Product Description

This is the extraordinary story of the foundation of what would become the major threat to the West during the Cold War - built by the Bolsheviks from nothing. There are more than 200 photographs, most unpublished. It includes all classes of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines and other surface vessels, with full specifications including builders, tonnage, speed, and armament. There is no other book available for the naval enthusiast on this subject, because the information was buried - despite the fact that, for example, the Soviet Union had more submarines than the Germans and the Americans put together at the start of World War II.This is a truly unique volume on a neglected area of military history. At the revolution, the Tsar's navy, such as it was, was obsolete and scattered, much of it never to return home. From a standing start a huge fleet was built by the Bolsheviks, who were obliged to deal with the West: engines from Italy, warship plans and gun turrets from Germany (in exchange for 3.5 million tons of food and materiel as late as February 1940). Stalin himself took a deadly, keen interest, insisting for example that at the last moment the boilers on a new Soviet destroyer class were repositioned. It was done! The pictorial content alone of "Raising the Red Banner" is of immense interest to naval enthusiasts and students of WWII.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191976 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

About the Author
Richard Worth has been writing on naval history for many years in such publications as Warship Inernational and the Naval Gazette. He is the author of the acclaimed Fleets of World War II. Vladimir Nakubov, a native of Minsk, is a US Navy veteran. Naturally his knowledge - and language - facilitated contacts and the gathering of information and pictures in Russia.

Customer Reviews

a worthy book of a previously neglected era
I pre-ordered this book when I first heard of its imminent release.

The wait was worth it- excellent book with good photo coverage, succinct - but informative text. I have never seen any of the photos before-barring a couple of the most common images--and I had never realised how innovative and simultaneously retrogressive the fleet was at the time--
This book clarified a number of ( for me) mysteries and pre-conceptions.

recommended read for modellers and historians alike!

Jim Baumann
Modelshipbuilder- Southampton UK

Worth buying but too much attempted in a small book
This is a good but tantalising book, mainly because the author was not, I suspect, allowed enough book space to impart all his manifest expertise on the subject.

Good points
# Much tabular information on the ships by class of, names, builders, laid down, launch , and completion dates. Very convenient and possibly the most up to date available
# A very good selection of photos, many new to me.
# Numerous minor facts and details are scattered thoughout the book, together with many insights into Soviet practise and mistakes not normally reported

Bad points
# The characteristics section of the ships tabular information is rather basic and one wishes the author could have included more details of modifications and differences. Many of these are noted in the text or photo captions but I really wanted more of the author's obvious knowledge on these.
# Photos could have been better reproduced - and made larger.
# No index of ships names. Nor indeed an index of any nature except the Contents - i.e. the chapter headings.

The chronology of each type of vessel is in some places a little difficult to follow, and the author uses some odd phrases- some explained, some not. It took me two photo captions to realise that a submarine's "fairwater" was what I, being British, would call the conning tower and the Americans the sail or fin.

At £20 this is a bargain and recommended - but I would have preferred the book at £45, on a bigger scale , with what the author really is capable of making of it.

A Russian Navy book in English!
Books on the Russian Navy were few and far between. Over the last few years Russian language sources have started to become available that correct many of our misconceptions and prejudices. This has been mirrored by some recent good reference material such as "Soviet Naval Development Vol1" and "Russian Battleships". This new book falls neither into the full on Naval reference book catagory, History or one written by former constructors or Naval architects. Instead we are treated to many photographs that are either newly published or not seen before in the West. Most are clear, crisp and supported by an informative text thet tells of something of the history of the period as well as the development of various classes of Warships. There are many tables of data and dates to support the pictures. It is not exhaustive but the information supports the photographs and it is on these that the book takes it's title. The co- authors are well known and presumably Richard Worth like others before him has found the contribution of Vladimir Yakubov invaluable. Most of the photographs come from the extensive Lemachko Collections so it's unfortunate that the very first one in the book appears to be incorrectly captioned. The Imperator Nikolai I on the stocks at Nikolaief had an icebreaking bow not a straight stem and so the picture is of her half sister Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaia "if" taken at the same yard. I also don't care for the way in that former names and numbers are shown. It is customary that when a vessel has had a number of name changes [ not at all uncommon in the Russian Navy!] the word "ex" is used to prefix the previous name/ number and so on. Here the "ex" pefixes the orignal name in many cases so that unless you know your stuff you might get confused. However this is still a nice moderately priced volume that will accompany my other books on the genre. If you are "cursed" with having an interest on the Russian Navy you will always need every book, photograph, plan available, as well as a dictionary, a memory for trivia and a great deal of patience! With an open mind you might slowly get a clearer picture of one of the great maritime enigmas; the Russian Navy! Steve Bradley.