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th3freakie

Commissar for a European People's Economy
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Apr 23, 2004
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  • For The Glory
Red Star over Blue Seas
A HoI2 Soviet Navy AAR


Latest update - #47 - 5th of April 2010


The Soviet Union was still only a dream in the minds of the People, and already it had a Navy: the Potemkin uprising of 1905 rallied the Masses and heralded the successes of 1917, it's brave Bolshevik sailors proving the Armed Forced could and would be champions of Socialism. Lenin himself called the battleship "undefeated territory of the Revolution".


Glory to the People's Heroes of the Potemkin!

But it wasn't only the seed of our USSR that the Navy provided. The Baltic fleet and it's sailors were one of the strongest Red Forces during the October Revolution, and even the Assault on the Winter Palace itself was signalled by the guns of the aptly name Aurora, and assisted by it's crew.


The crew of the Aurora in 1917
It is thus no surprise that in 1918, during the Civil War itself, while foreign powers used the seas to intervene in defence of Imperialists and other Counter-revolutionaries, the Soviet Union officially created the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet to protect the Revolution.


Naval Jack of the Red Fleet


The Civil War provided a chance for heroism to the Russian sailors, fighting British incursions to support the Whites, but it didn't leave many resources for the Red Fleet. When it was over, the first investments were in the new submarine technologies, and hundreds of these were built during the 1926-1936 period.


Series V submarine, commissioned in 1934

During the same period, a reform on the old Czarist set-up implemented a Northen Fleet Command for defence of Soviet Arctic waters, and an ambitious project to rebuild the Pacific Fleet, almost completely lost to the English and Japanese during the Civil War.

Still, despite it's Glorious - if short - History, the Red Fleet that sees the 1st of January of 1936 is one with a lot of work to do, many dangers on the horizon and almost as many internal obstacles to face.

Hers is the story I'll try to tell.

Playing Doomsday with a late SEMP;DD install and some graphics mods.
Don't expect any regularity, don't expect any specific AAR style, and don't expect too much historical accuracy ;)


 
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Nice premise! Looking forward to see the mighty Red Fleet sail all seven seas, ridding the sealanes of capitalism, the piracy of the modern day!
 
Naval AARs are always spiffing.

When it's Soviet I can only hope Stalin's madness prevails and the all battlecruiser fleet (for laughing Joe loved BCs almost as much as he loved killing people) sweeps the sea clean!
 
settling down with a nice big CUP OF AMERICAN COFFEE to enjoy this one ;)
 
"I'll miss Sevastopol, but most of all I'll miss the family", thought Viktor Andreev, drink in his hand getting ready to celebrate the New Year of 1936. "Well, perhaps not my do-nothing brother-in-law, but certainly my sister, my nephew... Oh, mother's borscht! My cooking is terrible, I'll starve!"

But there was no turning back now, he made up his mind long ago.

"Uncle! Uncle! Mom said I could stay up later tonight now that I'm big!" shouts a voice behind Viktor. "Valeriy, my grown-up nephew! Long time no see!" is the reply - and it's true. Securing the new job meant a lot of time had to go into Party activities and similar, he always arrived home way after midnight and left before the kid went to school.

- "So uncle, is it true what mother said? You're going to work for the Fleet in Leningrad? That's great! I can't believe you didn't tell me!"
- "Yeah, sorry, been so busy with it... it's all very uninteresting for a kid your age anyway, you're not losing much"
- "Hey! I'm not a kid anymore, didn't you hear? I'm a grown up now, I can stay up tonight and I want to know more about the big stuff! Tell me about your new job, come on!"
- "Well ok then. Tell me first though - what do you know about our Red Fleet?"
- "Ah! I know it... hm... I know about the Aurora! And... hm... the Potemkin... donno if that counts. And... I don't know much about how it is now..."
- "Ha ha! Guessed as much. No problem, I'll explain it to you and refresh my own memory, let me just get my maps and a free table"

- "Ok then, so here goes. The Red Fleet of the Soviet Union is currently divided into 4 commands:

First, the Baltic Fleet stationed in Leningrad.
It has two battleships, a destroyer division and a lot of modern submarines, and is the strongest force at the moment. I think I've got a picture of the Marat here somewhere...


Ah, here it is


Second, the Black Sea Fleet, which as you know is based here in Sevastopol.
Yes, yes, I know you know they're old ships, but we are bound by an International Treaty not to leave the Black Sea with it anyway, and it's still by far the strongest force in the area anyway.


Third, we have the Bering Fleet, based in Vladivostok.
It's still under reconstruction after the Japanese destroyed what was left of it, so apart from some of our modern submarines it's not a reality yet.


Finaly, the new North Fleet, up there in Murmansk. It's only very recently been created, so it's also a work in progress.


Doing that work, and making the Pacific Fleet a reality again will be my job with People's Commissar for Naval Affairs Vladimir Orluv.


...And those are the basics I guess. Anything more would be classified... No, I'm joking, but it would be boring, believe me. Hey, it's almost midnight anyway..."
 
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Thanks for the early replies folks! I can tell you I've played the game all the way to Jan 1942 already, and apart from concentrating on the Navy a witle bit more then historical, I'm trying to roleplay a bit, so no big detours from history, nor big gamey moves. Somewhere in between, nice and realistic...ish:D

Feel free to bash writing style, I'm essencialy writing as I feel like in any individual post :eek:o
 
Just so you know: there is a SKIF set for the Soviet Navy, with the nice naval banner in the upper left.
 
Just so you know: there is a SKIF set for the Soviet Navy, with the nice naval banner in the upper left.
:eek: Link demanded at once, under penalty of forced labour under the North Fleet. LITERALLY under it, as ballast.
 
The SKIF Download page. I recommend installing the models.csv, because it fills a lot of the gaps in the Soviet Naval Tech Tree. If you want only the naval part, dl the dd_naval_v1_5b.zip.
 
The Marat did have the best (if least practical) conning tower this side of a Japanese Pagoda Mast. Outstandingly over-elaborate. :D
 
You, my friend, are now a Hero of the Soviet Union

 
Hope you built some naval infantry too? They were IRL the greatest contribution of the Red Navy during WWII. The famous Black Deaths. Also, did the Kronstadt Uprising happen in your "timeline"? Seeing that you skipped it in the history-post.
 
Cool, a Soviet navy AAR. Maybe you'll build a big mass of slightly obsolete carriers, like the Soviets do with their ground troops. :D
 
Also, did the Kronstadt Uprising happen in your "timeline"? Seeing that you skipped it in the history-post.


Indeed - my initial thoughts on reading the first post was that this was going to be a "Kronstadt Victorious" game!
 
Also, did the Kronstadt Uprising happen in your "timeline"? Seeing that you skipped it in the history-post.
It did. It was obviously a juicy way to justify a bunch of stuff (plus down-right interesting WI) but quite honestly, I'm counting on Stalin's unreasonable dreams of a world-class navy to help me here.

And even if I wanted to use it, the truth is don't have the knowledge to make even an educated guess on what the consequences would have been if their demands had been met. :eek:o