The ''Dekabrist'' class, also known as Series I, were the first class of
submarines built for the
Soviet Navy after the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
of 1917. They were authorized in the
Soviet Naval Shipbuilding Program of 1926, marking the revival of submarine design in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. They were authorized in the
Soviet Naval Shipbuilding Program of 1926, and began their
sea trials
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and i ...
in 1930.
Of the six vessels built, two survived
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and one submarine of the class is now a
museum ship.
Design and construction
A set of performance and design criteria for the new submarine type, known as an "operational-tactical requirement", was formulated in 1923, but converting this into reality posed challenges. The
Red Navy of the 1920s retained a respectable submarine fleet and associated practical skills in construction and maintenance, but was lacking in recent design experience. No new Russian submarine design had been brought into production since the
''Bars'' class, the plans for which had been finalised in 1912, and associated specialist knowledge had diminished, while there was a sense that the latest foreign submarine technology was now considerably more advanced. Thus, in an attempt to obtain up-to-date design information,
Boris Malinin
Boris Mikhailovich Malinin (1889–1949) (russian: Борис Михайлович Малинин) was a Soviet shipbuilding scientist and graduate of Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute.
His father was the operatic singer Mikhail Malinin (r ...
was attached to a Soviet naval mission which embarked on a tour of shipyards in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
in 1925.
[Budzbona and Radziemski, p. 84.][Westwood, p. 155]
Although
Germany's socialist government persuaded
their reluctant navy to share some older designs from the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
,
[Rohwer and Monakov, pp. 32-33][Budzbona and Radziemski, pp. 84-85.] sources agree that the most useful information was obtained in Italy. However, statements of what was acquired are very inconsistent. The memoirs of
Sergei Alexandrovich Bazilevsky, a younger designer who subsequently joined Malinin's team on the ''Dekabrist'' project in 1927, state that the mission had obtained plans of the Italian submarine ''Ballila'', but modern sources do not agree on which submarine is meant. Some authorities state that these were plans for the brand-new ocean-going , impressively large boats (1,450 tons surface displacement, 86.5 metres long) which had been laid in down in early 1925.
[Rohwer and Monakov, p. 36, and n. 48, citing Westwood pp. 153-159, plus V.I. Dmitriev ''Sovetskoe podvodnoe korable-stroenie'' (Moscow 1990), pp. 32-66, and ''Istoriya Otechstvennogo Suostroeniya'', vol. IV, ed. I.D. Spasskii (St Petersburg 1996), pp. 102-11 (it is not clear whether either of these references furnishes additional information relating this identification, or if the citations pertain to other adjacent information in the text).] Others assert that they were instead the plans of
a much older and smaller submarine of the same name, laid down as far back as 1913 (717 tons surface displacement, 65 meters long), which had been obtained in a second-hand bookshop in Rome, and were of little real value.
Adding to the confusion, there are also claims that the delegation obtained plans from the Italian shipyard ''Cantieri dell'Adriatico''.
[Breyer, p. 185.][Rohwer and Monakov, p. 34, and n. 41, citing V.I. Dmitriev, ''Sovetskoe podvodnoe korable-stroenie'' (Moscow 1990) pp. 32-63 and V.N Burov, ''Otechstvennoe voennoe korabl'stroenie v tret'em stoleti svoei istorii'' (St Petersburg 1995) pp. 73-79.] Presumably this is a reference to
CRDA, but this congolmerate was only formed in 1929-30 and was not directly involved with either of the ''Ballila'' designs. Probably related to this is a claim that Malinin obtained plans for the
''Pisani'' class built by one of CRDA's precursors
CNT, construction work on which was just beginning during the delegation's visit to Italy.
