How steamboats are escorted. Part One

Although this topic has already been written about, but I want to return to it again, since no changes have been observed.


The beautiful words in the song sung by Eduard Khil are really not how steamboats are escorted... as it is sung. No one waves at us on the dock. At least two hours before departure, an announcement is made on the ship's broadcast: "Family members and outsiders leave the ship." The sailors escort their relatives and friends to the port entrance, quickly kiss, return to the ship and begin self-inspection "for the detection of unauthorized persons and objects prohibited for export from the USSR."


After the completion of this procedure, a commission consisting of brigades of border guards and customs officers arrives on the ship, and a second inspection begins. An armed border guard is stationed at the ramp in addition to the one who stands on the tower located near the pier. Such a system is called a "locked border". And only when everything is thoroughly checked, the passport photos are compared with the faces of their owners, the ship receives permission to travel abroad.


Upon returning from it, the ceremony is repeated in reverse order — family members are allowed on board after the departure of the commission. And one more caveat: this time, the focus is on detecting "items prohibited for import." This is understandable, since I do not remember a case where someone tried to illegally enter the USSR, although in recent years our "spy literature" was full of descriptions of "violations of the state border." Moreover, if, say, they tried to bring such a violator to the Union on a ship, it would prove that they were not only emigrating from our country, but also trying to enter it.


However, the inspection procedure could have been tolerated if there had not been a tricky question: for whom is the border locked? For anyone who looks at it with an open mind, the answer is unequivocal: for Soviet citizens. The border is locked, but the key is hanging from the outside. The most striking example and true apotheosis of the inaccessibility of our borders is the planting of Rust on Red Square.


At the same time, there are three border guards at the dock near every foreign merchant ship in our port (I've only seen this in Romania). Border patrol boats are constantly on duty at the roads of our ports, especially in the area of the anchorage of "foreigners", the tentacles of powerful searchlights search the water surface and the sides of ships. Discover excitement with the plinko app that keeps you coming back!