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113-544: It was founded as Sovetsky ( Сове́тский ) on October 16, 1968 through the amalgamation of three earlier settlements which supplied the Soviet Navy and served as a base for submarine construction: Rybachy, Primorsky, and Seldevaya. In 1970, as with other closed towns in the Soviet Union , it was given a code name based on the nearest major city, becoming known officially as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky-50 until 1994. In 1994,

226-621: A Soviet fleet was a national priority, but many senior officers were killed in the Great Purge in the late 1930s. The naval share of the national armaments budget fell from 11.5% in 1941 to 6.6% in 1944. When the Soviet Union entered the Second World War, during Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, initially millions of soldiers were captured, many sailors and naval guns were detached to reinforce

339-603: A consequence, the 1825 Committee to Organise the Fleet was formed, which outlined an ambitious shipbuilding project which aimed to create the third largest navy in Europe. The growth of the Russian navy in the years after this greatly bolstered Russian naval capability, expanding both the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets. A Russian squadron under the command of Dutch Admiral Lodewijk van Heiden fought at

452-505: A fleet-defense operational concept, in distinction to the Western emphasis on shore-strike missions from distant deployment. A second carrier (pre-commissioning name Varyag ) was under construction when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991. Construction stopped and the ship was sold later, incomplete, to the People's Republic of China by Ukraine , which inherited part of the old Soviet fleet after

565-562: A heavy storm and was lost at sea. During the Russo–Swedish War, 1656–1658 , Russian forces seized the Swedish fortresses of Dünaburg and Kokenhusen on the Western Dvina . They renamed the former as Borisoglebsk and the latter as Tsarevich-Dmitriyev . A boyar named Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin founded a shipyard at Tsarevich-Dmitriev fortress and began constructing vessels to sail in

678-465: A light high-speed galley) and 143 brigantines . The ships were being constructed at 24 shipyards, including the ones in Voronezh , Kazan , Pereyaslavl , Arkhangelsk , Olonets , Petersburg and Astrakhan . The naval officers came from dvoryane (noblemen, aristocrats who belonged to the state Russian Orthodox Church). The regular sailors were conscripts , drafted into military service. The service in

791-543: A naval strategy designed to disrupt sea lines of communication . Nonetheless, the Soviet navy pursued an aircraft carrier program as a way of matching stoking competition with the U.S. Navy . The Soviet Navy still had the mission of confronting Western submarines, creating a need for large surface vessels to carry anti-submarine helicopters. During 1968 and 1969 the Moskva -class helicopter carriers were first deployed, succeeded by

904-662: The Karp class . These vessels, as well as Forelle were transported along the Trans-Siberian Railway en route to the war zone. Germaniawerft, under the supervision of Spanish naval architect Raymondo Lorenzo d'Euevilley-Montjustin, continued his work on the Karp -class submarines, improving and modifying one into Germany's first U-boat , U-1 , which was commissioned into the Imperial German Navy on 14 December 1906. U-1

1017-936: The Aegean Sea by destroying the Turkish fleet in the Battle of Chesma in 1770. In 1771, the Russian army conquered the coasts of the Kerch Strait and fortresses of Kerch and Yenikale . After having advanced to the Danube , the Russians formed the Danube Military Flotilla for the purpose of guarding the Danube estuary. In 1771 they were guests to the Republic of Ragusa . The Beluga caviar from

1130-841: The Arctic Ocean . Rounding the Chukotsk Peninsula , Dezhnev passed through the Bering Sea and sailed into the Pacific Ocean. Peter the Great established the modern Russian Navy. During the Second Azov campaign of 1696 against Turkey, the Russians for the first time used 2 warships, 4 fireships , 23 galleys and 1300 strugs , built on the Voronezh River . After the occupation of the Azov fortress,

1243-611: The Baltic Sea there remained only three much-neglected battleships, two cruisers, some ten destroyers, and a few submarines. Despite this state of affairs, the Baltic Fleet remained a significant naval formation, and the Black Sea Fleet also provided a basis for expansion. There also existed some thirty minor-waterways combat flotillas. During the 1930s, as the industrialization of the Soviet Union proceeded, plans were made to expand

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1356-665: The Baltic governorates . The Russian Navy went into a period of decline due to the Empire's slow technical and economic development in the first half of the 19th century. It had a revival in the latter part of the century during the reign of Emperor Nicholas II ( r.  1894–1917 ), but most of its Pacific Fleet (along with the Baltic Fleet sent to the Far East) was destroyed in the disastrous Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Nicholas II, who

1469-740: The Battle of Navarino in 1827. The Navy was used to great effect during the subsequent Russo-Turkish War (1828-29) , utilising the Mediterranean squadron and the Black Sea Fleet to gain command of the Sea from the Ottomans, which contributed to Russian victory and the signing of the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829. In 1826 the Russians built their first armed steamboat Izhora (73.6  kW (98.7  hp )), equipped with eight cannons . In 1836, they constructed

1582-715: The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula , one during the Caucasus Campaign and one as part of the Landing at Moonsund , in the Baltic . During the war, five brigades and two battalions of naval infantry were awarded Guards status. Nine brigades and six battalions were awarded decorations, and many were given honorary titles. The title Hero of the Soviet Union was bestowed on 122 members of naval infantry units. The Soviet experience in amphibious warfare in World War II contributed to

