''Revoljucija'' (''Revolution'') was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

steam merchant that was sunk by the German submarine ''U-1163'' during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

History

As the ''Activ''

The ''Revoljucija'' was originally a Norwegian-owned vessel named the ''Activ''. She was completed in 1909 and belonged to the A/S Alliance (A.C. Hein & Son). Her home port was Arendal from 1909 to 1918 when she was sold to the then unrecognized

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

. Upon acquiring her, the Soviets renamed her the ''Revoljucija'' (Russian for ''Revolution''). Her new operators were Severnoje Gosudarstvennoe Morskoe Parokhodstvo (SGMP) and her new home port was Archangelsk.

As the ''Revoljucija''

During World War II, the ''Revoljucija'' served as a member of convoy KB-35 that transferred supplies from the United States to the Russian port of Archangelsk and Murmansk. On 2 December 1944, the ''Revoljucija'' left

Kola Bay Kola Bay (russian: Кольский залив) or Murmansk Fjord is a 57-km-long fjord of the Barents Sea that cuts into the northern part of the Kola Peninsula. It is up to 7 km wide and has a depth of 200 to 300 metres. The Tuloma, Rosta ...

along with the other member of the KB-35 convoy, the Soviet steam merchant ''Kama''. The two steam merchants were under the escort of the patrol ship ''SKR-20'' and the minesweeper ''T-884 (No 38)''. Upon reaching the Litskie Islands the ''Revoljucija''s engines broke down and the ship was forced to stop, leaving the other steamer to continue on to Archangelsk along with the patrol ship while ''T-884 (No 38)'' was to remain with the ''Revoljucija'' in order to protect her from any German submarines. In the early morning hours of 3 December, the German submarine ''U-1163'' encountered the stranded ''Revoljucija'' and the minesweeper. The U-boat fired a torpedo at the group, thinking that they were patrol vessels. The initial torpedo missed its target. A few minutes after the first torpedo missed, ''U-1163'' fired another torpedo at the two ships, hitting the hull of the ''Revoljucija'' and causing her to sink in 20 seconds with the loss of all 23 of her crew.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Revoljucija Ships built in Norway Steamships of Norway Steamships of the Soviet Union 1909 ships Maritime incidents in December 1944 Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II World War II shipwrecks in the Arctic Ocean World War II merchant ships of the Soviet Union World War I merchant ships of Norway