 This is Moskva, guided missile helicopter carrier operating in the Mediterranean under initial voyage in 1968. She is of a new breed of warship, which the Soviet economy is now willing to support. She foretells that tomorrow's Soviet seaport will be characterized by more sophisticated and capable ships, operating at greater distances from the motherland. The navy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is in current standing. The second ranking navy in the world. One by one, ship by ship, Soviet seapower shows the flag, makes its presence felt. The Red Navy today has strategic mobility. It moves ships great distances from home ports and transfers them freely between the Baltic, the Arctic, the Black Sea and throughout the Mediterranean. The Russian system of interconnecting internal waterways permits the transfer of submarines, destroyers and small ships between the Northern Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, the Caspian Flotilla and the Black Sea Fleet. The Northern Sea Route provides even more mobility during late summer and fall. The Northern Fleet, based on the Murman Coast, is the primary Soviet fleet. It ships and submarines cruise the Arctic and the entire Atlantic. Aircraft from this Northern Region can fly as far as Havana and have been seen on reconnaissance flights near Newfoundland. The Soviet Pacific Ocean Fleet operates from a system of bases from the polar regions down to the Kuriles to Vladivostok. The rise of the Russian Navy parallels the emergence of the Soviet Union as a strong competitor for world markets. The rapid expansion of her seapower has enabled Russia to project her national interests around the world. Under Tsar Nicholas II, a major power and a ranking world naval power, Imperial Russia boasts two main fleets, the Baltic Fleet in the West, in the South the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla, in the East, the Amor River and Siberian Flotillas. In the Imperial Fleet of World War I, the Tsar can count some eleven breadnoughts, twelve battleships, twenty-two cruisers and at least 56 submarines. This fleet will be surrendered, scuttled or sunk, in the years of revolution which will sweep away old Russia, the Royal Family, the Tsar, Tsarina, Crown Prince and four Royal Princesses. Princess Anastasia, a young girl, roller-skating on the deck of the Royal Yacht and across Europe at Sarajevo, Archduke Ferdinand walks to his destiny and at Europe is at war. Russia fights a desperate war. In the South, the Black Sea Fleet mounts a successful and pivious assault against the Turks. But Russia finds herself caught off in the open Mediterranean by guns and mines in the tricky straits. The war is unpopular at home. Leadership at home and on the battlefield is inept. Russia suffers more wounded, missing and dead than any other combatant. Her casualty rate 76%. The October Revolution, 1917, highlighted by a Navy revolt. The sailors at Kranstad Naval Base march on the Winter Palace. In this Soviet-phoned version, the cruiser Aurora, standing off in the nether, fires on the palace. The revolution is in motion and within months, the Tsar and his family are murdered. The Revolution becomes a civil war. The battle rapids for three years across the motherland. Admiral Kolchak aboard one of his ships. He receives heavy Allied backing as he leads the White Russian forces in Siberia. He will be defeated and executed by the Bolsheviks. One of the most famous sailors of the Revolutionary Navy, sailor Hiro Dibenko, he addresses his men. He and his comrades will emerge from the civil war with what a shell of a Navy. In the Black Sea, a Russian battleship is torpedoed and sunk by a Russian destroyer. Seven battleships, two cruisers and eight destroyers, submarines and other ships are lost at Sevastopol. Two-thirds of all the warships at Novorossiysk are run aground or blown up by their crews. Of the once-proud Baltic fleet, only a handful of ships survive. But worst days are to come. March 1921, again at Kronstadt. Sailors revolt in the Second Rebellion, this time against the Bolsheviks, demanding reforms promised by the Bolsheviks but not delivered. In these government films, the Red Army storms the bastion Kronstadt over the frozen Gulf of Finland. The defenders hold off three attacks and when overrun, the survivors are shot. The Navy, dishonored and all but destroyed, stands condemned. And Lenin not only distrusts the Navy but doubts its usefulness. 1924, Soviet Russia gains recognition from Western powers. But the father of the revolution, Lenin, is dead. The curtain falls on the first act of the Communist experiment. Stalin begins the next act as he sets in motion his iron rule. By 1927, two reconditioned Tsarist battleships operate in the Baltic. A small defensive Navy begins to emerge. Under Stalin's regime, the first five-year plan begins in 1928 to build up Russia's industry and her defenses. The Navy receives low priority. Its first new ships are destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines and cruises for defense of the homeland. Battleships and aircraft carriers will have to wait for later years. Aircraft construction and parachute training are a part of the new military build-up. It becomes a public sport as well. In 1932, the Imperial Japanese Army invades northern Manchuria. Stalin orders the build-up of the Pacific Ocean Fleet. 