History of the Russian Navy

Under the rule of Ivan the Terrible, the Grand Duchy of Moscow began its expansion toward the Pacific Ocean and attempted, unsuccessfully, to gain access to the Baltic and Black Seas.^[8][9] In 1570, in order to support Russian navigation on the Baltic Sea, Ivan created a flotilla which existed for about a year.^[10]

In the 17th century, the Russian sailors actively studied the seas of the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean itself. By the end of the century, they reached the Pacific Ocean. In 1648 the Russian sailor Semyon Dezhnev discovered the Bering Strait which separates Asia and the Americas.^[11]

Marine operations were actively conducted during the Russo-Swedish War of 1656–1658. Thus, a detachment of Governor of Brovsky Peter Potemkin was sent to Izhora Land part of Sweden. The detachment acted in a support of flotilla belonging to the Don Cossacks, who had experience of the sea trips in the Black Sea. The whole army of Potemkin consisted of 570 Don Cossacks and 430 local volunteers. In June 1656, Potemkin and his unit crossed the border to Sweden and on June 13, 1656, besieged the fortress of Notburg. Part of the detachment were sent to the mouth of Neva River and on July 10, 1656, he occupied the Nyenschantz fortress left by the Swedes, located at the mouth of Okhta River, at the confluence of Okhta and Neva rivers. Then Governor Potemkin with a part of his forces and flotilla of the Don Cossacks landed on the Kotlin Island. On August 1, 1656, decisive naval battle took place between the Cossack flotilla and the Swedish Navy near the Kotlin Island. The Russians broke out through the Swedes gunfire and took the flagship-6 ships to boarding. The rest of the Swedish ships were forced to retreat. The battle was won by the Cossacks and they captured the 12 Swedish galleys, naval equipment and also a number of Swedish soldiers including their commander. The battle near the Kotlin Island didn't give any significant impact on the course of Russo-Swedish War of 1656–58, according to the terms of the peace treaty of 1661 between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Swedish Empire, Russians destroyed their all ships on the Baltic.^[12] However, the Battle of Kotlin was marked by historians as the first victory of the modern Russian Navy.

The first Russian ship of the Western European style the Orel Frigate, was built in 1667.^[13]

Peter the Great created the first regular Russian navy.^[14]

In May 1688, the young Tsar Peter who was barely 16 years at the time discovered a small boat that had been presented to his father Alexis of Russia (Tsar of Russia, 1645–1676). After the repairing of the boat, Tsar Peter gained experience in handling the vessel on the Yauza river and the Prosyanoye pond. The amusing fleet created by Peter in 1688 - 1693, was the forerunner of the regular Russian fleet.^[15]

Further events developed at the White Sea. Peter I's interest in the only Russian seaport at that time was Arkhangelsk, arose simultaneously with the plan to build a fleet. Tsar Peter arrived in Arkhangelsk at the summer of 1693. On August 7, 1693, Tsar arrived at Kholmogory, where he was received by Andrey Matveyev and on July 30, 1693, he finally reached to Arkhangelsk. Over two months, the Tsar spent in Arkhangelsk, he met with the ship business and commercial operations of the commercial people and ordered the construction of the first shipbuilding shipyard in Russia on Solombala Island. From the middle of the 17th century, the shipyard, which already had slipways, workshops, warehouses, and other ancillary enterprises, became known as the Arkhangelsk Admiralty. On September 28, 1693, Tsar Peter himself laid the naval ship here – the 24-gun frigate Saint Paul.^[16]

Next, Peter I turned his gaze to the Azov and Black Seas. As a result, the regular fleet was also laid in the shipyards of the Voronezh Admiralty. The campaign of the Russian Army to the Ottoman Empire's Azov Fortress in 1695 ended in failure - the siege of the fortress had no success. The complete blockade of Azov failed because the Russians did not have a fleet. The fortress was supplied with fighters, provisions and ammunition from the sea by the Ottoman Navy.

Only in the winter of 1695-1696 the first ships and ships were built, and the Second Azov campaign proved successful. On June 6, 1696, the fleet built in the Voronezh Admiralty shipyards entered the Sea of Azov and cut off the fortress of Azov from sea sources, and in late July the Azov garrison surrendered.^[17] On July 30, 1696, the fortress Lyutikh, located at the mouth of the northern most arm of the Don, also surrendered. Since 1696, the founding day of the Russian Navy, October 30 is celebrated every year.^[18]

