to the advancing enemy. The second, in favor of which many facts speak, are paintings by famous Russian artists. At a distance of one and a half hours by car from Balaklava, Alushta was located, in which in the summer of the same year there was an exhibition of paintings by prominent Russian artists such as Bryullov, Kramskoy, Repin, Levitan and many others.

Upon arrival in Yalta, the ship took on board several hundred more people. The motor ship, which arrived at the port at 2:00 on November 7, received an order to wait for darkness and go out to sea only at 19:00. But, taking responsibility, Captain Plaushevsky took the ship out to sea at 8 am on November 7. For such a violation of the order, the entire crew of the ship could be shot, but this was prevented by a more tragic circumstance.

Motor ship "Armenia" had on the sides the distinctive signs of ambulance transport in the form of red crosses. But also the ship was additionally armed with four 45-mm cannons, which made it possible to consider the ship a military object and, accordingly, attack it.

On November 7, 1941, at 8:00 am "Armenia" left the port of Yalta and headed straight for Tuapse, having on board several thousand passengers, including a whole military hospital and NKVD officers with an unknown but valuable cargo. And, presumably, at 11 hours 25 minutes, the ship was attacked by the German Heinkel He-111 aircraft. The ship was hit by dropped torpedoes. The sinking of the ship took only a few minutes, from which historians conclude that the damage from the torpedo hit was devastating and the ship, most likely, was torn to pieces.

Memorial plaque in memory of "Armenia"

The bottom of the Black Sea, even at the moment, with modern technologies, has been very little surveyed. And the remains of the motor ship "Armenia" have not yet been found. And no one knows what was in these unfortunate boxes, which became one of the reasons for the death of 4.5-7 thousand people, the death of first-class Soviet doctors, who could have saved hundreds of lives of soldiers. The sinking of the motor ship "Armenia" remained one of the most mysterious secrets of the beginning of the Second World War.

"Armenia" is a passenger-cargo ship of the "Adjara" type. It was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928.

On the last voyage, I departed from Sevastopol besieged by the Nazi troops, on board had a huge number of wounded soldiers from the hospital, civilians, the leadership of the Artek camp, part of the Crimean party leadership, personnel of the Main Military Hospital of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as an important secret cargo.

On November 7, 1941, he was sunk by a German torpedo bomber near the Crimean coast.
Sank in 4 minutes. Of all those on board, 8 people survived, independently swam to the coast.

According to various estimates, the death toll ranged from 5,000 to 7,000 people. It is possible that the number of victims could be about 10,000.
The coordinates of the place were possibly distorted on purpose. today the following are known: 44 ° 15'00 ″ s. NS. 34 ° 17'00 "in. d. / 44.25 ° N NS. 34.283333 ° E etc.
The current location on the map, selected according to the latest research of the 2005 expedition (15 km from Yalta) and numerous references in various sources - at the intersection of the Gurzuf traverse and the Yalta-Tuapse sea route, and of course also very approximately.

In the magazine "Neptune XXI century" No. 1-6 / 2008, a sensational statement even sounded: "Armenia" was found by a unique search complex:

“In 1998, a group of Russian and Ukrainian scientists developed a special set of equipment for Earth sounding and remote contouring under the ground and under water of various objects and minerals to a depth of 5,000 meters.

South of Yalta ... the search area was limited to a water area of ​​100 sq. km (10x10 km) ...

The work on finding the hulls of sunken ships in this area, determining their coordinates and identifying the vessel "Armenia" was completed within two weeks. At the same time, new technologies were used for the integrated use of the results of special processing and decoding of a space photograph using highly sensitive equipment - a stationary geo-holographic complex "Poisk" and active microwave equipment, automatically coordinated with an OP8-76 receiver. As a result, in the search area with an area of ​​100 km2, three sunken ships of various sizes were found, their sizes and coordinates were determined.

The identification of a vessel with dimensions similar in characteristics to the dimensions of the vessel “Armenia” has been carried out. The results of remote holographic identification prove that in this place, at a depth of 520 m, there is a ship “Armenia” torpedoed into the bow. The vessel lies on the bottom under a layer of 6-7 m of bottom silt, its center is located at a distance of 250 meters from the previously assumed point of its sinking (the accuracy of detecting the coordinates of the center of the vessel is ± (6-10) m).

On board (under the upper deck in the superstructure area), signs of finding a significant number of items made of precious metals (silver, gold, platinum) were remotely detected. A visual inspection with a manned underwater vehicle in June 2005 confirmed the presence of a plateau in the area, characterizing a vessel of appropriate dimensions lying on the port side, covered with a layer of silt.

Performing prospecting operations using traditional technologies in large areas of the water area is currently difficult due to the impossibility of attracting divers to search (too great depths), the limited capabilities of hydroacoustic, ultrasonic and television transmitting means for detecting metal objects located under a large layer of soil and at great depths, and also due to the high cost of underwater work.

