Product Code Database
was converted to a [[Soviet|Soviet Union]] [[steamship]] in 1935 and occasionally used for transporting [[prison]]ers within the [[Gulag]] system. [MARTIN J. BOLLINGER, "DID TWELVE THOUSAND GULAG PRISONERS DIE ON THE "DZHURMA?", ] Because of an [[urban legend]] of an incident in 1933–34 in which 12,000 prisoners were said to have died, it has become the most infamous ship of the [[Dalstroy]] prison fleet. The ship was built in the Netherlands in 1921 as the '''SS ''Brielle''''' and sold to the Soviet Union in 1935.
The ship sailed under the Dutch flag out of Amsterdam for most of the next 14 years. Scan of page "Bre–Bri" (pdf) hosted at Plimsoll Ship Data. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
During the Great Depression, the ship was taken out of service and laid up. When its owners faced financial pressures to sell the ship, it was purchased by the "Dalstroy" in 1935.
The ship Yagoda was the first of the three purchased Dutch ships, to arrive in Nagayevo port on September 26, 1935. After the visit of Novorossiysk port, Dzhurma and Lulu arrived in Nagayevo in October 1935. The first Soviet captain of the ship Dzhurma was N.A. Finyakin.Колыма. – 1936. – № 4. – page 129. МОРСКОЙ ФЛОТ ДАЛЬСТРОЯ НКВД
Author Martin Bollinger reports that during the ship's Soviet career there is ample evidence that Dzhurma was used on Gulag routes between 1936 and 1950. As a part of the Dalstroy fleet, the ships Yagoda, Kulu and Dzhurma transported prisoners from Vladivostok, endpoint of the Transsiberian railway, across the Sea of Okhotsk to Kolyma via Nagayevo port, which was the port of Magadan city. Travel time to Magadan was about 6 to 14 days; trips to the Arctic were seasonal as during the winter the sea froze over. A steamer would make about ten trips a year. Conditions were horrendous, and many people did not survive the trip. Author Наталья Кузьмина: Дальстрой. Материалы серии "Сталинска Колыма: город и люди". Dated 14.07.2011.
When the steamer Dzhurma or Kulu entered Nagayev Bay and signaled the arrival, everybody in the city knew that a new stage of prisoners had arrived, with up to 7,000 people in the holds. A column of ragged, hungry, wearied people, who had undergone night interrogations, were led from the shore to the "transitka" (the local name of transit camp), under the escort of submachine gunners with dogs. From here stages of prisoners went to camps in Kolyma.
A former captain of Dzhurma, who became a captain of the ship Dalstroy, was arrested in Magadan on November 6, 1937, when he was 43 years old. After six months of inquiry, he confessed to espionage in favor of Japan and was shot. Many members of Dalstroy's ship's crew were shot also, so that "the traces were swept up". Стоял позади Парфенон, лежал впереди Магадан.
During 1937, the ship Dzhurma had 8 voyages to Nagayevo port and carried out 13,216 passengers and 42,442 tons of cargo.
As a rule, marine navigation for the port in Nagaev Bay began in May and ended in December or earlier. In 1938, navigation was opened on May 18, when ships Dzhurma and Dalstroy (ex. Yagoda) wintered in Nagaev Bay sailed to Vladivostok, and ship «Кулу» sailed from Vladivostok to Bagaev Bayto. 1938 navigation was completed on 22 December 1938.th in the ice from the Cape of Chirikov to the berthing piers of the port were shot more powerful "Dalstroy". The winter transactions with a powerful tug or icebreaker assistance was not carried out in the Nagaev Bay until 1919 year. Моя Родина - Магадан. >> Сталинский караван.
On August 27, 1939, a fire occurred in hold No 2 of the steamer Dzhurma, which proceeded from Vladivostok to Nagayev Bay with a stage of prisoners. According to some sources, the burning of fuels and lubricants was caused by the prisoners, who wanted the ship to be diverted to the nearest port for repairs, and to escape from there. КОЛЫМА.RU >> Article: "27 августа 1939 года в трюме № 2 следующего из Владивостока в бух. Нагаева с этапом заключённых парохода «Джурма» возник пожар." Dated 27.08.2016. The Soviet newspaper «Советская Колыма» () wrote on September 29, 1939:
With the entry of the United States into World War II, the ship arrived for repairs at Seattle on January 31, 1942, under the Lend-Lease program. In addition to prisoner transport, it was also used to haul matériel across the Pacific, calling at the U.S. ports of San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon about a dozen times.
