THE “CIVILIAN” FLEETS 
NOTES ON MILITARY-CIVILIAN INTEGRATION IN THE U.S.S.R. 
(By Carl G. Jacobsen’) 
SUMMARY 
Five concerns, or queries sparked this investigation: ? 
(1) The organizational aspects of civilian fleet units 
(a) How do they relate to the regular military (naval) forces 
in terms of personnel training, equipment and logistics as well 
as the more structural aspects such as lines of command, etc.? 
(b) How are their military tasks coordinated with civilian duties 
and concerns defined by the Ministries of Fishing, Transport, 
Shipping, Trade and other departments and authorities? 
(2) The operational aspects 
What objectives are the civilian fleets assumed to pursue under 
peace and war conditions and what tasks would one expect them 
to perform? What can they do or not do under various sets of circum- 
stances? 
(3) The economic aspects 
To what extent do sea transport, fishing and oceanographic studies 
relate to the economic problems of the Soviet Union? Are their activi- 
ties determined by predominantly economic considerations rather than, 
or in addition to the military ones? What is their input into the 
Soviet economy? What is the relative ratio between military and 
civilian functions? 
(4) The political aspects 
How are these units tied to political organizations such as the KGB 
and other institutions which deal with intelligence and the collecting 
and dissemination of information? Do they have a political impact 
in addition to what we assume are their main military and economic 
missions? 
(5) An overall summary of the strategic situation 
Where do these maritime forces fit in and what special problems 
do they have? What seems to be the future projection in the picture 
of Soviet strategy for the North Atlantic? 
It must be stated at the outset that for the Western analyst there 
are considerable gaps in available information on these subjects. 
This is not due solely to security-related sensitivities, and censorship. 
Most Western governments have at least some information on the 
activities of the Soviet civilian fleets within and/or near their territorial 
'The author is a Professor of International Relations at Carlton University, Canada. 
* Professor Nils Orvik, Letter to this author, November 5, 1974. The subsequent analysis was 
published, albeit in somewhat different form from that here presented, as part of Queen’s University’s 
National Security monograph series. January 1976. 
(257) 
