Important Dates

Important Dates in the History of the Russian Fleet

5th century B.C.: First records of Slav ships appearing in the Black Sea.

1st century B.C.: Julius Caesar describes the shipbuilding and sailing of the ancient Slavs in his diaries.

610 A.D.: Daring sea raids by Southern Slavs on the Greek city of Thessalonica, and later on Crete (623) and southern Italy (642).

902, 936 and 949: Russian ships sail in the Mediterranean as part of the Byzantine fleet.

1648: The Cossack S.I. Dezhnev sails from the Northern Sea into the Pacific, discovering the easternmost cape of Asia on the way.

1668: Russia’s first military sailing ship, the Oryol, built at the village of Dedinovo on the Oka river.

July 31, 1696: The capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov on the Black Sea — the first Russian military operation carried out from the sea.

October 20, 1696: Boyar Duma passes the resolution, ‘Let there be sea ships’

August 7, 1714: Russia’s first sea victory, against the Swedes at Gangut under Peter the Great and Admiral Apraksin.

1719: Seaborne invasion of the Swedish mainland.

1741: Vitus Bering and A.I. Chirikov explore the Western shores of North America, discovering Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

1770: Defeat of the Turks at the battle of Chesme.

1799: Admirals Ushakov and Nelson meet to discuss joint action against Napoleon’s fleet and land forces. Russian marine detachment liberates Naples and Rome from the French.

1820: F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev discover the Antarctic territories of Peter I and Alexander Land.

1827: Defeat of the Turks at the battle of Navarino, leading to Greek independence.

September 1854-September 1855: The Crimean War. Black Sea sailors under Admirals Kornilov and Nakhimov courageously defend the city of Sevastopol and their fleet’s base for eleven and a half months against British, French, Turkish and Sardinian bombardment, then withdraw, sinking the remaining ships of their fleet. 

September 1863: Two years after the abolition of serfdom, Tsar Alexander II shows solidarity with the campaign against slavery in North America. Russian squadrons secretly deployed in New York and San Francisco in support of Abraham Lincoln’s administration help prevent the intervention of Great Britain on the side of the Confederates in the American Civil War.

May 27-29, 1905: Resounding defeat of the Russian navy by the Japanese at Tsushima Strait, following a record-breaking journey by the Baltic Fleet to the Far East.

June 1905: Mutiny on the battleship Potyomkin in Odessa harbor.

October 1905 and July 1906: Mutinies in the Baltic Fleet base at Kronstadt.

1913: B. Vilkitsky discovers the northern islands of Severnaya Zemlya.

July 1915: Russian and German cruisers clash at the First World War Battle of Gotland.

March 1917: Mass killings of officers at Kronstadt sparked by the February revolution.

October 1917: Sailors from the Baltic Fleet take part in operations by the Bolsheviks to seize the capital, Petrograd.

March 1921: Final mutiny of Kronstadt sailors, this time against the Bolsheviks.

1941-5: Second World War. The Red Navy takes part in 20 offensive and defensive strategic operations, in particular in Polar regions, near Leningrad and in the Caucasus. Meanwhile, almost half a million marines fight near Moscow, at Stalingrad, on the Danube, Dnieper and Vistula rivers, and in the Caucasus.

Some 41 allied convoys (and 36 return convoys) bring supplies to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk throughout the war. Altogether, there were 726 transports, of which over half were under the US flag.

1958: Introduction of the first submarine-mounted cruise missiles.

August 1967: Soviet ship the Svirsk attacked by Red Guards while docked in China.

1977: Mutiny on the Storozhevoi. Captain Sablin and his sub-lieutenant shot for treason.

1989: Ships of Russia’s Northern Fleet make the Russian navy’s first post-Cold War visit to the US.

August 1992: Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kravchuk take over joint personal command of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet.

1994: First US-Russian joint maneuvers in training for provision of humanitarian aid, including a landing at Vladivostok.

July 28, 1995: For the first time, US navy ships take part in the annual St. Petersburg Navy Day Parade.