ABSTRACT
For a long time the history of strategic thinking and planning in the Soviet Navy between 1922 and the reconstruction of the government following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 has been obscured. Since the Second World War many publications have appeared in the Soviet Union about the history of the Soviet Navy since the revolution. 1 These gave many details about general developments and the various conferences held but always followed the pre-set party line. Details of the internal discussions on strategies and shipbuilding programmes were seldom revealed. The information on persons involved was mainly restricted to those not prosecuted during the time of Stalin, and the accounts on shipbuilding were restricted to some unrelated details on several ship-types and summaries of the ships built or laid down during the first three Five-Year Plans. Yet no information on building dates was given. Western experts took great pains to sift out from the sketchy materials the truth about the shipbuilding programmes. 2
