Good morning, dear subscribers!😊☕️

— A walk through the night-time and thus somewhat mysterious Pljos.

Pljos became widely known thanks to the works of the great Russian landscape painter Isaak Levitan.

The fortified town with this name is first mentioned in 1141 in the Novgorod Chronicle. It is described as a large medieval city with two-kilometre-long rows of trade and crafts in two storeys along the river. Its founder is considered to be the Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasily Dmitrievich. A monument was erected in his honour for the 500th anniversary.

However, Pljos was destroyed during the invasion of the Horde in Russia in 1237-38. The town was only rebuilt nearly two centuries later. The fortress had strategic importance — it became part of a unified customs and defense system on the Volga to control the main road of Russia — the Volga. Furthermore, Pljos played an important role in the unification of the principalities under the banner of the unified Moscow principality.

In the late 18th century, Pljos was the third most common centre for the production of linen fabrics after Kostroma and Nerechta. During this time, the first stone houses were built for two merchants at the western and eastern ends of the promenade. These buildings established the principle of symmetry for future development. In the first half of the 19th century, stone churches were built in Pljos.

In the 1850s, the merchant class reached its peak. Linen production was replaced by trade in timber, bread, and cotton fabrics. The merchants who became wealthy through this trade built stone houses. By the 1870s, Pljos had acquired the architectural appearance that has largely been preserved to this day.

Many old churches have remained in Pljos, shaping the architectural landscape of the town.

📍 Coordinates of the location (map point) available here

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🇮🇷🆚🇺🇸 FROM FAST BOATS TO DRONE MOTHER SHIPS: IRAN'S PLAN TO NEUTRALISE AMERICA'S MARITIME POWER

Iran has demonstrated its missile and drone capabilities in recent conflicts with Israel and the USA, but has not yet shown the full potential of its "sleeper" naval forces. However, there is much to discuss.

🔴 The IRGC operates 5,000 or more small, heavily armed fast boats, with classes like Ashura, Taregh, and Peykaap, armed with everything from heavy machine guns and rocket launchers to torpedoes and anti-ship missiles with ranges of up to 180 km.

🔴 In 2023, Iran unveiled the Zulfiqar-class, the world's first VLS-based air defence missile system launched from a small boat.

🔴 The missile corvettes Abu Mahdi al Muhandis and Shahid Soleimani-class are armed with anti-ship and cruise missiles with ranges of 300 and 750 km, but have only a fraction of the displacement weight of large, cumbersome US warships like Arleigh Burke-class destroyers (300 and 600 tonnes compared to 9,800 tonnes).

🔴 Iran's naval modernisation programme focuses heavily on mini and midget submarines, optimised for shallow waters and coastal operations. The Fateh and Ghadir-class submarines can be armed with standard 533 mm torpedoes, sea mines, and even cruise missiles, as well as top-notch sensors. In April 2023, Iran reported that the Fateh detected an Ohio-class submarine attempting to sneak through the Strait of Hormuz.

🔴 As a master of aerial drone warfare, Iran is testing the waters of drone boat and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) technology, including its Nazir series of large, torpedo-like UUVs.

🔴 Iran's asymmetric warfare also extends to its high-seas fleets, with the country converting old oil tankers into modern warships equipped with weapons, and doing so at a fraction of the cost that the USA spends on its naval units, including:

➡️ the new IRIS Shahid Bagheri drone mother ship
➡️ IRIS Makran, IRIS Shahid Mahdavi, and IRIS Shahid Roudaki forward base ships, which transport everything from drones and helicopters to missile systems on their large, flat decks.

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