The Baltic Fleet was built under Peter the Great during the Great Northern War of 1700 - 1721. Constructions of galley fleets were launched in 1702 until 1704. A sailing fleet of ships built in Russia and bought in other countries was created to protect the conquered coasts and to attack the enemy sea routes of communication in the Baltic Sea. In the years 1703 - 1723 the main naval base of the Baltic fleet was in Saint Petersburg and later in Kronstadt. The new bases were established in Vyborg, Helsingfors (Helsinki), Reval (Tallinn) and Åbo (Turku). In July/August 1714, Peter's fleet in the Baltic defeated a Swedish fleet at the Battle of Gangut.^[19][20]

Nevertheless, during the latter years of Peter's reign, Russia's gains in the south had to be surrendered to the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War of 1710 to 1713. The resurgence of Russia's position in the south advanced marginally as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1735 to 1739, and then accelerated markedly during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762–1796).^[21]

In 1725, the Russian Empire had 130 sailing ships, including 36 ships of the Line, 9 frigates, 3 Snow and 77 auxiliary vessels. The army fleet consisted of 396 ships, including 253 galleys and 143 brigantines. The ships were built in 24 shipyards which were located in following cities: Voronezh, Kazan, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Arkhangelsk, Olonets, Saint Petersburg, and Astrakhan. Naval officers coming from the families of nobleman and sailors were recruited from the common citizens. Service in the navy was for life and there was no retirement. Young officers studied in the school of mathematics and navigation sciences founded in 1701 and often were sent abroad for training. Foreigners can also join the naval service, for example Scottish Thomas Gordon served as the commander of Kronstadt port.^[22]

Very quickly after the death of Peter the Great, the Imperial Russian Navy deteriorated sharply. In 1728, the Swedish envoy to Russia informed his government about the situation of the Russian Navy:

"Despite the annual construction of the galleys, the Russian galley fleet, compared with the former, is greatly reduced; the ship's ship is falling into direct ruin, because the old ships are all rotten, so more than four or five ships of the line cannot be brought into the sea, and the construction of new ones has weakened. In the admiralty, such disregard is such that even in three years the fleet cannot be brought back to its former condition, but no one thinks about it."^[23]

During the reign of Peter II, the intensity of the combat training of fleet crews sharply decreased. In April 1728, the emperor at a meeting of the Supreme Privy Council ordered that only four frigates and two flutes go out to sea from the entire fleet, and five more frigates were ready for cruising. The remaining ships were to remain in the ports for "saving the treasury. " To the arguments of the flagships that it is necessary to constantly keep the fleet at sea, the emperor replied: "When the need calls for the use of ships, then I will go to sea; but I do not intend to walk on it like a grandfather ". The poor state of the treasury and irregular salary payments led to an outflow of officers, which caused a drop in discipline among soldiers and sailors.^{[citation needed]}

The condition of the galley fleet, which included 120 galleys, was relatively satisfactory. In 1726, Vice-Admiral Peter Sivers proposed to introduce a peaceful state for the galley fleet, which was implemented in 1728. Constantly 90 galleys afloat were kept on the fleet, another 30 galleys kept the forests prepared for quick assembly.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of 1731, the ship fleet consisted of 36 battleships, 12 frigates and 2 shnyavas, but only 29.63% of the regular number of battleships were fully combat-ready, another 18.52% could operate in the Baltic only in the most favorable season, without storms. In total, Russia could launch into the sea 8 fully operational battleships and 5 into the closest voyage in the Baltic. All the ships of major ranks – 90, 80, 70-guns – failed. Only one 100-gun ship, five 66-gun guns and seven 56 62-gun guns remained combat-ready and partially combat-ready.^{[citation needed]}

When she became Empress of Russia a principal objective for Anna of Russia was to rebuild the Russian fleet to enable it to rank with other dominant naval powers. On August 1, 1730, she issued a personal decree ''On the maintenance of the galley and ship fleets according to the regulations and charters" .^{[citation needed]}

In December 1731, Empress Anna ordered the Baltic fleet to resume active exercises in order to "have this and people’s training and genuine inspection of ships, because in the harbor it's impossible to inspect the ship’s rigging and other damage".^{[citation needed]}

In 1732, the Military Maritime Commission established itself under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor Andrey Ostermanto reform the fleet,^{[citation needed]} which included Vice-admiral Nikolai Govolin, Vice-admiral Naum Senyamin, Vice-admiral Thomas Sanders, Rear-admiral Peter Bredal and Rear-admiral Vasily Mamonov. A management reform was introduced and the new fleets were added.