After 1950, the ship appears to have been used only for the carrying of cargo.
Due to the liquidation of Dalstroi in 1953, all ships of this company were transferred to Far East Shipping Company. Dzhurma was decommissioned in 1967. FESCO >> О группе >> Джурма (1) (Бриелле). She was removed from Lloyd's Register of Shipping in 1968 to allow a ship of the same name to be built in Poland. The ship was scrapped in 1970.
In his book Stalin's Slave Ships, Martin Bollinger examined the evidence and found that the Dzhurma did not enter service in the Dalstroi until 1935 and was not big enough to hold 12,000 prisoners. Bollinger estimated that the ship, if overcrowded, would be able to hold up to 6,500 prisoners. In addition, there are no accounts that this ship, which was not strengthened for Arctic travel, made the journey north through the Bering Strait to Ambarchik. Thus the alleged event has been proven not to be true. He suggested this could possibly be the case of a mistaken identity involving the cargo ship Khabarovsk that, if it had been carrying passengers, had already deposited them at Ambarchik when it was trapped by ice during the 1933–34 winter.Often after the loss of a vessel, another ship would be commissioned under the same name. The history of this ship, or two ships, has not investigated properly still.
The Soviet musical-comedy film Shining path was filmed in 1940.
The old ship Dzhurma was decommissioned in 1967. The premier of the film Chief of Chukotka (1966–67) by Vladimir Valutsky and V. Viktorov was in the USSR on 17 of April, 1967. In this film the main hero says about "shining life", to see beginning of the film.
«... The steam ship arrived in [[Nagayevo]] with minimal loss of cargo. As per Order No 933 of the Chief Administration of the "[[Dalstroy]]" dated September 23, 1939, the gratitude for the shown courage, bravery and discipline was announced to all crew members of the ship».[http://samlib.ru/g/glushenko_a_g/kolymskij_hronograf-01.shtml Глущенко Александр Григорьевич: "Колымский хронограф. Часть 1. 1648–1941 гг." >> 1939 год.]ГАМО, ф. р-23сч, оп. 1, д. 52, л. 94.
There was no information about causes of the fire or any victims. According to the some testimonies, dozens of prisoners died.
Cold War period
As per Josef Stalin's order and the resolution of SNK number 2358 dated September 14, 1945, the 126th light infantry corps, which was included in the Far Eastern Military District, received the task "to build on the Chukotka Peninsula defensive outposts to cover the main naval bases on the coast of the Gulf of Anadyr and Provideniya Bay, to provide land their antilanding defense." On September 2, 1945, 12 days after the surrender of Japan, Josef Stalin made his most important strategic decision: to strengthen the foothold in Chukotka, where recently the Soviet Union had friendly contacts with the United States under the lend-lease agreement. 10,000 soldiers and officers were brought to Providence Bay. Dalstroy's steamer Dzhurma was one of the ships, which carried the 126th light infantry corps from Vladivostok to Providence Bay in September 1945. This replacement of Soviet military troops mentioned as commencement of the Cold War in September 1945. «Холодная война» на берегах Тихого океана (English: «Cold War» at the coast of Pacific Ocean)
Famous passengers of this ship
Alleged 1933–34 incident
In an account by David Dallin and Boris Nicolaevsky in their 1947 book Forced Labor in Soviet Russia, it was suggested that in the winter of 1933–34 the Dzhurma, ferrying 12,000 prisoners to Ambarchik, got trapped in the Arctic ice and was unable to move on until the spring.Bollinger, p. 65ff. The story alleged that all prisoners died from frost and starvation with later versions indicating that surviving crew members may have resorted to cannibalism to survive. The story was propagated and widely accepted.Tolstoy, p. 16.Rossi, p. 103., February 3, 2003 access date January 24, 2009 If true, this would have been among the worst ship disasters of all time.
Shining path
As per Soviet Union ideology, Soviet people used "shining path" to see "shining future" and to build "shining life".
Bibliography
See also
Notes
External links
Photos
Other ships Джурма
|
|