1695-526: The Battle of the Yellow Sea . The remnant of the Russian fleet remained in Port Arthur, where the ships were slowly sunk by the artillery of the besieging army. Attempts to relieve the city by land also failed, and after the Battle of Liaoyang in late August, the Russians retreated to Mukden ( Shenyang ). Port Arthur finally fell on 2 January 1905, after a series of brutal, high-casualty assaults. By 25 June,

1808-599: The Boyar Duma looked into Peter's report of this military campaign. It passed a decree on October 20, 1696, to commence construction of a navy. This date is considered the official founding of the Imperial Russian Navy. During the Great Northern War of 1700–1721, the Russians built the Baltic Fleet . The construction of the oared fleet (galley fleet) took place in 1702–1704 at several shipyards ( estuaries of

1921-762: The Coastal Artillery . The Soviet Navy was formed from the remnants of the Imperial Russian Navy during the Russian Civil War . After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation inherited the largest part of the Soviet Navy and reformed it into the Russian Navy , with smaller parts becoming the basis for navies of the newly independent post-Soviet states . The Soviet Navy

2034-483: The Czar . Some imperial vessels continued to serve after the revolution, albeit with different names. The Soviet Navy, established as the " Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet " by a 1918 decree of the new Council of People's Commissars , installed as a temporary Russian revolutionary government, was less than service-ready during the interwar years of 1918 to 1941. As the country's attentions were largely directed internally,

2147-671: The Mediterranean Sea . The squadron's main function was to prevent largescale naval ingress into the Black Sea , which could bypass the need for any invasion to be over the Eurasian land mass. The flagship of the squadron was for a long period the Sverdlov -class cruiser Zhdanov . In the strategic planning laid by the Soviet strategists, the aircraft carriers were seen as relatively unimportant and received little attention, as Moscow focused on

2260-596: The Mike-class submarine Komsomolets , both lost to fire, and the far more menacing nuclear reactor leak on the Hotel-class submarine K-19 , narrowly averted by her captain . Inadequate nuclear safety , poor damage control, and quality-control issues during construction (particularly on the earlier submarines) were typical causes of accidents. On several occasions there were alleged collisions with American submarines. None of these, however, has been confirmed officially by

2373-515: The Red Army ; these reassigned naval forces had especially significant roles on land in the battles for Odessa , Sevastopol , Stalingrad , Novorossiysk , Tuapse , and Leningrad . The Baltic fleet was blockaded in Leningrad and Kronstadt by minefields, but the submarines escaped. The surface fleet fought with the anti-aircraft defence of the city and bombarded German positions. The composition of

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2486-735: The Red Fleet , the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union 's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with the opposing superpower , the United States , during the Cold War (1945–1991). The Soviet Navy played a large role during the Cold War, either confronting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in western Europe or power projection to maintain its sphere of influence in eastern Europe . The Soviet Navy

2599-454: The Red Terror , some joined the " White " (anti-communist) opposing armies, and others simply resigned) and most of the sailors walked off and left their ships. Work stopped in the shipyards, where uncompleted ships deteriorated rapidly. The Black Sea Fleet fared no better than the Baltic . The Bolshevik (Communist) revolution entirely disrupted its personnel, with mass murders of officers;

2712-538: The Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. The Soviet Navy , established as the Red Fleet in 1918 after the Revolution, took over the available surviving ships that did not evacuate from Crimea. Strategically , the Imperial Russian Navy faced two overarching issues: the use of ice-free ports and open access to the high seas. Saint Petersburg and the other Baltic ports, as well as Vladivostok , could not operate in winter, hence

2825-556: The Russian Civil War , cooperating with the ships and the army during the combats at Petrograd , on the Baltic Sea , the Black Sea , the Volga , the Kama River , Northern Dvina and on the Lake Onega . The newborn Soviet Naval Air Force consisted of only 76 obsolete hydroplanes. Scanty and technically imperfect, it was mostly used for resupplying the ships and the army. In the second half of

2938-570: The Tartar Strait . Keta could not submerge quick enough to obtain a firing position and both adversaries broke contact. The Russians had already been preparing to reinforce their fleet the previous year by sending elements of the Baltic Sea fleet ( The Second Pacific Squadron ) under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky around the Cape of Good Hope to Asia, a voyage of over 18,000 mi (16,000 nmi; 29,000 km). On 21 October 1904, while passing by

3051-620: The Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan, in the early morning of 27 May 1905. Although both battleship fleets were on nearly equal footing in regards to the latest in battleship technology, with the British warship designs representing the Imperial Japanese Navy , and predominately the French designs being favored by the Russian fleets; it was the combat experience that Togo had accrued in

3164-514: The sea lines of communication across the North Atlantic Ocean between Europe and North America, the primary role of these aircraft was to protect the Soviet mainland from attacks by U.S. carrier task forces. Due to the Soviet Union's geographic position, submarines were considered the capital ships of the Navy. Submarines could penetrate attempts at blockade, either in the constrained waters of

3277-485: The 1860s, the Russian fleet which had relied upon sails lost its significance and was gradually replaced by steam. After the Crimean War, Russia commenced construction of steam-powered ironclads , monitors , and floating batteries. These vessels had strong artillery and thick armor , but lacked seaworthiness, speed and long-distance abilities. In 1861, they built the first steel-armored gunboat Opyt (Опыт). In 1869,