The region is located in the Black Sea, 15 km from Yalta. Depths with distance from the coast - 350-1200 m.According to available information from military archives, at the point of torpedoing of the ship, the depths are about 380 m, but every 100 m they increase by 80-120 m. ... At the second exit to the sea, the place is flooding was surveyed using the autonomous manned underwater vehicle (PA) "Langust".

The device was guided to the exact place of the sinking of the “Armenia” vessel according to the calculations of the operators of the “Poisk” complex installed on the support vessel. The PA crew, when diving to a depth of 500-520 meters, visually discovered a canyon up to 40 meters deep, on the right slope of the canyon (almost in the canyon itself) a smooth platform about 100 meters long with an inclination in depth of about 30 ° is visible, the depth of the site is 540 meters. When approaching the site, clouds of silt rise from it, and large volumes of silty soil begin to crumble from the slopes. Due to the danger of the PA blockage by silty soil, further exploration of the bottom was terminated.

The sanitary ship "Armenia" was identified by the following parameters:
∞ location of the sunken vessel with the bow to the southeast (coincidence with the general course of the vessel after leaving the port of Yalta);
∞ coincidence of the length of the sunken ship (about 100 meters), a fragment of the severed bow (about 10 meters) is located at a distance of about 40 meters from the ship's hull;
∞ coincidence of the resonant information and energy spectra of samples of copper electric cables and cables from a sunken ship, a sunken fragment of the severed bow of the ship and the same spectra in the photograph of the ship;
∞ reliable fixation of the resonance information and energy spectra of non-ferrous metal screws (2 screws);
∞ clear recording of the coincidences of the resonant information-energy spectra from brass letters on the stern of the ship (by frequencies and by the configuration of the letters);
∞ determination of the characteristic dimensions of the wooden superstructure of a given vessel (only from the navigating bridge to the pipes) and the resonant information and energy spectra of the superstructure tree varieties;
∞ coincidence of the characteristic protrusions on the deck of the flooded object with the location of the pipes on the upper deck of the vessel and the coincidence of the resonant frequencies of the information and energy spectrum from their material;
∞ coincidence of resonance spectra from the metal of the ship's hull;
∞ clear fixation of characteristic resonance spectra from precious metals located in the following places: platinum and diamonds - under the upper deck in the area of ​​the central part of the vessel (where special postal and luggage rooms are located); gold and silver - in many rooms of the superstructure, where the superior cabins are located;
∞ fixation of a large number of human remains (bones) throughout the ship according to the characteristic resonant information and energy spectrum (on two other sunken ships in this area, there is no fixation of such a massive accumulation of human remains). "
www.blackseanews.net/read/28329

However, the veil of secrecy around the sunken "Armenia" has not yet been dispelled.
Historians have established that case No. 19, concerning this tragedy, was removed from the TsVMA and ... destroyed back in 1949. By whom, why - questions that still have no answer.

This disaster is one of the largest maritime disasters in history.

I read the message of the respected blogger Adam from 01.07.2018 "Epronovets 17" - "In the wake of the catastrophe" that on 06/05/2018 the place of the sinking of the submarine "Kambala", which sank on May 30, 1909, was found and with the help of underwater robots, and the presentation of the book by V. Boyko “Submarine“ Flounder ”
It is gratifying that, at last, they found this submarine, which was tragically lost during a night training attack by a squadron of the Black Sea Fleet, when the boat was on the course of the attacked ships of the squadron and was cut in half by the battleship Rostislav - “... near Sevastopol, at the alignment of the Inkerman lighthouses ... ”, As it is written on a marble plaque installed in the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In my article "On the Black Sea submariners of the First World War, and how they brought the Turkish ships captured by them to Sevastopol in tow," posted on the blog on August 27, 2016, I talked a little about the fate of this submarine, its crew, gave photographs of the monument erected on 29 May 1912 at the burial place of sailors at the Quarantine Cemetery in Sevastopol.
Then, over their grave in the form of a monument, on a stone plinth, the original cabin of the "Flounder" was installed, in which they hung an icon with an inextinguishable lamp glowing in front of it.
The cabin of the Flounder was crowned with a white marble figure of the Grieving Mother. During the War of 1941-1945, the monument was seriously damaged, the marble figure of the Sorrowful One was lost.

It should be noted that this monument is now the only monument in Russia to the submariners of the Imperial Russian Navy, except for the marble plaque installed in the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral. St. Petersburg.
I would like to wish good luck to the further search engines of "Kambala".

Today I would like to raise the topic of the tragic sinking of the "Armenia" motor ship.

