 As per the Lend-Lease Agreement, several ships were purchased by the USSR in 1942–1945, as the USSR needed ships for its merchant fleet during World War II and in the first years after the war.In total, the Soviet Union purchased 25 ships of design 1013.All purchased ships of that design were counted as Belorussia-class cargo ships by the Soviet Union and sometimes referred to as West-class cargo ships due to their manufacture on the West Coast of the US.