ABSTRACT
Already, before the Second Five-Year Plan had ended, there were signs of a change in naval policy, away from the ‘small war theory’ to ideas of a big ocean-going navy. On 23 December 1935 the just decorated petty-officers of the Pacific Fleet were assembled at the Kremlin for a meeting with Stalin. The Soviet military leaders, including the Narkom for Defence, K.E. Voroshilov, the Chief of the Army General Staff, A.I. Yegorov, and the Chief of the VMF, V.M. Orlov, participated in the meeting.1 When the meeting was over, Stalin must have ordered that a huge shipbuilding programme be developed.2
