50 
ness and ingenuity of some of its officers with the backwardness 
of the economy supporting it and the incompetence and corruption 
of the administration. The established naval tradition served the future 
Soviet Navy well and represented a powerful base upon which the 
navy was restored, rebuilt, and developed. 
At the time of the October 1917 Revolution, a great number of 
sailors sided with the Communists. Many naval units, particularly from 
the Baltic fleet, actively participated in the Revolution on the side 
of the Communists. During the civil war which broke out soon after 
the Revolution, the navy was active again. Some combat actions took 
place at sea. Treated by Soviet historians as important military con- 
tributions of the navy, these actions helped to resist allied intervention 
and thus protect the young Soviet republic. However, the sailors 
ashore acting as commissars, commanders, members of the newly 
organized secret police, and agitators played a much more important 
role. But the Red Forces did not enjoy a monopoly of the sailors’ 
affection, as some supported the other non-Communist revolutionary 
groups. 
The development of the Soviet Government under the Communist 
regime resulted in changes in naval organization. 
The Council of People’s Commissars decree, Jan. 29, 1918, signed 
by V. I. Lenin announced the disbanding of the Tsarist Navy and 
the creation of a new, workers-peasant Red Navy, based on volunteer 
service and elected commanders. In addition to the position of Peo- 
ple’s Commissar for Naval Affairs, occupied by sailor-Bolskevik P. 
E. Dybenko, the position of Commander of Naval Forces of the 
Republic was established in September 1918. Rear Admiral of the 
Tsarist Navy V. M. Al’fater, was appointed to be the first commander 
of the Soviet Navy. In December 1918, the Naval General Staff was 
organized.? 
The civil war was fought on land, and naval forces under the com- 
mand of the Soviet Government were employed exclusively to assist 
the Red Army maritime flank and also, as was the case in the eastern 
part of the Gulf of Finland, to protect the maritime approaches to 
the main centers. Many specialists of the former Tsarist Navy were 
employed, and during 1918-20, 7,605 mines were sown in extensive 
mine warfare.* 
A number of river flotillas formed and manned by sailors at the 
Baltic and Black Sea fleets took an active part in the combat. At 
the beginning of 1921, when the civil war was practically over, the 
Soviet Navy presented a sorry spectacle. In the Black and the North 
Seas, retreating White Guards and intervening foreign powers took 
away 3 battleships, 10 cruisers, 64 destroyers, 30 submarines, and 
many auxiliary ships and transports. Actually, the fleets in the Black 
Sea, the Pacific, and the North ceased to exist.° The Baltic fleet 
represented a “gathering of lifeless ships” moored to the docks and 
manned at only 20—40 percent of strength.® 
3**History of Naval Art’, p. 142. 
‘Ibid., pp. 166-167. 
5““Boyevoy put’ Sovetskogo voyenno-morskogo flota’” (“Combat Path of the Soviet Navy”, 
hereafter referred to as ““Combat Path’’), Moscow, Voenizdat, 1967, p. 590. 
® Ibid., p. 147. 
