Kazan city will celebrate the Submariners' Day

14.03.2011 A meeting related to Russian Submariners' Day will be held on March 17, 2011 in Kazan Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

Submariners celebrate their occupational holiday every year on March 19 in accordance with the order of Navy Commander-in-Chief F.N. Gromov (Order No. 253 dated July 15, 1996).

In Russia submarines became a separate class of ships in 1906 by order of the emperor Nicholas II. That date used to be an official holiday in Russia till 1917. The interrupted tradition was revived in 1996.

During the First World War submarines occupied prominent place in the fleets of leading powers. Germany succeeded in this matter most of all; Russia had to keep pace.

Large-scale building of submarines began with the Second World War. When the war started, the opponents had 468 subs. Another 1 669 were built in the course of the war, including 1 131 – by Germany.

Submarines were the most effective weapon against commercial vessels. They scuppered 60% of merchant ships destroyed in WW2. Additionally, subs wrecked 3 battleships, 17 aircraft carriers, 32 cruisers, 75 submarines, over 250 destroyers, frigates, and other antisubmarine ships, and damaged 12 battleships, 9 aircraft carriers, and 22 cruisers. All navies suffered considerable losses because of mines laid by submarines.

At present, there are memorial submarines in some Russian cities – Kaliningrad, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, etc. The Marinesko Museum of Russian Submarine Force was opened in St. Petersburg in 1997 on the initiative of veteran submariners' joint board. The museum's archives contain considerable amount of information about submarines in the Great Patriotic War.

Schoolchildren and cadets of Kazan city will acquaint themselves with eventful history of this unique class of ships. In museum they will meet with commanding officer of nuclear submarine Capt 1 rank F.A. Mezinov and H.M. Abdullazianov, deputy chairman of Tatarstan Maritime Assembly and commander of nuclear submarine Kazan.