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Border patrol ships
Pogranichnye Storozhevye Korabli [PSKR]

Patrol ship (SKR) - a class of surface warships designed to carry out patrol service, guard large ships, transports and landing ships and ships from attacks by submarines, torpedo boats and enemy aircraft during the passage by sea and when parked in open roads. Patrol ships are also recruited to carry out patrol service on the approaches to their naval bases, ports and to guard the maritime border.

As an independent class, anti-submarine defense ships were introduced in World War I, due to the fact that submarines, which were originally supposed to be used for limited purposes near bases, from the first days of the war showed their high tactical qualities and combat effectiveness. For the first time, there was an urgent need for smaller and less expensive, in comparison with destroyers, ships, able to withstand an underwater enemy. It took a special ship capable of searching for submarines, escorting transports, and carrying out patrol service near naval bases. These tasks could be successfully solved by destroyers, but they were clearly lacking in quantity. Possessing significant firepower, the destroyers were recruited mainly for other combat missions, the sector of which had expanded enormously.

In the mid-1930s, a new subclass of patrol ships was introduced for the USSR naval border forces - the "Border Patrol Ship" (PSKR) or "Small Patrol Ship". The ships and boats of the Soviet period are being replaced by modern ships and boats of new designs. The ships began to be built according to special projects, which were virtually absent until the mid-2000s. In the context of international sanctions, the Coast Guard managed to eliminate dependence on foreign products, to prevent a decrease in the pace of construction of ships and boats.

Considering the rapid development of modern technologies and the significant spatial limits of sea areas, equipping ships with modern helicopter complexes is of priority importance. This significantly expands the capabilities of the border authorities to timely reveal the surface situation, record offenses and, if necessary, board the violating ship of special-purpose groups for its forced stop. Today, for the Coast Guard, the serial construction of border ships of two projects, armed with helicopter complexes, is being carried out to solve the tasks of border activities in the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation.

The development of the Arctic, with its natural resources and logistic advantages, did not go unnoticed by the maritime border guards. The border authorities of the Arctic region are equipped with ice-class ships. So, in 2016, the head border patrol ship of the first rank of Project 22100 Polar Star, which was designed and built to carry out border service in the exclusive economic zone, on the continental shelf and in the Arctic seas of the Russian Federation, entered the Border Administration for the Western Arctic Region (Murmansk). ... The ship in terms of its characteristics corresponds to the best world analogues. It embodies the latest achievements of design thought, including in the field of information technology. In addition, the ships of this project are equipped with helicopter complexes and can carry unmanned aerial vehicles, integrated into automated systems of technical control of the surface situation. Their serial construction has begun. As you can see, the modern Coast Guard of the Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia has sufficient military-technical potential to comprehensively ensure the state's border security.

The current stage of development of the Border Service dates back to 2003, when the forces and means of the Federal Border Service became part of the FSB of Russia. A set of measures was implemented to transform the border troops into border agencies, optimize their composition and strength, and form a qualitatively new system for organizing border activities. Programs for the development of the Coast Guard have been developed, amendments have been made to the legislation of the Russian Federation concerning the activities of the bodies of the Federal Security Service in the maritime space and on the territory of coastal constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Border departments of the FSB of Russia were formed for the Western Arctic region in Murmansk, the Eastern Arctic region in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the Republic of Crimea in Simferopol. The areas of responsibility of the border authorities of the Arctic region cover the waters of the five Arctic seas, border areas and the coast with a length of over 22.5 thousand km.

The work carried out in 2016 at the initiative of the FSB of Russia to secure the boundaries of the continental shelf of the Russian Federation in the regulatory area of the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) in the Barents Sea allowed the Coast Guard ships to protect the economic interests of Russia in the territory of more than 20 thousand. sq. miles.

The Great War, the Civil War in Russia, military intervention destroyed the system of protecting the state border of the country, the main link of which was the Separate Border Guard Corps. On November 24, 1920, border protection was transferred to a special department of the Cheka for border protection.