Comparison of 1726 and 1732 Russian fleets:

The total number of battleships grow from 7 to 27. The total gunpower of the fleet also grow rapidly.^{[citation needed]}

Under Peter the Great, Vitus Bering had been hired and tasked to search for a route to America from Kamchatka. Empress Anna subsequently put Bering in charge of the five Great Northern Expeditions, from 1733 to 1742. Thousands of kilometers of the coast from the White Sea to Anadyr were mapped for the first time.^[24]

In August 1732, a historic decision was made to restore the port of Arkhangelsk (closed in 1722) and the military shipbuilding in Solombala, which played a huge role in the development of fleet and shipbuilding. The Solombala Shipyard became the second main construction base of Baltic fleet and became operational in 1734. During the reign of Empress Anna († 1740), 52% of all Baltic fleet ships were built in Solombala shipyard and later during the reign of Empress Elizabeth, 64% of the ship were built in Saint Petersburg.^{[citation needed]}

The restoration of Arkhangelsk shipyard made it possible to quickly deploy the construction of a large number of ships at once. The Arkhangelsk shipyard became in fact the main shipbuilding base of the baltic fleet. The availability of skilled labours, the shorter delivery times and its better organisation led to the fact that the cost and construction time of the ships in Arkhangelsk were less than in St. Petersburg.^{[citation needed]}

In 1734, during the War of the Polish Succession, the Russian fleet (which included the 100-gun first-rate ship Peter I & II and the 32-gun frigates Russia and Mitau) under Thomas Gordon proved instrumental in deciding the Siege of Danzig in Russia's favor. Although the Mitau was captured by the French Navy, French intervention in the war failed to prevent the fall of the city to the Russians. The French lost the frigate Brilliant and the Russians were successful in ensuring that their claimant, August III, ascended to the Polish throne.^[25]

Despite the decline of the shipbuilding program due to War with the Ottomans (1735–1739), when the Dnieper and the Azov flotillas were in heavy construction under the reign of Empress Anna there was certain progress in the Russian fleet. After the end of the war with Turkey, the Admiralty resumed intensive fleet construction as soon as possible.

In the second half of the 18th century, the Russian fleet was strengthened due to an expansion of Russian imperial ambitions and a series of wars that began with the Ottoman Empire over domination of the Black Sea. Starting with the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), Russia and the Ottoman Empire fought seven wars up to the First World War (1914–1918).^[26] During the Battle of Chesma in 1770, ships under the command of Admiral Grigory Spiridov (deploying on a six-month transit from the Baltic) defeated the Ottoman flotilla and achieved dominance in the Aegean Sea.^[27][28] While the Russians attempted to foment and support a revolt against the Ottomans in Greece, the Russian fleet was unable to provide sufficient land forces in support and the revolt was crushed.^[29]

In the Black Sea in 1771, Russians captured the coasts of Kerch Strait. The Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74 ended with Russian victory. As a result, the entire coast of the Azov Sea passed to Russian contro. Crimea was declared as an independent state under the Russian protection and later in 1783 it became a full part of Russia. In 1778 the port of Kherson was established, in which the first ship of the Black Sea Fleet was launched in 1783.^[30]

By the end of the 18th Century, the reign of Catherine the Great had ushered in extensive plans to strengthen the Russian Navy. The Baltic fleet was to comprise nine 100-gun ships, twenty-seven 74s, nine 66s, nine 44s, one 40 and nine 32s. In turn, the Black Sea Fleet was to consist of three 100s, nine 74s, three 66s, six 50s and four 36s. However, plans were delayed and, for instance, the first 100-gun ships for Black Sea Fleet were not able to be launched until 1801–02.^[31]

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 Russian control over Crimea was confirmed and Russian naval forces under the command of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Kerch Strait in 1790, preventing the Turks from landing a force in Crimea; while Ushakov's victory at Tendra allowed the Russians to begin the siege of Izmail, a potent Ottoman stronghold by the Black Sea, which was twice besieged without effect.^[32]

With the onset of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), a Russian fleet, deployed under the command of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, coordinated with the Turks, and acted against French forces during the Siege of Corfu. The resulting victory led to the establishment of the Septinsular Republic with the island of Corfu then serving as a base for Russian naval units in the Mediterranean operating against the French.^[33]

In the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Navy became the 2nd largest and powerful naval force in the world just behind the British Royal Navy. The Black Sea Fleet had 74 battleships and 124 frigates in 1834, the Baltic Fleet had 87 battleships and 212 frigates in the following year.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1803 and 1855, Russian navigators made more than 40 round of the world and long-distance journeys, which played a significant role in the development of Far East.

