Nikolai Ivanovich Smirnov

Who was Nikolai Ivanovich Smirnov?

Nikolai Ivanovich Smirnov was a Soviet Navy Admiral and a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Smirnov was born in a peasant family and graduated from an agricultural institute. He joined the Navy in 1937 and completed the M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School in Leningrad in 1939. He joined the Pacific fleet and qualified as a navigator on submarines. In 1943–44 he commanded a Pacific Fleet submarine. In June 1944 he was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet where he commanded a submarine.

After the war Smirnov continued in the Black Sea Fleet serving as a staff officer and commander of a submarine squadron in 1956–57. Smirnov graduated from the General Staff Academy in 1959. In 1960 he became chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet. From 1964 to 1969 he was head of the Operational Directorate and Deputy Chief of the Main Navy Staff.

Smirnov became Pacific Fleet Commander in 1969 and First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy in 1974 having been promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1973.

Smirnov was part of the Inspectorate general of the Armed forces from March 1988. Smirnov died in 1992 and is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow.