The Development of the Soviet Navy

Abstract

It would be more accurate to see the recent growth of the Soviet Navy as the end product of a complex interaction between political aims, economic and industrial developments affecting maritime technology, and changing perceptions of strategic threats and opportunities, than as the work of any one man. This is not to minimise Gorshkov’s achievements in advocacy of the naval cause and in the actual creation of a strong ocean-going navy, but to see him not so much as an original thinker but as a perceptive and able practical man who identified several currents of strategic thought and technological development which, if skilfully exploited, would result in the political leadership accepting the advantages to be gained from a greater stress on maritime power in national strategy and a consequent growth in the strength and reach of the Navy.