Warships - Russia / USSR: Illustrated History Books & Guides

Soviet Motor Torpedo Boats of World War II (Osprey)

NEW

In the 1920s and 1930s, aircraft designer Andrey Tupolev created a series of advanced torpedo boats for the Soviet Navy. This superbly illustrated book presents their first complete history in English.

Inspired by the 1919 British Kronstadt raid, when Coastal Motor Boats launched a daring torpedo attack, the Soviets sought to build similar fast craft. Lacking suitable shipbuilding facilities, the project was transferred to Tupolev's Aerodynamic Institute, where aircraft engines and techniques were adapted for naval use. His boats reached speeds of 50 knots, were visually striking, and became famous through propaganda films. Some were even fitted with remote-control systems, an early form of naval drone.

Written by a former Soviet naval architect, the book explains how Tupolev's designs - notably the Sh-4 and G-5 - were technically innovative yet flawed, and seldom used in their intended role during World War II. Instead, they were converted into landing craft, minelayers, subchasers, or rocket-firing support boats.

Richly illustrated with new artwork and rare photographs, this volume offers a detailed study of Tupolev's torpedo boats and the few other Soviet MTBs of the era - a remarkable example of Soviet naval innovation before the war.

Product details

Author:	Przemysław Budzbon, Waldemar Góralski, Piotr Forkasiewicz
Details:	48 pages, 9.7 x 7.3 x 0.16 in (24.5 x 18.5 x 0.4 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	40 photos, 8 pages drawings in color
Language:	English
Publisher:	Osprey Publishing (GB, 2025)
Series:	New Vanguard (NVG 336)
ISBN:	9781472866608

Warships of the Soviet Fleets (1939-1945) - Volume 2 - Escorts and Smaller Fighting Ships

This second part of the three-volume series on Soviet Navy ships includes all the remaining fighting vessels not already covered in Volume I. Beginning with the Uragan class - rated as Escort Ships and the first seagoing warships designed by the Soviet Union - the book then moves on to Submarine Hunters, both large and small, Patrol craft, Minelayers and Minesweepers, and unusual types like Floating Artillery Batteries and Anti-Aircraft Defence Ships, concluding with Landing Ships and Craft.
Many of these vessels have hitherto been poorly documented but given the nature of the land-centred Soviet war against Germany their contribution should not be underestimated. The details of their service and, not least, the circumstances of their loss, constitute a major addition to Western understanding of the Soviet Navy's war effort.

This is undoubtedly one of the most important naval reference works of recent years and will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in warships, the Soviet Navy or wider maritime aspects of the Second World War. Furthermore, as recent Russian actions appear to revive Soviet-era aspirations, this book offers both new insights and valuable background of contemporary relevance.

Product details

Author:	Przemysław Budzbon, Jan Radziemski, Marek Twardowski
Details:	304 pages, 11.6 x 9.7 x 0.98 in (29.5 x 24.5 x 2.5 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	250 photos and drawings
Language:	English
Publisher:	Seaforth Publishing (GB, 2023)
ISBN:	9781399022774

Warships of the Soviet Fleets (1939-1945) - Volume 1: Major Combatants

Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War the details of Soviet ships, their activities and fates remain an enigma to the West. In wartime such information was classified and after a brief period of glasnost ('openness') the Russian state has again restricted access to historical archives.
Therefore, the value - and originality - of this work is difficult to exaggerate. It sees the first publication of reliable data on both the seagoing fleets and riverine flotillas of the Soviet Navy, listing over 6200 vessels from battleships to river gunboats, and mercantile conversions as well as purpose-built warships.

Divided into three volumes, this first covers major surface warships down to MTBs and armoured gunboats, as well as submarines.
For every class there is a design history analysing strategic, tactical and technical considerations, and individual ship detail includes construction yard, key building dates, commissioning, fleet designations, relocations and ultimate fate.
Once a closely guarded secret, the wartime loss of every ship and boat (over 1000) is described. Furthermore, the confusion caused by frequent name changes is clarified by indexes that run to 16,000 items.

