Pyotr Alexandrovich Smirnov (; 29 May 1897 – 23 February 1939) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

politician who served as People's Commissar of the Navy of the Soviet Union .

Biography

Smirnov was born in a workers family in a village near Vyatka in 1897. He finished school and worked as a smith in a timber mill from 1913. He joined the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

in March 1917 and was a member of the

Red Guards The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

. He fought in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

ending as a brigade commander and a political officer of an army. In 1921 he took part in the suppression of the

Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion () was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, Marines, naval infantry, and civilians against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, ...

. In the 1920s he was a political commissar of the Volga and North Caucasus military districts. From 1926 he joined the political directorate of the armed forces and was political commissar of the

Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...

and Military districts. In 1937 he was involved in the purge of military leaders including

Yakov Gamarnik Yan Gamarnik (birth name Jakov Tzudikovich Gamarnik ()), sometimes known as Yakov Gamarnik (; – 31 May 1937), was the Chief of the Political Department of the Red Army from 1930 to 1937, Deputy Commissar of Defense 1930—1934 and First Se ...

. In October 1937 he became deputy minister of defence, and was People's Commissar of the Navy from December 1937.

Repression

He was arrested in June 1938 and executed by firing squad in February 1939. He was rehabilitated in 1956.

Awards

* The order of Lenin; * Order of the Red Banner (1921).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smirnov, Pyotr 1897 births 1939 deaths People from Slobodskoy Uyezd Old Bolsheviks First convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union NKVD officers Soviet Navy personnel Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner People of the Russian Civil War Chiefs of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Soviet Navy Great Purge victims from Russia Soviet rehabilitations