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As befits his rank, he is chauffeured each morning from his spacious Moscow apartment to the Defense Ministry in Arbatskaya Square. Gorshkov seldom entertains and rarely appears at diplomatic functions. Married, he often spends weekends with his wife at their government-supplied dacha near Moscow. Like most high-ranking Soviet officers, he is withdrawn even from his personal staff, spent most of the time that he was not traveling about in India alone in his bedroom.
Czarist Traditions. Peter the Great would probably feel more at home in the Soviet navy than Lenin or Trotsky-Aside from the fact that nearly all officers are party members and that each ship has a political officer who gives daily indoctrination lectures for everyone, navy life reflects the traditions of the czars more than those of the commissars. Discipline is extremely rigid, and the gap between officers and men is far greater than in the U.S. or British navy. The officers' quarters are far more spacious, their food far tastier, their dining rooms more elegant, their uniforms much fancier. The disparity in pay between officers and men is right out of the times that drove Karl Marx to write Das Kapital; a first-term seaman earns $5 a month, a lieutenant earns 100 times more, and a rear admiral 400 times that much. There is an additional discrimination that probably is due to the Soviet Union's problem with alcoholism. While officers may tipple in moderation onshore—and those of the Black Sea Fleet may even enjoy white wine at meals—Soviet sailors are forbidden at all times to drink on either land or sea. From all indications, the order is surprisingly well obeyed.
Russia's seamen—nearly all are draftees who serve for three years—nonetheless live better than many factory workers. The food is plentiful, and the crew quarters are relatively comfortable and clean. The ships have air conditioning, well-stocked libraries, TV sets for reception in ports and coastal areas and movies twice a week. Sailors organize singing and music groups, play dominoes and chess and, at every opportunity, sunbathe on deck in what U.S.
Navymen call the "Soviet uniform"-white jockey shorts.
Unlike their Western counterparts, the Soviet sailors are not allowed to let off steam in foreign ports. They go ashore only in groups escorted by a petty officer, take in local museums, points of historical interest, and window-shop. They buy few souvenirs, avoid bars and prostitutes and never tip. Usually they return to their ships by nightfall. In the ports along the Mediterranean where the Soviet fleet has displaced the Western ones, hawkers and whores are dismayed by the spartan conduct and serious demeanor of the Russian sailors.
Harassment Policy. The Soviet navy's 465,000 men are also deadly serious about their chief task: a potentially lethal game of espionage and tag. Gorshkov's fleet has expanded its activity on the seas by three hundredfold in the last ten years, and much of its effort is devoted to a determined policy of harassment, probing and provocation. Across the oceans of the world, the light-grey-hulled Soviet warships are watching, trailing and sometimes crowdj ing the ships of the Western fleets, especially those of the U.S. Navy.