3390-457: The 1904 naval battles of Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea , that gave him the edge over the un-tested Admiral Rozhestvensky during the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May. By the end of the day on 27 May, nearly all of Rozhestvensky's battleships were sunk, including his flagship, Knyaz Suvorov ; and on the following day, Admiral Nebogatov, who had relieved Rozhestvensky due to his wounds, surrendered

3503-674: The 1920s, the Naval Aviation order of battle began to grow. It received new reconnaissance hydroplanes, bombers, and fighters. In the mid-1930s, the Soviets created the Naval Air Force in the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet and the Soviet Pacific Fleet. The importance of naval aviation had grown significantly by 1938–1940, to become one of the main components of the Soviet Navy. By this time, the Soviets had created formations and units of

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3616-485: The Arctic Ocean, Soviet Northern Fleet destroyers ( Novik class, Type 7, and Type 7U) and smaller craft participated with the anti-aircraft and anti-submarine defence of Allied convoys conducting Lend-Lease cargo shipping. In the Pacific Ocean, the Soviet Union was not at war with Japan before 1945, so some destroyers were transferred to the Northern Fleet. From the beginning of hostilities, Soviet Naval Aviation provided air support to naval and land operations involving

3729-399: The Baltic Fleet had 23 ships of the line and 130 frigates (1788). In the early 19th century, the Russian Navy consisted of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, Caspian Flotilla , White Sea Flotilla and Okhotsk Flotilla . During the Napoleonic Wars , the Russian Navy had limited sea-going capability, with the 1802 Committee to Improve the Condition of the Navy concluding that the dire state of

3842-408: The Baltic Sea. In 1661, however, Russia lost this and other captured territories by the Peace of Cardis. Russia agreed to surrender to Sweden all captured territories, and it ordered all vessels constructed at Tsarevich-Dmitriev to be destroyed. Boyar Ordin-Nashchokin turned his attention to the Volga River and Caspian Sea. With the Tsar's approval, the boyar brought Dutch shipbuilding experts to

3955-420: The Baltic and Black Seas or in the remote reaches of the USSR's western Arctic, while surface ships were clearly much easier to find and attack. The USSR had entered the Second World War with more submarines than Germany, but geography and the speed of the German attack precluded it from effectively using its more numerous fleet to its advantage. Because of its opinion that "quantity had a quality of its own" and at

4068-402: The Baltic, the Black Sea, the Russian Far East and the Arctic. Under Tsar Mikhail I ( Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov) , the first three-masted ships built within Russia were finished in 1636. Danish shipbuilders from Holstein built it in Balakhna according to contemporary European design. The ship was christened Frederick ; during its maiden voyage on the Caspian Sea , the ship sailed into

4181-461: The Black Sea Fleet. The total Russian naval expenditure from 1906 to 1913 was $ 519 million, in fifth place behind Britain, Germany, the United States and France. The re-armament program included a significant element of foreign participation with several ships (including the cruiser Rurik ) and machinery ordered from foreign firms. After the outbreak of World War I, ships and equipment being built in Germany were confiscated. Equipment from Britain

4294-405: The British and French navies in the case of an outbreak of war, and thus dispatched the Atlantic and Pacific fleets to North America, including San Francisco and from 1863 New York —with sealed orders to attack British naval targets in case war broke out between Russia and Britain. The Imperial Russian Navy continued to expand in the later part of the century becoming the third largest fleet in

4407-429: The Danube was famous, and merchants from the Republic of Ragusa dominated the import-export business in Serbia with the Habsburg monarchy . In 1773 the vessels of the Azov Flotilla (created anew in 1771) sailed into the Black Sea. Russia defeated Turkey in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, gaining control of the Sea of Azov and a part of the Black Sea coastline between the rivers Bug and Dniester . The Crimea

4520-535: The Eurasian landmass, it did not need a navy to protect a large commercial fleet, as the western navies were configured to do. Later, countering seaborne nuclear delivery systems became another significant objective of the navy, and an impetus for expansion. The Soviet Navy was structured around submarines and small, maneuverable, tactical vessels. The Soviet shipbuilding program kept yards busy constructing submarines based upon World War II German Kriegsmarine designs , which were launched with great frequency during

4633-428: The Germans and then, after the later Armistice of 11 November 1918 on the Western Front which ended the War, additional Russian ships were confiscated by the British. On 1 April 1919, during the ensuing Russian Civil War when Red Army forces captured Crimea , the British Royal Navy squadron had to withdraw, but before leaving they damaged all the remaining battleships and sank thirteen new submarines. When

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4746-442: The Great , Feodor Apraksin , Alexey Senyavin , Naum Senyavin , Admiral Mikhail Golitsyn and others are generally credited for the development of the Russian art of naval warfare . The main principles of naval warfare were further developed by Grigory Spiridov , Feodor Ushakov , and Dmitry Senyavin . Between 1688 and 1725, a period spanning most of Peter's reign, some 1,260 seagoing vessels were built in Russian shipyards for

4859-411: The Greek Ivan Botsis , or the Scotsman Thomas Gordon . In 1718, the Admiralty Board (Адмиралтейств-коллегия) was established as the highest naval authority in Russia. The organizational principles of the Russian Navy, educational and training methods for preparing future staff, and methods for conducting military action were all summarized in the Naval Charter (1720), written by Peter I himself. Peter

