Black Sea Fleet (Russia)

The Black Sea Fleet is a Russian Fleet that operates in the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea.

The Black Sea Fleet has its official primary headquarters and facilities in the city of Sevastopol (Sevastopol Naval Base). The remainder of the fleet's facilities are based in various locations on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, including Krasnodar Krai, Rostov Oblast and Crimea. The current commander, Vice-Admiral Igor Vladimirovich Osipov, has held his position since May 2019.

## History

The Black Sea Fleet is considered to have been founded by Prince Potemkin on May 13, 1783, together with its principal base, the city of Sevastopol. Formerly commanded by such legendary admirals as Dmitriy Senyavin and Pavel Nakhimov, it is a fleet of enormous historical and political importance for Russia. In 1790, Russian naval forces under the command of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Kerch Strait.

From 1841 onward, the fleet was confined to the Black Sea by the London Straits Convention.

As a result of the Crimean War, one provision of the Treaty of Paris was that the Black Sea was to be a demilitarized zone like the Island of Åland in the Baltic Sea, although Russia subsequently renounced the treaty and reconstituted its naval strength and fortifications in the Black Sea.

The crew of the battleship *Potemkin* revolted in 1905 soon after the Navy's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. Lenin wrote that the *Potemkin* uprising had had a huge importance in terms of being the first attempt at creating the nucleus of a revolutionary army.

During World War I, there were a number of encounters between the Russian and Ottoman navies in the Black Sea. The Ottomans initially had the advantage due to having under their command the German battlecruiser SMS *Goeben*, but after the two modern Russian dreadnoughts *Imperatritsa Mariya* and *Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya* had been built in Mykolaiv, the Russians took command of the sea until the Russian government collapsed in November 1917. German submarines of the Constantinople Flotilla and Turkish light forces would continue to raid and harass Russian shipping until the war's end.

### Soviet Service

During the Russian Civil War, the vast majority of the Black Sea Fleet was scuttled by Bolsheviks in Novorossiysk; some were managed to be interned by the Central Powers or Western Allies. In 1919 out of the remnants of the Russian Imperial Fleet was established the Red Fleet of Ukraine which existed few months before a major advance of the Armed Forces of South Russia which occupied all the Southand East Ukraine. Most of the ships became part of the "Russian Squadron" of Wrangl's armed forces and after the evacuation sailed to Tunisia. Out of those ships, some were passed to the French Navy and some were salvaged.

Upon the defeat of the Armed Forces of South Russia, the Ukrainian National Army and the Polish Armed Forces in Ukraine the Soviet government signed a military union with the Russian SFSR transferring all the command to the Commander-in-chief of Russia. Few ships that did stay in Black Sea were salvaged in the 1920s, while a large scale new construction programme began in the 1930s. Over 500 new ships were built during that period as well as massive expansion of coastal infrastructure took place. The Fleet was commanded by Vice Admiral F.S. Oktyabrskiy on the outbreak of war with Germany in June 1941. The Fleet gave a credible account of itself as it fought alongside the Red Army during the Siege of Odessa and the Battle of Sevastopol.

In 1952, Turkey decided to join NATO, placing the Bosporus Strait in the Western sphere of influence. Together with the advent of long-range nuclear weapons, this dramatically decreased the strategic value of any naval activity in the Black Sea.

In the later post-war period, along with the Northern Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet provided ships for the 5th Operational Squadron in the Mediterranean, which confronted the United States Navy during the Arab-Israeli wars, notably during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

In 1989, the 126th Motor Rifle Division at Simferopol was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet from the Odessa Military District. Also that year, the 119th Fighter Aviation Division, with the 86th Guards, 161st, and 841st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiments, joined the Fleet from the 5th Air Army.[The 86th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment became part of the Moldovan Air Force upon the breakup of the Soviet Union. The 841st at Meria airport (between Poti and Batumi in the Adjar ASSR) (Georgian SSR) became the 841st independent Guards Anti-Submarine Helicopter Regiment in May 1991 and was disbanded in October 1992.