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in the world. e answer is simple—this was an attack fleet. It was an instrument created for
aggressive warfare. It was very difficult, nearly impossible, to use it in defensive war. “During
the course of the war the fleet had to solve problems that were completely unforeseen dur-
ing its construction. Instead of coordinating their actions with the deep offensive operations
of the ground forces, acting near the shores, as the military doctrine dictated, the fleet was
forced to secure the naval bases under enemy attack from land and sea and to evacuate troops,
population, and property from shoreline cities.” 4
In March 1939, at the Seventeenth Congress of the Communist Party, the commander
of the Pacific fleet, 2nd Rank Flagman N. G. Kuznetsov declared: “ e fleet must transform
itself, and it will, just like the entire Worker-Peasant Red Army, into the most powerful attack
fleet.” Stalin rewarded him for such words by promoting him to People’s Commissar of the
Navy. Kuznetsov kept his word—he did his best in order to prepare the Soviet fleet to launch
surprise attacks. But entirely different ships with entirely different characteristics are needed
for defense: submarine hunters, picket boats, minesweepers, and net-layers. According to
Kuznetsov’s orders, all reserves of shells, mines, torpedoes, and ship fuel were transported to
the German borders in Liepaja and to the Romanian borders in the river ports of the Danube.
ere, these reserves were quickly seized by the Germans. e port of Liepaja was located so
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close to the German border that the battles for the city had already begun on June 23, 1941.
Nobody had prepared to defend Liepaja from a land attack. Aside from everything else, in
Liepaja were concentrated (and lost) three quarters of the Baltic fleet’s fuel reserves.
Not only was the basing system of the Soviet navy geared toward aggressive warfare,
and its personnel trained to attack, but the armament of the ships was designed exclusively
for participation in a war of aggression. Soviet ships, while armed with powerful artillery,
mine, and torpedo equipment, had quite weak anti-aircraft armament. e Soviet ships did
not have powerful anti-aircraft defenses because Soviet generals had planned to begin the
war with a crushing surprise air attack against the enemy’s air bases and the annihilation of
his aviation. Contrary to the plans, the war turned out to be of a defensive character, and
the Soviet armies and fleets were not the ones to carry out the first attacks. e enemy had
air superiority, and the Soviet troops and ships had very weak anti-aircraft defenses. e
Shipbuilding Narkomat had been building ships with maximal attacking power and minimal
defenses, in order to make the Soviet navy the most aggressive in the world.
e Aviation Narkomat also theoretically produced both military and civilian airplanes.
But while it is possible to remember a dozen models of magnificent fighters, bombers, and
assault planes, all produced in the tens of thousands, it is not so easy to think of the name
of a single civilian aircraft. ere was one airplane that, at some level, could be classified as a
civilian model, but it was purchased from America, not created in the Soviet Union. is was
the S-47, the best transport plane in the world. It was built according to the license to serve
both as a passenger and as a paratroop-transporting aircraft. It was used in both the military
and for civilian purposes, but for the sake of convenience—right at the factories during pro-
duction—it was painted a camouflage green, so that it would not have to be repainted later.
e third organization in this family—the Weapons Narkomat—does not need to
be explained, while the Ammunition Narkomat was something truly original that deserves
some commentary. It was original because even during the course of the war all the countries
that we are used to thinking of as most aggressive did not have a separate ministry in charge
of ammunition. For example, in Germany even after the beginning of World War II only