Soviet Latvia (Russian: Советская Латвия; "Soviet Latvia") was a freighter that was active for various countries. From around 1942 it was used for prison transports to the Sevvostlag by Dalstroj, a Soviet state-owned company within the Goelag. History
The ship was built in Norway, where it was abandoned on November 25, 1925 and Childar was baptized. It was then used for a number of years as a merchant ship for the Norwegian line company Wiel & amp; Amundsen Rederi A / S from the southern Norwegian city of Halden. On May 4, 1934, the ship landed at Cape Town on the mouth of the American Columbia River, where four sailors came alive. The ship was returned to Norway, repaired in the city of Porsgrunn and sold to the Norwegian lineman Rederi A / S Henneseid (Thoralf Holta), renamed the ship to Aakre and resurfaced in May 1935.
In 1939, the ship was sold to Latvia's United Shipping Company (Apvienotā Kuģniecības Akciju Sabiedrība), located in Latvian capital Riga and renamed Hercogs Jēkabs (to Duke Jacob Kettler of Koerland) and engaged in a monthly liner service between Riga and New York.
In 1940, Latvia (after the Molotov Ribbentroppact) was conquered by the Soviet Union, on which all merchant ships were nationalized. The Hercogs Jēkabs were far beyond the grip of the Soviet authorities on the coast of Chile and had thus had the opportunity, like many other Latvian ships, to hand over the Latvian waters to other countries to remain in the hands of the Soviet Union . Instead, they (as the only) return to Latvia, where they, like other Latvian ships, were housed at Latvia's National Maritime Company under the leadership of the Soviet authorities. A discussion about ownership and management of the ship broke out, but the Soviet Union passed the board and the ship was sent to the Vladivostok Pacific Port, where she was renamed Soviet Russia in 1942 at the same time she became deployed for the Dalstroj of the NKVD. In 1946, the ship was deployed to transport forced labor to Egvekinot for the opening of raw materials stocks at Ioeltin, deep in the interior of Tsjokotka under the leadership of the Tsukotstrojlag. On 19 December 1947, the ship was in the Nagajev Bend when the Nagajevotragedy took place, with hundreds of people killed during an explosion at the port. Two people aboard the ship were killed.
In 1967 the ship was unsubscribed from the Soviet Union's ship register.
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