Filipp Oktiabrskii

(F. S. Ivanov). Born Oct. 11 (23), 1899, in the village of Lukshino, now in Staritsa Raion, Kalinin Oblast; died July 8, 1969, in Sevastopol’. Soviet naval officer; admiral (1944); Hero of the Soviet Union (Feb. 20, 1958). Member of the CPSU from 1919. Son of a peasant.

Oktiabr’skii was a stoker and a machinist on a ship. He volunteered for service in the Baltic Fleet in November 1917 and fought in the Civil War of 1918–20. He completed courses at the Petrograd Communist University in 1922 and at the M. V. Frunze Naval College in 1928. Oktiabr’skii served on torpedo boats in the Baltic Fleet and in the Far East and commanded a large unit of torpedo boats. In 1938–39 he was commander of the Amur Military Flotilla. He was commander of the Black Sea Fleet from March 1939 to April 1943 and from March 1944 to November 1948. Oktiabr’skii was one of the leaders of the heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol’, and at the same time (1941–42) was commander of the Sevastopol’ Defense Region. He commanded the Amur Military Flotilla from June 1943 to March 1944. He was first deputy commander in chief of the navy and then chief of an administration from 1948 to 1952. He was in retirement because of illness from 1954 to 1957. He served as chief of the P. S. Nakhimov Black Sea Higher Naval College from 1957 to 1960 and as inspector-adviser in the group of general inspectors of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR from 1960. He was a deputy to the second convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Oktiabr’skii was awarded three Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Ushakov First Class, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of Nakhimov First Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.