4972-470: The Holland Company by the Neva Shipbuilding Company located in St. Petersburg , Russia. In 1903, the German ship building firm Germaniawerft at Kiel completed Germany's first fully functioning engine powered submarine; Forelle . The submarine was toured inspected by Kaiser Wilhelm II , and Prince Heinrich of Prussia was given a brief cruise in the vessel. In April 1904, the Imperial Russian Navy purchased Forelle , and ordered two more submarines of

5085-413: The Imperial Navy had amassed a fleet of 55 submarines, used to varying degrees of success. In the Baltic Sea , Germany and Russia were the main combatants, with a number of British submarines sailing through the Kattegat to assist the Russians, including E9 commanded by Max Horton . With the German fleet larger and more modern (many High Seas Fleet ships could easily be deployed to the Baltic via

5198-406: The Imperial Russian Navy had secretly purchased its first naval submarine, known as Madam, from Isaac Rice 's Electric Boat Company . This submarine was originally built under the direction of Arthur Leopold Busch as the American torpedo boat Fulton . It was a prototype of the Holland Type 7 Design known as the Adder -class/ Plunger -class submarines. By 10 October, this first Russian submarine

5311-416: The Imperial Russian Navy. Fleets were launched successively on the White Sea , the Sea of Azov (with access to the Black Sea ), the Baltic Sea , and the Caspian Sea ( Russo-Persian War of 1722-1723 ). In 1700, the majority of sailors in the Imperial Russian Navy were foreigners at the start of the Great Northern War . But by 1721, at the end of the same war, the navy had 7,215 native-born sailors. In

5424-415: The Navy did not have much funding or training. An indicator of its reputation was that the Soviets were not invited to participate in negotiations for the Washington Naval Treaty of 1921–1922, which limited the size and capabilities of the most powerful navies – British, American, Japanese, French, Italian. The greater part of the old fleet was sold by the Soviet government to post-war Germany for scrap. In

5537-488: The Navy. Each Fleet was assigned a Marine unit of regiment (and later brigade) size. The Naval Infantry received amphibious versions of standard Armoured fighting vehicle , including tanks used by the Soviet Army . Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy ( Russian : Российский императорский флот ) operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in

5650-404: The Russian Navy, formed in the times of Admiral Ushakov. The Battle of Sinop in 1853 the Black Sea Fleet under Nakhimov made a number of tactical innovations. During the Siege of Sevastopol in 1854–1855, the Russian sailors used all means possible to defend their base from land and sea. In accordance with the Treaty of Paris , Russia lost the right to have a military fleet in the Black Sea. In

5763-401: The Russians began the construction of one of the first seafaring ironclads, Petr Veliky (Пётр Великий). On the night of 8 February 1904, the Japanese naval fleet under Admiral Heihachiro Togo opened the war with a surprise attack by torpedo boat destroyers on the Russian ships at Port Arthur, badly damaging two Russian battleships. The attacks developed into the Battle of Port Arthur

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5876-523: The Russians soon learned the Japanese tactic of offensive minelaying and decided to play the strategy too. On 15 May, two Japanese battleships – Yashima and Hatsuse , were both lured into a recently laid Russian minefield off Port Arthur, both striking at least two mines. Hatsuse sank within minutes taking 450 sailors with her, while Yashima sank under tow a few hours later. The Russian fleet attempted to break out from Port Arthur and proceed to Vladivostok , but they were intercepted and dispersed at

5989-447: The Russians use of the port. On the night of 13/14 February, the Japanese attempted to block the entrance to Port Arthur by sinking several cement-filled steamers in the deep water channel to the port. But the steamers, driven off course by Russian gunfire were unable to sink them in the designated places, rendering them ineffective. Another attempt to block the harbor entrance on the night of 3/4 May with blockships also failed. In March,

6102-404: The Soviet Navy ( Russian : Советский Военно-Морской Флот , romanized :  Sovyetsky Voyenno-Morskoy Flot , lit.   'Soviet Military Maritime Fleet'). 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. As the natural resources the Soviet Union needed were available on

6215-412: 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 . Beginning 4 November 1926, Technical Bureau Nº 4 (formerly the Submarine Department, and still secret), under the leadership of B.M. Malinin , managed

6328-427: The Soviet Navy. This service was responsible for the operation of shore-based floatplanes , long-range flying boats , catapult-launched and vessel-based planes, and land-based aircraft designated for naval use. As post-war spoils, the Soviets received several Italian and Japanese warships and much German naval engineering and architectural documentation. In February 1946, the Red Fleet was renamed and became known as

6441-422: The Soviet fleets in 1941 included: In various stages of completion were another 219 vessels including 3 battleships, 2 heavy and 7 light cruisers, 45 destroyers, and 91 submarines. Included in the totals above are some pre-World War I ships ( Novik -class destroyers, some of the cruisers, and all the battleships), some modern ships built in the USSR and Europe (like the Italian-built destroyer Tashkent and

6554-450: The Soviet part of the captured Italian navy. In the Baltic Sea, after Tallinn 's capture, surface ships were blockaded in Leningrad and Kronstadt by minefields, where they participated with the anti-aircraft defence of the city and bombarded German positions. One example of Soviet resourcefulness was the battleship Marat , an ageing pre-World War I ship sunk at anchor in Kronstadt's harbour by German Junkers Ju 87 aircraft in 1941. For

