189 (Ordzhonikidze) in Leningrad and operated by Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (GUSMP), who homeported her in Vladivostok.

Stalingrad was one of ten Anadyr-class cargo-passenger ships built for ice navigation in the Far East, around the port of Vladivostok.

Vladivostok did not have large oil stores and had to import most of its supplies, but coal was cheap and widely available in the region.

During the Second World War, Stalingrad was used in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans to transport supplies from the United Kingdom to Russia.

At 09:52 on 13 September, with the convoy 100 miles south west of Spitsbergen, it was sighted by U-408, which fired a spread of three torpedoes at it.