A sistership later became the MS Marco Polo.
The ship MS Mikhail Lermontov was Owned by the Soviet Union’s Baltic Shipping Company Launched in East Germany in 1972 by V.E.B. Mathias-Thesen Werft, Wismar. It was subsequently converted to a crusie ship to show off the Soviet Union. changed over into a voyage transport. On 16 February 1986 she slammed into rocks close to Port Gore in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, and sank, killing one crew.