Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov
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Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov (Russian: Николай Герасимович Кузнецов) (July 24, 1904–December 6, 1974) was a Soviet naval officer and People's Commissar of the Navy during World War II.
In 1919, Kuznetsov joined the Northern Dvina Naval Flotilla, adding two years to his age to be accepted. His military service records give the year of his birth as 1902. In 1924, as a member of a naval unit he attended the funeral ceremony of Vladimir Lenin. That same year he joined the Bolshevik Party.
Upon graduation from the Frunze Naval School in 1926, Kuznetsov served in the cruiser Chervona Ukraina, first as watch officer and then as First Lieutenant. He completed studies in operations and tactics at the operations department of Naval College in 1932. Upon graduation he was offered the option of a staff job or commanding officer of a ship. Believing that it would be unwise to skip the job of executive officer, he requested and received the position of executive officer of the cruiser Krasny Kavkaz ("Red Caucasus"). One year later he earned early promotion. At the beginning of 1934 he became commanding officer of his first ship, Chervona Ukraina.
From September 5, 1936 to August 15, 1937, Kuznetsov was naval attache and chief naval advisor in Spain, where he developed a loathing for fascism. When he returned home, he was appointed deputy commander and then commander of the Pacific Fleet. On April 28, 1939, not yet 35 years old, he became the People's Commissar (Minister) of the Navy, a post he would hold through World War II. At the end of the war, he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union at 41 years old. From 1946 to 1947 he was the Deputy Minister of the USSR Armed Forces and Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces. In 1951 he rose to Minister of the Navy of the USSR, and in 1953 became the First Deputy Minister of Defence of the USSR and Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces.
On December 8, 1955, after the loss of the battleship Novorossiisk in the harbor of Sevastopol, Kuznetsov was removed from his post, and in February 1956, he was demoted to the rank of vice-admiral and retired.
Even after retirement, however, he continued to serve the Navy. He wrote memoirs and many articles and essays which were published in a number of journals. In these works he gave insight into the development of the Soviet Navy, its problems, and the role it played in World War II. He died in 1974. On July 26, 1988 the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet reinstated Kuznetsov to his former rank of Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union.
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- My whole life is linked with the Soviet Navy. I made my choice when I was young and never regretted it.