On 29 October 2022, the Russian Navy training ship RFS Smolniy (300) returned to the from a training voyage lasting several months from the Far East via the Northern Sea Route, into the Baltic Sea back.

The ship, which displaces 7,270 tonnes and is 138 metres long, left Kronstadt on 1 August 2022 and reached Vladivostok on 15 September 2022. The distance covered during the project is approximately 15,000 nautical miles. Ports visited during the training voyage included, among others Baltiysk, Severomorsk, the Solovetsky Islands and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.

With two 76mm twin guns, two AK-230 30mm close-in twin guns and two RBU-2500 submarine-bomb launchers, the unit, which is part of the Russian Navy's Project 887, has a considerable armament for a training ship, although it is no longer state-of-the-art.

With the departure from Vladivostok on 21 September 2022, the ship, which was commissioned in 1977, began its return to the Baltic Sea with up to 330 cadets on board. The voyage included supply stops lasting several days in Vilyuchinsk (near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy) and Severomorsk as well as a stop in Baltiysk before reaching Kronstadt.

Note the white "Z" prominently painted on the superstructure on the port and starboard sides.

All pictures copyright by Michael Nitz, Naval Press Service.