The ship has ill fame and the phrase “If you misbehave, you’ll be sent to the Kuznetsov” is a norm. Read below to find out why.
The ship features 7 decks and 2 platforms, stern-part and fore-part machinery and boiler compartments, 5 engine compartments, a 150-meter long warehouse(hangar?), 6 galleys, a lock up and a guardroom.
To begin with, the ship has no heating because an auxiliary boiler is missing. So it’s not bad when it’s +5C in the cockpit and it’s a luxury when it’s +12C in there.
Electric heaters help the personnel out. Yet they are expensive and not easy to buy so the seamen have to assemble them by themselves to later have their “off-design equipment withdrawn”.
Unfortunately, that’s not all about the heating. When it’s this cold, water freezes everywhere including pipes which may cause a rupture. To prevent this, they just don’t supply almost 60% of the cabins with water (neither in winter nor in summer). The situation with latrines is just as bad. The ship has over 50 latrines but half of them are closed.
As for its ventilation, 50% of the ventilators broke down. Considering the fact that there are very few portholes on the ship, it is difficult to imagine how terrible it smells in here (it smells like mold and it’s very stuffy).
Speaking about the wardroom, it is missing too(The wardroom is the galley for officers in the US Navy). Instead, there is a cafeteria seating up to 150 persons ( there are 2,000 people in the crew).There are no tablecloths in the cafeteria and it is highly recommendable to wipe your cutlery before using it. As for its food, it’s Ok but it’s better not to be late because they steal it sometimes so it may be gone by the time you come.
The ship’s ill fame results in high stuff turnover. Experienced sailors are replaced with inexperienced ones and contract soldiers are the only way out.
The personnel consist of mostly people from far away villages because those from the cities believe evading proves their high social status. This can be applied to Russians while Caucasian people think the other way round. It is a matter of honor for them to serve in the army and serving in the navy is their dream. As for people from Bashkiria or Tuva, they probably don’t know how to evade yet. As a result, every 10th draftee doesn’t speak Russian.
Theft is another problem of the Admiral Kuznetsov. They supply the ship with pierced canned food but they still manage to sell it at a lower cost to factory workers. “You gotta hustle if you wanna survive”.(huh??)
