[GZG] ESU ships names (Look from the Russian side)

[Тимофей Потапенко <potapenkoteo@xxxxxxx>]

In the Name of Socialism.
VKF, as it is shown in the "Fleet Book 1" follows mostly Russian (or better to say Soviet Union) naval traditions. That affects not only ranking system, crew official and nonofficial customs, but also nominating ships. In this brief article I want to give some impression of how to name military ships to make them sound "Soviet" and "Communist".
The truth is, that Russian Navy hasn't ever had any single system of ships' names (that's probably because of relative insignificense of the Russian VMS (navy) in comparison with "Ground Forces", unlike, let's say, Britain, Russia has always been a continental power). It would be more right to say, that Russian navy has a mix of traditions, and some of them were different in times of Empire and the Soviet Union. Let's, finally look at them.
Tradition 1. Adjectives. In the last years of the 19th century our navy got new class of ships: fast torpedo armed destroyers (in Russian "esmintsi"). For those completely new light ships Admiralty set up a new tradition: give them numbers or adjective names instead of nouns. Note, that in British navy, adjectives (like "Invincible") belong to capital ships, but in Russian - to light ones (no bigger than destroyers). Additional rule: at the beginning they tried to invent the names for the ships of the same design, starting of the same letter.
So I would suggest adjectives as the names of the ESU escorts. Russians say "he" about their fighting ships (but submarines are "ladies"), and Russian male adjectives end with a combination of an impossible for any English-speaker vowel (written like "bl" in capitals), and a consonant, which sounds like the "y" in English word "play". So normally that combination is written "-iy", "-ii", or "-y" when transliterated into English. 
Very good and traditional for Russian escort would be names Agressivny (Aggressive), Aktivny (Active), Bespokoyny (Disturbing, Restless), Voinstvenny (Militant), Gremiashchiy (Thundering), Derzky (Daring), Proslavlenny (Renown), Sovremenny (Modern), Yasny (Clear) etc.
Tradition 2. "Flyers". From the very beginning Russian submarines got the names of fish and other water creatures: Akula (Shark), Krokodil (Crocodile), Krab (Crab); while amphibious ships often got names after small or medium predators: Kunitsa (Marten), Rossomaha (Wolverine). 
So, once "swimming" submarines got fish-names, then "flying" spaceships should have birds' names: Orel (eagle), Voron (vulture), Yastreb (falcon), Socol (also falcon, but of different kind), Orlan, Filin, Albatros, Burevestnik, Chaika, Skopa would be nice.
But more popular are not flying birds but flying winds. We still have in Russian Navy "Buria", "Shtorm" (both mean storm). But in Russian science fiction our spaceships are often called after snow winds. The most popular spaceship in Russian Sci-fi is called "Hius" (Hius - is strong cold wind, which blows in steppes in February). Like in Arabian language there are 20 words for "Camel", in Russian there are several words for "blizzard", and many of them are used for warships, while the last - for real spaceship. Here are some (and all of them are different blizzards): Poziomka, Metel, Viuga, Purga, Zariad, Buran. 
Tradition 3. Geography. That tradition evolved in 1920s-30s, and it is still used, but it has changed much and became nonsystematic nowdays. I'll try to restore it.
So, in 1920s-1930s some light cruisers were named after big national areas of the USSR. The idea was to underline communist loyalty of the areas. They were "Krasny Crim" ("Red Crimea", note male adjective ending); "Krasny Kavkaz" ("Red Caucasus"); "Chervona Ukraina" ("Red Ukraine", not Russian, but Ukranian language name). Gunboats had the names of the smaller regions, there were for example "Krasnaya Abhazia" ("Red Abhasia"), "Krasnaya Gruziya" ("Red Georgia"), "Krasnaya Armenia".
In VKF ESU there are some light cruisers of the "Tibet" project. Tibet - is a national mountain area in China. Add word "Krasny" and get the name of the tradition: "Krasny Kavkaz", "Krasny Tibet", "Krasny Xinjian", "Krasnaya Transilvania" etc.
There were other ships in old Soviet Navy in 1920-1940s, which class was called "leaders". Leaders were smaller then cruisers but bigger than esminets-classes (destroyers), so we also may consider them like cruisers. They were named after capitals of the Soviet republics "Moskva", "Kharkov", "Tashkent", "Kiev". And, finally, Soviet battleships were also called after biggest ports and renown naval fortresses: "Vladivostok", "Petropavlovsk", "Sevastopol", "Archangelsk"+
In VKF ESU there are some ships of "Bejing" project. So, it would look authentic if some cruisers (even big ones,  cause "Kiev-class carriers" in Soviet Navy were also officially called "aircraft carrying cruisers") in ESU squadrons would have names of local capitals. E g "Changsha", "Kunming", "Namp'o", "Nagpur", "Rostov", "Minsk", "Bratislava" etc. 
The biggest battleship of the Soviet Navy was going to get name "Sovetskiy Soyuz" (The Soviet Union), but it hadn't ever been finished. So I would suggest this kind of "geographical line, going up". Cruisers are named after lands and local cities. Battlecruisers and battleships - after biggest cities and small countries with adding words "Sovetsky" (Soviet), "Narodny" (People's), "Sotsialistichesky" (Socialist) or "Krasny" (Red) ("Sovetskaya Manchuria", "Leningrad", "Narodnaya Korea", "Sotsialisticheskaya Chekhoslovakia"). Dreadnoughts might have names after the biggest territories, planets, star systems ("Sovetskiy Soyuz", "Chzhun Go"). 
Tradition 3. Revolutionaries. In this "tradition" there are two "branches": revolutionary events, and revolutionary leaders and organizations. 