1933, the start of the second five-year plan. The Soviet Union emphasizes construction of a submarine fleet aimed at becoming the largest undersea force in the world within five years. The Stalin White Sea Baltic Canal is completed and Stalin is aboard the flagship of the new northern flotilla on the first trip from Leningrad to Murmansk. For the first time, the canal offers Russia an exit from the Baltic to the White Sea and to the North Atlantic, free of foreign control. We are very happy today because one of the hopes which I cherish for 16 years has been realized. And I believe sincerely that the most compelling motive that has lain behind the conversations which was successfully concluded yesterday between Russia and the United States was the desire of both countries for peace. The desire for the strengthening of the peaceful climate of the civilized world. With new naval bases in the Arctic and Pacific, the 17th Party Congress calls for an all-out warship building program as part of the third five-year plan. Three former Kazaris battleships are modernized and fitted with larger caliber main guns. The construction of six heavy cruises is ordered but old suspicions from Kronstadt still persist. Commanding officers of Imperial Navy background are particularly pressured to conform to communist doctrine. The Commissar, an officer second in rank only to the captain, is aboard each ship to ensure party loyalty. In the 1930s, naval officers regained status and some independence from the Commissars. But this is short-lived. The shadow of the Great Purge falls upon the nation and the Navy. The Great Purge, the years of terror, Stalin's enemies, real and imaginary, are executed. Over half of the members of the 17th Party Congress are shot. Hundreds of thousands fall in the bloodbath and the people fearful of the truth must pretend it isn't happening. The estimate? Half of the Red Navy's officer corps is dead. The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, purged. Commanders of the Baltic Fleet, the Northern Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet, purged. All eight admirals alive at the start of the Purge are liquidated before it ends. August 24th, 1939. The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany sign a non-aggression treaty to invade Poland. Stalin follows suit and occupies eastern Poland. His memoir, Dick, is vital. Move on the treaty port of Danzig and take ports in the Polish corridor. Further north along the Baltic, Stalin forces Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to give up bases to the Red Army and Navy. Now, the Soviet Union wants finished naval bases in airfields. But Finland resists and the Russians strike across the border. For 105 days, the Finns hold. And then, the end. Overpowered, outgunned, but not outfought, Finland grants Soviet demands. Now, on the brink of Hitler's invasion, three five-year plans have seen the queues laid for over 500 warships, including 82 destroyers and 14 cruisers. More than 300 of these ships are already in commission. Pride with the Fleet, however, is the largest submarine force in the world with 200 submarines and almost 100 more under construction. The naval air arm, 2,000 aircraft, but inferior, woefully antiquated. No match for German strength. Anti-aircraft artillery, a dramatic increase in number, but fleet bases are judged vulnerable to air attack. Russian strategists fear the overwhelming strength of the Luftwaffe will imperil fleet operations. In 1940, the Soviet Union occupies all the Baltic states. She also moves on Romania. The lower Danube is now in Russian hands. On the eve of the German attack, Soviet shipyards are busy, 219 ships under construction. Here lie the dreams of the Soviet Navy of the future. Here are hulls of great cruisers and battleships, which will never be completed. Many of the Nazis will seize as they slash into Russia. Soviet fleet bases are vulnerable from the land. The German plan, cut off, isolate and eliminate the Red Navy as a factor in the war. The Navy turns to defense and to amphibious operations in support of the Red Army. The 10th Army Corps is evacuated from the Hanukkah Peninsula and from Tallinn on the Baltic. In the South, the Black Sea Fleet Infantry serve with the Red Army as it is driven toward the Caucasus. Thousands are cut off and taken by the Germans. During the first years of war, Soviet naval operations at sea are confined to minor actions, patrol and supply of bases. In the North, the Finns quickly cut the White Sea Baltic Canal. With the Germans, they blockade the Gulf of Finland, largely containing the Red Submarine Fleet. A few break the blockade in the shallow Baltic, but throughout the war, Russia's huge submarine fleet is of little use, except for limited action north of Norway and the Arctic. 1944. The Red Army is solidly on the offensive. The Navy supports in over 100 amphibious landings on inland waterways, behind and on the flanks of the enemy. In the South, landings in the Crimea. In the West, long-sound island landings, two of the largest Soviet amphibious operations of the war. River flotillas aid the army. They range and control the Danube, the Nippur, the Volga and other key waterways. But during all of World War II, major Soviet surface units do not fight a single battle, either in coastal waters or at sea. Aircraft account for more than one half of the enemy ships sunk. Naval aircraft fly over 5,000 sorties and destroy over 5,000 enemy aircraft. Although the Soviet Navy wins little as a result of naval action during the war, it gains important strategic prizes in the post-war world. They regain the former Baltic states and all East pressure, formerly part of Germany. The Black Sea fleet now controls the mouth of the Danube and enjoys access to ports in the new satellite countries of Romania and Bulgaria. The Danube and the Baltic states against the Japanese in the Pacific. It now has control of parts of Manchuria, Korea, all of the oil-rich island of Sakhalin and the strategic Corral Island chain. But the Red Navy's greatest gain is the opportunity now to finally exploit its long-planned role as a dynamic force in a broad national