Dragon destruction in U.S.S.R.

[Clive P]

When I was a kid, in the late 40s, Stalin had just stopped being Uncle Joe, & had become the new villan.
I, vaguely remember being very upset about the tale/ rumour that Stalin had ordered the destruction of 1000 ( one thousand) Dragons.
Looking back I wonder was it 1000 Dragons, 1000 sail boats or just 1000 boats.
Were they considered un-proletareate, or was it scorched earth policy, 1941?
Was it true? Did I imagine the whole thing?
Anybody else remember 1948?

[heimlaga]

My mother was born in -48 so I am a bit too yound to know all facts.
Though I know that the communists destroyed lots and lots of boats in the occupied eastern Europe. Many coastal villages were wiped out as theit fishing boats were destroyed and their land covered with barb wire and land mines. The people were in many cases sent off to prison camps or just moved inland. The main intention was to prevent the east bloc people from fleeing and to disable all contacts with the west and erase the memory of it.
Most pre-war Estonian traditional boats that have survived actually survive in Sweden after carrying refugees across the Baltic.

[bamamick]

Makes sense. He killed millions of people. A few boats wouldn't matter much to him.

I know that many old Dragons survived in Russia and formed the heart of the re-birth of the fleet in Moscow (which is now one of the largest and most active in the world). I think that there are many surviving Polish boats. I think that there were a lot of eastern-bloc Dragons built, and some of them are still kicking, but I doubt seriously if any of them ever got a measurement certificate from the ISAF.

Mickey Lake