Warships of the Soviet Fleet 1939-1945 Vol I Major Combatants

Warships of the Soviet Fleet 1939-1945 Vol I Major Combatants written by

Przemyslaw Budzbon , Jan Radziemski, Marek Twardowski and published

by Seaforth Publishing - £45.00 - Hardback - Pages 352

Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War the details of Soviet ships, their activities and fates remain an enigma to the West. In wartime such information was classified and after a brief period of glasnost (‘openness’) the Russian state has again restricted access to historical archives. Therefore, the value – and originality – of this work is difficult to exaggerate. It sees the first publication of reliable data on both the seagoing fleets and riverine flotillas of the Soviet Navy, listing over 6200 vessels from battleships to river gunboats, and mercantile conversions as well as purpose-built warships. Divided into three volumes, this first covers major surface warships down to MTBs and armoured gunboats, as well as submarines.

For every class there is a design history analysing strategic, tactical and technical considerations, and individual ship detail includes construction yard, key building dates, commissioning, fleet designations, relocations and ultimate fate. Once a closely guarded secret, the wartime loss of every ship and boat (over 1000) is described. Furthermore, the confusion caused by frequent name changes is clarified by indexes that run to 16,000 items.

By following the ships through both their wartime and earlier history, the book reveals many aspects of Russian history that remain highly sensitive: clandestine co-operation with Weimar Germany and fascist Italy, the NKVD-enforced closure of Soviet borders, the ‘Gulag Fleet’, the faked Metallist sinking that excused the military occupation of Estonia, and the ill-conceived pact with Nazi Germany. Restrictions recently imposed on historical publications in Russia mean this book could certainly not have been published there – as proven by the fact that most of the authors' Russian collaborators preferred not to disclose their identities.

This book has been a really informative and comprehensive read, a lot of time has been taken to present great detail for the reader, like what had been said detail has not often been made available to the west for secretive reasons. For a start I should just say that for some reason I just love a book with a map on the inside cover and this book does, I don’t know why, maybe it reminds me of old history books of the past. 

The book starts off with a great chapter that emphasises Organisation, Ship Types, Fleets, Ship Constructors, Ship Building Programmes, Quality and Performance. This was all really good to read because they set the scene for what was to come about the various ships. The book then goes into the individual types of ships and classes such as Cruisers, Torpedo Boats, Submarines, Monitors and Gunboats. Each ship gets a little history, pictures, plans, diagrams, specifications and any outstanding details that make that ships stand out. This is a fascinating and detailed book that kept me hooked and there is a big realisation as to how big the Russian Navy was and how the Navy was greatly built in reaction to what was going on in WW2. I would highly recommend this book and a brilliant encyclopedic read. In fact, I want to give it 5 Stars.