Russian ship naming conventions
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The Russian and Soviet Navy's naming conventions were similar to those of other Nations. A problem for the non-Russian reader is the need to transliterate the Cyrillic names into the Latin alphabet. There are often several different Latin spellings of the same Russian name
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[edit] Pre Revolution
Before the revolution the Imperial Russian Navy used the following convention
[edit] Battleships
Russian Battleships were named after:
- Battles e.g Gangut, Petropavlosk, Poltava, Sinop, Chesma, Borodino
- Royals e.g Imperator Pavel I, Pyitr Veliky, Tsesarevich
- Saints e.g Georgy Popedonosets = St George, Andrei Pervozvanny = St Andrew
- Generals e.g Knyaz Suvorov, Knyaz Potemkin Tavricheskyy
- Traditional e.g Retvizan
[edit] Cruisers
Russian Cruisers were named after
- Mythical figures - e.g Rurik, Askold, Bayan
- Admirals - e,g Admiral Makarov, Admiral Lazarev
- Gemstones - e.g Zhemchug = pearl
[edit] Destroyers
Russian destroyers were named after adjectives e.g Burnyi = Stormy, Smely=Valiant
[edit] Frigates/Gunboats
- Named after birds or animals e.g Albatross
- Ethnographic names e.g Donskoy Kasak = Don Cossack
[edit] Submarines
Named after fish or animals e.g Morzh = Walrus, Akula=shark
[edit] Soviet Times
[edit] Renaming
The Soviets changed the names of many ships after they took power in 1917
- Royal names were changed to republican names e.g Volya=Freedom, Grazhdanin = Citizen
- The Gangut Class dreadnaughts were named after Revolutionary themes, but reverted to original names during World War II
- Cruisers were renamed after Communist themes e.g Chervonaya Ukraina = Red Ukraine
- Many destroyers were renamed after Political figures e.g Karl Liebnekht
[edit] New Construction
- Planned Battleships were named after Soviet themes e.g Sovietsky Soyuz
- Cruisers were named after revolutionary heroes e.g Kirov
- Destroyer leaders were named after cities, e.g Moskva = Moscow
- Destroyers reverted to being named after adjectives e.g Grozny = Terrible
- Frigates/Gunboats were named after animals, or weather phenomena e.g Uragan = hurricane
- Submarines were given numbers
[edit] Post War
- Aircraft Carriers and helicopter cruisers were named after cities, Tbilisi and Baku were changed to Admiral Kuznetsov and Admiral Gorshkov respectively on the collapse of the Soviet Union
- Battle Cruisers were named after revolutionary heroes , this was changed to Admirals after the end of communism
- Cruisers were mostly named after Admirals, Generals, Cities or given traditional names e.g Slava=glory
- Destroyers and large Frigates were named after adjectives, although a few were named after the Komsomol
- Frigates were named after birds or animals e.g Lev=Lion
- Submarines were rarely named during Soviet Times but after the end of the Soviet Union many were renamed after animals eg Yaguar or Cities e.g Kursk
[edit] Project Designations (Class Names)
The Soviets assigned a project number to each new design. The numbers were non sequential, submarine classes had numbers 600-900, small combatants 100-200 and large ships 1000 plus. The classes also had names, Major ship classes were named after Birds e.g Orlan = sea eagle, Berkut = Golden eagle, Kreschet = Gyrfalcon. Submarine classes were given fish names e.g Akula=Shark, Som = Catfish etc.
- see List of ships of Russia by project number for more details
[edit] Nato Naming
Also see NATO reporting name
NATO assigned its own reporting names to Soviet ships. This was because the official Soviet designation was unknown or difficult for English speakers to pronounce.
- Initially surface ship classes were named after the place where they were first identified, e.g Kotlin, Poti etc. It soon became apparent that this convention would rapidly become obsolete as the Soviet Union had only a limited number of Naval bases. A new convention based on vaguely Slavic sounding names beginning with the letter K was then used.
- Fast patrol and torpedo craft classes were named after the Russian name for Insects e.g Osa=wasp, The soviets also named their missile boats after insects leading to confusion
- Minesweepers and small Frigates were given diminutive first names e.g Alyosha,Vanya, Petya
- Hovercraft were named after Russian words for birds e.g Aist = Stork
- Submarine classes were given Phonetic alphabet names e.g Delta, Alpha, Victor etc
[edit] References
McLaughlin , S. What's in a (Russian) name, Warship 2005 Conway's maritime Press