Events. Biggest and the most powerful capital ships were named after the most powerful or most significant Communist revolutions. In the soviet Navy there were battleships "Parizhskaya Komunna" (Paris Commune) and "Octyabrskaya Revolyutsia" (October Revolution). You may call your battleships and battledreadnoughts after any revolution you like from history of the past or GZG-universe.
Leaders. It's easy. Take any revolutionary or communist leader from any history and give his (her) last name for a ship. If you want to name a ship after a Chinese revolutionary, take his full name. The only rule: more powerful ships should be called after a bigger leader. Let's say "Bauman" or "Komarov" for destroyer, "Mikoyan" for cruiser, "Che Gevara" for battleship, "Mao Zei Dong" or "Lenin" for dreadnought.
For lighter ships you may choose nonpersonal names "Revoliutsioner" (Revolutionary), "Krasnogvardeets" (Red Guardsman), "Stalinets" (Stalinist), or, for example, "Luddit" (Luddite).
Tradition 4. Famous people. Very often Soviet ships got names not after revolutionary leaders, but after famous warlords, naval commanders and scientists. In that case slight different system is used. Not only surname, but also rank of the person is included into the ship's name. If we take Full Thrust ESU classes, they should sound "Admiral Gorshkov", "Marshal Voroshilov", "Marshal Zhukov".  In the Soviet Union there was rater a big scientific fleet, research ships of which were called mostly after famous scientist. In GZG-universe ESU carriers are obviously called after people, who stood at the beginning of the spaceflights (the same way were some sci-ships in the USSR). So, in that tradition the ships shouldn't have just surname, but also rank of the person. "Kosmonavt Komarov" (Cosmonaut Komarov), "Akademik Koroliov", "Professor Yangel". This way you can determine cruiser named after revolutionary Komarov (which name would be just "Komarov"), from the carrier named after the astronaut. If the person had no title or rank (like Tsiolkovsky), there should be his first name instead: "Konstantin Tsiolkovsky".  
Tradition 5. Renown. Since the middle of XIXth century in Russian navy there is a tradition to "reincarnate" ships with admirable history. Several names have changed three bearers so far. Those renowns are:
"Merkuriy" (Merkurius). Brig, which defeated in 1827 two heavy Turkish frigates. Later there was a light cruiser with the same name. 
"Azov". Russian battleship renowned at the sea battle of Navarin in 1829. In the end of the XIX century, there was raider (cruiser) with the same name.
"Avrora". (Aurora). Corvette of the Baltic Fleet, took part in the Crimean war against English and in 1862\63 journey to USA, to uphold Notherns in the American civil war. Light cruiser with the same name, built in about 1897, survived terrible Tsushima sea battle, took part in the WWI, and became the leading force of the October revolution. Now, it's one of the symbols of the Revolution, and "honorable olderman" (ship number 001) of the Navy.
"Variag" (Viking). Cruiser which in 1904 engaged suicidal battle against Japanese navy, gloriously fought till the last cannon, drowned, but didn't surrender. Battlesong "Our Variag isn't going to surrender" became unofficial anthem of Soviet and modern Russian navies.  There was a missile battlecruiser with the same name. And nonfinished big nuclear powered air carrier, scrapped in 1993, also supposed to be called "Variag".
"Slava" (Renown). WW1 battleship (yes, we also had one with that name). Delayed advancing German fleet fighting all alone, in 1916 in the Baltic Sea. Flagship of Soviet heavy fleet (former "Molotov") was renamed into "Slava" in 1957, when Molotov tried to coup Khrushchev, and was expelled from the leadership. 
"Kirov". Cruiser of the Baltic fleet, which took huge part of defence of Leningrad during WW2. Big nuclear powered battlecruiser (flagship of late Soviet Baltic fleet) has the same name.
So, for game purposes you may choose any heroic episode of Russian, Chinese, Polish or Corean navies (or imagine any from the history of ESU spaceforces) and transfer any name from there.
Minor traditions. Sometimes ships were called because of certain anniversary or political event. "50 let Octyabria" (50 years of October revolution). Sometimes they are called after sponsors. "Leninsky Komsomol" (Leninist Young Communist League, traditional sponsor of Soviet Navy) or "Severstal" ("Nothern Steel", an industrial concern, which builds submarines). Traditionally auxiliary transports are called after big Russian rivers (Volga, Lena, Volkhov, Dnepr, Don).
Altered tradition. Battles. In "Fleet book one" there are three ships, which are completely out from MODERN tradition, but they could fit, into TSARIST tradition, never used in post-revolution times, but rather possible. I mean names "Manchuria", "Rostov", "Petrograd". There is NO city Petrograd, but there was a victorious and glorious defense of it (from bolshevist side, surely) during the Russian Civil war. And there was victorious battle for Rostov during WW2, and there were successful battle for Manchuria where Soviets were against Japanese in 1945 and there was a "Manchurian victory" of the Chinese People's (Red) Army during the Chinese Civil war in late 1940s. So, I would suggest name capital ships after big victories of different communist armies.
I hope these short principles will help you to get more fun from fighting on the side (or against) of glorious Peoples Military Space Fleet, which brings liberation to the working class of all the nations of Human-kind.


Yours,
Timophey (Tengel) Potapenko

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