strategy. With the fall of Germany and Japan, the USSR is no longer surrounded by powerful maritime enemies. Now she may begin again to rebuild both her economy and her Navy. The Soviet Union immediately registers all captive ships. And again, the Soviet Navy must for the time being concentrate on coastal defense with promise of major warships to wait, but not for long. The post-war Navy places the Soviet naval officer in a special class. A conscious effort is underway to create an elite corps and foster naval tradition even in the cadet corps, usually drawn from officers' families. East European satellites are directed to rebuild shipyards and provide ships for the new Soviet merchant marine and high-seas fishing fleet, while Soviet shipyards will concentrate on warship construction. Polish, East German, Bulgarian, Romanian, Yugoslav and Albanian ports will be built to Soviet ships. 1953 and Stalin is dead. Khrushchev rises to power and with him come vital decisions as to the level of technology to be employed in the Navy of the future. Now the Soviet Union looks to nuclear power. It develops long-range cruise missiles launched from aircraft, ships or submarines, as well as submarine-launched ballistic missiles. But Soviet sea power progresses in a pattern of nuclear power. Warships are just one part. What emerges is a collective national force, a balanced modern merchant fleet, oceanographic service and high seas Navy all under unified government direction. In the early 60s the Soviet merchant fleet is in 11th place among the fleets of the world. 1965 the merchant fleet of the Soviet Union now ranks in sixth place. There are now almost 1,400 sea-going merchant men. The 1980 goal is to more than double the size of the present merchant fleet. Over 80% of this fleet is less than 10 years old and the Soviet Union is striving to attain the capability of carrying 75% of their trade in ships flying the red flag. These ships call it some 800 ports in 90 countries. To service the world markets the Russians have over 300 tankers. Western suppliers have been dislodged from their long established markets by these ships. The Soviet high seas fishing fleet is the most modern in the world. With 4,000 vessels its catch has more than doubled in the past 10 years. This fishing fleet supplies the needs of a great many emerging African nations. Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Liberia Sierra Leone, Guinea and Egypt. Part of this huge state-owned enterprise is stationed in the Atlantic within 100 miles of Boston. Its units operate on station for months at a time. The Soviet Oceanographic effort employs over 150 ships and 2,500 scientists and technicians. In the past decade the Soviet Academy of Sciences has made important gains in Antarctic research. High studies and marine life observations are being made in the vast areas to support the Soviet effort in oceanography. There is an extensive network of marine scientific stations along the vast Soviet coastline. North of Japan, special research attention is given to the Kurail Island chain. To complete this balanced ocean force the Red Navy under Fleet Admiral Gorshkov is organized in four main fleets. The Northern Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet and the Pacific Ocean Fleet. The Soviet Navy makes random changes in the pendant numbers of submarines and ships as they transit freely from home waters. On occasion, numbers are even painted out. Mobility is the key to the present-day Red Fleet. Now, by using ports in client and satellite countries they have better access to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean than in years past. In the Mediterranean, replenishment anchorages provide logistic support for human anchorage. Two Dawn-class tenders support submarines, cruisers and destroyers. Depending on the season and the political climate the Soviets have deployed 30 to 50 warships and auxiliaries from the Black Sea and other fleets to the Mediterranean. Today, the Soviet Navy is benefiting from the far-sighted planning of the 50s. Their submarine force is the largest in the world and is nuclear-powered. 35 can fire ICBMs from beneath the sea and over 40 can fire the cruise missile. The naval air arm has some 800 fixed-wing aircraft including 150 helicopters and 500 jet bombers most of which can fire cruise missiles. This task force patrolling the Mediterranean reflects the success of the Soviet fleet-building program. A product of the early Khrushchev era is the Kinder-class guided-missile cruiser. Her armament includes surface-to-air guided missiles for defense of her task force from air attack. Among 200 destroyer or escort ships in the Red Fleet six or more of this class are operational in 1969. Another new design in the modern Soviet Navy this Kashin-class guided-missile frigate. The largest warship in the world having gas turbine propulsion she is capable of 35 knots. This is Moskva she is the largest Soviet Navy ship armed with guided missiles, guns, torpedoes and helicopters boasting an impressive array of sophisticated electronic sensors she represents the current high-water mark in Russian ship design. Today Soviet ships can patrol off any coast in the world they may be oceanographic research ships merchant vessels, fishing trawlers submarines or surface warships but they are all part of the same maritime force. Closely commanded through a modern system of communications they can respond rapidly anywhere in the world to any situation. This has been the rise of the Soviet Navy of Soviet sea power. From the Tsarist fleet of 1917 to the present modern mobile well-coordinated ocean force and this ship Moskva symbolizes a challenge a challenge of Soviet sea power to western preeminence on the oceans of the world.