The Northern Fleet grows from Russia's Arctic lifeline

Russia's northern ports remained vital after Peter the Great gained access to other seas, serving as an Allied aid route in both world wars. The Soviet Northern Flotilla began in 1933 with patrol ships and submarines transferred through the White Sea-Baltic Canal, then added naval aviation before becoming the Northern Fleet in 1937. It entered the German-Soviet war as the smallest of the four Soviet fleets, with only eight destroyers and fifteen submarines. The Arctic convoy route nevertheless made this modest force strategically important, requiring it to fight around Norway and Finland while protecting Allied war material bound for the Soviet Union.