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The Twice-Honored Red Banner Baltic Fleet was the principal Russian naval force for most of the period from the time of Peter the Great (1703) until the mid 1950s. Because the Baltic Fleet’s access to the open sea is through waters controlled by NATO navies (Denmark, Norway and West Germany), the Russians decided upon a redeployment of forces. As a result, those air, surface and submarine forces with wartime assignments in the Atlantic were shifted to the Northern Fleet.

Soviet naval forces in the Baltic are intended almost exclusively for operations in that area. The major exceptions are those ships undergoing trails and training in the huge Leningrad shipbuilding complex and training facilities. Thus the main missions of the Baltic Fleet are that of supporting army operations and the conducting of landing and other operations to gain control of the Danish Straits Amphibious operations and other Soviet naval activities would be supported by the East German and Polish navies. At the same time, the Soviet and other Pact forces would seek to deny use of the Baltic to the NATO navies.

The Baltic is of major importance to the Soviet Union as a commercial shipping route from the western Russian industrial region to European and world ports. In addition, Leningrad is the transshipment point for the express container route to Japan across the Soviet Union by train and then by ship to Atlantic nations. From a military point of view, the Baltic forms the northern flank to the Central Front, while the Soviet shipyards on the Baltic are vital to the Soviet fleet in a prolonged conflict.

Much of the northern Baltic, including the Gulf of Finland where Leningrad is located, the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Bothnia, are frozen during the winter. Low clouds in the autumn and winter months limit air operations in the region.

The Baltic Fleet consists primarily of combat forces intended for wartime control of the area, amphibious operations against West Germany or Danish positions, the support of Soviet ground operations and control of the vital waterways. The Baltic Fleet is currently assigned 12 percent of the Soviet Navy’s submarines, 16 percent of its surface warships, 16 percent of its aircraft and about 19 percent of its personnel.

Submarines assigned to the Baltic Fleet are all diesel-electric craft, although nuclear submarines undergoing training, overhaul and modernization are also present.

While the Baltic Fleet is intended principally for Baltic operations, its diesel-electric submarines do conduct patrols into the North Sea and in the waters to the west of Great Britain.

The disproportionate share of personnel assigned to the Baltic Fleet is due to the large number of naval schools located in Leningrad, as well as several major shipyards. Leningrad also has the Central Naval Museum and the Central Naval library (over 1,000,000 volumes).

The Baltic Fleet headquarters is located at Baltiysk (formerly Pillau) near the Lithuanian port of Leningrad (formerly Konigsberg).


Sources are the “4th Edition Guide to the Soviet Navy” and “Combat Fleets of the World, 1993”