Turkey and Russia again went to war in the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–1812. The Russian fleet (deploying from the Baltic, but joining some vessels of the Black Sea Fleet already in the Mediterranean prior to the outbreak of war)^[34] under the command of Admiral Dmitry Senyavin played an instrumental role in this conflict securing victories at both the Battle of the Dardanelles (1807) and the Battle of Athos (also in 1807).^[35] However, after the Peace of Tilsit between Russian and Napoleonic France in 1807, the United Kingdom became an enemy and much of the Russian Fleet, under Admiral Seniavin, was interned in Britain with its crews repatriated to Russia. Eight two-decker vessels and two frigates were turned over to the British and laid up. In this condition they gradually deteriorated and only two ships returned to Russia in 1813 after Russia had again become a British ally. A large number of other Russian vessels in the Mediterranean ended up in French hands.^[36][34]

After the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, the Russians (deploying again from the Baltic), together with the British and French, intervened in the Greek War of Independence defeating the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 and helping to secure Greek independence. Turkish closure of the Dardanelles Straits then sparked a renewed Russo-Turkish conflict from 1828 to 1829 which led to the Russians gaining further territory along the eastern Black Sea.^[35]

The restriction imposed on the Black Sea Fleet by Turkish control of the Straits was influential in motivating periodic Russian attempts to secure control of the passage, which became a recurrent theme in Russian policy. From 1841 onward, the Russian fleet was formally confined to the Black Sea by the London Straits Convention.^[37]

The slow economic and industrial development of Russia in the first half of the 19th century caused its lag behind Europe and more specifically, the British Empire. By the beginning of the Crimean War in 1853, Russia had the Black Sea, Baltic, Caspian and Okhotsk fleets, with a total of 49 battleships, 28 frigates, 30 corvettes and 36 old galleys ready for the war. The total number of fleet personnel was 137,082.^{[citation needed]}

In 1853, the Black Sea Fleet destroyed Turkish naval forces at the Battle of Sinop after the Turks had declared war on Russia. Nevertheless, during the ensuing Crimean War, the Russians were placed on the defensive and the allies were able to land their forces in Crimea and, ultimately, capture Sevastopol.^[37]

The British and French deployed a powerful task force of ships, commanded by Admiral Sir Charles Napier to the Baltic in early 1854. The British component of the fleet consisted of 18 ships with 1,160 guns, led by the 131-gun flagship HMS Duke of Wellington. French warships under Vice Admiral Alexandre Parseval-Deschenes, joined the British task force. On the surface, Anglo-French intervention in the Baltic achieved only limited overt military successes. However, strategically it tied up five-eighths of Russian naval strength and almost half of the country's land forces defending the Baltic coast even as these forces were needed in Crimea.^[38]

In the Pacific, the Okhotsk Military Flotilla was able to assist in defeating a combined Franco-British assault force during the defence of Petropavlovsk in 1854. Although heavily outnumbered, the Russian garrison, supported by the frigate Aurora and the transport vessel Dwina, defeated the Anglo-French force.^[39] Despite local military successes, Russia's experience in the Crimean War led it to acknowledge the inherent weaknesses of its position in the Pacific, and in 1867 it consolidated its territorial holdings by selling Alaska to the United States in hopes of offsetting British interests in the Pacific.^[40]

In the Black Sea, Russia's position was even weaker and, as a result of the Crimean War, the 1856 Treaty of Paris prohibited Russian naval units and fortifications on the Black Sea and neutralized the Black Sea.^[41]

After the Crimean War, Russia undertook to reconstruct its navy. Several armoured ships were built and an emphasis was placed on the development of mine and torpedo warfare, resulting in the construction of minelayers and torpedo boats.^[42]

In 1870 Russia had repudiated the limitations imposed on its navy in the Treaty of Paris.^[43] However, when the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 began, Russian naval forces in the region remained weak. According to analysis by Alfred Brainard, during "The lack of an effective Russian navy on the Black Sea dominated the Russian strategy in the Balkans throughout the war". In the aftermath of the conflict, Russia moved to reconstitute its naval strength and fortifications in the Black Sea so as to avoid facing similar vulnerability in the future.^[44]

The Russian fleet continued to expand in the late 19th century, especially during the reign of Emperor Nicholas II. The Imperial Navy was strongly influenced by the work of the American naval theorist, Alfred Mahan. Given restrictions in the capacity of Russian industry, the country looked to foreign assistance in building its fleet.^[45]

Starting in 1898 with the Russian occupation and lease of Port Arthur in southern Manchuria, Russia took steps to enhance its position in the Far East and strengthen its military and naval forces in the region. Japan came to view Russia's build-up as a threat, and Russia's occupation of Port Arthur itself as an unacceptable humiliation, after having been forced out of the region by Russia, Germany and France in 1895.^[46]

During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Russian ground and naval forces in the Far East played an important role in the allied campaign to quell anti-Western elements in China. The Russian Navy assisted in capturing the Chinese forts at Taku which blocked the mouth of the Pei-Ho River.^[47]

On the night of February 8, 1904 the Imperial Japanese Navy under the command of Tōgō Heihachirō began military operations against the Russian Empire without a declaration of war. As a result of the sudden attack on Port Arthur, two Russian battleships were seriously damaged by torpedoes. This attack developed into a full-scale battle known as the Siege of Port Arthur. The next morning, several attempts by the Japanese Navy to attack the Russian fleet failed due to coastal artillery fire and return fire from the Russian ships that the Japanese had failed to destroy.^[48]

After failing to completely destroy the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, the Japanese fleet tried to close off access to it. The attempt to totally seal off the port was also unsuccessful.

