Bantam Books’ 1985 edition of Russian Submarines in Arctic Waters is an English-language translation of Hero of the Soviet Union Rear Admiral Ivan Aleksandrovich Kolyshkin’s (Иван Александрович Колышкин) book Submarines in Arctic Waters, the latter originally published by Progress Publishers in Moscow, in 1966.
Nautical artist Christopher Blossom’s cover depicts the submarine S-103 (“С-103“), which served in the Soviet Navy from mid-1939 to January of 1956. The image of S-103 below, from Evgeniy Chirva’s website “The Great Patriotic War Undersea – About Submarines and Submariners 1941-1945” (Великая Отечественная под водой – О подлодках и подводниках 1941 – 1945 гг.), was perhaps the inspiration for Blossom’s art. Certainly Blossom’s evocative composition parallels the perspective, angle of view, and rocky coastline in the wartime photo of the submarine.
The cover of the original (English-language) publication of Admiral Kolyshkin’s book (from Ainsworth Books) is rather rudimentary, showing the Naval Ensign of the Soviet Navy adjacent to the Kola Peninsula, the location of the headquarters and bases of the former Soviet Union’s – and now the Russian Federation’s – Northern Fleet. (At Severomorsk and around Murmansk, respectively.)
Here’s a map view of the Kola Peninsula. Note that the geography of the area as depicted on the cover of the 1966 edition doesn’t – hmmm – match the actual geography of the Kola Peninsula and its adjacent coastline. Artistic simplicity? Cold War era misinformation? Or, both?
References
Biography of Hero of the Soviet Union Rear Admiral Ivan Aleksandrovich Kolyshkin – at WarHeroes.ru
Submarines in Arctic Waters – at Ainsworth Books
Russian Navy – at Wikipedia
Soviet Navy – at Wikipedia
“The Great Patriotic War Undersea – About Submarines and Submariners 1941-1945” – Великая Отечественная под водой – О подлодках и подводниках 1941 – 1945 гг.