[Rohwer and Monakov, p. 36 and n. 48, specifically refer to the ''Giovanni Bausan'' of this class; presumably this is based on one of the cited sources, V.I. Dmitriev ''Sovetskoe podvodnoe korable-stroenie'' (Moscow 1990), pp. 32-66, and ''Istoriya Otechstvennogo Suostroeniya'', vol. IV, ed. I.D. Spasskii (St Petersburg 1996), pp. 102-11.] Alteratively, it may be relevant that CRDA - meaning presumably one of its precursors, CNT or
STT - are credited with involvement in the underlying design work on the deep-diving
double hull design used by the new ''Ballila'' class.
[Brescia, p. 159.]
Regardless of exactly what information the Soviet delegation obtained, they acquired some insights into Italian submarine technology: most obviously, while the Soviet fleet consisted of boats of "single-hull" construction in which equipment such as ballast tanks was largely contained inside the
pressure hull
A submarine hull has two major components, the ''light hull'' and the ''pressure hull''. The light hull (''casing'' in British usage) of a submarine is the outer non-watertight hull which provides a hydrodynamically efficient shape. The pressure ...
, the Italians had pioneered
double–hull construction in which equipment was placed around the outside of the pressure hull, enclosed by a separate external fairing known as the "light hull", allowing a more streamlined exterior and a more spacious interior (the new ''Balilla'' class of the 1920s was built this way,
though neither the older ''Balilla'' of 1913,
[Fontenoy, p. 123] nor the ''Pisani'' class);
in addition, whereas existing Soviet boats had a diving depth limited to around 50 meters, the Italians were building stronger hulls capable of diving to around 100 meters (used on the new ''Balilla'' and the ''Pisani''), and while previous Russian submarines had a hull length of no more than 70 meters and a surface displacement of below 700 tons, the Italians were building much larger submarines - the new ''Ballila'' was twice this displacement and about 20% longer. Another important difference was that existing Soviet boats filled the
ballast tanks mechanically during a dive, while the Italians simply flooded them via
seacock
A seacock is a valve on the hull of a boat or a ship, permitting water to flow into the vessel, such as for cooling an engine or for a salt water faucet; or out of the boat, such as for a sink drain or a toilet. Seacocks are often a Kingston val ...
s.
Many parallels to the Italian design tradition can be identified in the new ''Dekabrist'' design, particularly in the hull structure and ballast arrangements: the heavy gauge of the pressure hull, designed to withstand depths of 90 meters (and constructed using high-quality armour plate from
scrapped battle cruisers),
[Budzbona and Radziemski, p. 86.] the double-hull design, which enclosed the pressure hull in a separate "light hull" and housed the main ballast tanks in the space in between,
the division of the interior of the submarine into multiple watertight compartments (though as the design evolved, the original Italian-style spherical bulkheads, designed to maxmise the integrity of key compartments, were replaced with flat circular ones),
the use of Italian-style ballast tanks, which was expected to speed up diving time,
and the addition of a
crash dive
A crash dive is a maneuver by a submarine in which the vessel submerges as quickly as possible to avoid attack. Crash diving from the surface to avoid attack has been largely rendered obsolete with the advent of nuclear-powered submarines, as they ...
tank amidships, which as Bazilevsky recounts was misinterpreted as being designed to dive quickly from periscope depth rather than directly from the surface, and reduced in relative size compared with the one in the Italian blueprints, though it proved possible to scale it up again when its intended purpose was discovered.
[Westwood, pp. 156-7.] At 76 meters in length, and with a surfaced displacement of around 1,000 tons, they were significantly larger than any earlier submarines in the Soviet fleet (or any built in Imperial Russia), though not as large as the new Italian ''Balilla'' class. Their quoted range of over 7,000
nautical miles was also a dramatic improvement, although not quite as impressive as that of the larger ''Balilla''.
