The Pacific Fleet rebuilds after Tsushima

Russia organized naval forces in the Far East well before the Soviet period, but the Russo-Japanese War destroyed both the Port Arthur force and the reinforcing fleet sent from Europe. Because so much of the empire's total fleet was sunk or captured, Tsushima damaged Russian naval power far beyond the Pacific. After the revolution, Japanese and American troops landed at Vladivostok to support anti-communist forces and help extract a Czech army before Soviet authorities repeatedly reorganized the region's naval force. During the European war, most ships remained idle against Japan while 147,000 sailors were reassigned as ground troops. When the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan in August 1945, the fleet attacked shipping and supported advances and largely unopposed landings in Korea, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.