ABSTRACT
The 1928 RVS resolution on ‘the importance and tasks of the naval forces’ had defined coastal defense and support to the Red Army as their main missions. In consequence with this decision, a revised naval shipbuilding program was adopted in February 1929, containing one light cruiser, six destroyers, 18 patrol craft, 23 submarines, five ASW ships, three river gunboats, 63 MTBs and one submarine depot ship. In addition, the three operational Gangut class battleships were to be modernized (the Frunze was quietly left to rust at the Leningrad Shipyard, used only as a source of spare parts). Shortly afterwards, when 85 million rubles in the defense budget were redirected from shipbuilding to tank construction, this more modest program was also threatened. Although funds were restored after UVMS commander Romuald Muklevich had protested personally to Stalin, the incident demonstrated the navy’s difficult situation. As could be expected, only a few of the ships in the 1929 program were ever completed.1
