Sergey Gorshkov

Sergey Gorshkov
Born	February 26, 1910(1910-02-26) Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russian Empire
Died	May 13, 1988(1988-05-13) (aged 78) Moscow, Soviet Union
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service/branch	Soviet Navy
Years of service	1927-1985
Rank	Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union
Commands held	Black Sea Fleet, Soviet Navy
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Order of Lenin - 7 times Order of the October Revolution - 4 times Order of Kutuzov Order of Ushakov Order of the Patriotic War Order of the Red Star Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces USSR State Prize Lenin Prize

Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergey Georgiyevich Gorshkov (Russian: Сергей Георгиевич Горшков) (February 26, 1910 - May 13, 1988) was a Soviet naval officer during the Cold War who oversaw the expansion of the Soviet Navy into a global force.

Born in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Gorshkov grew up in Kolomna. Gorshkov joined the Soviet Navy in 1927. He graduated from the M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School in 1931, and gained command of surface boats in the Black Sea in 1932. During World War II he distinguished himself in landings on the Kerch Peninsula and commanded a destroyer squadron at the end of the war. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, and under Leonid Brezhnev oversaw a massive naval build-up of surface and submarine forces, creating a force capable of challenging Western naval power by the late 1970s.

Gorshkov is often associated with the phrase "'Better' is the enemy of 'Good Enough'," which is reputed to have hung on the wall of his office as a motto. Similar sentiments have been attributed to Clausewitz and Voltaire. The motto appears in the Tom Clancy novel, The Hunt For Red October. The phrase is also attributed to Admiral Gorshkov in Norman Polmar's Guide to the Soviet Navy (1983, 3rd edition). That is one year prior to Clancy's first published date for "Hunt" by the Naval Institute Press.

Honours, Awards and Decorations

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Russian Wikipedia.

Soviet awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union, twice (1965, 1982)
• Order of Lenin - 7 times (1953, 1960, 1963, 1965, 1970, 1978, 1982)
• Order of the October Revolution (1968)
• Order of Kutuzov, 1st class
• Order of Ushakov, 1st and 2nd classes
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (1985)
• Order of the Red Star
• Order of the Red Banner, four times (1942, 1943, 1947, 1959)
• Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd class (1975)
• USSR State Prize (1980)
• Lenin Prize (1985)
• Honorary Citizen of Sevastopol, Vladivostok, Berdyansk, Eisk and Severodvinsk
• Medal "In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
• Medal for the Defence of Odessa
• Medal for Defence of the Caucasus
• Medal for the Victory Over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945
• Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
• Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
• Medal "Forty Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
• Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
• Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Medal "50 Years of the USSR Armed Forces"
• Medal "60 Years of the USSR Armed Forces"

Gorshkov has been commemorated by various monuments and namings:

• Monuments installed in Kolomna (author - sculptor L. Kerbel) and Novorossiysk
• Memorial plaque on the headquarters building of the Black Sea Fleet
• Central Hospital of the Navy
• School number 9 in Kolomna, from which he graduated in 1926, street and school in the district
• the Railway Kupavna, Moscow Oblast
• Feasibility of the Lyceum
• A neighbourhood of Novorossiysk
• Central Sports Club of the Navy
• The Admiral Gorshkov award (Russian Navy, 2006)
• An aircraft carrier (Admiral Kuznetsov, due to be transferred to India and renamed Vikromaditya)

Foreign awards

• Gold Patriotic Order of Merit (East Germany)
• Scharnhorst Order (East Germany)
• Gold Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia)
• Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia)
• Order of the Hungarian People's Republic, 1st class (Hungary)
• Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1st class (Bulgaria)
• Grand Cross of the Order of St. Alexander, with swords (Bulgaria)

Military offices
Preceded by Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov	Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy 1956-1985	Succeeded by Vladimir Nikolayevich Chernavin

External links

• Admiral Gorshkov and the Soviet Navy
• Cover Article about Gorshkov on Time Magazine