In March, Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov took command of the First Pacific Squadron to lift the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur. By that time, both sides began to widely use the tactics of mining sea lanes near the ports. For the first time in history, mines were used by the attacking side - before that, mines were used only for defensive purposes in order to prevent enemy ships from gaining access to the harbor. Vessels of the fleet sortied to combat Japanese attacks but were reluctant to leave the harbour for full battle on the high seas, especially after the death of Admiral Makarov on April 13, 1904, when he went down with the Russian battleship Petropavlovsk after the ship hit at least one mine.^[49]

The Japanese tactics of using mines were quite effective and significantly limited the maneuverability of Russian ships. Soon the Russians adopted the Japanese mining tactics and began to use it for their own purposes. On May 15, 1904, two Japanese battleships, Yashima and Hatsuse, stumbled upon a fresh minefield and exploded after impacting at least two mines each.^[50]

The Russian fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Vitgeft made an attempt to break the blockade and go to Vladivostok, but was intercepted and turned back after the battle of the Yellow Sea. The remnants of the Russian squadron in Port Arthur were targeted by Japanese artillery besieging Port Arthur. Attempts to break the blockade of Port Arthur from the land also failed, and after the Battle of Liaoyang in late August, Russian forces retreated to Mukden (Shenyang) where another battle was fought and lost by the Russians in February/March 1905. Port Arthur itself had fallen to the Japanese on January 2, 1905.^[51]

The Russian command sent a squadron of the Baltic Fleet under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky to help besieged Port Arthur around the Cape of Good Hope across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. However, the fleet arrived too late to relieve Port Arthur, whose garrison surrendered before the fleet arrived. On October 21, 1904, this fleet almost provoked a war with the British Empire (an ally of Japan, but a neutral state during this war) during the Dogger Bank incident, when the Russian fleet shelled British fishing vessels, mistaking them for Japanese destroyers.^[52] After a seven-month journey, the squadron was destroyed by the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 before reaching its objective, and thus ending the war with a Japanese victory.^[53][54]

The defeat at Tsushima in 1905 was the most crushing naval defeat in Russia's history and it would prove to have a lasting impact on the strategy of both the Imperial Navy and of the Soviet Navy that succeeded it. In the short-term, it generated an effort which sought to restore Russia's naval power and to correct the weaknesses that were perceived to have led to it.^[55]

Prior to the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Navy in Far East had suffered from an absence of fleet-wide strategic and operational planning. It had also been deployed in a disjointed and dispersed fashion, thereby contributing to its vulnerability. Aidan Clarke aruges that:

"Of all the weaknesses which the Imperial Russian Navy suffered from during the Russo-Japanese War, none were so glaring as the failings of the officer corps. These officers were generally more concerned with their own advancement rather than success in battle. Tellingly, they suffered from over-bureaucratization and a failure to encourage initiative among their ranks".^[56] Discontent in the fleet was high at the end of the war, contributing to mutinies in the Black Sea Fleet most notably on the battleship Potemkin.^[57][58]

In the aftermath of the war, a series of reforms were therefore attempted, including the founding of naval general staff. The task of the naval general staff was approved and defined by Emperor Nicholas II as “the composition of a plan for war at sea and measures for the organization of the combat readiness of the maritime armed forces of the empire.”^[59]

In the immediate aftermath of the war the Russian navy was neglected, largely because the new Duma favored prioritization of the army. A large budget for the navy, including the funding of capital ships, was finally approved in 1912.^[60] Prior to that time, the focus remained on a largely defensive fleet including submarines and smaller vessels.^{[S. 31][S. 32]}

While the navy had managed to lay down four dreadnoughts for the Baltic Fleet in 1909, construction really began in earnest in 1912 with the Baltic Fleet as the central focus. This program, endorsed by navy minister Admiral Ivan Grigorovich, included four powerful 32,000-ton battlecruisers, four light cruisers, 36 destroyers and twelve submarines. The cost was more than four hundred million rubles over a five-year period. This was intended as the first phase of a twenty-year program envisaging thirty capital ships by 1930, in addition to fifteen battleships for the Black Sea.^[61]

