Levchenko, Gordei Ivanovich

Born Jan. 20 (Feb. 1), 1897, in Dubrovka, now Baranovka Raion, Zhitomir Oblast. Soviet naval figure; admiral (1944). Member of the CPSU since 1919.

Levchenko joined the navy in 1913. He fought in World War I (1914–18) and participated in the storming of the Winter Palace, in battles against General Iudenich’s troops, and in the suppression of the mutinies at Krasnaia Gorka fort and in Kronstadt. Upon graduating from the Naval School in 1922, he served on ships of the Baltic Fleet and commanded the cruiser Aurora and a detachment of training ships. He was commander of the Caspian Naval Flotilla in 1932–33. In 1933–37 he commanded a battleship brigade of the Baltic Fleet and a destroyer division and a brigade of the Black Sea Fleet. Levchenko was appointed chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet in 1937; he became commander of this fleet in 1938 and deputy people’s commissar of the navy in 1939.

In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Levchenko participated as a representative of the naval command in the defense of Odessa, Nikolaev, and Sevastopol’ and commanded the troops of the Crimea (from October 22 to early November 1941). In 1942–44, Levchenko commanded the Leningrad and then the Kronstadt naval base and as such participated in the defense of Leningrad. Between 1944 and 1960 he served as deputy people’s commissar of the navy, commander of the Baltic Fleet, deputy commander in chief of the navy, chief inspector and inspector admiral of the navy, deputy commander in chief of the navy, and military inspector and adviser of a group of inspectors general of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. He has been in retirement since September 1960. Levchenko has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Ushakov First Class, two Orders of the Red Star, and various medals.