6667-503: The U.S. Navy. On 28 August 1976, K-22 ( Echo II) collided with frigate USS  Voge in the Mediterranean Sea. After the dissolution of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Navy, like other branches of Armed Forces, eventually lost some of its units to former Soviet Republics, and was left without funding. Some ships were transferred to former Soviet states: In 1990, the Soviet Navy had: The regular Soviet naval aviation units were created in 1918. They participated in

6780-419: The United Kingdom (an ally of Japan but neutral in this war), they nearly provoked a war in the Dogger Bank incident by firing on British fishing boats that they mistook for Japanese torpedo boats . The duration of the Baltic Fleet's journey meant that Admiral Togo was well aware of the Baltic Fleet 's progress, and he made plans to meet it before it could reach port at Vladivostok . He intercepted them in

6893-400: The Volga. During much of the 17th century, independent Russian merchants and Cossacks, using koch boats , sailed across the White Sea , exploring the rivers Lena , Kolyma and Indigirka , and founding settlements in the region of the upper Amur . The most celebrated Russian explorer was Semyon Dezhnev who, in 1648, sailed along the entire northern expanse of present-day Russia by way of

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7006-504: The West such an approach would never have been considered tactically feasible. The Soviet Navy did also possess several very large and well-armed guided-missile cruisers , like those of the Kirov and Slava classes. By the 1970s, Soviet submarine technology was in some respects more advanced than in the West, and several of their submarine types were considered superior to their American rivals. The 5th Operational Squadron ( ru:5-я Средиземноморская эскадра кораблей ВМФ ) operated in

7119-443: The aristocracy of the Empire, who belonged to the state Russian Orthodox Church . Young aristocrats began to be trained for leadership at a national naval boarding school, the Naval Cadet Corps . From 1818 on, only officers of the Imperial Russian Navy were appointed to the position of Chief Manager of the Russian-American Company , based in Russian America (present-day Alaska ) for colonization and fur-trade development. Although

7232-435: The break-up of the USSR. It was commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy in 2012 as the Liaoning . Soon after the launch of this second Kuznetsov -class ship, the Soviet Navy began the construction of an improved aircraft carrier design, Ulyanovsk , which was to have been slightly larger than the Kuznetsov class and nuclear-powered. The project was terminated, and what little structure had been initiated in

7345-470: The building ways was scrapped. In part to perform the functions usual to carrier-borne aircraft, the Soviet Navy deployed large numbers of strategic bombers in a maritime role, with the Aviatsiya Voenno-Morskogo Flota (AV-MF, or Naval Aviation service). Strategic bombers like the Tupolev Tu-16 'Badger' and Tu-22M 'Backfire' were deployed with high-speed anti-shipping missiles . Previously believed to be interceptors of NATO supply convoys traveling

7458-435: The coal supply to Constantinople and threatened the Ottoman Empire 's ability to stay in the war . The Russian Revolution marked the end of the Imperial Navy; the Russian Provisional Government carried out reforms to the navy and its command structure, including the removal of imperial references from its rank insignia. Its officers had mostly aligned with the emperor , and the sailors split to fight on either side during

7571-414: The development of Soviet combined arms operations. Many members of the Naval Infantry were parachute trained, conducting more drops and successful parachute operations than the Soviet Airborne Troops (VDV) . The Naval Infantry was disbanded in 1947, with some units being transferred to the Coastal Defence Forces . In 1961, the Naval Infantry was re-formed and became one of the active combat services of

7684-427: The early Imperial Navy initially employed paid foreign sailors, the government began to recruit native-born sailors as conscripts, drafted (as were men to serve in the army). Service in the navy was lifelong before the 1874 decree on conscription limited the service term to six years at most. Many naval commanders and recruits came from Imperial Russia's non-Russian lands with maritime traditions— Finland and (especially)

7797-434: The eastern seaboard of Siberia . These voyages produced important scientific research materials and discoveries in Pacific, Antarctic and Arctic theatres of operations. During the American Civil War, Anglo-Russian relations were worsened by Russian perceptions that the British were covertly supporting the January Uprising against Russian rule in Poland. The Russian admiralty feared that the Russian navy could be blockaded by

7910-512: The energetic Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov (1849–1904) took command of the First Russian Pacific Squadron with the intention of making plans to break out of the Port Arthur blockade. By then, both sides began a policy of tactical offensive mine-laying by laying mines in each other's ports. This was the first time in warfare that mines were used for offensive purposes. In the past, mines were used as purely defensive purposes by keeping harbors safe from invading warships. The Japanese mine-laying policy

8023-508: The first paddle steam frigate of the Russian Navy called Bogatyr (displacement – 1,340  t (1,320 long tons ), power – 177 kW (237 hp), armament – 28 cannons). The Imperial Russian Navy also sent out exploratory expeditions. Between 1803 and 1855, their ships undertook more than 40 circumnavigations and long-distant voyages, most of which were in support of their North Americans colonies in Russian America (Alaska) and Fort Ross in northern California, and their Pacific ports on

8136-465: The first half of the 19th century caused her to fall behind other European countries in the field of steamboat construction. By the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853, Russia had the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, Arkhangelsk Flotilla, Caspian Flotilla and Okhotsk Flotilla (altogether, 40 battleships, 15 frigates, 24 corvettes and brigs , 16 steam frigates etc.). The combined number of staff of all

