Lietuvos laivai sovietų Latvijos prekybos laivyne 1940-1941 metais

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Laivai; Laivynas; Latvija (Latvia); Nacionalizacija; Prekybos laivynas; Sovietinė Latvija; Sovietizacija; Latvia; Lithuania; Mercant fleet; Nationalization; Ships; Soviet Latvia; Sovietization; The fleet.

ENFollowing the bringing of Soviet troops into Lithuania in June 1940, a collaborationist government was formed which commenced essential social and economic rearrangements according to the pattern of the Soviet Union. The property of private and joint-stock companies was nationalized. In November, the nationalization process of the joint-stock company Lietuvos Baltijos Lloydas was completed, too. As Lithuania had no sea port, the remaining four sea-going trade ships, the Marijampolė, the Šiauliai, the Kretinga and the Utena, were handed over to the state- owned sea shipping company of Soviet Latvia. The ship transfer reports were signed on 6-29 November in Liepaja and Riga. The ship officers and crew remained Lithuanian; the names of the ships were not changed, either. From 1940 to the start of the war, the ships usually sailed from Riga, Liepaja and Ventspils to Leningrad and German ports. The ship masters were under control by NKVD officers and trade union committees established on every ship. In spring, more and more Lithuanians would leave the crews, and they were replaced by seamen of the Russian and Latvian nationalities.By the outbreak of the war, the master of the steamship Šiauliai B. Monkevičius and the master of the steamship Utena L. Serafinas had retained their positions. All the four Lithuanian ships were sunken at the beginning of the war. A large number of crew members and the masters B. Monkevičius and L. Serafinas perished. After the war, the Soviet government assessed this loss of the ships as damage caused by Germany and demanded compensation for it from the defeated Germany. The changes in the crews of the four steamships from December 1940 to June 1941 are reflected in the annex. [From the publication]