(also transliterated as , ) was a Soviet naval ship, originally built as an American steam yacht. Throughout most of her active career, she served as a border patrol ship of the Soviet Border Troops.
Beyond her naval service, the vessel is notable for transporting the first Soviet military aid shipment and military advisers intended for the Whampoa Military Academy, established by the Grand Marshal's Headquarters of the Republic of China, in 1924. As a result, the ship occupies a notable place in the history of modern China.
History The vessel was originally built as a private yacht ordered by American millionaire and newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr., owner of the New York Herald, from William Denny and Brothers Limited in Dumbarton, Scotland. The yacht was designed by George Lennox Watson. She was named Lysistrata, after the eponymous heroine of an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes. Because the vessel was intended for leisure cruising, she contained a number of unusual facilities, including Turkish baths, a theater, and even special stalls for dairy cows to provide fresh milk for passengers.
In 1916, the Imperial Russian government purchased the vessel. She was converted into a dispatch vessel and renamed (). Assigned to the Arctic Ocean Flotilla, she was armed with two /45-caliber Pattern 1892 naval guns, two /43-caliber Hotchkiss guns, two 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns.
The vessel was captured by the British troops of the North Russian Expeditionary Force on 14 August 1918 during the Russian Civil War. Then was transferred to the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region and assigned to the Whites' Arctic Ocean Flotilla based at Arkhangelsk on 31 August 1918. On 19 February 1920, the Provisional Government of the Northern Region fled toward Tromsø, Norway, intending to proceed to Murmansk under tow by the icebreaker (). Shortly after leaving Arkhangelsk, however, the vessel became trapped in heavy sea ice. The icebreaker eventually took aboard approximately 1,100 people, together with coal and provisions, and departed, leaving the vessel abandoned in the Arctic ice on 20 February 1920. The icebreaker (), which had sided with the Reds, later recovered the ship near Morzhovets Island and towed her to Arkhangelsk on 5 April 1920. On 26 June 1920, was assigned to the Soviet Naval Forces of the North Sea as a minelaying cruiser, but she was reclassified back as a dispatch vessel in March 1921.
Between 2 January and 24 November 1923, was assigned to the Northern Border Flotilla of the Soviet Border Guard, and subsequently returned to the Soviet Navy. The vessel was put into repair at the Krasnaya Kuznitsa shipyard in Arkhangelsk to prepare for her repositioning to the Soviet Far East. On 21 January 1924, she was renamed in honor of Soviet diplomat Vatslav Vorovsky, who had been assassinated by a Russian White émigré in Lausanne on 10 May 1923 while attending the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923.
Her first commander under the new name was former Imperial Russian Navy Andrei Semyonovich Maximov (), while her political commissar was Pyotr Ivanovich Smirnov-Svetlovsky ().
On 12 July 1924, undertook what was officially the first long-distance ocean voyage by a Soviet naval vessel, sailing from Arkhangelsk to Vladivostok. During this voyage she also carried out a secret mission: transporting military aid and advisers, including Vasily Blyukher, who were intended for the Grand Marshal's Headquarters in Guangzhou.
On 7 October 1924, departed Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, sailed northward along the coast of Guangdong, deliberately lingered in the Lingdingyang area, then suddenly turned and entered the waters of Humen, proceeding up the Pearl River toward Guangzhou. On the evening of 8 October she arrived at Shajiao Village. On the morning of 9 October, cadets and personnel of the Whampoa Military Academy boarded the vessel to unload military supplies. The unloading operation was completed by 5:00 p.m.
The shipment included 8,000 Mosin–Nagant rifles, 4 million rounds of ammunition, and 40 Soviet military advisers assigned to the Whampoa Military Academy. On 11 November, departed Guangzhou and continued northward. Upon arriving at Vladivostok on 20 November 1924, she was assigned to the Soviet Naval Forces of the Far East. In June 1925, the vessel was transferred to the Far Eastern Maritime Border Guard of the OGPU Border Troops.
In 1931, Kliment Voroshilov inspected the vessel in Primorsky Krai. In 1932, she transported border troops to Ptichy Island to address encroachments by Japanese fishermen. Prior to World War II and until 1943, she repeatedly transported border troops and supplies to Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Kamchatka, and the Commander Islands. From 1925 to 1943, seized about 40 Japanese vessels for violating the state border and poaching marine biological resources in Soviet territorial waters.
At this time, the vessel was armed with two /60-caliber Pattern 1911 naval guns, four—later six—/46-caliber dual-purpose guns, and one or two 12.7 mm DShK machine guns (previously a quadruple 7.62 mm anti-aircraft machine gun mount) mounted on the upper deck. She carried 56 depth charges, including a total of eight in two depth charge racks. The vessel was not equipped with mines or torpedoes. Minesweeping equipment included four -type paravanes. Twenty MDSh smoke drums were available for laying smoke screens.
Communications and surveillance equipment included a Bukhta () radio transmitter, , , , and radio receivers, a Reid () radio station, and a () radio direction finder. Optical equipment included a stereoscopic rangefinder with a baseline, two BI and one BST periscope binoculars, two 7×50 binoculars, a fixed MSPL signal searchlight and two hand-held signal lamps, two Very pistols, two sets of signal flags, and an searchlight. Two main-battery guns were additionally fitted with dial sights (panoramic telescopes) for engaging ground targets.
After two decades of service, the vessel underwent refitting in Vladivostok from 1944 to 1948. She received two more modern /52-caliber dual-purpose guns, six 45 mm/68-caliber dual-purpose guns, and four 12.7 mm DShK machine guns.
On 23 September 1952, during a storm at the entrance to Avacha Bay, the vessel ran aground and suffered a large hole in her hull. She entered port the following morning. On 17 July 1953, escorted by the Soviet border patrol ship (), she returned to Vladivostok for repairs. This proved to be her final voyage.
In 1955, the vessel was reclassified as a barracks ship and renamed (). That same year (or 1959, according to other sources), she was decommissioned from the Soviet Border Troops and transferred to the Pacific Fleet, where she served as the headquarters for an auxiliary naval formation until 1961. was decommissioned by the Soviet Navy in 1961 and broken up for scrap in 1966.
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