The Soviet Navy, an Overview

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We’ve discussed the USN, now its time to turn our attention to the “Bad Boys from the North”, the Soviet Navy.

The armed forces of the Soviet Union consist of five military services under the Ministry of Defense (MOD) plus the border guards of the Committer for State Security (KGB) and the interior troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). The five military services, listed in their normal order of precedence are:

Strategic Rocket Forces
Air Defense Forces
Ground Forces
Air Forces
Navy

The term Army and Navy is widely used by the Soviet leadership to indicate all of the armed forces. For example, the military political directorate is called the Main Political Administration of the Army and Navy (MPA). However, for all practical and operational basis, the MOD organization has five separate military services.

The Soviet Union is founded on the concept of “top-down” control of the population, the Politburo of the Communist Party being on the top. The Party is an entity officially separate from the national government, although in reality, it controls the government.

Party control of the armed forces is exercised through the Defense Council. This is the highest Soviet military-economic-political planning and decision making body, responsible for preparing the country for war. It is chaired by the General Secretary of the Communist Party and consists of selected members of the Politburo, including the Chairman of the Committee for State Security (KGB), and the heads of the Ministry of Defense, Council of Ministers, GOSPLAN (state economic planning agency) and the Chief of the General Staff.

The Defense Council controls the defense budget and makes the decision to develop and deploy each major weapon system and major warship class. The appointments of senior officers and organizational changes must be approved by the Council. The Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff are the only military officers who are members of the Defense Council.

In wartime, the Defense Council becomes the State Committee of Defense (Gosudarstvenny Komitet Oborony-GKO), essentially a war cabinet that oversees all aspects of the nation, including strategic leadership. At that time, the General Secretary assumes the functions of Supreme Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. When it becomes the GKO, others will join the committee, including the Commander in Chief of Warsaw Pact Forces and the Chief of the Military Industrial Commission (VPK).

The Soviet armed forces have both an administrative and an operational chain of command. The senior peacetime body is the Main Military Council (GVS), which is supported by the Collegium of the Ministry of Defense (KMO), which are responsible to the Defense Council for military strategy, operations, training and readiness. The Minister of Defense heads this council. Other members of the GVS are the five military service chiefs and nine senior defense officials. In wartime the council would become the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (Stavka), which would exercise direct operational control of the armed forces, either through the General Staff or directly through the various theater and front commanders.

The General Staff is the executive agency for the GVS in peacetime and for Stavka during wartime. It is responsible for basic military planning for all the services. Together, the Stavka and the General Staff form the Supreme High Command (VGK).

The General Staff differs significantly from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in two respects: The JCS is composed of a chairman and the heads of the four US Military services and it has a working staff of officers drawn form the services, generally individuals with no specialized staff training who are assigned for two year tours. In contrast, the Soviet General Staff is a professional planning staff, which consists mostly of army officers, with the key positions held only by officers who have graduated from the two-year course at the Voroshilov General Staff Academy, the highest professional military school in the USSR. These are professional staff officers, who may spend their entire senior career on the General Staff or other major planning bodies. As representatives of the Soviet military viewpoint, they do not have to divide their loyalties between the staff and their parent service. Although the General Staff is dominated by Army officers, a senior naval officer has served as deputy chief since 1792.

In peacetime, the MOD administers military activities through four groups of forces (located in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland), 16 military districts within the Soviet Union and four naval fleets. In wartime, the Soviets envision there being, in addition to strategic operations, three theaters of war (Western, Southwestern, Southern and Far Eastern). Commanders and staffs are assigned to these four theater commands.

In these major theaters up to 13 theaters of military operations (TVD) would be established for unified direction of operations. The Soviets do not normally assign commanders and staffs to these TVDs, but would from their staffs from the groups of forces, major border military districts and the MOD.

Currently there appears to be planning for five continental Eurasian TVDs, for maritime NVDs and four intercontinental TVDs. The maritime TVDs are the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and northern Arctic oceans. It seems likely that the maritime TVDs would be under a naval commander during wartime, while naval operations in waters such as the Baltic and Black Seas would be part of the continental Eurasian TVDs.

In wartime, headquarters would be established in some or all of the TVDs as required to direct and coordinate combat and support operations. The continental TVDs would direct the fronts, the supporting air and naval units and the military districts within the area.

The Soviet Navy is an administrative organization as well as an operational command organization for forces afloat and related land-based aviation and marine units.

The Commander in Chief of the Soviet Navy is the equivalent of the US Chief of Naval Operations and Secretary of the Navy. He is both a deputy minister of defense and CinC of the Navy. The CinC directs operations primarily through four fleet commands plus the flotilla command on the inland Caspian Sea. The daily operational control of Soviet strategic missile submarines is vested in the Soviet General Staff (as is control of Soviet strategic aviation and the airborne forces).

The Military Council of the Navy consists of the CinC, the Deputy CinC, the Chief of the Main Naval Staff, the Chief of the Political Directorate as well as the other deputy CinCs (Naval Aviation; Naval Infantry; Shipbuilding & Armaments; Combat Training; Engineering; Rear Services; Education and the fleet commanders) It functions as an advisory body to the CinC providing a senior forum for discussion of major policy issues.

The Soviet Union maintains a large force of special warfare forces known by the Soviet acronym Spetsnaz. These forces are controlled by the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Soviet General Staff.

The Spetsnaz forces conduct reconnaissance and special warfare mission in peacetime as well as in war. Peacetime operations, such as the assassination of Afghanistan’s president in 1979, are under the direction of the KGB.

There are Spetsnaz brigades of some 900-1,300 officers and men assigned to each of the four groups of forces in Europe as wellas several of the major military districts. There are also four naval Spetsnaz brigades that are assigned to the four fleets. All told, there are some 20 Spetsnaz brigades and 41 independent companies.

The KGB Maritime Troops protect Soviet maritime borders against penetration by foreign agents or paramilitary forces and prevent Soviet citizens from leaving by water without proper authorization. The troops operates patrol ships and craft in most, if not all of the nine border districts.

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