STALIN'S OCEAN-GOING FLEET

Soviet naval strategy and shipbuilding programmes, 1935-1953. This is the first book published in the West on Stalin's fleet to use the previously closed Soviet archive material. The authors' key objective in writing this book is to explain the reasons behind this sudden change of strategy of building a big ocean-going fleet, one which would surpass most other countries naval programmes by the late 1930s. The authors show that Stalin's 1936 programme was designed to counter the build-up of German forces and the Japanese in the Sea of Japan, rather than as a response to the Spanish Civil War. Finally, this book is also concerned with the reopening of naval planning processes in 1944 and 1945. Written by Jurgen Rohwer of the Library for Contemporary History, Stuttgart, and Mikhail Monakov, Chief of the History Branch, Main Staff of the Russian Navy.