That said, it is clear that the ''Dekabrist'' was not simply a copy of an Italian design, but a synthesis of Italian concepts and existing Soviet knowledge, although the most easily recognizable native features are ones that were not strictly necessary in the new design. The
pressure hull
A submarine hull has two major components, the ''light hull'' and the ''pressure hull''. The light hull (''casing'' in British usage) of a submarine is the outer non-watertight hull which provides a hydrodynamically efficient shape. The pressure ...
was scaled up from the proven ''Bars'' class, which was regarded as something of a benchmark for reliability, though its streamlining seems unnecessary in a double-hulled boat;
[Westwood, p. 156] while the presence of extra ballast tanks beneath the deck casing (apparently intended for quick diving from periscope depth) was also clearly based on this type, and they are described as being equally unnecessary in conjunction with the Italian-inspired diving system.
Other features which resemble older Russian designs include the relatively large ballast tanks at the bow and stern, now employed as trim tanks, and the placing of the batteries in sealed compartments in the forward hull.
[Budzbona and Radziemski, p. 85] In general, individual components were either based directly on those used in existing Russian boats, or else newly designed.
[Budzbona and Radziemski, p. 88.]
Armament consisted of a heavy forward salvo of six torpedo launchers in the bow, and two more at the stern,
designed for the 21-inch torpedoes which had become the standard international calibre, though until
a suitable weapon entered production, older 18-inch torpedoes had to be carried, using special inserts to hold them in place.
[Westwood, p. 157.] As originally designed, each submarine was to have two
4-inch guns in streamlined
gun shields which formed fairings at the front and back of the
conning tower, but the configuration was subsequently modified in imitation of the
British L-class submarine
The British L-class submarine was originally planned under the emergency war programme as an improved version of the British E-class submarine. The scale of change allowed the L class to become a separate class.
The armament was increased when ...
, with a single forward-facing gun on a raised platform protected by a high bulwark, designed to make it easier to fight the gun in heavy seas.
[Budzbona and Radziemski, pp. 87, 91.] A
new anti-aircraft version of the gun was also adopted.
[Se]
NavWeaps
According t
the new gun was only proposed in July 1927 six months after the date given by Budzbona and Radziemski, p. 86 for the initial two-gun design.
An unusual design feature inherited from pre-revolutionary designs was an anchor designed to allow the submarine to secure itself against the
seabed
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
while submerged, though on the ''Dekabrist'' class this caused alarming incidents in early trials, and may never have been used subsequently.
[Westwood, p. 158]
An order of six boats was divided equally between the
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
* Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
and the
Black Sea Fleets of the Soviet Navy: three vessels were constructed by the
Ordzhonikidze Shipyard
The OJSC Baltic Shipyard (''Baltiysky Zavod'', formerly Shipyard 189 named after Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze) (russian: Балтийский завод имени С. Орджоникидзе) is one of the oldest shipyards in Russia and is part of ...
in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, and the other three at the
Marti Yard
The Black Sea Shipyard ( uk, Чорноморський суднобудівний завод; russian: Черноморский судостроительный завод) is a shipbuilding facility in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on the southern tip of ...
at
Nikolayev. They were given names commemorating historical revolutionary movements (the Baltic boats being ''Dekabrist'', ''Narodovolets'' and ''Krasnogvardyeyets'', after the
Decembrists
The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...
,
Narodnaya Volya
Narodnaya Volya ( rus, Наро́дная во́ля, p=nɐˈrodnəjə ˈvolʲə, t=People's Will) was a late 19th-century revolutionary political organization in the Russian Empire which conducted assassinations of government officials in an att ...
and the
Red Guards
Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
, later designated ''D-1'' through ''D-3'', their Black Sea counterparts being ''Revolutsioner'', ''Spartakovets'' and ''Yakobinets'', i.e. "Revolutionary", "
Spartacist" and "
Jacobin", later designated ''D4'' through ''D-6''). The first boat in the class was laid down on March 5, 1927; launched on November 3, 1928, and commissioned on November 18, 1930. This first boat, ''Dekabrist'', was later designated D-1 on September 15, 1934.