In the entire history of navigation in the Black Sea, according to various estimates, more than 50,000 different ships, vessels, and other floating facilities were lost and sank, of which more than 10,000 were sailing ships.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The Black Sea Fleet lost 1,151 units of warships and auxiliary vessels.

The largest naval tragedy in the Black Sea Fleet during the war took place on November 7, 1941. when the German torpedo bomber "Heinkel-111" sunk the sanitary transport-motor ship "Armenia" at 11:29 am, which left Yalta only at 8 am on November 7, guarded by only one patrol boat SKA-041 (according to some reports, two boats) ...

Motor ship "Armenia"

This was one of the largest maritime disasters not only of the Great Patriotic War, but also in maritime history in general, but which, according to the traditions of Soviet times, was hushed up for many years.

On November 6, 1941 in Sevastopol, about 300 wounded, medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol naval hospital, the 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, medical-sanitary warehouse No. 280, sanitary-epidemiological laboratory, 5- 1st medical and sanitary detachment, part of the medical personnel of the Primorsk and 51st armies, as well as the evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were taken aboard the ship.

(After the death of "Armenia", the Black Sea Fleet was practically left without medical support, it was necessary to create a new hospital, base hospitals, etc.
In late December 1941 - early January 1942, it was decided to restore the previous organization of the medical service. Two naval hospitals were again transferred to Sevastopol, a group of surgeons and the restoration of the medical service of the Sevastopol defense region continued until May 1942.
Why all the medical personnel of the fleet were evacuated from Sevastopol, the defense of which had just begun, is a separate question for the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
Sevastopol defended heroically for another eight months).

At 19.00 on November 6, the motor ship "Armenia" left Sevastopol for Tuapse. On the way, an order was received to go to Balaklava and pick up the wounded and medical personnel there. Then the ship entered Yalta, where the wounded, the Soviet and party activists of Big Yalta, and the civilian population of the city were taken on board.

In Yalta, several dozen boxes were also loaded onto the ship. There is an assumption that some of them contained valuables from Crimean museums, in particular, part of the exhibits of a traveling exhibition from the Russian State Museum, which the war found in Alupka.
I decided to check this assumption, and in 2015 I turned to the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, received an official answer:
“… The State Russian Museum sent in 1941 to the Alupka Palace - Museum a traveling exhibition“ The Main Stages of the Development of Russian Painting of the 18th-19th Centuries. ” By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the exhibition had not been taken out of Alupka….
Subsequently, it was established that some of the works were plundered, some were returned from Germany and returned to the Russian Museum.
All the works of the exhibition never returned to the Russian Museum ”.
As you can see, the assumption turned out to be correct, the exhibition was and quite a part of it could have been evacuated to “Armenia”.
In total, according to various estimates, there were from 4500 to 7000 people on board the “Armenia”. Only 8 people were saved!

Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky recalled:
“When it became known to me that the transport was going to leave Yalta during the day, I personally gave the order to the commander not to leave Yalta before 19.00, that is, until dark. Communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, in spite of this, left Yalta at 08.00.
At 11.00, he was attacked by torpedo aircraft and sunk. After being hit by a torpedo, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes. "

Why the captain of "Armenia" (Plaushevsky) violated the order and went out to sea early in the morning - another mystery of the loss of the ship.

But let's take into account that the Yalta port was by this time completely defenseless against aviation.
In Yalta, two destroyers "Boykiy" and "Bezuprechny" were moored to the berths, and "Armenia" was forced to anchor in anticipation of loading. The destroyers were loaded with the guns of the 17th antiboat battery and all the anti-aircraft guns that covered Yalta.

Staying in port was tantamount to suicide. On the approaches to the port, there were already German troops (the first German units entered Yalta by the evening of the same day.)

In addition, there are a number of assumptions: the captain was pressured by high ranks of the NKVD and party officials who were on board the ship in Yalta and even threatened with reprisals.

For a long time the death of "Armenia" was a secret with seven seals, and the documents about the sinking of the ship, which are in the Central Naval Archives, were destroyed in 1949.

It should be noted that during the period when Crimea was part of Ukraine, attempts were made to find the motor ship "Armenia".

In this search, in 2006, the American side also took part, led by Robert Ballard, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Oceanography, who found the Titanic, the battleship Bismarck and the aircraft carrier Yorktown.
The American scientist signed an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The research vessel Endever, equipped with modern sonars and remote-controlled robots, arrived.
A huge area of ​​the sea was surveyed, about 20 by 20 miles, more than 400 objects were found, but it was not possible to find the sunken motor ship.
The coordinates of the place of the sinking of "Armenia" (44 ° 17 "N, 34 ° 10" E), available in the Black Sea Fleet Museum, are apparently very approximate.

As a memory of this ship, there are still frames from the film "The Treasure of a Sunken Ship" in 1935, in which it was filmed.

