MS Adzharistan

MS Adzharistan was one of six Soviet Krim-class cargo liners built for the Black Sea State Shipping Company during the late 1920s. The first pair were built in Weimar Germany, but the other four, including Adzharistan, were built in the Soviet Union and varied slightly from the German-built ships. A month after the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Axis powers in June 1941, she was destroyed by German aircraft.

Description
The Krim-class ships were built for the luxury tourist trade from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. The four ships built at the Baltic Works in Leningrad were slightly shorter than the pair built in Germany and displaced a little less at 5770 MT at deep load. They had an overall length of 112.15 m, with a beam of 15.55 m and a draught of 5.95 m. The Soviet-built ships had two decks and a depth of hold of 25.3 ft.

The Krim-class cargo liners had 518 passenger berths in three classes plus room for an additional 462 passengers on the decks. They had a cargo capacity of 2820 m3. The ships were assessed at, , and.

Adzharistan had a pair of six-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engines, each driving a propeller shaft. The Russki Diesel engines were rated at a total of 3900 hp and gave the ship a speed of 12.6 kn

Construction and career
Adzharistan was originally named Adzharia and was renamed sometime in the 1930s. She was one of the four ships in the class that were constructed in 1928. After completion in 1930, the ship was assigned to its regional subsidiary, the Black Sea State Shipping Company by Sovtorgflot, the national merchant fleet, with its port of registry at Odessa.

After the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) by Nazi Germany and its allies, Adzharistan was used for military tasks. After being damaged and set on fire by German aircraft on 23 July near Odessa, the liner was run aground and subsequently burnt out. The only German aircraft known to have attacked the Odessa area on that date were Heinkel He 111H bombers of II./Kampfgeschwader 27 (2nd Group, Bomber Wing 27).