Great Ships
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Modern Russian Ships
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II: Naval Review in Miniature

By Jim Bloom

One can readily examine nostalgic reminders of Russia’s proud naval heritage in the marvelous collections of models on display in a number of maritime museums encountered all over the Russian Federation. The Russian fondness for ships and seafaring lives on as well in the individual products of its outstanding ship modelers who continue to astound with their exacting miniature replicas of both current and historic naval vessels.

The Central Naval Museum is St. Petersburg maintains a collection of about 2000 ship models -- one of richest among nautical museums of the world. It includes models representing all eras and nationalities, though of course Russia predominates. Among these models there are such masterpieces of model-making art, as ship models presented to Tsar Peter the Great by the English monarchs William III and Anne Stewart between 1697 and 1710, as well as a Maltese Galley model dating from 1568 (one of oldest ship models in the world) donated to King Paul I, a French Galley model of the era of Lois XIII presented to Peter the Great in Paris in 1717, and a Russian frigate model made by none other than Peter the Great himself.

I will make use of several of these models to illustrate selected aspects and episodes of the Russian naval heritage and its future potential. The images of the ship models representing surface vessels are taken from one of Russia’s premier societies of ship modelers, based in St. Petersburg, the birthplace of the Russian navy and the natural habitat of expert ship miniaturists.

My thanks to the Ship Modeling Club of St.Petersburg, at the following url http://www.shipmodels.ru/

A visit to their website will reveal that many of the models on view have won gold and silver medals in national Russian competitions - no small achievement in a land replete with outstanding model shipwrights. The submarine replicas are those found at the website of an association called Pomorsky Souvenir, based in Sverodovinsk, the place where most Soviet and now Russian submarines are designed and fabricated.

Their website with images of all the models is at http://www.nordlink.ru/~dak/english/english.htm. They also have a small collection representing surface ships, but their main emphasis is upon submarines. Being that the survey is based on available images of ship models, it does not pretend to be comprehensive. It is necessarily a incomplete tour. But is an excursion that has the advantage of showcasing the delicate and fastidious miniature warships crafted by Russian artisans as a testament to the enduring legacy of their seafaring ancestors.

You will notice that with respect to the models representing wooden sailing vessels, the artisans practice the traditional Russian method of applying different woods with contrasting colors, grains and textures. In this way, the various shades are used to the extent possible instead of surface paint. It not only makes for a more attractive presentation, but lacquered natural grains will not chip, flake or wear off like paint. Where paint has been applied, it is done in a flat, opaque layer that allows the beauty of the woodgrain to shine through and does not veil the meticulous assembly procedures.

Models Stressed

It seems fitting to stress models in this article. The young Tsar Peter, the father of the Russian navy, was an avid modeler. He had served as an apprentice naval shipwright in the yards of the great maritime powers of his day, notably Holland and England, in order to get “nuts and bolts” schooling for the time when he’d return to the motherland and build his great navy. Not only did he design and personally supervise the construction of the first Russian war fleet, but also he created, collected, and studied highly accurate models of these ships. The models served a number of purposes. First and foremost, they were a way to replicate the designs and construction techniques the fledgling sovereign observed while in Europe and England. Second they were ready-to-hand miniature recreations of his great naval achievement. Third, they were, and remain, aesthetically pleasing objets d’art. The fondness for model ships has inspired twelve generations of Russian model shipwrights since that inaugural epoch.

From earliest times the life of the Slavs has been associated with water. Similarly to most ancient peoples, the Slavs built their settlements adjacent to rivers and lakes. The superiority of waterborne travel over plodding across rough terrain was unmistakable. Fishing provided an important food source and waterways became main transportation arteries. Even in a rough-hewn boat it was easier and safer to travel long distances than it was to cut through a dense forest.

Boat building techniques gradually improved. The canoe-like vessels of the Slavs, which were originally pushed through the water with punt poles, became considerably faster with the introduction of oars and sails.

Seventh Century

By the seventh century boat construction techniques had progressed sufficiently so that the Slavs could not only navigate rivers but also were able to venture into the open seas. They sailed to Thessalonica, Crete, the southern coast of Italy, and engaged the Byzantines in naval battles approaching the very walls of Constantinople. Because they were located along the waterways of the important ancient trade route called "from the Vikings to the Greeks", Kiev and Novgorod, the principal cities of Ancient Rus, grew and prospered.

For extended journeys these early Russians built a light, open vessel called a lodya. The Byzantines named it after the Greek term monoxile because it was made from the hollowed-out trunk of a single oak or linden tree. The builders fastened layers of planking to the hull to increase its height after which they affixed oars to this bulwark. The lodya was rendered capable of blue water navigation by adding a single mast with a square sail. The craft was light enough, when the need arose, for portage. Although it seldom exceeded twenty meters in length, a lodya often held a crew of forty. A salvaged hulk of one of these early vessels is on view at the Central Naval Museum.

In the ninth century Kievan Grand Prince Oleg, employed a flotilla of lodyas to attack Constantinople, then called Tsargrad by the Slavs. His victorious campaign proved the might and independence of Kievan Rus. It was thus that the developing Slavic peoples were wed to the great river arteries and seaways, a marriage that was often taken for granted but seldom ignored.

Rather than grind on through a chronological catalogue of wars, battles, commanders and ships, I think it best to let the models tell most of the story, while I’ll fill in the descriptions.

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NOTE: Jim Bloom's article uses a significant number of images in "III: Ship Models" pulled from elsewhere on the web. We chose to leave them in, despite the slowness of the download, because they are quite good. But be warned. It will take a while to download the entire section III and associated images. And we also warn that given the nomadic tendencies of web sites, these images may not necessarily be there in the future.--RL

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