The Astrakhan Branch has traditionally celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Kapitan Bukaev icebreaker.

It was built in 1978 at the Wartsila plant (Finland) in order to provide icebreaking assistance to river-sea vessels on the Volga and the Don rivers.
Kapitan Bukaev spent most of its life assisting vessels at the Volga-Caspian sea canal and in the northern corner of the Caspian Sea and ensuring year-round navigation at Astrakhan Seaport.

The icebreaker was given its name after Pyotr Bukaev, a distinguished Soviet vessel master, and a laureat of the State Prize of USSR, who received the honorary title “Best Master of the Ministry of River Fleet of USSR” and was awarded many state orders and medals. P. Bukaev was the first to elaborate an optimal organization and technical plan for the usage of vessel and crew. The plan was based on advanced methods of turnround acceleration, increase of efficiency and decrease of the shipping costs by means of improving navigation skills, inceeasing efficiency of a steam power unit and introducing a more rational payroll system. The initiative taken by the crew of Ruslan steamship, where Bukaev had worked over 15 years, wasdubbed “the Ruslan movement” by sailors and shortly gained recognition across all river basins. In 1948 there were more than 800 “Ruslan” river ships, and in 1949 – 3200.

The crew of Kapitan Bukaev received congratulations from the Astrakhan Branch management, representatives of FSE “Administration of the Caspian Seaport”, FSE “Baltic BASU” and other organizations.

At present the Kapitan Bukaev icebreaker is ready to perform important tasks, such as convoying vessels to the seaports of Astrakhan and Olya, and also across the Volga-Caspian sea canal during winter navigation 2013-2014.

For information:
 
Main technical specifications of Kapitan Bukaev icebreaker: