Although there are two or three books in existence dealing with the Soviet Merchant Navy in general, there are none dealing selely with the Soviet passenger ship fleet and its history. I trust that this book will fill this gap in shipping literature and provide an interest for the amateur as well as for the expert ship enthusiasts. There are unfortunately many details and photographs of ships which are missing even until the present time, and consequently much of the information on the older vessels is incomplete. However, I have shown as many photographs of the vessels as possible, in some casss only one photograph has been available, and often the one example leaves a lot to be desired! It is to my various friends, both in this country and abroad, that I owe my thanks for their kind help with data and photographs, without which this book could not have been compiled. Further acknowledgement is made to lIoyd's Register of Shipping, London, and to the Register of Shipping of the U.S.S.R., Leningrad, from whose publications most of the technical information has been obtained.