Registry of the Soviet Union

an agency that exercises technical supervision over all Soviet marine vessels, regardless of departmental affiliation, and classifies them.

The Registry of the Soviet Union is managed by the Ministry of the Merchant Marine of the USSR. It functions on the basis of the Maritime Code of the USSR of 1968 and the decree of Dec. 11, 1931, of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR entitled On the Registry of the Soviet Union. The charter of the registry was ratified by the Ministry of the Merchant Marine of the USSR on Aug. 20, 1970. The registry is located in Leningrad. It has inspectorates in the most important ports of the USSR and inspection stations at less important ports and shipyards. There are also inspectorates at the seaports of the foreign socialist countries, in Finland, and elsewhere.

The registry publishes rules concerning the construction and equipping of ships, use of materials in shipbuilding, and provision of rescue, fire-fighting, and other equipment on marine vessels. It supervises compliance with the rules in the designing, building, and operating of ships. Where the rules and requirements are not followed, it has the right to prohibit operation of the vessels, ship mechanisms, instruments, and other ship technical equipment. In its work of classification, the Registry of the Soviet Union takes measurements; inspects the vessels and their hulls, mechanical installations, equipment, and supplies; and determines the tonnage of the vessels. A record of the fleet is entered in the special Register of Vessels of the USSR.

A vessel that is under the technical supervision of the registry acquires the right to sail under the state flag of the USSR from the moment that it is entered on the state ship register of one of the commercial or fishing seaports.

Technical supervision of a number of categories of vessels —for example, vessels belonging to fishing or other kolkhozes and to individual citizens—is assigned to different departments, such as the Ministry of Fisheries of the USSR and the executive committees of the Soviets of People’s Deputies.

Ships of the USSR Navy are not supervised by the Registry of the Soviet Union.