In turn, during 2015-2016. I have officially applied to the Russian Geographical Society three times with a proposal to organize a search for the motor ship “Armenia” within the framework of the “Underwater Research” project.
I received kind replies that my proposal was sent to the Center for Underwater Research of the Russian Geographical Society for consideration and response.
But, no answer was received from this Center.

I understand that this is a very costly operation that requires appropriate organizational and financial support. But I think she's worth it.
After all, the disaster of "Armenia" is the largest maritime tragedy during the war years, and in general in maritime history, which, according to various estimates, claimed about 7000 human lives.
Why the question is, Ukraine was able to find the means to organize and provide these searches in 2006, (unfortunately, to no avail), but Russia cannot do this? !!!

I believe that this is our duty to the memory of the fallen, and we must find the place of death of "Armenia" - this mass grave of several thousand people, and in order to perpetuate the memory, declare this place a maritime war burial.
I am writing to the Epronovets editorial office with an earnest request to support this proposal.

"Armenia" was designed by marine engineers of the Leningrad Central Bureau of Marine Shipbuilding under the leadership of chief designer Y. Koperzhinsky, launched in November 1928 and entered the six best passenger ships of the Black Sea, consisting of "Abkhazia", ​​"Adjara", "Ukraine" , "Armenia", "Crimea" and "Georgia".

Although almost all of these ships were built in Leningrad, at the Baltic Shipyard (only the last two are in Kiel in Germany), the political leadership of the country decided in the names of the ships to express the inviolable friendship of the young Soviet republics, which was inscribed on the high sides of these handsome men, who Odessans dubbed it in their own way, calling it "trotters" for their speed.

As for the "Armenia", it had a cruising range of 4600 miles, could carry 518 passengers, 125 seated and 317 deck passengers in class cabins, as well as up to 1000 tons of cargo, while developing a maximum speed of 14.5 knots (about 27 km / h). All these ships began to serve the "express line" Odessa - Batumi - Odessa, regularly carrying thousands of passengers until 1941 ...

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the fate of the Black Sea "trotters" changed dramatically. "Armenia" was urgently converted into a sanitary-transport ship: restaurants of the 1st and 2nd class were turned into operating rooms and dressing rooms, the smoking salon - into a pharmacy, additional hanging bunks were installed in the cabins.

39-year-old Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky was appointed captain of "Armenia", Nikolai Fadeevich Znayunenko was appointed as the first. The ship's crew consisted of 96 people, plus 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies. The chief physician of the Odessa railway hospital, whom many in the city knew well, Pyotr Andreevich Dmitrievsky was appointed head of the medical staff with the rank of military doctor of the 2nd rank ...

The laconic, self-possessed, always smart captain of "Armenia" Plaushevsky quickly gained authority, and all his orders and commands were carried out immediately.

Huge crosses were painted on the sides and on the deck in bright red paint, clearly visible from the air. A large white flag was raised on the mainmast, also with the image of the International Red Cross. Glancing at him, Plaushevsky quietly said to the chief executive:

I do not think that the Wehrmacht will strictly abide by the provisions of the Hague and Geneva Conventions. The Germans traditionally did not differ in special mercy in wars ...

His words were prophetic. From the first days of the war, Goering's aircraft raided hospital ships on the Black Sea. In July 1941, the Kotovsky and Anton Chekhov ambulances were damaged, and the Adjaristan (Adjara) attacked by dive bombers, enveloped in flames, ran aground near Dofinovka in full view of Odessa. In August, the same fate befell the ship "Kuban".

The Red Army, pressed by the enemy, suffered heavy losses in heavy battles. There were a lot of wounded ... Day and night in any bad weather on board the "Armenia" medical staff worked to exhaustion. Operations, operations and endless dressings. The wounded were everywhere. There were especially many seriously wounded. Loud groans were heard on all decks, people were tormented by thirst. Many women looked after the wounded.

Captain Plaushevsky slept in fits and starts, for many hours without leaving the captain's bridge. He managed to make fifteen incredibly difficult and dangerous flights with the wounded defenders of Odessa and transport about 16 thousand people, whom the crew members placed in their cabins with the tacit consent of the captain, his assistants and the boatswain himself. Thanks to them, many refugees were saved, who at that time were called "evacuees" ...

The pilot and writer Saint-Exupéry, who died during the war, said: "War is something that can take so much meat from a person's face that he will forever be deprived of the opportunity to smile at people."

Yes, there are many mysteries in the circumstances of the death of “Armenia”. In addition to searching the archives, we had to interview witnesses of that terrible tragedy, of which, alas, there are very few left!

The book "Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War ..." says that "Armenia", as well as "Kuban" and the training ship "Dnepr", made their voyages from Odessa, accompanied by the destroyer "Merciless", which undoubtedly saved these ships from the daring attacks of the German aviation.

