Mikhaíl Afanasyevich Bulgakov

Sabine from Belgium sent me this card featuring Mikhaíl Afanasyevich Bulgakov (May 15, 1891 – March 10, 1940), a Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.

Weapons of Victory 1945

Sevastopol was the first ship completed of the Gangut-class battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy, built before World War I. The Ganguts were the first class of Russian dreadnoughts. She was named after the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. She was completed during the winter of 1914–15, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for minelaying operations. Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet after the February Revolution and joined the Bolsheviks later that year. She was laid up in 1918 for lack of manpower, but her crew joined the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921. She was renamed Parizhskaya Kommuna after the rebellion was crushed to commemorate the Paris Commune and to erase the ship's 'betrayal' of the Communist Party.

She was recommissioned in 1925, and refitted in 1928 in preparation for her transfer to the Black Sea the following year. Parizhskaya Kommuna and the cruiser Profintern ran into a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay that severely damaged Parizhskaya Kommuna's false bow. They had to put into Brest for repairs, but reached Sevastopol in January 1930. Parizhskaya Kommuna was comprehensively reconstructed in two stages during the 1930s that replaced her boilers, upgraded her guns, augmented her anti-aircraft armament, modernized her fire-control systems and gave her anti-torpedo bulges. During World War II she provided gunfire support during the Siege of Sevastopol and related operations until she was withdrawn from combat in April 1942 when the risk from German aerial attack became too great. She was retained on active duty after the war until she became a training ship in 1954. She was broken up in 1956–57.

Thank you Anna for this nice card.

USSR Light Cruiser The KIROV

Kirov was a Project 26 Kirov-class cruiser of the Soviet Navy that served during the Winter War, World War II and into the Cold War. She attempted to bombard Finnish coast defence guns during action in the Winter War, but was driven off by a number of near misses that damaged her. She led the Evacuation of Tallinn at the end of August 1941, before being blockaded in Leningrad where she could only provide gunfire support during the Siege of Leningrad. She bombarded Finnish positions during the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in mid-1944, but played no further part in the war. Kirov was reclassified as a training cruiser on 2 August 1961 and sold for scrap on 22 February 1974.

Kirov was 191.3 metres (627 ft 7 in) long, had a beam of 17.66 metres (57 ft 11 in) and had a draft between 5.75 to 6.15 metres (18 ft 10 in to 20 ft 2 in). She displaced 7,890 tonnes (7,765 long tons) at standard load and 9,436 tonnes (9,287 long tons) at full load. Her steam turbines produced a total of 113,500 shaft horsepower (84,637 kW) and she reached 35.94 knots (66.56 km/h; 41.36 mph) on trials.

Kirov carried nine 180-millimeter (7.1 in) 57-caliber B-1-P guns in three electrically powered MK-3-180 triple turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of six single 100-millimeter (3.9 in) 56-caliber B-34 anti-aircraft guns fitted on each side of the rear funnel. Her light AA guns consisted of six semi-automatic 45-millimeter (1.8 in) 21-K AA guns and four DK 12.7-millimeter (0.50 in) machine guns. Six 533-millimeter (21.0 in) 39-Yu torpedo tubes were fitted in two triple mountings.

Kirov was damaged by a German magnetic mine while leaving Kronstadt on 17 October 1945 and was under repair until 20 December 1946. She was refitted from November 1949 to April 1953, during which her machinery was completely overhauled and her radars, fire control systems and anti-aircraft guns were replaced by the latest Soviet systems. She participated in fleet manoeuvres in the North Sea during January 1956. She was reclassified as a training cruiser, regularly visiting Poland and East Germany, on 2 August 1961 and sold for scrap on 22 February 1974. When Kirov was decommissioned, two gun turrets were installed in Saint Petersburg as a monument.
Thank you Merja for this wonderful card.