In the end, these programs came too late to rejunviate the fleet and the Russian navy remained on the defensive in the Baltic for the duration of the First World War.^[57] However, the navy did benefit from a construction program that had been intiated in 1912 to establish powerful coastal defence batteries (that included twenty 14-inch, four 12-inch, eight 8-inch and a variety of other guns of lesser calibers). These guns, supplemented by the existing force of modernized predreadnought battleships, covered deep minefields that created a vast “mine-artillery position” (minno-artilleriiskaia pozitsiia) which was able to help contain the German naval threat until the Russian revolutions of 1917.^[62]

With the defeat of the anti-Bolshevik Armed Forces of South Russia in 1920, the Civil War was effectively won by Communist forces and the Soviet government took control of all naval elements. It also ensured that all elements of the new military would remain under the firm control of the party leadership. At Kronstadt, sailors who staged a rebellion in support of urban workers in Petrograd in 1921 were supressed and many were shot.^[80] In strategic terms, the Baltic Fleet, having lost all of Russia's pre-war bases in Finland and the Baltic States, was confined to the ice-bound base at Kronstadt.^[81]

Soviet naval policy of the 1920s shifted from a pre-war emphasis on a traditional high-seas fleet of battleships and cruisers to a focus on submarines and other small units under the cover of land-based naval aircraft. In terms of larger units, the Soviet Navy of the early 1920s only had four dreadnoughts (damaged) in the Baltic, four Borodino-class battlecruiser hulls (unfinished and never completed) and one dreadnought under construction in the Black Sea.^[82]

In the mid-1920s steps were taken to reform and modernize the Red Fleet. In June 1924 Mikhail Frunze was appointed Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and began to implement reforms related to the organization, training and hardware of the navy. The naval force was unified under a single head while a one-man command system gradually replaced the dual commander-commissar system of the revolutionary period.^[83]

During the 1930s, the Soviet navy returned to what had been the pre-war emphasis of the Imperial Navy on large fleet units.^[84] As the industrialization of the Soviet Union proceeded, plans were made to expand the Soviet Navy into one of the most powerful in the world. Approved by the Labour and Defence Council in 1926, the Naval Shipbuilding Program included plans to construct twelve submarines; the first six were to become known as the Dekabrist class.^[85] Beginning 4 November 1926, Technical Bureau Nº 4 (formerly the Submarine Department, and still secret), under the leadership of B.M. Malinin, managed the submarine construction works at the Baltic Shipyard.^[85]

In subsequent years, 133 submarines were built to designs developed during Malinin's management. Additional developments included the formation of the Pacific Fleet in 1932 and the Northern Fleet in 1933.^[86] The forces were to be built around a core of powerful Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships. New shipyards were also built in the Arctic (notably at Molotovsk - renamed Severodvinsk after 1957), in the Far East and in the interior at important industrial centers that could be reached by canal from the open sea. This construction involved an estimated 120,000 slave laborers at Molotovsk alone. Nevertheless, the building program was only in its initial stages by the time the German invasion forced its suspension in 1941. Most of the envisaged large ship construction programs were never completed.^[87]

Like all elements in Soviet society, the navy was decimated by the Stalin purges of the 1930s. At least 30 percent of the Soviet Army and Navy officer corps, including three of the four fleet commanders, were arrested and shot or sent to the gulags. These included two commanders of the Pacific Fleet, (Admirals Mikhail Viktorov and Grigory Kireyev) who were shot in succession, Konstantin Dushenov, commander of the Northern Fleet, as well as a number of current and former commanders of the Black Sea Fleet.^[88][89] The purges are said to have "had a catastrophic effect on the Red Army’s ability to perform in the early stages of World War II".^[90][91][92]

On December 30, 1937, the Navy of the Red Army was singled out into a separate service of the armed forces – the USSR Navy. On January 1, 1938, the surface composition of the Soviet Navy was small – 3 battleships, 3 cruisers, 1 leader and 17 destroyers. But the submarine fleet was a formidable force: 10 large submarines, 10 submarine minelayers, 78 medium submarines and 52 small submarines.^[93] However, on the whole the modernity of the fleet was limited. In 1940 only one cruiser (Molotov) was radar-equipped and hydroacoustic submarine detection equipment was only deployed on the first Soviet ships in that year.^[94]

Joseph Stalin hoped for assistance from either Nazi Germany or the United States in developing blue-water naval capabilities which, by 1936, were planned to be massive. Plans continued to grow and in 1939, the so-called "Big Fleet Program" envisaged a navy of 699 ships totalling over 2.5 million tons plus hundreds of auxiliary vessels totaling another half a million tons. According to analysis by Milan Hauner:

"The reborn Pacific Fleet was to account for almost 40 percent of this inventory, in order to be capable of defeating the Japanese on the open sea,to destroy their home bases and fisheries, occupy the Kurils,and disrupt Japan’s sea communications. The Baltic Fleet was expected to sink not only all German warships but also the Polish, Swedish, and Finnish fleets, as well as the three small Baltic republics. Soviet submarines were expected to sink 120,000 tons of German shipping monthly. The Black Sea Fleet was to sink the naval forces of Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. As for the Northern Fleet, its task was to prevent Germany from landing troops in the Arctic and to disrupt communications in the North Atlantic".^[95]

After the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Nazi government gave the USSR naval plans and equipment including designs for the Bismarck-class battleship and the completed German cruiser Lützow, in exchange for allowing the Kriegsmarine to use Soviet ports and naval facilities in the Arctic Ocean. Adolf Hitler did this because he calculated that naval warfare would play little role in his planned invasion of the Soviet Union.^[96] Few of the overly ambitious plans for the Soviet Navy were ever realized, even though after World War II Stalin would resume planning for a large blue water fleet.^[97]

On April 29, 1939, Nikolai Kuznetsov, 35, was appointed People's Commissar of the Navy. Kuznetsov's appointment at such a young age occurred in the context of the Stalin purges in which 3,000 officers had been shot, imprisoned or dismissed. Prior to his appointment, between August 1937 and March 1939 four successive navy chiefs and the commanders of all four fleets were executed. As noted by former Soviet naval officer Nicholas Shadrin, under the Stalinist structure, most “decisions of even minor importance were referred back to Moscow”. Admiral Kuznetsov himself was later to comment: "The navy was allowed under an unwritten rule to decide any important matters only after consulation with him (e.g. Stalin), although Molotov and Zhadanov were sometimes authorized to prepare naval decisions before they were examined by Stalin".^[102] Nevertheless, Kuznestov demonstrated a degree of initiative that, while personally dangerous, ultimately stood him in good stead once war with Germany erupted in 1941.^[103]

On June 19, without referring the matter to Stalin, Admiral Kuznetsov put the Soviet Navy in "Readiness state 2" and on June 21 in "Readiness state 1". While the Soviet Navy was not a primary objective of the Luftwaffe in the initial stages of the war (focusing instead on the Red army and air force), these alert orders still contributed to the fact that, despite German air attacks on Sevastopol (headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet) and Baltic Fleet bases on the first day of war, the Soviet Navy experienced no ship losses in the initial German blitzkrieg of 22 June.^[104][105]

Geography was to play a major role in both restricting and shaping Soviet naval strategy during World War II. As Vincent O’Hara and Stephen McLaughlin have argued:

"It is ironic that the largest country on earth should have such constricted access to the high seas. The Soviet Union had just four narrow windows on the world ocean: the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of Japan, and its own Arctic coast. The first three all passed through choke points that were controlled by hostile powers, while the Arctic coast had only one ice-free port that was a thousand kilometers from Leningrad by railroad".^[106]

The Soviet Navy also struggled with the impact of the earlier Stalin purges on the professionalism of the fleet, poor training, lack of modern vessels and the relentless nature of the German advance into the Soviet Union in 1941. However, over the course of the war it remained persistent and improvised complex operations, absorbed high casualties and thus, by particularly in the latter stages of the war, often succeeded. In this regard, it has been described as having preserved both Leningrad and Murmansk from the initial German advance.^[107]

In the Black Sea region, despite the scale of the German/Axis advance in southern Russia, and the capture of Crimea by Axis forces in mid-1942, the Black Sea Fleet, though badly mauled, gave a creditable account of itself as it fought alongside the Red Army during the Siege of Odessa and the Battle of Sevastopol.^[108][109]

In the Baltic, the navy was very vulnerable to attacks by the Luftwaffe, particularly as German forces advanced toward Leningrad in the summer of 1941. So great was German naval superiority that in 1942, the Germans moved 400,000 soldiers, 1,900 ships and 5.6 million GRT through the Baltic virtually unopposed.^[110] As ships were destroyed or immobilized, by early 1942 many sailors of the Baltic Fleet were transferred to the infantry to make up for ground forces shortages. Even as late as 1944-45, the German Navy still enjoyed superiority at sea.^[111] Nevertheless, by January 1944 the navy was strong enough to secretly transport 30,000 troops to the bridgehead at Oranienbaum and break the siege of Leningrad.^[112]

