page_title: Marines
section_title: Soviet Union
hierarchical_section_title: Marines / Historical marine forces / Soviet Union
caption_attribution_description: English: Soviet naval infantryman kneel with their AKS-74 rifles during a demonstration conducted for visiting U.S. Navy personnel. Two American ships, the guided missile cruiser USS PRINCETON (CG-59) and the guided missile frigate USS REUBEN JAMES (FFG-57), are in Vladivostok for a four-day goodwill visit.
context_page_description: Marines, also known as naval infantry, are typically an infantry force that specializes in the support of naval and army operations at sea and on land and air, as well as the execution of their own operations. In many countries, the marines are an integral part of that state's navy. In others, it is a separate organization altogether, such as in the United States, where the Marine Corps falls under the US Department of the Navy, yet it operates independently. Marines can also fall under a country's army like the Troupes de marine.
  Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included: helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship, the boarding of vessels during combat or capture of prize ships, and providing manpower for raiding ashore in support of the naval objectives.
  With the industrialization of warfare in the 20th century the scale of landing operations increased; this brought with it an increased likelihood of opposition and a need for co-ordination of various military elements. Marine forces evolved to specialize in the skills and capabilities required for amphibious warfare.
context_section_description: The Soviet Navy had a number of small battalion-sized naval infantry and coastal defence units that mostly served in the ports and bases before the Second World War. During the war, and building on the visuals of the mutinied sailors of Petrograd in 1917, the Stavka ordered formation of naval infantry brigades from surplus ship crew or shore duty sailors, and forty brigades served in mostly ground troops roles until 1944 when they were used for amphibious operations in Norway and along the Black Sea coast.
caption: Soviet marines during a demonstration in 1990
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