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

by Monakov,Mikhail

• ISBN13: 9780714648958
• ISBN10: 0714648957
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

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