Gasitel, Memorial monument in Volgograd, Russia.
Gasitel is a fire and rescue boat launched in 1903, displayed since 6 November 1977 in a granite-lined basin on the bank of the Volga in the Tsaritsa river floodplain. Behind the vessel, seen from the river, stands a 13-metre stele clad in balzasite slabs, with an anchor and chain at its base and a star at the top. The boat itself is the centre of the monument to Volga rivermen.
The boat was launched in 1903 as the Tsaryov and renamed Gasitel in 1926. During the Battle of Stalingrad it ferried weapons, food and wounded under fire, and on 8 August 1942 it fought a fire at the Sarepta railway station, after which about 3,500 holes were counted in its hull. It sank in mid-October 1942, was raised and repaired after the war, and was scuttled near the left bank of the Volga in 1966. In 1974 a rescue expedition raised it again, and on 6 November 1977 it was installed in the memorial to Volga rivermen.
The boat's name, Gasitel, means "extinguisher" in Russian; before 1926 it was called Tsaryov. The memorial stands in the floodplain of the Tsaritsa River on the Volga bank, and its granite stele carries two inscriptions: one praising the rivermen and firefighters of the Volga basin, heroes of the Civil War and defenders of Red Tsaritsyn, the other promising that the Soviet people will never forget the sons of the Volga who fought at Stalingrad.
The monument stands in the Tsaritsa river floodplain on the Volga bank, with the boat set in a granite-lined basin and the 13-metre stele behind it when viewed from the river. Approach from the city side to see the anchor and chain at the base of the stele and the star at its top. The site is an open memorial of regional significance, so visitors can walk around the boat and read the two inscriptions on the stele.
The boat itself is the centrepiece: the 1903 vessel Gasitel, raised from the Volga in 1974 by the seventh expeditionary detachment of the RSFSR Ministry of the River Fleet. After the 8 August 1942 bombing of the Sarepta railway station, about 3,500 holes were counted in its hull.
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