The fate of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War was decided on the land front, so the fleet plans and its actions were often subordinate to the interests of the ground forces in the maritime sectors. During the war years, the USSR Navy deployed over 400 thousand people to land fronts.^[113]

In February 1946, the Red Fleet was renamed and became known as the Soviet Navy (Russian: Советский Военно-Морской Флот, romanized: Sovyetsky Voyenno-Morskoy Flot, lit. 'Soviet Military Maritime Fleet').^[114] After the war, the Soviets concluded that they needed a navy that could disrupt supply lines, and display a small naval presence to the developing world.^[115] As the natural resources the Soviet Union needed were available on the Eurasian landmass, it did not need a navy to protect a large commercial fleet, as the western navies were configured to do.^[115] Later, countering seaborne nuclear delivery systems became another significant objective of the navy, and an impetus for expansion.^[115]

Therefore, initially in the Cold War period, Soviet Navy was structured in a defensive posture emphasizing submarines and small, maneuverable, tactical vessels.^[115] The Soviet shipbuilding program kept yards busy constructing submarines based upon World War II German Kriegsmarine designs, which were launched with great frequency during the immediate post-war years.

However, through the long tenure (1956 to 1985) of Sergei Gorshkov as commander of the navy, Soviet sea power expanded to incorporate a global presence and posture. The Soviet Navy, Gorshkov believed, had an especially important role in supporting the Soviet Union’s political objectives and exerting its influence abroad. In that sense his thinking paralleled that of the American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan that national greatness was inextricably linked to the sea.^[116] The Soviet Navy therefore played an active role in supporting the military interventions by Soviet Bloc forces in conflicts in Angola and Ethiopia in the 1970s and 80s.^[117]

During the 1979 Sino-Vietnam border war, the Pacific Fleet deployed a task force of ships and submarines to the South China Sea. The deployment, designed to support Vietnam and deter potentially more aggressive Chinese action, was complemented by a similarly extensive presence of Soviet vessels in the Indian Ocean, and was consistent with Admiral Gorshkov's objectives to extend “Soviet military, political and economic influence throughout the world.”^[118]

Under Gorshkov, the Soviets emphasized the construction of missile ships for their surface fleet. Indeed, it became a feature of Soviet design to place large missiles onto relatively small, but fast, missile boats, while in the West such an approach would never have been considered tactically feasible. The Soviet Navy also developed several very large and well-armed guided-missile cruisers, like those of the Kirov and Slava classes. It also started integrating larger Kiev-class aircraft-carrying cruisers into the fleet. By the 1970s, Soviet submarine technology was in some respects more advanced than in the West, and several of their submarines were considered superior to their American rivals.^[119]

With the internal collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Navy of the Russian Federation succeeded the former Soviet Navy, retaining most of its ships, particularly in the Baltic, Pacific and Arctic regions.

In the Black Sea region, the fleet was divided between Russia and the newly independent nation of Ukraine. In 1995, presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Boris Yeltsin of Russia negotiated terms for dividing the fleet, and to ease the tensions, on 10 June 1995 the two governments signed an interim treaty,^[120] establishing a joint Russo-Ukrainian Black Sea Fleet under bilateral command (and Soviet Navy flag) until a full-scale partition agreement could be reached. Formally, the Fleet's Commander was to be appointed by a joint order of the two countries' presidents. However, Russia still dominated the Fleet unofficially, and a Russian admiral was appointed as Commander; the majority of the fleet personnel adopted Russian citizenship. The nature of the fleet's division would serve to contribute to the growing conflict between Russia and Ukraine after 2000.

By the end of the 1990s, the Russian Navy was a shell of its former self with some ships having little capability. The navy suffered severely due to insufficient maintenance, lack of funding, and subsequent effects on the training of personnel and timely replacement of equipment. Ships continued flying an ensign so that crews are entitled to be paid. As Jane's Fighting Ships reported in 2010: "There are large numbers of most classes 'in reserve', and flying an ensign so that skeleton crews may still be paid. [Their listing reflected] only those units assessed as having some realistic operational capability or some prospect of returning to service after refit.".^[121]

From the early 2000s, there was a concerted effort to modernize and update the fleet. In 2013, a rise in gas and oil prices enabled a sort of renaissance of the Russian Navy due to increased available funds, which may have allowed Russia to begin "developing the capacity to modernize".^[122] A trend to replace older vessels has continued, with a particular emphasis placed on the submarine component of Russia's nuclear deterrent forces.^[123][124]

Since the start of the full Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in the Russo-Ukraine War, the Black Sea Fleet has experienced serious losses in ships and materiel.^[125]

• Russian Navy
• Imperial Russian Navy
• Soviet Navy