| The Rossiya channel promises to show unique footage from the scene of the death of the legendary cruiser Russian documentarians seem to be haunted by the fame of Hollywood director James Cameron, who not only made a three-hour feature film about the sinking of the Titanic, but also recently released the documentary project “Ghosts of the Abyss” - with unique footage of the same sunken English superliner, as well as the German cruiser Bismarck, which sank during the Second World War. VGTRK journalist Alexey Denisov decided to respond to Cameron’s films with a two-part documentary “Cruiser “Varyag”. The film will premiere on February 9 and 10 on the Rossiya TV channel and will be timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the heroic death of the legendary ship. Announcing this event yesterday, Mr. Denisov demonstrated the little that remains today from the Varyag and managed to bring to Moscow - signs, pipes from steam boilers, a fragment of the Kingston. According to him, the film “Cruiser “Varyag”” became a rather expensive project, even despite the fact that Great Britain did not take a penny for the removal of fragments of the ship from the country, and museums provided materials for the film completely free of charge.
VGTRK journalists managed to find the remains of the cruiser in the spring of 2003 off the coast of Southern Scotland - where the last time the ship sank, the crew of which, during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, in an unequal battle with 15 enemy ships, chose to open the seams rather than surrender . However, “Varyag” was still captured. In 1905, the Japanese raised the cruiser, and for ten years it sailed under the flag of the Land of the Rising Sun under the same name - as a sign of respect for the feat of the Russian sailors, the Japanese did not change the name of the ship. In 1916, Russia bought the Varyag and sent it to England for repairs. But the revolution prevented this good deed from being completed. The Germans became interested in the ship and bought it for melting down. But the dilapidated cruiser was not destined to reach Germany either. "Varyag" sank again.
As members of the VGTRK expedition admitted yesterday, they were, in fact, the first to show interest in the history of the cruiser in the last 80 years. It was they who managed to establish that the Varyag was not dismantled for scrap, but remained lying near the coast near the city of Girvan. However, little remains of the Varyag - in 1925, in order to protect Scottish fishing ships from colliding with the sunken ship, the hull of the legendary cruiser was blown up, and its fragments were scattered hundreds of meters around. Nevertheless, according to Alexey Denisov, the multi-layer armored deck, the remains of the engine room, steam boilers, davits and other fragments of the Varyag discovered by the expedition members were preserved in excellent condition.
The underwater filming, which lasted almost two weeks, will take only ten minutes of the film. However, VGTRK journalists promise to show other photo and video materials that have never before been available to Russian viewers. Using computer technology, the film will recreate the appearance of the Varyag and the scene of the battle.
True, the authors of the film, who do not hesitate to call their findings sensational, still very modestly assess the chances that the story of “Varyag” will become as popular in Russia as the love story of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslen on the deck of the Titanic. The head of the documentary film studio of the Rossiya TV channel, Sergei Alekseev, believes that a worthy finale to the work done by VGTRK journalists could be the installation of a memorial sign at the site of the death of the Varyag. However, according to him, this idea has not yet aroused much enthusiasm among the Russian authorities. Nadezhda STEPANOVA |
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