On July 21, the RGS Underwater Research Center launched an informational and memorial web portal - teplohodarmenia.ru. It is about the largest sea tragedy in Russia - the sinking of the hospital ship "Armenia", which was performing an evacuation passage from Crimea on November 7, 1941, the access to which had already been cut off by the Nazis. The staff of the Center spoke about the new web portal and further plans to study the ship at an online press conference in St. Petersburg.
In April 2020, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, with the participation of the specialists from the Underwater Research Center of the RGS, discovered and identified hospital ship "Armenia", which sunk during the emergency evacuation of Crimean residents on November 7, 1941. According to various estimates, there were from 4.5 to 10 thousand people on board. This find received significant media coverage.
armeniya-aid-s-nosa-s-pravogo-borta.jpg
The Russian Geographical Society and the RGS Underwater Research Center have received dozens of messages from relatives of the victims of the disaster and representatives of the scientific community with requests for information on the further research development of the wreck of the motor ship "Armenia". In this regard, the RGS Underwater Research Center has developed a set of measures to combine all research materials and compile the most complete database of the victims of the disaster.
To supplement the archival information, a special informational and memorial web portal teplohodarmenia.ru has been prepared. The main goal of the web portal is to compile a national list of those who died on the "Armenia", since there is no single official list of them.
whatsapp_image_2020-04-26_at_16.21.30_2.jpeg
It is planned that the teplohodarmenia.ru web portal will gradually collect all information related to the "Armenia" motor ship, from the time of its construction to the moment of its sinking near Yalta. The project team works with archives, with historians who have been researching the tragedy of the "Armenia" motor ship for many years, with relatives of those who were or could have been on board the ship during its last voyage.
"The goal of the teplohodarmenia.ru project is to sweep aside all speculation, all misinformation. To bring to the people who are directly connected to this tragedy, to the professional audience, and to the public, the true story of the sinking of the motor ship "Armenia", says Sergei Fokin, the executive director of the RGS Underwater Research Center.
Currently, the teplohodarmenia.ru web portal is the only resource of this kind, dedicated to one of the most terrible tragedies not only during the Great Patriotic War, but also in the entire history of navigation.
In the future, together with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the RGS Underwater Research Center will hold a large-scale memorial event, as well as a civil funeral service for the victims with the involvement of relatives of the victims of the disaster.
In addition, it is planned to hold a scientific and historical conference in Sevastopol, from where "Armenia" left on its last voyage, to exchange information between all researchers who have devoted many years to the study of the tragedy.
whatsapp_image_2020-04-26_at_16.21.32_3.jpeg
Based on the results of all the events, a Memorial Book will be published about the fate of the "Armenia" motor ship and its passengers. In addition to that, a documentary will be released, which is already being prepared for production by the "Red Square" media group for the First Channel.
"At present, work is underway to equip the underwater research robot of the RGS Underwater Research Center with additional lighting devices and an autonomous camera in a specialized box for conducting detailed high-quality shooting at a depth of 1500 meters," point out the press service representatives of the RGS Underwater Research Center.