MS Krim was the lead ship of her class of six cargo liners built for the Soviet Union in the late 1920s.

[1] She had two decks and a depth of hold of 7.7 metres (25.3 ft).

[1] She had a pair of six-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engines, each driving a screw propeller, and the engines were rated at a total of 1,163 nominal horsepower.

[3] Krim was one of the two ships in the class that was constructed in 1928 at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, Germany.

After completion the ship was assigned to the Black Sea State Shipping Company by Sovtorgflot with its port of registry at Odessa.