Text by Jouko Moisala
Translation by Ralf Strandell
Kaliningrad is a part of former Soviet Union, now part of Russia. It is obvious that annexing it to Lithuania would have been difficult if not impossible, as it was and still is a very important naval base.
The first thing to catch a visitors eye is submersible Pisces VII. Pisces (Paisis) stands for fish, and the numbering tells that it is not a unique underwater vessel. These “fishes” comprise some of the oldest submersible vessels used by the Soviet Academy of Sciences used for underwater research. It can dive down to a depth of 2000 m.
These submersible research submarines were manufactured in the late 1980’s by Rauma-Repola Oceanics in Tampere, Finland. Manufacturing submarines for the Soviet Union caused a minor foreign political crisis. United States of America did not approve their manufacture and delivery to U.S.S.R. There was a clear motivation for this. These submersibles could dive to 6000 meters, a depth formerly only reached by U.S.A. submarines, and so they challenged the supremacy U.S.A.
Nikonov’s diver from the 17th century. We believe that this diving setup could actually work [but the helmet requires a lot of weights!], but it definitely belongs to the category “Do not attempt this at home (and especially not alone)”. Pay attention to the divers boots. They are worth a test dive! Who could to that sort of rope work?
