The Russians At Sea

London: William Kimber. Very Good/Fair. 1965. First Edition. Hard Cover. 8vo Dust jacket unclipped in a clear protective sleeve, tear and chunks missing at edges. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine, small slightly sunned area.In 1955 British naval officers paid a goodwill visit to Russia and watched fascinated as their ship passed Kronstadt harbour packed with modern warships and up to Leningrad passing berth after berth of cruisers, destroyers and submarines. For the first time credit was given to reports of Russia's construction of a great new fleet. Out of the moribund collection of pre-1914 designed ships that formed the Russian navy before World- War II had grown in the decade following it the second largest navy in the world which today has about eight times as many men afloat as the British navy. How had this unique achievement come about? Mr. Woodward gives a detailed and absorbing analysis of the development of the Russian navy from its first insignificant beginnings under Peter the-Great and of its fluctuating fortunes under the wayward Tsars and later under the communist regime, and of its transformation from a motley collection-of ships and men to the highly organized unit it is today; the author describes - the superhuman difficulties the navy had to overcome at its inception, with no sea coast on the Black Sea or the Baltic. It survived military defeat, destruction and mutiny and political see-saws of power; it played an important role in the Crimean War, the war against Japan and in two world wars, and only from a full understanding of its history can one comprehend how it has come about that the Russian navy could well prove a decisive factor in any war of the future, either nuclear or conventional. .