Editing Lightship (section)

===Russian lightships===
[[File:Nekmangrund.jpg|thumb|Lightship ''Nekmangrund'' (1898)]]

In [[Russia]], lightships have been documented since the mid 19th century. The lightvessel service was subordinated to the [[Russian Hydrographic Office]] and most of the lightships under it were in the [[Baltic Sea]]. In the early 1900s there were about ten lightships in the Russian sector of the Baltics. Among these the following may be mentioned:

''Yelaginsky'', located on the Yelagin Channel{{Snd}}later moved to the Petrovsky Channel and renamed, ''Nevsky'' in the middle of the main channel to [[St. Petersburg]], and ''Londonsky'' on Londonsky Shoal off [[Kotlin Island]] on the approach to [[Kronstadt]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.plavmayak.ru/pmki/opmk/ruspmk/?lang=en|title=Lightships in Russia|website=www.plavmayak.ru|access-date=21 February 2019}}</ref> Other Baltic lightships were located further to the West, with ''Werkommatala'' by [[Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast|Primorsk]] (Koivisto) harbour, ''Lyserortsky'' at the entrance of the [[Gulf of Finland]], and ''Nekmangrund'' over the treacherous shoals off [[Hiiumaa]] Island's NW shore, known as [[Hiiu Madal]] in [[Estonian language|Estonian]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://diving.ee/articles/art103.html|title=Плавучий маяк "Nekmangrund"|website=diving.ee|access-date=21 February 2019|archive-date=8 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161008030547/http://diving.ee/articles/art103.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Another well-known lightship was ''Irbensky'' of the [[Soviet Union]] era. It was the next-to-last Russian lightship. Having been located in the Baltic in the 1980s,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.plavmayak.ru/pmki/opmk/irbensky/?lang=en|title=Irbensky Lightship|website=www.plavmayak.ru|access-date=21 February 2019}}</ref> it was briefly renamed ''Ventspilssky'' while serving near [[Ventspils]] port in the [[Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic]].

The last Russian lightvessel in service was ''Astrakhansky-priyomniy'', of the same class as Irbensky. Until 1997 she was marking the deepwater channel leading to [[Astrakhan]] harbour while it was doing service in the [[Caspian Sea]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.plavmayak.ru/pmki/opmk/astrahan/?lang=en|title=Astrakhanskiy lightship|website=www.plavmayak.ru|access-date=21 February 2019}}</ref>