1.1 History
«Previous Next» Back to report
The White Sea and the Barents Sea have been of importance to the Russian merchant fleet ever since the 15th century. The matter of access to ice free harbours in the north became of increasing importance after Germany became a significant naval power in the Baltic Sea. In 1895, construction began on a modern harbour in Aleksandrovsk (present day Polyarny) at the mouth of the Murmansk Fjord. The port was completed in 1899.[8] Events during World War I increased the strategic importance of the Kola Peninsula to Russia. The Kola Peninsula and the White sea played an important role in the transfer of military supplies to Russia, especially after the German conquest of the coastal areas as far as Estonia during World War I. A naval force dedicated especially to the northern region was established shortly after the outbreak of World War I. When the railway to Murmansk was opened in 1917, the rest of Russia was thereby connected to a ice free port which was open all year. The Soviet Fleet of the Northern Seas was established as a result of Joseph Stalin's visit to Polyarny during the summer of 1933.[9] In 1937, it was renamed the Northern Fleet. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Northern Fleet consisted of eight destroyers, 15 diesel-powered submarines, a formation of patrol boats, mine sweepers and some smaller vessels.[10]
During the Russian involvement in World War II (1941-1945), the harbours and ports on the Kola Peninsula were of great importance to the Soviet Union. The Murmansk Convoys carried large amounts of materiel and supplies from the western allies to Murmansk. Supplies were transported via railroad to assist the Russian war effort to the south. During the war, the Northern Fleet was given several new ships as well as having vessels transferred from other Soviet fleets. However, most of these were lost during the war.
By the close of the war, the United States Navy had become considerably larger and more powerful than that of the Soviet Union. In order to catch up with the American head start, the Soviet Union began to build a large naval force of its own. The build-up of a modern fleet on the Kola Peninsula began towards the end of the 1950s. World War II use of submarines had shown the tactical and strategic possibilities of this weapon to advantage. However, the diesel submarines were severely handicapped in their inability to remain permanently submerged. This necessitates spending long periods on the surface, running the dieselengines in order to charge the batteries which powered the vessel when submerged.
The decision to develop and build nuclear submarines therefore constituted an important strategic turning point for the Soviet Navy, and the resolution to pursue this course was adopted by the Supreme Soviet on December 21, 1952.[11] In 1954, the first American nuclear submarine USS Nautilus was commissioned. Construction of the first Soviet nuclear submarine K-3 Leninsky Komsomol began in Molotovsk (now known as Severodvinsk) on September 24, 1955. The submarine was launched on August 9, 1957, and it was commissioned to the Northern Fleet on July 1, 1958. On July 3, she sailed out into the White Sea, and her reactors were started up for the first time on July 4, 1958. The submarine sailed to her base at Malaya Lopatka in Severomorsk-7 (now known as Zapadnaya Litsa) at which she would be stationed. In the period from 1950 to 1970, the Northern Fleet grew from having been the smallest to the largest and most important of the four Soviet fleets.[12] Six new naval bases some with nuclear submarine facilities were built on the Kola Peninsula from Zapadnaya Litsa in the west to Gremikha in the east. A number of smaller navy bases for other types of vessels were also established at the Pechenga Fjord in the west, Belomorsk to the east and Novaya Zemlya to the north. At the same time, five large naval yards were built on the Kola Peninsula and in Severodvinsk for the construction and maintenance of nuclear submarines. It was not long before the size of the Soviet fleet of nuclear submarines had surpassed that of the United States, with about two thirds of all Soviet submarines based with the Northern Fleet.
Since 1958, there have been four generations of nuclear submarines and a number of nuclear-powered experimental submarines. The nuclear submarines are built at four different shipyards. By 1995, 245 nuclear submarines and four nuclear-powered surface ships had been delivered to the Navy. Two thirds of these vessels were delivered to the Northern Fleet, whereas only one third of the nuclear submarines were destined for the Pacific Fleet.[13] The first nuclear submarines to be assigned to the Pacific Fleet were delivered in 1961.[14] Nuclear submarines have never been assigned to the other two fleets of the Soviet Union, the Black Sea Fleet and the Baltic Sea Fleet. During the entire Soviet period, the expenses of the Navy were always covered by the state, and the Northern Fleet never had to contend with economic difficulties or problems in financing new projects.
Footnotes[8] Skogan, J. K., Russland og betydningen av Kola-halvøya i historisk lys , 1992. Return
[9] Osipenko, L., Zhiltsov, L., and Mormul, N., Atomnaya Podvodnaya Epopeya, 1994. Return
[10] Ibid. Return
[11] Decree no. 570-2011, December 21, 1952, signed by Joseph Stalin in Moscow. Referenced in L. Osipenko, L. Shiltsov, and N. Mormul, Atomnaya Podvodnaya Epopeya, 1994. Return
[12] Skogan, J. K., The Soviet Union's Northern Fleet 1968-85, NUPI Report no. 105, 1986. Return
[13] Pavlov, A. S., Military Vessels in the Soviet Union and Russia 1945 - 1995, 1994. Return
[14] Krasnaya Zvezda, January 28, 1995. Return
«Previous Next» Back to report
