Sergey Gorshkov

Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov (b. Podolsk, February 6, 1910 - d. May 13, 1988) was a Soviet naval officer during the Cold War who oversaw the expansion of the Soviet Navy into a global force.

Gorshkov joined the Soviet Navy in 1927, graduated from Frunze Naval College 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.

Reference; Admiral Gorshkov and the Soviet Navy - http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1982/jul-aug/chipman.html