In 1990, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, the Red Fleet was big, made up of over 600 ships spread out over dozens of different classes. But here in 2015, 25 years later, the Russian Navy is a fraction of its forebear's size with under 200 ships. This lovely little graphic really illustrates how big of a difference that is.

Made by Louis Martin-Vézian of Contemporary Issues and Geography—the same minds behind those graphics about Air Force Planes—this all-encompassing graphic shows the total inventory of the Red Fleet and the modern Russian Navy side by side, dispensing with that pesky quarter century in between:

Contemporary Issues and Geography

(You can look at the giant, full-res version here)

You might think that one of the reasons for the big shrink was that many of the Soviet ships floated off to other nations following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but in fact Russia took virtually the whole fleet. The problem was a steep drop-off in funding that made maintenance of the former Red Fleet a total nightmare. So expansion was brought to a complete halt while many existing ships were scrapped or retired to bases to live out their lives as floating barracks.

Unfotunately the folks at Contemporary Issues and Geography aren't selling prints of this poster, so the ghost of Soviet naval might will have to live in your web browser, though you can pick of up a print of the US Navy's Air Arm if that floats your boat. Or floats some 600 of them, if you happen to be the Red Fleet.

Source: Contemporary Issues and Geography

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