Page 343 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

RUSSIA AND THE SOVIET UNION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 329

Battle reconstruction of the Navy become one the most importane problems ofRussia.
Since 1906 in the Baltic Fleet a special group of ships was formed with purpose
of regular training cruises in che Mediterranean. lt should be noted that che rela-
rions berween Russia n sailors and the people in ports an d towns of Mediterranean
countries was always kind and friendly. In ltaly good qualities of Russians were
shown during the heavy earthquake in Messina in 1908. Russian sailors from the
crews of two battleships, two cruisers and two gunboats were saving people from
the ruined houses, helped the wounded. The memory of that event is not forgotten
until now.
With the beginning of the 1st World War the Mediterranean assumed strate-
gica! importance and also for Russia. From the Far East to the North of Russia
through the Mediterranean passed battleship Tchesma, cruisers Askold and Variag,
six destroyers. In 1916-1917 en expeditionary corps ofRussian troops (about 45 000
men) was transported to France. During the Dardanellas campaign Russian crui-
ser Askold discinguished itself, his action were highly commended by a British admiral.
The Russian revolution in 1917 had a cerrain influence in the fleets of some
Mediterranean countries- there occured disturbances on French ships in Odessa,
a rebellion on Austria-Hungarian ships in Catarro. By the end of the Civil war
when the Red Army in December, 1920 cook the Crimea, the Saint-Andrew's flag
of the Russian Empire for the last time appeared in the Mediterranean. The re-
mnants of the Black Sea Fleet, after the evacuation of generai Vrangel's troops from
the Crimea, sailed to Bizerta - one battleship, two cruisers, ten destroyers and five
submarines. Their fate was sorrowful- they were rusting unattended since 1924.
After the Civil War ended building of a new Red Navy slowly began. In 1924
for the first time Neaples had a call of a Soviet ship- avizo Vorovski on its passage
to Vladivostok. In 1925 and 1929 Soviet destroyers visited Neaples. An importane
event in the life of the arising Red Navy- battleship Pariskaia Kommuna (ex. Sevasto-
po!) and cruiser Komintern (ex. Pamiat Mercrtria) crossed Mediterranean of their pas-
sage from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In 1930 cruiser Tchervona Ukraina and two
desrroyers made a two week cruise in the Mediterranean.
Por the first rime in the combat conditions Soviet naval officers appeared in
the beginning of the Civil War in Spain - they served as advisors in ships and sub-
marines of the Republican fleet.
A special reference should be made of ltaly' s role in creati o n of che m o der n
new Soviet Navy. In the 30th the Soviet Union began a large program of naval
shipbuilding and ltalian specialist rendered serious assisrance in developing designs
for cruisers and destroyers. The most interesting episode was building in 1935-38
a destroyer-leader T ashkent for the Soviet Navy in the ltalian shipyard in Livorno.
The ltalian shipbuilders should be proud of this ship- she was the fastest ship in
the world at that time (more than 44 knots) with exellent manoeuvring, and com-
bar qualities which were proved in her short but heroic war-life in the Second World
war in the defence of Odessa and Sevastopol.