Russia's regional fleets lived in separate worlds

Russia produced many strategic documents, but their constant changes gave the navy no enduring concept comparable to Japan's quarter-century development of the Six-Six Fleet. The Baltic Fleet first had to escape the Baltic, while the Black Sea Fleet faced the Dardanelles before it could act elsewhere. The Pacific Fleet remained difficult to build and reinforce even after the single-track Trans-Siberian Railway connected it to European Russia. The Northern Fleet did not become a comparably sustained formation until infrastructure expanded after the Second World War. These commands were therefore one navy on paper but at least three forces in logistical practice, unable to support one another when crisis came. On this interpretation, a truly fleet-wide strategic justification did not emerge until Sergei Gorshkov shaped the Soviet Navy during the Cold War.