Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval

The book describes in detail the discussions about the naval strategy and the shipbuilding progams in the Soviet political and military leadership from 1922 to the death of Stalin in 1953.

Jurgen Rohwer served in the German Navy during 1942-45, and later obtained a PhD at the University of Hamburg in 1954. From 1959 to 1989 he was Director of the Library of Contemporary History at Stuttgart, and since 1970 he has been Honorary Professor at the University of Stuttgart. From 1958 to 1986 he was Editor-in-Chief of the leading journal Marine-Rundschau. From 1985 to 1991 he was Chairman of the German Committee for the History of the Second World War and from 1985 to 2000 he was a Vice-President of the International Commission on Military History. He is a member of numerous national and international organisations, including the US Naval Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London) Mikhail S. Monakov is Captain First Rank, and Chief of the History Branch, Main Staff of the Russian Navy. He graduated from the Higher Naval College in 1971 and from the Higher Naval Officers' Course in 1976, and defended his dissertation in 1999. He is a member of the editorial board of the leading Russian journal Morskoi sbornik, and has published many articles on naval history, predominantly in Russian journals

List of Plates

ix

List of Drawings

x

Foreword

xi

David M. Glantz

Series Editor's Preface

xiii

List of Abbreviations

xv

Introduction

1

(3)

Historiography on the Soviet Navy

4

(2)

The Reconstitution Phase, 1920-25

6

(13)

Condition of the Soviet Navy after the Civil War

6

(13)

Personnel

7

(1)

First Plans for a Reconstitution of the Navy

8

(1)

The RKKF and International and National Politics

9

(2)

Changes in the Personnel Situation

11

(1)

Strategic Considerations

12

(1)

Manoeuvres

13

(1)

The Restoration of Ships

14

(5)

The Consolidation Phase, 1925-32

19

(22)

Stalin on his Way to Dictatorship

19

(1)

New Discussions about Strategy

20

(4)

The Start of the First Shipbuilding Programme

24

(1)

Tanks or Battleships? What Fleet Do We Need?

24

(3)

The First Five-Year Plan (1928-32)

27

(2)

The `Small War at Sea' Theory

29

(1)

First Repressions of Leaders and Engineers Accused of Sabotage

30

(2)

Foreign Aid from Germany

32

(2)

Foreign Aid from Italy

34

(1)

Shipbuilding in the First Five-Year Plan

35

(6)

The Second Five-Year Plan, 1933-37

41

(17)

International Politics and Strategy

41

(1)

Shipbuilding and the Forced Industrialization Programme

42

(1)

Strategy and Shipbuilding Plans

43

(2)

Foreign Aid during the Second Five-Year Plan

45

(1)

Submarine Building in the Second Five-Year Plan

46

(3)

Medium Submarines

46

(2)

Small Submarines

48

(1)

Big Submarines

48

(1)

Surface Ships in the Second Five-Year Plan

49

(5)

Cruisers

49

(2)

Destroyer Leaders and Destroyers

51

(2)

Minesweepers

53

(1)

Motor Torpedo Boats and Other Small Vessels

53

(1)

Reasons for Delays during the Second Five-Year Plan

54

(4)

The Change to the Big High Seas and Ocean-Going Fleet

58

(11)

Stalin's Role

58

(1)

International Situation

59

(1)

Domestic Policy and the Start of the Purges

60

(1)

A New International Naval Arms Race

60

(2)

First Soviet Battleship Plans

62

(2)

The Spanish Civil War

64

(5)

The Third Five-Year Plan

69

(41)

The Great Purges against the Army and Navy

69

(1)

The Strategic Considerations in 1935-36

70

(4)

The Pacific Fleet

72

(1)

The Baltic Fleet

72

(1)

The Black Sea Fleet

73

(1)

The Northern Fleet

73

(1)

The Battleship Building Plans of 1936-37

74

(3)

Changes in Strategic Planning and New Purges

77

(2)

New Leaders and a New Strategy in 1939

79

(6)

The Pacific Fleet

80

(1)

The Baltic Fleet

81

(2)

The Black Sea Fleet

83

(1)

The Northern Fleet

84

(1)

The River Flotillas

85

(1)

The Shipbuilding Organization in the Third Five-Year Plan

85

(3)

Foreign Aid in Shipbuilding in the Third Five-Year Plan

88

(2)

The State of the Soviet Fleets and the Shipbuilding Programme in the Summer of 1939

90

(12)

Old Ships and Submarines

90

(1)

New Surface Ships

90

(2)

Submarines

92

(2)

New Battleships and Battlecruisers

94

(3)

Aircraft Cruisers

97

(1)

