Vladimir Orlov

Born July 3(15), 1895, in Kherson; died July 28, 1938. Soviet naval leader; flag officer of the fleet first class (1935). Member of the Communist Party from 1918. Son of the director of a Gymnasium.

Orlov studied at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. He was drafted into the Baltic Fleet in 1916 and graduated from a school for ensigns in 1917. He served in the Baltic Fleet and was chief of the political section of the fleet from 1918 to 1920. For the year 1920–21 he did work connected with shipping on inland waterways. Orlov served from 1921 to 1923 as assistant chief for naval affairs of the Political Administration of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and then as chief of the administration’s naval department. From 1923 to 1925 he was head and commissar of several naval schools. He graduated from the Higher Academic Training Courses in 1926. Orlov was commander of the Black Sea Naval Forces from 1926 to 1930. He was chief of the naval forces of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army from June 1931 to July 1937 and concurrently a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR until 1934. He became deputy people’s commissar of defense in January 1937. Orlov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star.