With two bonus views. Text translated from the Russian.
The city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea was a prominent and storied port in Soviet times. It had seen early revolutionary activity, the short-lived Novorossiysk Republic -- which was a revolutionary workers' commune -- in 1905 and then the city displayed heroic resistance to the Nazis during the Second World War (known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War). For its resistance during the war it was awarded the title of Hero City in 1973.
This folder of 15 panoramic views of the city is from 1986. It is in Russian and was aimed at a domestic audience. At the time the city had a population of around 185,000. We have also included two other postcards of the city from 1978.
A major port, trade, shipping and industrial centre Novorossiysk had many features of interest as well as an extensive set of memorial complexes.
Here we see some of those, views of the docks, hotels, streetscapes and other attractions.
We have translated both the card descriptions and the text that was in the folder which tells a bit of the city and its history.
Folder text:
The bottomless sky looking into the blue bowl of the Tsemes Bay. Blue mountains in a light haze. And the sun, the kind southern sun that floods Novorossiysk: bright quarters of new buildings, forest portal cranes, ships on the water and at the berths, the gray bulk of cement plants...
Novorossiysk is about 150 years old, but it is a city with a bright destiny. Its biography is rich in events, its story is instructive.
At the end of the last century, Marxist circles arose here, the first on the Black Sea waves; there were strikes and armed actions by cement workers, port workers, railway builders. This wave triggered another, steeper and more powerful. An armed uprising of the urban proletariat, as a result of which the famous "Novorossiysk republic" arose. V. I, Lenin called the Novorossiysk Soviet of Workers' Deputies of 1905 "the city revolutionary committee."
Time passed and then the great glow of 1917 took over Novorossiysk, And in the years of civil war, and in the years of the first five-year plans the city will prove its loyalty to the ideas and cause of the October Revolution. During the Civil War the legendary march of the Taman army; the defeat of the Denikinites and the interventionists, the fight against devastation and hunger, the devoted work to restore and raise the national economy - all this could was done by a city loyal to duty, true patriots.
Strengthened in spirit and hardened in the struggle, merged with the revolutionary fate of the country, the city was a comrade to the nation. And when the hour struck, the city rose. The feat of Novorossiysk in the Great Patriotic War is the feat of the sons of the Fatherland, who stood to the death at the walls of the cement plant "October", who defended Malaya Zemlya, stormed the port and fought in the September days and nights of 1943. The heroism of the soldiers will forever remain in the memory of the people as an example of the inflexible will and courage of the Soviet people, of their loyalty to the ideals of the Leninist party.
The Motherland highly appreciated the contribution of Novorossiysk to the defeat of Hitler's fascism. It has received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. It has been given the honorary title of Hero City.
It is difficult to even imagine what the city looked like after the expulsion of the Nazis. Almost all buildings were ruined, the trees were destroyed, crippled, charred. Everything had to be rebuilt. From the ashes and ruins rose Novorossiysk. The whole country helped it rise. And today it is a living and worthy monument to those who heroically fought on this ground, evidence that the sacrifices made in the name of life over death were not in vain.
Today's Novorossiysk is a large industrial center of the Kuban. Cement of the Novoroscement plant is considered to be some of the best in the world. The Order of the Red Banner of Labor has been awarded to it.
The port of Novorossiysk is equipped with deep-water berths. wide piers, the newest unloading technology. Significant exports and imports pass through it and over 150 Soviet tankers are assigned to it. By the volume of oil transported Novorossiyskoye, the shipping company, competes with the largest oil companies in the world. For successes in the growth of foreign trade transportation, overfulfillment of plans, as well as for revolutionary and military merits the Novorossiysk sailors of the shipping company were awarded the Order of the October Revolution.
It is difficult to list all the industrial enterprises of the city. Overhead conveyors are made here -- molds, spare parts for tractors, ships are repaired and railway cars built. Here in the Hero City.
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Changing of the Guard at the Komsomol-Pioneer Post in Heroes Square
Sculpture - “Giving Water”
The Hotel Brigantine
Explosion Monument in Memorial Complex
Marine Station
Part of the Memorial Complex
Freedom Square
Komsomol-Pioneer Post in Heroes Square
Panorama of the City
Hotel Novorossiysk
New Housing Estates
(For a look at Soviet housing policy see: A look at Soviet housing policy & philosophy, 1982 (theleftchapter.com)
"Frontier of Defense" Monument Ensemble
Fragment of the Monument-Ensemble “In Memory of Sunken Ships of the Black Sea fleet June 18, 1918”
The early Soviet regime had agreed to turn the Black Sea fleet over to the Germans as part of their peace treaty. Instead, at the last moment, the fleet was scuttled by revolutionary sailors.
Coastal Marina and Dock
Note the hydrofoil. To learn more about Soviet hydrofoils see: Sputniks of the Soviet riverways (theleftchapter.com)
Monument to the Heroic Black Sea Sailors: Torpedo boat
Monument-Ensemble “Small Island” Memorial complex “To the Heroes of the Civil War and the Great World War II 1941 - 1945”
Passenger Liners at the Marina
For a look at a Soviet ocean liner see: The Aleksandr Pushkin and the Montreal-Leningrad Trans-Atlantic line (theleftchapter.com)