The offensive of Manstein's 2nd Army on the Crimea was swift, to which the command of the Black Sea Fleet, including Vice Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky were not ready. All the exercises of the fleet before the war were reduced to the "destruction" of large amphibious assault forces and military campaigns of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet. It never occurred to anyone that they would have to defend Sevastopol from the land side ...

In October and November 1941, confusion reigned everywhere. Everything that was necessary and not necessary was hastily evacuated from Sevastopol. Hospitals equipped in adits and in the city itself were packed with wounded, but someone gave the order to urgently evacuate all the medical staff. They even tried to evacuate the well-equipped and fortified command post of the fleet. Only the energetic intervention of the newly arrived Deputy for Ground Defense, Major General I.E. Petrova put an end to the terrible confusion. The legendary 30th battery of Georgy Alexander began to operate successfully, piercing both sides of German tanks with huge shells and stabbing the motorized infantry with shrapnel. On the outskirts of Sevastopol, fierce battles began ...

Thanks to the documents found and eyewitness testimony, it was possible to reconstruct many events preceding the departure of the "Armenia" to the sea from the Sevastopol Bay on November 6, 1941.

The motor ship stood in the inner roadstead and hastily took on board numerous wounded and evacuated citizens. The situation was extremely nervous. An enemy air raid could begin at any moment. The bulk of the fleet's warships, by order of Oktyabrsky, went to sea, including the cruiser Molotov, which had the only shipborne radar station Redut-K in the fleet.

In addition to "Armenia", another former "trotter" - the motor ship "Bialystok" was loaded in the Quarantine Bay, and equipment and people were loaded onto the transport "Crimea" at the berth of the Marine Plant. The loading went on continuously day and night.

Attention is drawn to the great variety of all kinds of orders given in the most categorical and frightening form, in which, in case of non-fulfillment, there was a promise of severe punishment "up to execution." There were especially many such orders after the introduction of the state of siege in Sevastopol on October 29. Both Sevastopol and the German command knew very well that there were no Red Army units on the outskirts of the city. Therefore, Manstein gave the order to the 54th Army Corps and the motorized brigade to capture Sevastopol on the move. This did not happen only because the commander of the Primorsky Army, Major General I.E. Petrov (later his historians will call him "the second Georgy Zhukov") managed to make a difficult crossing over the mountains, reach Sevastopol, organize a strong defense and save the city. The mass manifestation of heroism by the defenders of this "southern Kronstadt" was also important ...

But then, on the eve of his death, being on board the "Armenia" and receiving reports from the assistants on the progress of loading, Captain Plaushevsky looked anxiously at the sky. He was ordered to leave Sevastopol on November 6 at 19 o'clock and follow in Tuapse. Only a small sea hunter with the tail number "041" under the command of senior lieutenant P.A. Kulashova.

Colonel of the medical service M. Shapunov testifies:

“There was an order on November 5 for all naval medical organizations to fold up and evacuate. What caused this strict order? After all, the defense of Sevastopol has just begun (and will last 250 days) ... ”.

A participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Colonel of the Medical Service A.I. Vlasov:

“On November 5, the head of the department of the Main Base received an order ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded were loaded on "Armenia", medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol Naval Hospital (the largest in the fleet), headed by its chief physician, military doctor 1st rank S.M. Kagan. Heads of departments (with medical personnel), X-ray technicians were also here ... The 2nd Naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse # 280, sanitary-epidemiological laboratory, 5th medical-sanitary detachment, a hospital from the Yalta sanatorium were also located here. Part of the medical staff of the Primorsk and 51st armies, as well as the evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were accepted on the ship ... ".

Captain Plaushevsky knew that in the absence of security, only a dark night could ensure the secrecy of the voyage and would prevent enemy aircraft from attacking the "Armenia". Imagine his surprise and annoyance when he was given the order of the Military Council of the Fleet to leave Sevastopol not in the evening twilight, but two hours earlier, that is, at 17 o'clock, in the daytime!

Such an order promised death, and some historians were inclined to believe that it came from the depths of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, from his special services, engaged in "disinformation".

Colonel I.M. Velichenko, a former secret communications specialist under the commander of the Black Sea Fleet:

“On that day, Rear Admiral N.M. Kulakov that a large group of leading workers and party activists gathered in the city, who have nothing to evacuate ... the choice fell on "Armenia", and she went to her death ... ". However, “Armenia” managed to slip through to Yalta.

But here's a riddle. "Armenia", leaving Sevastopol at 17 o'clock, moored in Yalta only after 9 hours (?!), That is, about 2 o'clock in the morning. It turns out that on the way there was a new order to make an entry into Balaklava and pick up the NKVD workers, the wounded and medical personnel there, for the Germans continue to advance.

