Kommuna-class (Volkhov)

The submarine rescue ship Kommuna is operated by the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet. Developed by order of the Naval General Staff, the vessel was modeled on the German ship SMS Vulkan and was the first Russian twin-hulled vessel. The contract for its construction was awarded to the Putilov company in May 1912, and the ship was laid down in St. Petersburg in November 1912 under the supervision of naval architect N.V. Lesnikov. Launched as Volkhov in November 1913, the ship was commissioned into the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy in July 1915. It was renamed Kommuna on 31 December 1922.

Designed as a catamaran, the ship initially functioned as a submarine tender and salvage vessel, configured to carry spare torpedoes and fuel, and to provide accommodation for submariners. Prior to 1974, the ship lacked dedicated submarine rescue capabilities. It underwent several modernizations, including a 1954 refit that replaced its propulsion with Dutch-built diesel engines. In 1967, the ship transferred from the Baltic to the Black Sea and was modified to carry submersibles. A 1974 modernization converted the vessel into a Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) mothership capable of handling rescue submersibles. It was subsequently equipped with the Type AS-6 Poisk-2 submersible, and in 2009 received the British-built Pantera Plus rescue submersible.

Kommuna has operated under the Imperial Russian, Soviet, and Russian Federation navies. During World War I and the Russian Civil War, the vessel supported Russian and British E and C-class submarines in the Baltic, performing its first salvage operations on the submarines AG 15 and Edinorog in 1917. In the Soviet era, the vessel continued salvage operations in the Baltic, which included raising the British submarine HMS L55 in 1928. During World War II, the ship operated from Leningrad, surviving damage from bombing during the siege. The crew recovered vehicles, tanks, and tractors from Lake Ladoga, repaired M-class submarines, and salvaged multiple vessels and aircraft. After transferring to the Black Sea, the ship participated in deep-water search operations, including locating a crashed Su-24 aircraft in 1977. Following a temporary layup in 1984, the ship was restored to active naval service. In 1999, the Russian Navy re-designated the vessel from a salvage ship to a rescue ship. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kommuna deployed to the wreck of the cruiser Moskva in April 2022 to assist in recovering weapons and other materials. In April 2024, the vessel was targeted by a Ukrainian Neptune missile while docked in Sevastopol, resulting in a minor fire from fragments but no visible structural damage in subsequent satellite imagery.