By following the ships through both their wartime and earlier history, the book reveals many aspects of Russian history that remain highly sensitive: clandestine co-operation with Weimar Germany and fascist Italy, the NKVD-enforced closure of Soviet borders, the 'Gulag Fleet', the faked Metallist sinking that excused the military occupation of Estonia, and the ill-conceived pact with Nazi Germany.

This is undoubtedly one of the most important naval reference works of recent years and will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in warships, the Soviet Navy or wider maritime aspects of the Second World War.

Product details

Author:	Przemysław Budzbon, Jan Radziemski, Marek Twardowski
Details:	448 pages, 11.2 x 9.7 x 0.98 in (28.5 x 24.5 x 2.5 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	350 b&w photos, 145 drawings
Language:	English
Publisher:	Seaforth Publishing (GB, 2022)
ISBN:	9781526751935

Soviet Destroyers of World War II (Osprey)

The Soviet Navy that faced the German onslaught in 1941 boasted a mixture of modern warships, often built with foreign technical assistance, and antiquated warships from the Tsarist era that were modernised for the conflict.

Some Soviet naval vessels saw limited involvement in the war against Finland in 1939-1940, but the main action occurred after the German invasion, when these destroyers escorted convoys, fought battles against other destroyers and the deadly threat posed by attacking aircraft, and provided fire support for Soviet troops.

From the Gnevny class of the pre-war period to the specialist destroyer leaders of the Leningrad class and the unique Tashkent, "Soviet Destroyers of World War II" is a detailed guide to the often forgotten destroyers of the Soviet Navy.

Product details

Author:	Alexander Hill
Details:	48 pages, 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.43 in (25 x 18.5 x 1.1 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	many b&w and color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Osprey Publishing (GB, 2018)
Series:	New Vanguard (256)
ISBN:	9781472822567

Russian Warships in the Age of Sail 1696-1860 - Design, Construction, Careers and Fates

Peter the Great created a navy from nothing, but it challenged and soon surpassed Sweden as the Baltic naval power, while in the Black Sea it became an essential tool in driving back the Ottoman Turks from the heartland of Europe.
In battle it was surprisingly successful, and at times in the eighteenth century was the third largest navy in the world - yet its history, and especially its ships, are virtually unrecorded in the West.

This major reference work handsomely fills this gap, with a complete and comprehensive list of the fleet, with technical detail and career highlights for every ship, down to small craft.
However, because the subject is so little recorded in English, the book also provides substantial background material on the organisation and administration of the navy, its weapons, personnel and shipbuilding facilities, as well as an outline of Russia's naval campaigns down to the clash with Britain and France known as the Crimean War.

Illustrated with plans, paintings and prints rarely seen outside Russia, it is authoritative, reliable and comprehensive, the culmination of a long collaboration between a Russian naval historian and an American ship enthusiast.

Product details

Author:	John Tredrea, Eduard Sozaev
Details:	400 pages, 11.8 x 9.8 x 1.34 in (30 x 25 x 3.4 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	200 illustrations
Language:	English
Publisher:	Seaforth Publishing (GB, 2010)
ISBN:	9781848320581

Die Marine des Warschauer Paktes - Kampfschiffe, U-Boote und Versorger

The beginning of the Cold War also led to an arms race at sea between East and West. Although the Soviet Union provided the majority of the Warsaw Pact's naval forces, smaller allies such as the GDR and Poland also maintained their own fleets in order to make their contribution in the event of an East-West conflict.

Pages of the book "Die Marine des Warschauer Paktes - Kampfschiffe, U-Boote und Versorger"

In this illustrated book, Ingo Bauernfeind looks at the individual navies, their respective roles in the Warsaw Pact, and their surface and submarine forces. The book contains a large number of photographs that have either not been published before or have only rarely been published.

Product details

Author:	Ingo Bauernfeind
Details:	240 pages, 10.4 x 9.1 in (26.5 x 23 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	300 b&w and color photos
Language:	German
Publisher:	Motorbuch Verlag (D, 2018)
ISBN:	9783613041264