The name of captain Aram Oganov will be perpetuated

The unveiling of the memorial plaque in the name  of Captain Oganov Aram Mikhailovich, the legend  of Baltic Shipping Company (BSC), will be hold on October 9, 2018 in St. Petersburg. 

The SUR Baltic Territorial Organization (SUR BTO) launched  the initiative on building memorial plate in the house, where the seafarer lived. The idea was supported in each step of  approval, from Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly to the  city governor.

And there is a reason. The name of the famous seafarer inseparable associated with Leningrad, the  Baltic  Shipping Company and the passenger line establishment in the USSR. Aram Oganov was a pioneer in organizing of the passenger shipping in  BSC, when  the well-known Leningrad-New-York and Leningrad-Montreal lines got started to work.

The captain to-be, who was a teacher  in the  Admiral Makarov State University, known as an alma mater of maritime personnel, was born in Zaqatala in 1925. In 1945 Oganov graduated from the Baku Maritime College' Navigation Department  with honours and at once joined to Baltic Shipping Company. Since 1960 his work was related to the  passenger fleet. The Captain had been receiving the first flagships Alexandr Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov. His  fame spread beyond the  Soviet Union. Actually,  then Leningrad became a passenger shipping centre  in the USSR.

“The USSR-flagged ships used to heading from Leningrad to Germany, Sweden, Finland, Canada and the USA,”  the SUR BTO  chairman, Alexandr Bodnya says. “We were  famous around the world. Unfortunately,  when the Shipping Company disappeared, all passenger lines were closed. Nowadays, there  is no any ship flying under Russian flag in Baltic. The passenger port was  built in St. Petersburg, but near its berths there are  only foreign ships and it's unfair. We hope that the opening of the memorial plaque in the name of captain who was a pioneer in passenger line establishment in the USSR, will be the first step in the fleet revival. There would be assets and people, who find a perspective in the passenger fleet development.”

It should be noted that St. Petersburg, as a maritime capital of Russia, hasn't any memorial sign in honour of the seafarers of  commercial fleet.

The opening ceremony will be  hold on 184 Nevsky Prospekt, Building A, at 1500 (Moscow time) on October 9, 2018. The representatives of St. Petersburg authorities,  the Central District Administration, Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, the reps of ex-Baltic Shipping Company and also Seafarers' Union of  Russia, M/V Mikhail Lermontov crew and relatives of Aram Oganov will take part in the ceremony.