Cybermat47, I think you're right with Stalin "communism" and it's sequels and I remember my father saying that the most beautifull day in his life is the one in August 1944 when he saw the first GI, 4 men in jeep with a machinegun, not very proud, but for French people they were the messenger of freedom.
CCIP, I was very surprised when I red these reports.
The only things I knew before about soviets navy war was the performances of their Marines at Leningrad, Sevastopol and Stalingrad, and of course the sinkings of the german's liner at the end of the war.
They had a lot of casualties and their weapons were at least as good as the best ones of other countries.
And they don't make a war only against merchants but against the Kriegsmarine, attacking the supply ships for the wehrmacht comming from german allied harbour of Romania.
You're rights saying thay made a similar war as the British subs in mediteranean sea when they wanted to cut the line between Italy and North-Africa.
And they also had to make war spied by their own political power
Have you some data about soviets subs of that period, before they copied the type XXI U-booten?