Change of Skippers

Admiral Ivan Yumashev, made Russia's top sea dog last year when Stalin set up his Red navy as an independent branch of the Russian armed services, last week was out of a job. Reported Moscow: at 56, he "was released from duty at his own request." His successor: Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov, 49.

Kuznetsov, as much at home in Kremlin committee rooms as on a man o' war's bridge, got a job working on riverboats at twelve, soon afterward joined the embryonic Soviet navy. Kuznetsov is a member of the Party Central Committee, accompanied Stalin to Yalta. During the Spanish civil war, he was reported in charge of the Loyalists' small naval forces.

Kuznetsov commands a weak navy (three battleships, one carrier, 16 cruisers, upwards of 70 destroyers), which the Russians are trying hard to build up. Its most formidable asset: an estimated 300 modern submarines.

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