The initial dockyard trials of the type were not entirely successful. Early diving trials on the ''Revolutsioner'' in March 1930 revealed that the boat listed sharply to one side during diving, a problem which the designers knew had also been encountered by double-hulled German designs like German Type U 139 submarine, U-139.[Budzbona and Radziemski, p. 94.] Similar problems were encountered on ''Dekabrist'' two months later, with the boat listing to port and then sharply overcorrecting to starboard. Although no agreement could be reached on the precise scientific reasons, an acceptable solution was found by separating the ballast tanks more strictly into port and starboard units which flooded separately and thus more symmetrically.[Westwood, p. 157.] Bazilevsky later insisted that the only real problem was an asymmetrical weight distribution, which could be corrected by a small quantity of ballast, but which had not been detected at the start of the trial due to a miscalibrated inclinometer.[Budzbona and Radziemski, p. 95.] Information on diving speed is hard to come by. However they were reported to be good sea-boats, and reached speeds of 15.3 kn (surface) and 8.7 kn (submerged) on trials.[Conway p.332]
Service history
In May 1933 the three Baltic boats were transferred to the Northern Fleet
Severnyy flot
, image = Great emblem of the Northern Fleet.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Northern Fleet's great emblem
, start_date = June 1, 1733; Sov ...
, in the Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
, via the White Sea–Baltic Canal
The White Sea–Baltic Canal (russian: Беломо́рско-Балти́йский кана́л, , ), often abbreviated to White Sea Canal () is a ship canal in Russia opened on 2 August 1933. It connects the White Sea, in the Arctic Ocean, with ...
, and are said to have showed high seaworthiness in polar circumstances, although ''D-1'' was lost with her entire crew in a diving accident on November 13, 1940, in Motovsky Gulf.
The other five were in service at the start of the Great Patriotic War
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sou ...
, although three more were lost in action during the conflict: ''D-3'' was sunk off Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
in June 1942, ''D-6'' was scuttled at Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
in November 1942, and ''D-4'' was sunk off Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
in December 1943.[
The ''Spartakovets'' served throughout with the Black Sea Fleet. The ''Narodovolets'' was undergoing a refit in ]Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
at the start of the German invasion, and thus became part of the Baltic Fleet - her most notable success being the sinking by torpedo of the German merchant ship SS ''Jacob Fritzen'' (4,090 gross register tons) in October 1942. ''Narodovolets'' was converted to a training role in the 1950s, but served until the 1980s, and subsequently became a museum ship and war memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
Symbolism
Historical usage
It has ...
.
Ships
200px, ''Narodovolets'' (D-2) on display in St Petersburg
See also
* Russian ship naming conventions
Notes
References
* Maurizio Brescia ''Mussolini s Navy: A Reference Guide to the Regia Marina 1930-1945'' (2021) Seaforth,
* Siegfried Breyer, ''Soviet Warship Development: 1917-1937'' (1992) Conway
* Prezmysław Budzbona and Jan Radziemski, "The Beginnings of Solviet Naval Power", ''Warship 2020'', ed. John Jordan (2020), Osprey, pp. 82–101
* Paul E. Fontenoy ''Submarines: An Illustrated History of Their Impact'' (2007) ABC-CLIO Santa Barbara CA
* Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesnau: ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946'' (1980) Conway Maritime Press
* Jurgen Rohwer ad Mikhail S. Monakov, ''Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding'' (2001) Frank Cass, London and New York
* J.N. Westwood, Russian Naval Construction, 1905-45 (1994) Macmillan, Basingstoke and London
* Vladimir Yakubov and Richard Worth, ''Raising the Red Banner'' (2008) Spellmount
External links
*
Steel Navy
*
Info from Russian Museums
* ''Narodovolets D-2, submarine memorial complex''
Article
Saint Petersburg Encyclopedia,
*
*
{{WWII Soviet ships
Russian and Soviet navy submarine classes