8249-560: The first of four aircraft-carrying cruisers of the Kiev class , in 1973. Both types were capable of operating ASW helicopters, and the Kiev class also operated V/STOL aircraft ( e.g. , the Yak-38 'Forger' ); they were designed to operate for fleet defense, primarily within range of land-based Soviet Naval Aviation aircraft. During the 1970s the Soviets began Project 1153 Orel (Eagle), whose stated purpose

8362-503: The fleets equaled 91,000 people. Despite all this, the reactionary serfdom system had an adverse effect on the development of the Russian Navy. It was especially typical of the Baltic Fleet, which was known for its harsh military drill. Thanks to admirals Mikhail Lazarev , Pavel Nakhimov , Vladimir Kornilov , and Vladimir Istomin , the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet were taught the art of warfare and upholding of military traditions of

8475-445: The immediate post-war years. Afterwards, through a combination of indigenous research and technology obtained through espionage from Nazi Germany and the Western nations, the Soviets gradually improved their submarine designs. The Soviets were quick to equip their surface fleet with missiles of various sorts. Indeed, it became a feature of Soviet design to place large missiles onto relatively small, but fast, missile boats , while in

8588-841: The insistence of Admiral of the Fleet Sergey Gorshkov , the Soviet Navy continued to operate many first-generation missile submarines, built in the early 1960s, until the end of the Cold War in 1991. In some respects, including speed and reactor technology, Soviet submarines achieved unique successes, but for most of the era lagged their Western counterparts in overall capability. In addition to their relatively high speeds and great operating depths they were difficult anti-submarine warfare (ASW) targets to destroy because of their multiple compartments, their large reserve buoyancy, and especially their double-hulled design. Their principal shortcomings were insufficient noise-damping (American boats were quieter) and primitive sonar technology. Acoustics

8701-478: The late 2000s with newly constructed residential buildings, a hospital, nursery school, and a sports center with a water park opened in 2007 personally by President Vladimir Putin . Two Russian Orthodox churches were built in the 1990s, the first in the town. Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces . Often referred to as

8814-579: The navy was lifelong. Children of noblemen were educated for naval service at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, which had been founded in 1701 in Moscow's Sukharev Tower. Students were often sent abroad for training in foreign fleets. The Navy also hired foreign nationals, with significant naval experience, to serve in the Russian Navy, such as the Norwegian-Dutch Cornelius Cruys ,

8927-408: The new submarine fleet sent out its first combat patrol consisting of the vessels Som and Delfin . With patrols varying from 24 hours to a few days, the sub fleets first enemy contact occurred on 29 April 1905 when Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo boats fired upon Som , withdrawing after failing to score a hit. On 1 July the Russian submarine Keta made contact with two Japanese torpedo boats in

9040-464: The next morning. A series of indecisive naval engagements followed, in which the Japanese were unable to attack the Russian fleet successfully under shore batteries ( coastal guns ) of the harbor and the Russians declined to leave the harbor for the open seas, especially after the death of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov on 13 April 1904. After the attack on Port Arthur, the Japanese attempted to deny

9153-584: The opposing Czarist White Army captured Crimea in 1919, it rescued and reconditioned a few units. At the end of the civil war, Wrangel's fleet , a White flotilla, moved south through the Black Sea, Dardanelles straits and the Aegean Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to Bizerta in French Tunisia on the North Africa coast, where it was interned. The first ship of the revolutionary navy could be considered

9266-586: The partially completed German cruiser Lützow ). During the war, many of the vessels on the slips in Leningrad and Nikolayev were destroyed (mainly by aircraft and mines ), but the Soviet Navy received captured Romanian destroyers and Lend-Lease small craft from the U.S., as well as the old Royal Navy battleship HMS  Royal Sovereign (renamed Arkhangelsk ) and the United States Navy cruiser USS  Milwaukee (renamed Murmansk ) in exchange for

9379-574: The push for Russia to establish naval facilities on the Black Sea coast and (eventually) at Murmansk . And even substantial naval forces in the Baltic Sea remained confined by the lack of free access to the Atlantic via the Øresund , just as the Black Sea Fleet could not always rely on passage through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles . As a result, separate naval groupings developed in relative isolation in

9492-525: The rebellious Imperial Russian cruiser Aurora , built 1900, whose crew joined the communist Bolsheviks. Sailors of the Baltic fleet supplied the fighting force of the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky during the October Revolution of November 1917 against the democratic provisional government of Alexander Kerensky established after the earlier first revolution of February against

9605-651: The remainder of the fleet to Admiral Togo. At the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Russia fell from being the third greatest naval power to sixth place. The focus of Russian naval activities shifted back from the Far East to the Baltic. The task of the Baltic Fleet was to defend the Baltic Sea and Saint Petersburg from the German Empire. Tsar Nicholas II created a Naval General Staff in 1906. At first, attention

9718-551: The rest of the war, the non-submerged part of the ship remained in use as a grounded battery. Submarines, although suffering great losses due to German and Finnish anti-submarine actions, had a major role in the war at sea by disrupting Axis navigation in the Baltic Sea. In the Black Sea, many ships were damaged by minefields and Axis aviation , but they helped defend naval bases and supply them while besieged, as well as later evacuating them. Heavy naval guns and sailors helped defend port cities during long sieges by Axis armies . In

