The ‘hospital barge’ was built at the Gorokhovets boiler and shipbuilding plant in 1913 for the Astrakhan choleric roadstead. It was larger than the fuel-oil barges ‘Marfa Posadnitsa’, ‘Natalya Naryshkina’ and ‘Boyaryna Morozova’, its length was 200 meters. The history of the Russian state of the period 1909–1922 is connected with this barge. All events and facts indicate that the government was forced to make a decision concerning the order for the construction of medical floating quarantine facility to fight the bacterial cholera in Russia. The largest barges in the world were built in Gorokhovets. The boiler plant of Ivan Aleksandrovich Shorin, in addition to the steamship boilers, made only the iron barges and achieved the great perfection in this activity. In the Volga region, particularly in its southern part, since 1830, especially in the summer, cholera epidemics became a great disaster. In Astrakhan, with its population between 112 and 120 thousand people in 1897–1907, the cholera problem was very acute.
Astrakhan was located on the banks of many water channels of the Volga delta and on the islands. All waterways and banks were occupied by countless large and small floating craft. The huge number of people living in these floating cities caused reasonable concern about the threat of cholera, both among local authorities and all medical services of the Volga region.
The population of the ‘floating city’ reached 100 thousand people. But this amount is almost equal to the entire population of Astrakhan!
Astrakhan was located on the banks of many water channels of the Volga delta and on the islands. All waterways and banks were occupied by countless large and small floating craft. The huge number of people living in these floating cities caused reasonable concern about the threat of cholera, both among local authorities and all medical services of the Volga region.
The population of the ‘floating city’ reached 100 thousand people. But this amount is almost equal to the entire population of Astrakhan!
