Lev Vladimirsky

Who was Lev Vladimirsky?

Lev Anatolevich Vladimirsky, was a Soviet naval officer and an Admiral.

He joined the Red Army as a volunteer during the Russian Civil War and fought against Islamic insurgents in Turkestan, later volunteering for service in the navy from 1921.

Vladimirsky graduated from the M. V. Frunze Naval school, and studied at the special courses for commanding officers, and the Military Academy of General Staff.

Vladimirsky served aboard the Black and Azov seas ships as a navigator, watch chief, artilleryman, and senior deputy commander of a destroyer. From 1932 he commanded a destroyer escort, destroyer, destroyer leader, and from 1937, serving as chief of staff of the brigade of cruisers, and operations officer of a cruiser brigade. Early in 1938 he served on the French transport Bonifacio to supply arms and ammunition to the Spanish communists in the last stages of the Spanish Civil War, and later in 1938 Vladimirsky headed a detachment of hydrographic vessels, which accomplished a passage from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean.