Architect of the Soviet Navy who ordered combat readiness hours before Barbarossa, twice demoted and posthumously restored
On the night of 21 June 1941, Kuznetsov bypassed Stalin and ordered the entire fleet to combat readiness No. 1. When the Wehrmacht struck hours later, the Soviet Navy did not lose a single ship.
The naval commander credited with building the modern Soviet Navy. At 34 he became People's Commissar of the Navy, the youngest commissar in the USSR and the first professional seaman to hold the post. On the night of 21 June 1941, convinced invasion was imminent, he ordered the entire fleet to combat readiness No. 1 on his own authority; unlike the army, the navy lost not a single ship on the first day of the war. He commanded the navy throughout the conflict, serving on the Stavka and the State Defence Committee, and took part in the Yalta and Potsdam conferences as a member of the Soviet delegation. In 1944 he was made Admiral of the Fleet and Hero of the Soviet Union. Twice demoted (under Stalin in 1948 and Khrushchev in 1956), he was posthumously restored to his rank in 1988; Russia's sole aircraft carrier now bears his name.
Career Timeline
- 1919Joined Northern Dvina Flotilla (added two years to age)
- 1926Graduated Frunze Higher Naval School with honours
- 1933–1936Commander, cruiser Chervona Ukraina
- 1936–1937Chief naval advisor to Republican Spain (Don Nicolas Lepanto)
- 1938–1939Commander, Pacific Fleet
- 1939–1946People's Commissar of the Navy (age 34, youngest in USSR)
- 1948Demoted to rear admiral, posted to Far East as deputy naval commander
- 1951–1953Returned as Minister of the Navy (rank: vice admiral)
- 1953–19551st Dep. Defence Minister & C-in-C Navy, Admiral of the Fleet of the USSR
- 1956Demoted again to vice admiral and forcibly retired
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign Interventionenlisted in North Dvina Flotilla
- 1936–1939The Spanish Civil WarChief naval adviser, Don Nicolás LepantoManaged the passage and unloading of the ships carrying Soviet arms across the Mediterranean
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarPeople's Commissar of the Navy, Stavka memberAs People's Commissar of the Navy throughout the war, he commanded the entire Soviet Navy and saved it from surprise losses by ordering combat readiness No. 1 at 3 AM on 22 June 1941. As a Stavka member he directed Black Sea and Baltic Fleet operations, took part in the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, and was appointed to the State Defence Committee in February 1945.
The 1948 Court of Honor and First Demotion
In February 1946, just months after the war, the independent People's Commissariat of the Navy was abolished and the fleet absorbed into a unified Ministry of the Armed Forces. Kuznetsov was reduced to Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and Deputy Minister, and soon clashed with Stalin, who rejected his ambitious ten-year shipbuilding programme. Removed as Commander-in-Chief in January 1947 and relegated to head of naval educational institutions, he faced a far graver blow the following year.
On 12 January 1948, Kuznetsov and fellow admirals Lev Galler, Vladimir Alafuzov, and Georgy Stepanov were brought before a 'Court of Honor' (a Stalinist disciplinary tribunal) chaired by Marshal Leonid Govorov, hero of the Leningrad defence. The charge was extraordinary: that between 1942 and 1944, without government authorisation, they had transferred to Britain and the United States secret blueprints and descriptions of a high-altitude parachute torpedo, a remote-controlled grenade, several naval artillery systems, fire-control schematics, and a large quantity of classified naval charts. Every item had been shared in the course of wartime cooperation with allies fighting Nazi Germany.
On 3 February 1948, the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court found Kuznetsov guilty but, citing 'great past services', imposed no prison term. Instead it recommended his reduction in rank by three grades, to rear admiral, effective immediately. His co-defendants were less fortunate: Galler and Alafuzov received prison sentences; Galler died in custody in 1950. Kuznetsov later suggested in his posthumously published memoir Sharp Turns that the real driver was Stalin's anger over Kuznetsov's opposition to splitting the Baltic Fleet into two separate commands. Only in May 1953, after Stalin's death, was the conviction expunged and his admiral's rank restored.