238 
of chartering and forwarding activities. The Commercial Administra- 
tion examines all questions of commercial activity. There are Adminis- 
trations for Construction Orders and Supervision of the Fleet, Capital 
Investment on Shore, Educational Institutions and the Passenger Fleet. 
There is a Scientific and Technical Administration, a Department 
of Foreign Relations, a Legal Department, an Economic Division, 
an Operation and Planning and Review of Shipping Division and a 
system of subordinate scientific research institutions.°** Most of the 
MMF research work is conducted by two large institutes, the Central 
Scientific Research Institute of the Maritime Fleet (TsNIIMF) in 
Leningrad (organized in 1929) with branches in the Far East, Baku, 
and Murmansk, and the State Design and Scientific Research Institute 
of the Maritime Fleet in Moscow (established in 1960) with branches 
in Leningrad, Vladivostok, and Odessa. Also, planning-design bureaus 
and a number of higher and intermediate maritime training schools 
operate directly under the Ministry of Maritime Fleet. 
The MMF is in some ways superior to other ocean related minis- 
tries. The U.S.S.R. Registry, for example, is under the MMF and 
supervises the technical conditions of vessels (such as construction 
requirements and classifications) that extend to the maritime vessels 
of all administrative departments, except the Navy and the Frontier 
Guard. The U.S.S.R. Registry plays an important role in determining 
the safety of vessels and issues documents on behalf of the U.S.S.R. 
Government pursuant to provisions of certain conventions on safety.’ 
The Ministry of Maritime Fleet also has the power to issue rules, 
standing instructions and orders on various issues of mercantile naviga- 
tion in accordance with provisions of the Kodeks Torgovogo 
Moreplavaniia that are obligatory for all ministries, government depart- 
ments, organizations, and individuals.’” 
An endless list of the administrative deficiencies at the lower enter- 
prise and agency level could be compiled, to illustrate the hardships 
and difficulties of coordinating extensive activities between the various 
ministries and organizations. An example of such difficulties at the 
very basic level of enterprise operations is provided in an article 
in Morskoi Flot. The authors examine the losses, empty transits, accu- 
mulation of cargo at congested points, and cite the need for coopera- 
tion between the Maritime Fleet and the River Fleet in the Northeast 
U.S.S.R. They attribute many of the failures to the poor work of 
98 United States Central Intelligence Agency. Reference Aid Directory of Soviet Officials Volume 1: 
National Organizations. A 73-31. n.p. November, 1973, pp. 155-7. Victor G. Bakaev, Ekspluatatsiia 
morskogo flota [Use of the Maritime Fleet] (Moscow: Transport, 1965), p. 81. 
°° Shadrin, thesis, p. 343. 
19No detailed description of interministry interaction is available for the Soviet MMF. The 
description of its Polish counterpart can again be indicative. According to the Decree of the Council 
of Ministers of Poland, the newly created office of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Maritime 
Economy formally links affairs of foreign trade and the maritime fleet. In discharging his authority, 
the Ministry is to coordinate subordinate units, and also cooperate with the Chairman of the Planning 
Commission of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Finance, the 
Minister of Science, Higher Education and Technology, the Minister of Labor, Wages, and Social Af- 
fairs, the Chairman of the State Price Commission, and Ministers involved directly or indirectly in 
implementing goals in the area of foreign trade. In ‘‘Competence of Minister of Foreign Trade,” p. 
45. 
101A. A. Volkov, Maritime Law (Moscow: Pischevaia Promyshlennost’, 1969). Transl. E. D. Gor- 
don, Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, 1971. (Available from Springfield, Vir- 
ginia: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Technical Information Service), p. 45. 
°2 The Kodeks Torgovogo Moreplavaniia, the Soviet Merchant Shipping Code, governs relations in 
mercantile navigation. Volkov, p. 12. 
