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THE FISHING FLEET 
INTRODUCTION 
In Tsarist Russia before World War I, fishing was mainly conducted 
from small sailing craft or even from row boats operating close to 
the shore. Deep sea fishing was conducted in the Baltic and Barents 
Seas. After the 1917 Revolution, the new Communist regime began 
to mechanize the fishing fleet by introducing diesel and gasoline- 
powered craft. In March 1920, the Government established the first 
Fisheries Administration, the White Sea Administration of Fisheries 
and Marine Mammal Harvesting. This organization received the first 
12 fishing vessels which were converted from naval mine sweepers. 
When the Soviets began to plan their economy, the establishment 
of a trawler fleet to fish in the Barents’ Sea was given priority in 
the first 5 Year Plan (1928-32). In the second and third 5 Year 
Plans, a further modernization of the fishing fleet was foreseen, but 
this expansion was delayed by Stalin’s purges in the 1930’s and seri- 
ously interrupted by World War II which erupted in June 1941. 
During that war, most of the Soviet fishing fleet was destroyed 
by German airplanes or by naval action. Most losses occurred in 
the Caspian and the Black Sea during the 1942 and 1943 German 
offensives. The Murmansk fishing fleet was also decimated. Only the 
small and antiquated Far Eastern fleet remained intact. 
When the Second World War ended, the Soviet fishing industry, 
which had produced a total catch of 1.4 million metric tons in 1940 
was almost completely destroyed. More than 5,000 fishing vessels 
were either sunk or extensively damaged. 
To rebuild the fishing fleet rapidly, the Soviet fourth 5 Year Plan 
(1946-50) provided for the standardization of the construction of 
about 150 side trawlers and over 13,000 smaller fishing craft. 
Nevertheless, in the first years after World War II, only a small part 
of the Soviet shipbuilding capacity was directed to the construction 
of fishing vessels. Only in the mid-1950’s did the Soviets seriously 
begin to construct fishing vessels in domestic shipyards. 
During the early post World War II years, most of the Soviet fishing 
vessels were built in East Germany where the Soviet Army was the 
occupying force, and sent to the U.S.S.R. as war reparations. GDR 
remains one of the chief suppliers and it is estimated that by 1975, 
the East German shipyards had delivered to the Soviet fishermen 
more than 1,800 fishing and fishery support vessels, having a capacity 
of over one million gross registered tons, or about one sixth of the 
total current Soviet gross tonnage. 
The reconstruction of damaged port facilities and the buildup of 
the fishing fleet were made more difficult by extensive shipbuilding 
programs of the Red Navy. As a result, the Soviet Union bought 
many fishing vessels from abroad, especially from the neighboring 
socialist states where the Soviet Union had considerable political and 
economic leverage and could request the building of the vessels for 
its own fleet on a priority basis. 
In addition to the East German deliveries, Poland’s shipyards also 
began to produce fishing vessels for the Soviet Union. Other purchases 
were made in France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, 
