EPRON

The expedition for underwater work special importance ( EPRON ) (Russian Экспедиция подводных работ особого назначения, ЭПРОН ) was a state organization of the USSR, whose task was the raising of shipwrecks and sunken submarines.

The organization was founded in 1923 and initially was the common rule of the Main Political Administration (Russian: Объединенное государственное политическое управление - ОГПУ ) subordinated to the Council of People's Commissars. The endowment was the search for the wreck of the steamship SS Prince before Balaklava. On board the Prince fall in 1854 a large quantity of gold was suspected.

In 1931, the insinuation was carried out under the People's Commissariat for Transport and communications (Russian: Народный комиссариат путей сообщения - НКПС or Наркомпуть ), 1936 under the People's Commissariat for shipping and in 1939 the People's Commissariat of the naval fleet. 1941 belonged to EPRON more than 3,000 employees. Departments of EPRON passed in Leningrad, Arkhangelsk, Odessa, Baku, Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Kerch, Astrakhan, Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. Up to this point, 450 civilian and military vessels with a displacement of around 210,000 tonnes were lifted and 188 wrecked ships salvaged. In 1929, the organization was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the organization of the naval fleet was assumed and reclassified to general average and salvage services Fleet ( 1979 search and rescue service). During the war, 745 ships received aid in emergencies. 840 ships were salvaged from the shallows and lifted more than 1920 wrecks of various sizes with a total displacement of more than one million tons.

In 1934 was won on the recommendation of Academician AN Krylov Ruben Orbeli to cooperate in the EPRON, who laid the foundations for Underwater Archaeology in the USSR.

On August 11, 1941, the naval fleet was instructed by the People's Commissariat formed during the reconnaissance battalion of the Baltic Fleet with the involvement of parts of the EPRON the unit for special purposes (Russian: Рота особого назначения - РОН ). The unit consisted of 146 soldiers and divers who received special training at the Medical Academy of naval fleet. The unit was dissolved in 1945.