arines were severely handicapped because they couldn't remain permanently submerged. This means that it must spend long periods of time on the surface running the diesel engines, in order to charge the batteries which powered the vessel when submerged. This dilemma caused the beginning of the nuclear powered submarine. The course was officially adopted by the Supreme Soviet on December 21, 1952. Shortly after this, in 1954, the Americans built the first ever nuclear powered submarine, the USS Nautilus. It wasn't until a year later that the construction of the first Soviet nuclear submarine began. The K-3 Leninsky Komsomol, built in Molotovsk, was launched on August 9, 1957, and then was commissioned to the Northern Fleet in July of 1958.
             In the period from 1950 to 1970, the Northern Fleet grew from being the smallest to the largest and most important of the four Soviet fleets(the Northern, Pacific, Baltic, and Black Sea Fleets). Six new Naval bases were built on the Kola peninsula a
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