The story of the Soviet Navy of the Great Patriotic War is one often over-looked by most English language historians. This is largely due to the fact that the navy operated four fleets that were in no position to support each other and that it did not participate in any large open ocean battles like the British or Americans. The intense secrecy of the Stalinist years did little to help matters. Even so, the Red Navy was one of the largest fleets in the world when the war began and its contribution to the Soviet victory cannot be over-looked any longer.

By Patrick Hughes, Sword of the Motherland

Article and photographs copyright Patrick Hughes, 2002

The navy that would fight the German invasion had its beginnings in the ruins of the Bolshevik revolution. Its earliest ships were those that had been captured from the White Forces during the civil war, or were salvaged from the bottom of the sea during the 1920s. Not all of the vessels could be used. Many were too old, too damaged or too inefficient. These were scrapped to provide raw materials for Soviet industry. No new ships were constructed during these difficult years since the majority of Soviet shipyards had been damaged during the war. There was also no money to do anything about this situation either.

The most impressive ships of this period were the Gangut class battleships that had been built just before the Great War and captured during the revolution. The famous ship 'Aurora' was one of the few cruisers of the Red Navy during this time, while the bulk of the fledgling navy's destroyers were made up of the relatively modern Novik class. Many submarines from this time would also see service in the Great Patriotic War that was still decades away. These were the submarines of the Bars class, an American built Holland boat, and even a British L-55 that had been salvaged after the revolution.

Few of these ships would be allowed to serve under their original names as the Bolsheviks felt the need to change almost everything in an effort to distance themselves from the old regime. Only the Aurora, which played an important role in the revolution, would be allowed to keep its original title. Noviks were renamed the Sverdlov class while the battleships would be named things like October Revolution.

The 1930s were a decade of progress for the Red Navy. Many of the old shipyards had been repaired and the economy had begun to recover. The construction of new warships soon made their way into Stalin's Five-Year Plan, but the Soviets found themselves unable to produce many of the grand designs they wanted. To make up for the lack of experienced ship designers the Soviets looked abroad for assistance. Many nations contributed to the design and manufacture of Soviet ships. The most notable of these was the Kirov class cruiser, which showed a strong Italian influence. Most of their requests to Germany for assistance came to nothing, although they did send over an incomplete cruiser. Many of the heavy guns they promised were never delivered. This inconsistent foreign help led the Red Navy to rely more upon large numbers of ships of native design. Many of these vessels were obsolete while the newer designs were of poor quality.

The Red Navy

Part One of a Three Part Series.

The Soviet fleet continued to grow amidst these problems. By 1939 their submarine force had become the largest in the world. No less than five different classes of submarines were introduced during these years. Each built upon various lessons and failings of the previous class. Of them all, only the Katyusha class could be considered truly modern. Despite this fact, the Soviets would keep the D, L, P, ShCh and S classes in service well into the Cold War.

By the end of the decade the Soviet navy had grown so much that its designers became more ambitious. They began construction on the new Chapaev class heavy cruisers that were more heavily armored than the previous Kirov class. Construction of a new class of 58,000 ton battleships - the Sovietski Soyuz - also began. There was even talk of attempting to build an aircraft carrier.

This era of optimism ended suddenly in one of Stalin's brutal purges that swept both the army and navy in the late 1930s. The effects on the navy were devastating as many of the seasoned commanders and tacticians were arrested and liquidated. To replace these men a new crop of inexperienced, but 'politically reliable' junior officers would be elevated to the command ranks. These men had no understanding of the difficulties of operating ships on the high seas for any length of time. The problem was so bad that when a Soviet destroyer managed to complete a three-day mission at sea, a routine feat for any other navy, it was widely celebrated in the local newspapers.

Many of the senior officers who had survived the first wave of purges became political lackeys who did whatever they could to maintain the favor of the Party. Others attempted to keep a low profile and began to show less initiative and imagination in their training schedules for fear of becoming the next victim of the Commissars. This combination of inexperience and poor initiative was one of the reasons for the navy's lackluster performance during the opening days of the Great Patriotic War.

The war also shattered any hope of achieving the grand fleet that Stalin hoped for. All work on surface ships ceased with the German invasion. Many of the Chapaev class cruisers were left incomplete on their slips. The cruiser Talinn that had been purchased from Germany in 1939 was left unfinished and the navy's destroyer construction program ground to a halt as production emphasis switched from ships to tanks.

As the Red Army fell back in the face of the German assault, the navy began to feel increasing pressure as more ports and coastal installations fell into German hands. The Baltic Fleet was hardest hit by these developments. It had little room for maneuver and nowhere to fall back to. Their enemy had total control of the air and rained a constant stream of bombs on them. The sea brought unending assaults from U-boats, mine-layers and torpedo craft. In the face of this onslaught the sailors of the Northern Fleet managed to withdraw in good order, using the heavy guns of their capital ships to support soldiers fighting near the coast while the smaller vessels laid fields of mines in an effort to slow the advancing German warships.

The mighty submarine arm of the fleet was tasked with navigating through the dangerous waters and striking at enemy shipping. Enemy resistance was heavy and early successes were few. The Soviet High Command responded to this by threatening the submarine commanders. Not surprisingly, this only served to make the job of the submariner more difficult and forced them to create fictitious reports of wild successes and multiple sinkings to appease the political officers.

As the Wehrmacht closed in on the strategic city of Leningrad the Baltic Fleet realized that time was running out. Many of their submarines and smaller vessels were transferred to the Northern Fleet by means of the White Sea Canal. On land, the sailors were issued rifles and combined with the Naval Infantry in a desperate effort to defend the city. The remaining large warships retreated to the harbor around Leningrad to use their guns in support of the soldiers around the city. Two of these vessels, the battleship Marat and cruiser Aurora, sustained heavy damage from German aircraft during the seige.

The capital ships of the Baltic Fleet would spend the next few years fighting for their lives around Leningrad. Any offensive actions were left to the small craft. Submarines and torpedo boats would venture out to drop off commandoes or to launch the occasional raid. The submarine ShCh 317 under Lt. Cmdr. Mokhov was one such ship. She sank four ships and almost sank the cruiser Leipzig in the first year of the war.

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