9831-690: The rivers Syas , Luga and Olonka ). In order to defend the conquered coastline and attack enemy's maritime communications in the Baltic Sea , the Russians created a sailing fleet from ships built in Russia and others imported from abroad. From 1703 to 1723, the main naval base of the Baltic Fleet was located in Saint Petersburg and then in Kronstadt . Bases were also created in Reval ( Tallinn ) and in Vyborg after it

9944-454: The second half of the 18th century, the Russian Navy was built up to support the government's foreign policy. The nation conducted the Russo-Turkish wars for supremacy in the Black Sea . For the first time, Russia sent its squadrons from the Baltic Sea to distant theaters of operations ( see Archipelago expeditions of the Russian Navy ). Admiral Spiridov's squadron gained supremacy in

10057-482: The ships of the Baltic Fleet, suffering as they did from extensive rot and a lack of copper plating, was incapable of defending Kronstadt and St Petersburg . The Committee's chairman, Vorontsov, concluded that "It is impossible for Russia to be considered a major naval power, but there is no predictable need or advantage in this status." Consequently, the Committee recommended nothing more than limited measures to rectify

10170-534: The ships were allowed to decay to unserviceability. At the end of April 1918, Imperial German troops moved along the Black Sea coast and entered Crimea and started to advance towards the Sevastopol naval base. The more effective ships were moved from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk where, after an ultimatum from Germany, they were scuttled by Vladimir Lenin 's order. The ships remaining in Sevastopol were captured by

10283-537: The shores of Kola Bay and Polyarny was made up of three destroyers and three patrol ships, while the Pacific Fleet had two destroyers, transferred east in 1936, and six patrol ships assembled in the Far East. The Soviet Navy had some minor action in the Winter War against Finland in 1939–1940, on the Baltic Sea. It was limited mainly to cruisers and battleships fighting artillery duels with Finnish forts. Building

10396-553: The state of the fleets, and the Russians retained limited capability at sea thereafter, relying on their land power to defeat Napoleon . In 1802, the Ministry of Naval Military Forces was established (renamed to Naval Ministry in 1815). This attitude changed with the accession of Nicholas I in 1825, who less than a month into his reign declared that "Russia must become the third naval power after England and France and must be more powerful than any coalition of secondary naval powers." As

10509-529: The submarine construction works at the Baltic Shipyard . 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. The forces were to be built around a core of powerful Sovetsky Soyuz -class battleships . This building program was only in its initial stages by

10622-546: The time the German invasion forced its suspension in 1941. By the end of 1937, the biggest fleet was the Baltic Fleet based at Leningrad, with two battleships, one training cruiser, eight destroyers including one destroyer leader, five patrol ships, two minesweepers , and some more old minesweepers. The Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol included one battleship, three cruisers, one training cruiser, five destroyers, two patrol ships, and four minesweepers. The Northern Fleet operating from

10735-807: The torpedo and bomb aviation. During World War II , about 350,000 Soviet sailors fought on land. At the beginning of the war, the navy had only one naval brigade in the Baltic fleet , but began forming and training other battalions. These eventually were: The military situation demanded the deployment of large numbers of marines on land fronts, so the Naval Infantry contributed to the defense of Moscow , Leningrad , Odessa , Sevastopol , Stalingrad , Novorossiysk , and Kerch . The Naval Infantry conducted over 114 landings, most of which were carried out by platoons and companies. In general, however, Naval Infantry served as regular infantry, without any amphibious training. They conducted four major operations: two during

10848-583: The town of Dedinovo near the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers. Shipbuilding commenced in the winter of 1667. Within two years, four vessels had been completed: one 22-gun galley, christened Орёл ("Oryol" = "Eagle"), and three smaller ships. Орёл was Russia's first own three-masted, European-designed sailing ship. It was captured in Astrakhan by rebellious Cossacks led by Stepan Razin . The Cossacks ransacked Орёл and abandoned it, half-submerged, in an estuary of

10961-422: The town was renamed after the nearby volcano , Vilyuchik . Within the framework of administrative divisions , it is incorporated as Vilyuchinsk Town Under Krai Jurisdiction —an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts . As a municipal division , Vilyuchinsk Town Under Krai Jurisdiction is incorporated as Vilyuchinsky Urban Okrug . Besides the construction of nuclear submarines ,

11074-513: The town's economy is largely reliant on fishing and processing of fish. In the suburb of Rybachy, one of the three original settlements from which the town was created, a squadron of submarines of the Pacific Fleet has been based since August 1938. The local ship-repair industry began to develop in late 1959. Despite plans for the navy base to be closed in 2003 due to lack of finances, this has continued to operate. The base had been modernized in

11187-603: The wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of the Russian Republic in 1917. It developed from a smaller force that had existed prior to Tsar Peter the Great 's founding of the modern Russian navy during the Second Azov campaign in 1696, and expanded in the second half of the 18th century before reaching its peak strength by the early part of the 19th century, behind only the British and French fleets in terms of size. The Imperial Navy drew its officers from

11300-563: The world after the UK and France. The expansion accelerated under Emperor Nicholas II who had been influenced by the American naval theoretician Alfred Thayer Mahan . Russian industry, although growing in capacity, was not able to meet the demands and some ships were ordered from the UK, France, Germany, US, and Denmark. French naval architects in particular had a considerable influence on Russian designs. Russia's slow technical and economic development in

