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Sunday 15 April 2018

Naval activities in the Russian harbours of Leningrad and Kronshtadt according to a CIA report dated 15 November 1954

Gangut-class

An item reported that a Soviet cruiser and 8 destroyers left the harbour area of Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Soviet Union in 26 July 1954. A large modern streamlined submarine armed with 2 guns (forecastle 1, afterdeck 1) passed a day later the quay numbered 27. At the Zhdanov Wharf were 2-circa 5.000 tons deadweight merchant vessels under construction. Three or four small ships were docked in a large floating dry dock in the same area.

An item reported the passing of Kronshtadt, Russia by an anonymous ship on 29 July which noticed the presence of nine submarines berthed along the piers. Between 12.00-13.00 o’clock was the same day an anonymous ship passed by a Soviet battleship (1) flanked by two destroyers and astern a cruiser. Then all ships turned and the cruiser was next leading the force. When gunfire was heard by the source on board of the anonymous ship, he believed that it was gun training.

Note
1. In 1956 were still the Gangut-class battleships Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya (ex-Gangut (1911) and Sevastopol (1911) existing, both stricken on 17 February 1956, both used as training ships. The Russian navy also possessed the former Italian battleship Giulio Cesare now renamed Novorossiysk which was lost after a mine explosion at Sevastopol, Black Sea in the night of 28-29 October 1954.

Source
The report was published on www.archive.org, document number CIA-RDP80-00810A005300550003-3