In fact, the situation was not so threatening, and people could be taken by other ships. Captain Plaushevsky understood perfectly well that such a precious night time was decreasing inexorably, and nevertheless he could not ignore the new "murderous" order!

The sea was stormy, in the sky ragged low clouds. “Armenia”, having moored, immediately set about loading people, who were gathered on the quay in great numbers.

There is confusion in Yalta itself. The police are absent. Massandra wines were released through pipes into the sea. Someone is robbing shops and warehouses. All streets and lanes overlooking the embankment are partitioned off by parapets made of bags of pebbles and sand, which is not at all in harmony with evergreen palm trees ...

Captain Plaushevsky was informed that a "party asset", NKVD workers and eleven other hospitals with wounded were awaiting loading in Yalta.

Volunteer E.S. Nikulin:

“Since the evening we did not know anything about the motor ship“ Armenia ”. At night, at about two o'clock we were awakened and led almost in formation down the middle of the street to the port. There was a huge motor ship in the port.

The entire pier and pier are filled with people. We joined this crowd. Boarding the ship proceeded slowly; in two hours we moved from the pier to the pier. The crush is incredible! Loading lasted from about two o'clock until seven in the morning (that is, all such precious night time. - S. S.)... NKVD fighters with rifles stood across the pier and only women with children were allowed to pass. Sometimes men broke through the cordon. The weather was inclement, it often rained. The full moon was visible in the breaks of black, fast-moving clouds. Waves rolled over the pier. A fuel depot began to burn in the city, and huge black clouds of smoke were blown into the city by the wind. Dawn was coming ... ".

From the notes of Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky: “When it became known to me that the transport“ Armenia ”was going to leave Yalta in the afternoon, I personally gave the order to the commander in no case to leave Yalta before 19.00, that is, until dark. We did not have the means to provide a good cover for transport from the air and sea.

Communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, despite this, left Yalta. At 11.00 he was attacked by torpedo aircraft and sunk. After being hit by a torpedo, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes. "

The lack of documents destroyed in 1949 and later casts a shadow on Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky, because any historian can suspect that the admiral is looking for an excuse for himself retroactively, years after the terrible tragedy. However, it should be admitted that he, as the commander of the fleet, knew the operational situation at the theater, knew where "Armenia" was, knew the time when she rolled away from the pier, crowded with people, he also knew that under the dominance of German aviation in the air "Armenia", devoid of security, is an ideal target for torpedo bombers and dive bombers. Therefore, it is very likely that the order, and even very strict, "to wait for the night", he really passed on to Captain Plaushevsky, but on the "Armenia" some ominous event took place, which forced the captain to violate Oktyabrsky's order. This is another secret of the loss of the ship ...

Let's investigate the events and go back. It is reliably known that the initial order to Captain Plaushevsky was clearly formulated: to pick up the wounded and medical personnel and follow from Sevastopol to Tuapse at night.

Then followed an urgent order, which arose under the powerful pressure of the NKVD (as evidenced by Colonel I.M.Velichenko and N.S. The departure time of the ship from Sevastopol has been changed by two hours.

The third order, given to Captain Plaushevsky, forced him, without entering the Balaklava Bay, to also pick up representatives of the local authorities and the wounded. People were loaded from fishing boats and boats (the testimony of the same N.S. Malinovskaya).

The fourth order, given to the captain of the "Armenia" early in the morning by F.S. October 7, ordered to leave Yalta no earlier than 19 hours, was strangely violated, and the captain set off on a voyage without security to meet his death.

Let us refer to the certificate of a boatman from the sea hunter MO-04 MM. Yakovleva.

“On November 7, at about 10 am, in the area of ​​Cape Sarych, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us, and after a short time over the water, on low level flight, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy, and we were chattering thoroughly), we entered our area two enemy torpedo bombers. One of them began to make a U-turn for a torpedo attack, and the second went towards Yalta. We could not open fire, since the roll of the boat reached 45 degrees. The torpedo bomber dropped two torpedoes, but missed, and they exploded in the coastal rocks of Cape Aya. We were struck by the force of the explosion - we hadn’t seen a more powerful one before, and almost everyone said at once that if the second torpedo bomber reached Armenia, then it would be bad for her ... And so it happened. ”

After torpedoing, the “Armenia” was afloat for four minutes. Only a few people were saved, including Sergeant Major Bocharov and serviceman I.A. Burmistrov. Saw the death of the ship and the commander of the sea hunter, senior lieutenant P.A. Kulashov.

An attempt to find other witnesses to the tragedy through inquiries and correspondence with Odessa was also unsuccessful. Ukraine shamelessly checks all letters, and they come with traces of opening and a dirty stamp: "The letter came with traces of glue on the envelope."

