Reddit reviews Modern Naval Combat

Depending on decade in question, the Soviet Navy was actually something like 'fourth' or even 'fifth' most important branch of the Soviet military. Some of leaders in Moscow (see Khrushchev), nearly 'despised' it (at least declared the navy for an 'unnecessary steel-eater'), and favourised other branches instead. Plus, the Soviet Navy did at least three major mistakes in its post-WWII-development, and thus lagged behind comparable Western services for decades...

Much compressed, it could be said that the Soviet Navy went through several developmental phases during the Cold War:

1.) First of these was the reconstruction phase (1946-1952). Starting point of this phase was to continue the pre-war build-up plans, so Soviets continued constructing cruisers and destroyers armed with guns. But, before soon they realized they couldn't match Western navies, and also that the latter have had immense amphibious capabilities. Thus, they decided to counter such threat with help of subs - primarily types developed from German Typ XXI (like W-, R-, Q-, Z-, and F-classes) - mines, and medium- and small-size surface vessels (cruisers and destroyers).

2.) In mid-1950s, Soviets realized that the threat of an amphibious assault on their shores was meanwhile minimal (if existant at all), while an entirely new threat emerged: that of aircraft carriers carrying bombers equipped with nukes. They reacted by developing own subs (J- class, E- and E II-class etc.) and warships armed with cruise missiles (carrying nuclear warheads). Gradually, this effort - which developed within three own phases - resulted in what could be described as 'anti-aircraft carrier' program.

3.) 1960s... Mid through the 2nd phase, Soviets realized that they couldn't outmatch US (and British) superiority in strategic bombers, so they gave up trying. Instead, they went for ballistic missiles. But, while they even gained something like minimal advantage in this regards, much of that was a show, and many systems took years longer to mature. Meanwhile, and since their development of nuclear-powered subs was lagging, they began installing ballistic missiles on reconfigured G-class (resulting in the H-class). But, because of the development of these was lagging too, they continued pushing projects for SSGs equipped with anti-ship cruise missiles, like E-/E-II- and J-classes.

4.) By early 1960s, the Soviet Navy was in true problems, then the USN began introducing to service its Polaris-armed SSBNs, and the Soviets had to realize - and this for the third time within less than 15 years - that not only the development of their navy was run in the wrong direction again, but they were lagging ever further in regards of technological development. So, they switched once again, and launched their 'anti-Polaris' effort, i.e. began developing ASW capabilities.

That's what - between others - resulted in construction of Moskva and Leningrad helicopter cruisers, Kurpny- and Kinda-, and then Kresta/Kresta-I/Kara-class cruisers (not to talk about a host of minor sub-hunting classes). These in turn have led to the subsequent Krivak-, and finally Udaloy-classes.

5.) During the late 1960s, Soviets finally managed to solve most of R+D problems with nuclear-powered subs and solid-fuelled missiles, and then rushed to build 33 units of the Y-class SSBNs. With this, they kind of 'equalized' the advantage of Polaris-equipped US and British (and then French) subs, and then began concentrating on developing offensive naval capabilities - and did so primarily around their large ASW-warships...

That's what resulted in the situation as it was of the late 1970s and at least the first half of 1980s, which was described by r/thefourthmaninaboat.

Recommended reading... the first that comes to my mind would be Sea Power: A Naval History by Nimitz and Potter. Depending on edition in question, this massive volume is going well into the 1970s and has a separate chapter dedicated to post-WWII development of the Soviet Navy, in which all the above-described phases are discussed in excellent detail.

A 'Soviet alternative' would be Gorshkov's Navies in War and Peace" - Analysis of the Cold War Soviet Navy.

Some of 'Soviet Military Power' volumes from the 1970s and 1980s were quite good at describing the development of the Soviet Navy since 1945 too, but can't recall exactly which one to recommend (they were issued something like annually): sorry, they're in a box I can't currently find.

Modern Naval Combat was probably the best-illustrated - but also best-explained - 'handbook on naval warfare for amateurs' in the 1980s, and I can't but recommend it to any student of this topic (curiously enough, much of that book is actually still valid: the only thing it's really missing would be introduction of stealth to naval warfare).

Minimalists might find such small volumes like An Illustrated Guide to the Modern Soviet Navy 'perfectly enough' too, of course.

Found the picture here, and someone further down in the comments there seems to identify the book it came from as this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Naval-Combat-David-Miller/dp/0517613506