Captain Oganov memorial plaque unveiled in St. Petersburg

The memorial plaque dedicated to the sea captain Aram Mikhailovich Oganov, who was a Hero of  Social Labour, was  opened last week in St.Petersburg. The memorial sign was posted on the wall of  the  Building A, on 184 Nevsky Prospekt. Here  the  famous seafarer  lived till 2008.

In the  ceremony took part the chairman of the St.Petersburg Legislative  Assembly Vyacheslav Makarov, the head of Central District Administration Andrey Khlutkov, the chairman at the  SUR's Baltic Territorial Organization Alexander Bodnya, the representatives of former Baltic Shipping Company (BSC) and  Admiral  Makarov State  University of Maritime and  Inland Shipping, the  Aram Oganov' s colleagues, his  daughters Marina  and Tamara and also  his  blood brother Boris.

It should be noted that St. Petersburg, known as a maritime  capital of  Russia, hasn't  any memorial sign in honour  of the seafarers of merchant fleet. But now  this historical injustice has  been resolved.

“Today we will open a memorial plaque dedicated to the man of legend  fate  and  heroic profession. Aram Mikhailovich was in command  of ships heading to Montreal and New York from Leningrad  through Atlantic  Ocean. As a true Captain he  always foresaw  the  worst and complex   situations  and  in such moments  he made  the  informed  and right  decisions”, Vyacheslav Makarov pointed out.

The  proposal  to memorize name of commercial seafarer was pushed forward by the Baltic Territorial Organization  of  the Seafarers' Union of Russia (SUR BTO). A year ago  the  union appealed to  the  city authorities. Although the process required a time, we were  glad to say that the  SUR BTO's  idea  found support at each step, down to  the Saint Petersburg governor. 

If you  take  into account what Aram Mikhailovich  did for the Soviet Union, there is  no wonder.  His name is inseparable associated with Leningrad and its history,  Baltic  Shipping Company and the passenger  line  establishment  in the  USSR. Aram Oganov was a pioneer in organizing   of the  passenger shipping  in  BSC, when  the well-known  Leningrad-New-York and Leningrad-Montreal lines started to work.  His  fame spread beyond the  USSR and actually  then Leningrad became  a  passenger shipping centre  in the country.

“We  witness  the major  event. Aram Oganov did a lot for  our city  and development  of national fleet. At 25 years-old he  became  the  captain on  Kapitan Gastello and at 27  he picked up his  first government  award and at 35 Oganov received  the superior  award of  the  Soviet  Union, the Order of Lenin.  And  at the  same  time he took under  his  command  the  state-of-the-art M/V Alexandr Pushkin. The ship started to compete  with 12 vessels of different shipping companies in the  leading capitalist  countries”.

At the moment the  Soviet Captain received a sufficiently sceptical view. Nobody could believe that the  Soviet commercial fleet was capable  to compete  in Atlantic routes. In few years Aram Oganov dispelled doubts. The  ship under  national flag  was recognized at Transatlantic lines and she became  the only vessel operating  at the routes. The world  companies left  this market making way for  the ship under Captain Oganov's command.

“M/V Alexandr Pushkin was said to be the modern vessel which had the highest level of service”,  Andrey Khlutkov continued. “But most importantly that the  passengers  said about tremendous hospitality  on board. The  hospitality  became  a trademark  of the  vessel and Aram Mikhailovich  throughout his  life”.

Unfortunately, there  is nothing stay  from passenger shipping and the SUR BTO chairman Alexander Bodnya  said about it  in his  speech.

“The USSR-flagged ships used to heading from Leningrad to Germany, Sweden, Finland, Canada  and the USA. Thanks to Captain Oganov we were  famous around the world!  But when the Shipping  Company went away, all passenger  lines  were closed. Today  there  is no any ship flying  under Russian flag in Baltic.  The passenger  port  was  built in St. Petersburg, but during this year  there  were berthed  more  than 300 ships under foreign flag only.  It's   unfair.  We hope that the opening  of  the memorial plaque in the  name  of  Captain who was a pioneer in passenger  line establishment  in the USSR, will be the first step in the  fleet  revival. There would  be funds and people, who find a perspective  in  the  passenger fleet development”.

Reference: The Captain to-be, who was a teacher  in the  Admiral Makarov State University, known as a forge  of  maritime personnel, was born  in Zaqatala, Azerbaijan  in 1925. In 1945 Oganov graduated from the  Baku Maritime College's Navigation Department  with honours  and at once  joined to Baltic Shipping  Company.   Since 1960 his work was related to  the  passenger fleet. The Captain  received  the  first flagships  Alexandr Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov. Aram Mikhailovich was awarded a  title of Hero of  Socialist Labour  for opening  and successful development of Transatlantic passenger lines. Aram Oganov  served as a Captain for 35 years  of his life   and then he began to teach in Admiral Makarov State  University. He brought up 27 captains.