Light Cruisers

98

(1)

Destroyer Leaders and Destroyers

99

(1)

Smaller Surface Combatants

100

(2)

Operations and Tactics Reconsidered

102

(8)

The Second World War: The First Two Years

110

(34)

Soviet Foreign Policy in Spring and Summer 1939

110

(1)

The First Period of Soviet-German Co-operation 1939-40

111

(3)

Changes in the Strategic Situation, Autumn 1939-Summer 1940

114

(2)

Change from Co-operation to Confrontation, Autumn 1940

116

(1)

New Changes in the Soviet Naval Strategy in 1940

117

(2)

New Changes in the Shipbuilding Programme

119

(2)

Conferences on Operations and Tactics in October and December 1940

121

(6)

Hitler and the German Wehrmacht Prepare for `Barbarossa'

127

(4)

The Debate about a Preventive or a Pre-emptive Attack in the Historiography

130

(1)

Soviet Preparations for War

131

(4)

The Soviet Navy at the Start of the Great Patriotic War

135

(9)

The Great Patriotic War, 1941-45

144

(34)

The German Attack

144

(1)

Consequences for the Soviet Navy of the German Attack up to mid-1942

145

(3)

Planning and Design Processes during the War: Surface Ships and Vessels

148

(10)

Battleships and Battlecruisers

150

(1)

Heavy and Light Cruisers

151

(1)

Aircraft Carriers

152

(1)

Destroyer Leaders and Destroyers

153

(1)

Patrol Ships and Minesweepers

154

(2)

Small Surface Combatants

156

(2)

Building and Planning the Submarines

158

(4)

Big Submarines

158

(1)

Medium Submarines

159

(1)

Small Submarines

160

(1)

Special and Midget' Submarines

161

(1)

Lend-Lease Deliveries of Naval Vessels

162

(5)

Lend-Lease Ships for the Northern Fleet

163

(2)

Lend-Lease Ships for the Pacific Fleet

165

(2)

War Booty Ships up to the End of the War

167

(1)

Operations and Losses from mid-1942 to the End of the War

168

(2)

Baltic Fleet

168

(1)

Black Sea Fleet

168

(1)

Northern Fleet

169

(1)

Pacific Fleet

170

(1)

The Soviet Fleets at the End of the War, September 1945

170

(8)

Baltic Fleet

170

(1)

Black Sea Fleet

171

(1)

Northern Fleet

172

(1)

Pacific Fleet

172

(6)

From 1945 to the End of Stalin's Regime

178

(43)

First Plans for the New Navy

178

(1)

The Soviet Diplomatic Offensive, 1944-45

179

(1)

Ships as Reparation

179

(5)

Return of the Lend-Lease Ships

184

(1)

The Ten-Year Programme of 1945 (1946-55)

185

(3)

Experiences, Strategies and Industrial Capacities

188

(2)

Reorganization of the High Command and Purges

190

(1)

New Discussions about Strategy

191

(1)

Completion of Ships from Pre-war Designs

192

(1)

New Surface Ships

193

(11)

Battleships

194

(1)

Battlecruisers and Heavy Cruisers

195

(2)

Light Cruisers

197

(2)

Aircraft Carriers

199

(2)

Destroyers

201

(1)

Patrol Ships

202

(1)

Minesweepers

203

(1)

Small Combatants

204

(1)

Submarines

204

(5)

Big Submarines

205

(1)

Medium Submarines

205

(1)

Small Submarines

206

(3)

New Technologies and Changes in the Programme

209

(6)

Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons

210

(1)

Cruise Missiles and Rockets

210

(5)

Politics and Strategy, 1951-56

215

(6)

Why Did Stalin Build his Big Ocean-Going Fleet?

221

(4)

Appendices:

225

(68)

1. Warships and submarines of the former Imperial Navy, serving in the RKKF/VMF

226

(3)

2. Warships of the RKKF/VMF, laid down or ordered, 1926-45

229

(14)

3. Submarines of the RKKF/VMF, laid down or ordered, 1926-45

243

(14)

4. Lend-Lease vessels in the VMF, 1941-53

257

(3)

5. Soviet warships and submarines lost, 1939-45

260

(8)

6. Warships and submarines, taken as war booty into the VMF, 1944-53

268

(8)

7. Warships of the VMF, laid down or ordered, 1945-53

276

(7)

8. Submarines of the VMF, laid down or ordered, 1945-53

283

(10)

Note on Soviet and Russian Sources

293

(6)

Bibliography

299

(16)

Index

315

Names

315

Ships

319

Projects

331

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Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs, 1935-53

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs, 1935-53

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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