Russian Sailors aboard a K-8 Minesweeper

The Post War Soviet Navy

The years following the Great Patriotic war were difficult ones.  The Soviet navy was in a sad state of affairs.  Its battleships were aging relics of the First World War, its few cruisers were older designs from the 30's, and it only had 48 destroyers.  The escort ships used by the Navy were a diverse and underpowered group of torpedo boats dating from the early days of the war or even earlier.  It was clear that the Soviet Navy would not be able to conduct successful operations against the forces of Western nations.

In July of 1945 Joseph Stalin ordered that a stronger and more powerful fleet should be built.  This would prove difficult as many shipyards would have to be repaired.  As the repairs progressed new ships were built and new designs were submitted.  Many of the surface ship designs showed little innovation and were much the same as the pre-war designs.  Only the submarines showed any hint of new thinking.  This was largely a result of using captured German advances such as those found in the Type XXI submarine.

Over the next few years the fleet underwent a great expansion and many new ships were built.  Among these were the cruisers of the 'Chapeyev' and 'Sverdlov' class.  The new all-gun 'Skory' class destroyers were launched in 1950 to replace their older counterparts.  Eventually 70 ships of that class would see service.  Scheduled to augment the 'Skory' class was the 'Kotlin' class which would see deployment in 1954.

This expansion came at a terrific price however.  Soviet ships of the era were not terribly efficient and when the ships of the Black Sea went on maneuvers they consumed as much fuel as the Ukraine used in a year.  During wartime such costs could be justified, but with much of the Soviet Union in ruins there were many in government who felt that the money could be better spent on other things.  Yet, any debate on a new direction for the Navy would have to wait.  By the late 1940’s there were hints of another of Stalin’s purges in the works and any reformers preferred to keep their new ideas to themselves.

A Change in Policy

Stalin’s death in 1953 offered a new opportunity to those who wanted to slow the arms buildup or replace the fleet with something more modern.  The debate would rage on for three years and it would determine the future of the Soviet Navy.  One faction, led by Admiral of the Fleet N. Kuznetsov wanted to continue the building of a large fleet that featured aircraft carriers alongside with even more battleships, cruisers, and destroyers.  He had the backing of many other admirals who wanted to apply the lessons learned during the last war to the next.

Nikita Khrushchev, who wanted to cut back the large, expensive, and inefficient navy, led the opposing faction.  He favored a smaller force that would rely on the new guided missiles and nuclear weapons.  In this way he believed that the small Soviet navy could defend itself from the large carrier based forces of the Western powers for a fraction of the cost.  In this way money could be spent on much needed housing and other domestic projects.

As the arguments continued Khrushchev traveled to both the Pacific and Black Sea fleets to watch them perform maneuvers.  He saw that their tactics were much the same as those of the Patriotic War and did not take new technologies into account.  In fact, the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet had never even been told of guided or cruise missiles because of the Stalinist-era secrecy surrounding them. 

Those findings only confirmed Khrushchev’s belief that the large and expensive navy advocated by Admiral Kuznetsov would be obsolete as soon as it set sail.  Nuclear weapons and long range anti-ship missiles would then easily destroy it before they ever moved to within cannon range.

The debate was finally settled in one Central Committee discussion about fleet reductions.  Admiral Kuznetsov fought to save every destroyer and cruiser, but was ultimately undone when Khrushchev asked him a single question, “If you get all of the things you ask for over the next ten years, would the Soviet navy be able to challenge the Americans?” 

     “No.” was the Admiral’s answer.  In that instant his supporters deserted him.  The months that followed focused only on how to create the new navy.  Admiral Kuznetsov had lost the argument.  His influence and prestige began to decline until in he was relieved of his command in 1956 following an accident in the Black Sea in which some sailors were killed.  It was a harsh political decision influenced in part by his old rival Marshal G. Zhukov.  Replacing the Admiral would be the young Admiral Sergei Gorshkov who, like Khrushchev, believed in the concepts of a navy focused on nuclear weapons and guided missiles.

The New Soviet Navy

Even though the long battle over the future of the navy had been decided, there was still the question of what to do with the old navy.  After a great deal of discussion it was eventually decided to scrap many of the older design ships, while some of the more modern classes would be reduced in number.  One such class was the Sverdlov light cruiser.  Twenty-four were scheduled for completion in the early 1950’s.  Of these only 14 would see service.  The Gangut class battleships were all to be scrapped, even the ‘Sovietski Soyuz’ would see use as a target ship before being broken up.  It was a painful process that eventually saved the Soviet Union nearly a trillion rubles. 

The focus would be to create a ‘blue belt’ around the Soviet coastline.  This meant arming and tasking the navy for coastal defense.  In this way they could defend themselves from an attack from the West should it come.

The navy would also take advantage of new missile technology to protect itself from aircraft and other ships.  The Sverdlov class ship ‘Derzhinski’ was modified to test this concept as were many of the Kotlin class destroyers.  The submarine force also began using missiles for anti-shipping and strategic use.  The first of the guided missile and ballistic missile submarines evolved during this period.

By the end of the 1950’s the Soviet Union had made the difficult transition from a conventional gun-based navy to a modern one that made extensive use of missiles and submarines.  It proved Khrushchev’s idea of a small, modern fleet armed with nuclear and guided missiles could effectively counterbalance the navies of the Western powers at a fraction of the cost.

The disadvantage of the concept was also made clear in the years that would follow.  The Soviet Union had concentrated so hard on making a self defense force that it lacked the ability to project its sea power in support of its allies.  Both Cuba and Angola would see this in the next decade when they needed Soviet aid, but the Soviets were not able to do so.  This would then lead Admiral Gorshkov away from the ‘blue belt’ towards the concept of the ‘balanced fleet’.

Major Developments

Other than the great debate over the direction of the Soviet Fleet, there were few significant developments.  The first was that the Naval Infantry was disbanded in 1947.  The majority of their men were pushed into other services, with only a handful being kept for coastal defense duty.  The second was Nikita Khrushchev's visit to England in 1953.  This was the first visit to a Western nation by a Soviet head of state since the end of the Great Patriotic war.

Naval Aviation

Naval Aviation reached a peak of 4000 aircraft in 1956.  It was greatly reduced since then.  A large part of the reduction was simply because air-defense aircraft were transferred to the air force.  The new naval air arm would fall under the operational control of the Navy, but under the air force (VVS) for supply and administrative functions.

Some aircraft remained for anti-shipping duty like the Pe-2 'Buck' which had performed well in the days of the Great Patriotic War.  Other aircraft like the Tu-16 'Badger' were used to carry early anti-ship missiles like the Kh-__.  Long range recon duties were carried out by Tu-4 'Bull' and Tu-95 'Bear' aircraft.