PSKR "Dzerzhinsky" and PSKR "Kirov" together for 25 years of service actually closed the economic zone of Kamchatka and the Kuriles. These ships are one of the most honored in the Maritime Border Troops (MCHPV). By the mid-1930s, there was practically no combat fleet in the Far East, and the naval border forces consisted of several old armed ships. In this regard, the leadership of the USSR decided to strengthen the Far Eastern theater of military operations with new ships, including they were supposed to appear as part of the maritime guard of the NKVD of the USSR. But domestic shipyards were unable to quickly build several patrol boats with good seaworthiness.

An order for two PSKRs was issued to the Italian shipyard of the Ansaldo concern. Under the terms of the contract, she was supposed to build ships, and on her own, without installing weapons on them, to overtake them to the Far East, where they would be received by Soviet crews. On October 27, 1934, "Kirov" and "Dzerzhinsky" left Italy and on December 11, 1934 arrived in Vladivostok, where they were armed. PSKR "Kirov" of the 1st generation and PSKR "Dzerzhinsky" of the 1st generation were commissioned by the maritime border guards of the NKVD of the USSR in 1935. During the Great Patriotic War, the Kirov PSKR and the Dzerzhinsky PSKR were under the operational control of the Pacific Fleet (Pacific Fleet) of the USSR Navy (USSR Navy).

Since 1935, PSKR "Dzerzhinsky" was part of the Kamchatka border detachment. Until 1945, there were numerous cases of confrontation on the verge of shooting with Japanese destroyers (during searches and arrests of Japanese fishermen). In 1945 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his participation in the Kuril airborne operation "for the valor and courage shown by his crew". In peacetime, he served for the protection of the Far Eastern borders and resources from poaching in the waters of the USSR. In 1957, it was withdrawn from the combat ships due to the full depletion of the resource, disarmed, converted into a command ship and installed on "dead" anchors in the base of border patrol ships on Shikotan Island. At the end of 1960, it was thrown by a storm onto the coast of Malokurilskaya Bay.

The first generation of the Red Banner PSKR "Dzerzhinsky" in April 29, 1959 was replaced by the border patrol ship "Dzerzhinsky" of the second generation. It was a Project 264A minesweeper. On May 28, 1968, the crew of the ship was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by succession to the eponymous PSKR in 1945. "Dzerzhinsky" of the second generation served in Kamchatka until 1984.

Then, according to the existing tradition, the Order of the Red Banner was received by the PSKP "Dzerzhinsky" of the 3rd generation of project 11351, which began to protect the sea borders on March 2, 1984. The beautifully renowned PSKP "Dzerzhinsky" is in service at the present time.

The design of a frontier patrol ship, capable of operating in ice, began as part of the "large sea shipbuilding" program in 1936. The project was in 1937-1938. developed TsKB-32 (now - "Baltsudoproekt") by order of the NKVD Maritime Guard. On December 17, 1938, the ship was laid down at the Sudomekh plant (now the Northern site of the Admiralty Shipyards), and on April 24, 1941, it went afloat. Its entry into service was planned in the same year. But with the beginning of the war, the construction of the patrol, which had a readiness of 28%, was stopped, and the unfinished ship was mothballed. The construction was resumed only in 1951 and lasted for about five years.

The icebreaking ship "Purga" entered service on March 31, 1957. In 1957 - 1959 the service "Blizzard" took place in the North. During this period, the border ship detained several foreign vessels engaged in illegal fishing. In the summer of 1959 "Blizzard" by the Northern Sea Route moved to the Far East and began to be based in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. During the service, the ship traveled 411,386 miles and detained 26 foreign ships - border violators. On March 16, 1990, the flag and jack were solemnly lowered on the "Blizzard". Veterans of the Maritime Border Guard offered to organize a museum on board, but nevertheless the honored ship was sold for scrap abroad.