Through the German veterans, they tried to find the crew of the torpedo bomber who attacked the "Armenia" in order to clarify the details and coordinates of the loss of the ship, since the German archives are famous for the great preservation of documents. The answer came unexpected: "The archive of the Luftwaffe has been taken out to the USSR."

The name of Captain Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky is engraved on the tablets of the Walk of Fame in Odessa, near the grave of the Unknown Sailor, as are the names of the captains of other "trotters" who have found eternal rest at the bottom of the Black Sea. Eternal glory to them!

What is hiding an expedition that could shed light on one of the main military tragedies of the Black Sea?

The search for the site of the tragic disaster of the motor ship "Armenia" with supposedly seven thousand people on board has been going on for over 10 years. Why is the next expedition completely classified, what was discovered by scuba divers in 2005, announcing the discovery of "Armenia", and could the organizers of the expeditions, partially funded by the US Navy, pursue not only scientific goals?

Was the find hidden because of the gold?

The first expedition to search for the motor ship "Armenia" took place back in 2005. Then the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine received from various sources as many as three points of coordinates, including from the Central Naval Archive in Moscow, and also took as a basis the testimony of eyewitnesses of the tragedy and survivors. But the most important thing on which the search was based was a secret report submitted by a certain Crimean organization that had already discovered "Armenia" with the help of the "Poisk" geological complex.

“The identification of a vessel with dimensions similar in characteristics to the dimensions of the vessel“ Armenia ”has been carried out. The results of remote holographic identification prove that in this place, at a depth of 520 m, there is a ship "Armenia" torpedoed into the bow ... The sanitary ship "Armenia" was identified by the following parameters: the location of the sunken ship with its bow to the southeast (coincidence with the general course movement of the vessel after leaving the port of Yalta); coincidence of the length of the sunken ship (about 100 meters), a fragment of the severed bow (about 10 meters) is at a distance of about 40 meters from the ship's hull; fixation of a large number of human remains (bones) throughout the vessel according to the characteristic resonant information-energy spectrum; fixation of characteristic resonance spectra from precious metals located in the following places: platinum and diamonds - under the upper deck in the area of ​​the central part of the vessel (where special postal and luggage rooms are located); gold and silver - in many rooms of the superstructure, where the superior cabins are located, "etc.

A deep-sea vehicle "Langust" was launched to the place of death, the crew of which confirmed the find. The news immediately spread throughout the media with loud headlines like "The legendary" Armenia "is found!" The archaeological season was already closed, but next summer promised to be rich in artifacts, photos and video frames from the ship ...

However, the next year the search for "Armenia" was resumed in other regions. This was explained as follows: they say, the find was not confirmed, and what the crew of Langouste saw was a completely different vessel, completely uninteresting. By the way, the report, taken as a basis, was made public after Ukrainian archaeologists examined the alleged place of death of "Armenia" from American scientific courts in 2006-2007.

According to the most daring conspiracy theory, the cargo, which was mentioned in the geological survey report, and which, according to legend, was loaded by the NKVD officers in Yalta, and became the reason for the concealment of information about the discovery of the ship.

Although, perhaps, all this is nothing more than speculation ...

History and tragedy

The passenger-cargo ship "Armenia" was built at the Baltic Shipyard, in Leningrad, in 1928. Displacement 5770 tons, length 107.7 m, width 15.5 m, depth 7.84 m, crew - 96 people. The vessel belonged to the class of two-deck, six of the same type "Krymchaks" that worked on the Crimean-Caucasian cruise line in the pre-war period ("Armenia", "Adjaristan", "Crimea", "Abkhazia", ​​"Ukraine", "Georgia"). Soon after the start of the war, all six ships were converted into ambulance ships and transferred to the medical service of the Black Sea Fleet.

The tragedy of "Armenia" took place on November 7, 1941 and is one of the largest in world history in terms of the number of victims. The death toll was, according to various estimates, from 3 thousand to 10 thousand people.

The chronology of the disaster is briefly as follows. At about 17:00 on November 6, 1941, the ship under the sign of the Red Cross left Sevastopol. On board were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens. The personnel of the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet and a number of other military and civil hospitals (23 hospitals in total), as well as the leadership and staff of the Artek pioneer camp, members of their families and part of the Crimean party leadership were also loaded onto the ship. The evacuees were being loaded in a hurry, their exact number is unknown. Captain Vladimir Plaushevsky carried the “Armenia” on the last voyage. The ship was accompanied by two armed boats and two I-153 fighters. At 2:00, November 7, the ship arrived in Yalta, where it took on board several hundred more people (the evacuees were also loaded in a hurry, so their exact number is unknown) and some valuable cargo - it is possible that, in addition to documents, there was gold and values ​​from the Crimean museums. At 8:00 the ship left the port, and at 11:25 am it was attacked by the German torpedo bomber Heinkel He-111 belonging to the 1st squadron of the I / KG28 air group. The plane entered from the coast and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 m. One of them hit the bow of the ship. Four minutes later, the "Armenia" sank. Only eight people were saved, who were picked up by a patrol boat.