11413-458: The world's largest submarines. While Western navies assumed that the Soviet attack submarine force was designed for interception of NATO convoys, the Soviet leadership never prepared their submarines for such a mission. Over the years Soviet submarines suffered a number of accidents, most notably on several nuclear boats. The most famous incidents include the Yankee-class submarine K-219 , and

11526-633: Was a naval enthusiast, had a major role in both the build up of the navy before the war with Japan and the rebuilding of it in the decade after. The navy had mixed experiences during the First World War , with the Germans generally gaining the upper hand in the Baltic Sea , while the Russians took control of the Black Sea . The Russian Baltic Fleet mostly stayed on the defensive, but the Black Sea Fleet 's attacks on Ottoman merchant shipping nearly cut off

11639-540: Was a particularly interesting type of information that the Soviets sought about the West's submarine-production methods, and the long-active John Anthony Walker spy ring may have made a major contribution to their knowledge of such. The Soviet Navy possessed numerous purpose-built guided missile submarines , such as the Oscar-class submarine , as well as many ballistic missile and attack submarines; their Typhoon class are

11752-485: Was based on a republican naval force formed from the remnants of the Imperial Russian Navy , which had been almost completely destroyed in the two Revolutions of 1917 (February and October/November) during World War I (1914–1918), the following Russian Civil War (1917–1922), and the Kronstadt rebellion in 1921. During the revolutionary period, Russian sailors deserted their ships at will and generally neglected their duties. The officers were dispersed (some were killed by

11865-708: Was ceded by Sweden after Russo-Swedish War (1741-1743) . Vladimirsky Prikaz was the first organization in charge of shipbuilding. Later on, these functions were transferred to the Admiralteyskiy Prikaz (admiralty in St. Petersburg). In 1745 the Russian Navy had 130 sailing vessels, including 36 ships of the line, 9 frigates , 3 shnyavas ( шнява — a light two-mast ship used for reconnaissance and messenger services), 5 bombardier ships, and 77 auxiliary vessels. The oared fleet consisted of 396 vessels, including 253 galleys and semi-galleys (called скампавеи , or scampavei ;

11978-559: Was directed to creation of mine-laying and a submarine fleet. An ambitious expansion program was put before the Duma in 1907–1908 but was voted down. The Bosnian Crisis of 1909 forced a strategic reconsideration, and new Gangut -class battleships, cruisers, and destroyers were ordered for the Baltic Fleet. A worsening of relations with Turkey meant that new ships including the Imperatritsa Mariya -class battleships were also ordered for

12091-632: Was divided into four major fleets: the Northern , Pacific , Black Sea , and Baltic Fleets, in addition to the Leningrad Naval Base , which was commanded separately. It also had a smaller force, the Caspian Flotilla , which operated in the Caspian Sea and was followed by a larger fleet, the 5th Squadron , in the Mediterranean Sea . The Soviet Navy included Naval Aviation , Naval Infantry , and

12204-408: Was effective at restricting the Russian movement of its ships outside Port Arthur when on 12 April 1904, two Russian battleships; the flagship , Petropavlovsk , and Pobeda ran into a Japanese minefield off Port Arthur with both striking mines. Petropavlovsk sank within an hour, while Pobeda had to be towed back to Port Arthur for extensive repairs. Makarov died on Petropavlovsk . However,

12317-447: Was officially commissioned into service and shipped to the eastern coast near Vladivostok Russia and was renamed Som ("Catfish"). This first Russian submarine was not ready in time for the Russo-Japanese War. The reason behind this delay was partly due to a late shipment of torpedoes that was originally ordered from Germany in early 1905. Russia soon ordered more submarines of the same basic design, and they were built under contract with

12430-490: Was pronounced independent under Russia's protectorate and was annexed by Russia in 1783 . In 1778, the Russians founded the port of Kherson . The first battleship of the Black Sea Fleet was commissioned here in 1783. A year later, a squadron had been developed. By the second half of the 18th century, the Russian Navy had the fourth-largest fleet in the world after Great Britain, Spain and France. The Black Sea Fleet possessed 35 line-of-battle ships and 19 frigates (1787), and

12543-585: Was retired in 1919, and is currently on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Due to the ongoing blockade of Port Arthur in 1904, the Imperial Russian Navy dispatched their remaining submarines to Vladivostok , and by the end of 1904 the last of seven subs had reached their new base there. Using the seven boats as a foundation, the Imperial Russian Navy created the world's first operational submarine fleet at Vladivostok on 1 January 1905. On 14 February 1905

12656-661: Was slow in reaching Russia or was diverted to the Western Allies' own war effort. By the time that the war broke out the Russian Baltic Fleet and the Siberian Flotilla were not a match for the German High Seas Fleet or the Imperial Japanese Navy , but the Black Sea Fleet had enough capability to threaten the Ottomans. At the outbreak of World War I, the Russian Navy consisted of the following: By 1917

12769-697: Was to create an aircraft carrier capable of basing fixed-wing fighter aircraft in defense of the deployed fleet. The project was canceled during the planning stages when strategic priorities shifted once more. In 1981, the Soviet Navy ordered its first true aircraft carrier, Tbilisi , subsequently renamed Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov , which carries Sukhoi Su-33 'Flanker-D' and MiG-29 fighters, as well as Ka-27 helicopters. A distinctive feature of Soviet aircraft carriers has been their offensive missile armament (as well as long-range anti-aircraft warfare armament), again representing

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