Admiral who led the Black Sea Fleet in the defence of Odessa and Sevastopol, and remains at the centre of the evacuation controversy
On 22 June 1941, warned of approaching bombers, Oktyabrsky said "Act according to instructions" and refused to order fire. His chief of staff opened up on his own, but in that brief delay the Germans laid mines in the harbour.
Wartime commander of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. From 1939 he led the fleet through the defence of Odessa and Sevastopol after Barbarossa, and organised the Kerch–Feodosia amphibious operation. Dismissed in 1943 after the failed South Ozereyka landing, he returned to command the Black Sea Fleet in 1944 and contributed to the Crimean, Odessa, and Jassy–Kishinev offensives. Promoted to admiral in 1944, he served postwar as First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, and in 1958 received the Hero of the Soviet Union for his leadership in the defence of Sevastopol. The decision to evacuate himself and the command staff while leaving tens of thousands of defenders behind in Sevastopol remains bitterly contested.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1918Volunteered for Red Baltic Fleet, fought in Civil War
- 1920Graduated Mine School of Baltic Fleet
- 1924Changed surname from Ivanov to Oktyabrsky (honouring the October Revolution)
- 1938–1939Commander, Amur Military Flotilla, saw action at Lake Khasan
- 1939–1943Commander, Black Sea Fleet — defence of Odessa and Sevastopol
- 1943–1944Commander, Amur Flotilla (demoted after dismissal from Black Sea Fleet)
- 1944–1948Returned as Commander, Black Sea Fleet; promoted Admiral (10 Apr 1944)
- 1948–1951First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy
- 1957–1960Head, Nakhimov Black Sea Higher Naval Institute
- 1960–1969Inspector-Advisor, Group of General Inspectors, Ministry of Defence
Related historical events
Dismissal and return, 1943–1944: the Amur Flotilla interlude
In July 1943 Oktyabrsky was removed from command of the Black Sea Fleet and posted to command the Amur Military Flotilla. The immediate trigger was the failure of the February 1943 landing at South Ozereyka. The posting effectively carried out what an earlier attempt had sought: in December 1942 the navy commissar Kuznetsov proposed removing him from the Black Sea Fleet and appointing him a member of the military council and deputy commander of the Transcaucasian Front, but the State Defence Committee rejected the proposal.
His successor was Vice-Admiral Vladimirsky, whose tenure proved short. In October 1943 the destroyer leader Kharkov and two destroyers were sunk by air attack, and the landing at Eltigen in November and December of that year also failed. Vladimirsky was removed for both episodes, and in March 1944 Oktyabrsky returned to the Black Sea Fleet. Under his renewed command the fleet contributed substantially to the liberation of the Caucasus and Crimea, and on 10 April 1944 he was promoted to admiral.
The episode is best read not as the demotion and return of one commander but as the command's answer to a year of failed amphibious operations and fleet losses on the Black Sea coast, in which responsibility did not fall on Oktyabrsky alone: his successor was removed in the same manner, and he was recalled.