There is a version that the cause of the catastrophe was the mistakes of the command of the Black Sea Fleet. The overcrowded motor ship, instead of making the transition to the Caucasian coast at night in relative safety, was sent by the command to Yalta, although there were dozens of other ships in Sevastopol that could evacuate this city. As a result, the loading dragged on for the whole night and the captain was forced to sail from Yalta in the morning. But what was Captain Plaushevsky guided by when he took the ship out to sea in the daytime - in violation of the order of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky? According to some, he saw no reason to stay in the port of Yalta for a day, since the stationary ship was an excellent target (Yalta did not have air defense means, in addition, at any moment it could be captured by the advancing German units, because the Germans had already broken into the neighboring Gurzuf). Others believe that the captain obeyed the NKVD officers on board, who sought to leave Crimea as soon as possible.

Secrecy and conspiracy

A new stage of the search for "Armenia" started a few days ago. This time under the auspices of the RF Ministry of Defense. Among the members of the expedition are specialists from the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and Crimean professionals. Although the mission of the expedition is not focused only on "Armenia": the search for submarines, ships and aircraft that sank during the First and Second World Wars. The task is performed by a detachment of ships of the Black Sea Fleet, which includes the KIL-158 fleet vessel, designed to lift objects from the bottom. For example, in Kach it is planned to find submarines of the First World War, in Evpatoria - the transport “A. Serov ", in the area of ​​Cape Aya - the destroyer" Impeccable ", from Feodosia to Anapa - the search for the destroyer" Smyshlyony ". Also, prospecting activities are planned in the areas of the Khersones, Opuk, Fonar capes and in the Kerch Strait.

"The found ships and submarines will be declared military graves, the places of their death will be marked on all nautical charts, and from that moment all ships and vessels of the Russian Navy, passing in this area, will lower their flags and give military honors to the fallen defenders of the Fatherland," he said deputy head of the military department Dmitry Bulgakov.

But official comments on the progress of the search work have so far limited themselves to reports that a German torpedo boat S-102 was found at the southern entrance to the Kerch Strait (on June 8, 1943, the boat was blown up by a mine), from which a 40-mm Flak 28 anti-aircraft machine gun was raised. fragments of the boat hull and propellers. And from the bottom they got the Il-2 attack aircraft (hit on November 8, 1943, the plane was flown by Hero of the Soviet Union Yusup Akaev).

Not a word about “Armenia”. Although the "Crimean Telegraph" from its own sources knows that the search for the ship is planned in at least two points of the Black Sea. Moreover, information about underwater work was abruptly stopped and, as it became known, even journalists working for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation were denied admission on board the ships participating in the work. But why? As explained by the source of the "Crimean Telegraph" associated with the conduct of this expedition: "Nobody wants to prematurely give even a reason for the news. If “Armenia” is found, then yes - a sensation, but for now we need to keep silent. Anyone associated with the expedition is prohibited from disclosing information. Everything is classified. "

Along with this, another assumption of the true purpose of the expedition appeared. Allegedly, it is associated with cleaning the Black Sea from some tracking sensors or intercepting information. The fact is that the journalists drew attention: the expedition is very costly, and the military is unlikely to invest huge amounts of money on the simple discovery of sunken objects. And I remembered that in 2006, from Cape Chersonesus to Cape Meganom, an expedition of the American scientist Robert Ballard worked on the research vessel Endeavor, who was later accused by the Crimean media of cooperation with US intelligence. Say, it is known that that work cost the American side $ 2.5 million, and in 2007 Ballard connected the oceanographic vessel Pathfinder, owned by the US Navy's Shipping Center, to research, and the costs increased even more. And the secret goal of the Americans was to study the topography of the seabed and the coast for military purposes, as well as the installation of special listening equipment and special technical means of tracking on the submarine cable communication lines of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, which now need to get rid of. So they equipped an expedition from the Ministry of Defense ... However, commenting on this assumption, the representative of the Black Sea Fleet laughed sincerely.

Vyacheslav Trukhachev, Head of the Information Support Department of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation:

“I know about this version. She's so ... unexpected. And frivolous. To comment on it, it is best to contact conspiracy theorists, this is their topic. "

But another version of the true goal of the Americans does not sound so fantastic - it is conducting geological and hydrographic exploration near the Crimean coast under the legend of archaeological research. This was required to bring fresh data into the seabed charts, which is certainly invaluable information for the owners of the oceanographic vessel kindly provided by Ballard.

Igor SHILOV
Maxim RUSINOV
The material was published in the newspaper "Crimean Telegraph" No. 391 of August 12, 2016