The fifth edition of Norman Polmar's guide brings Soviet ships, submarines, aircraft, naval infantry, and command arrangements into one reference work. Its plans, photographs, and explanations make it useful for tracing the ancestry of later Russian designs. Because the book was produced during the Cold War, it also records an Allied assessment rather than an unfiltered Soviet institutional account. That double perspective lets readers study both the fleet and the intelligence assumptions through which Western navies viewed it.
Chapter · 47:15-49:13
Reading the Soviet Navy through a Cold War reference guide
Norman Polmar's guide documents Soviet ships, aircraft, marines, and command structures while also revealing how Western analysts understood the fleet.