The paper analyses the condition of the Volga river transportation in the beginning of the 1942 navigation and the peculiarities of its organization. The author demonstrates the outcomes of the measures on improvement of the Upper-Volga, Middle-Volga and Lower Volga Steamship Lines as well as the “Volgotanker” Steamship Line. The paper concludes on the exceptional character of transportation of cargoes, oil included, on the Volga in the period.