Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet

In this book naval historians analyse discussions in leading Soviet political, military, and naval circles concerning naval strategy and the decisions taken for warship-building programmes, They describe the reconstitution of the fleet under difficult conditions from the end of the Civil War up to the mid-1920s, leading to a change from 'classical' naval strategy to a 'jeune ecole' model in the first two Five-Year Plans, including efforts to obtain foreign assistance in the design of warships and submarines. Their key objective is to explain the reasons for the sudden change in 1935/36 to begin a big ocean-going fleet, surpassing most other naval programmes in the late 1930s. They describe the changes against the background of the threats Stalin must have perceived from international developments and his fear of internal 'enemies of the people', which led to purges that affected the navy heavily.After a short period of co-operation with Germany from 1939-41, the great plans came to a halt when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in 1941. All major ship building was stopped, and during the war the main effort was directed towards the c