Gavriil Vasilyevich Zhukov (; 24 March 1899 - 8 January 1957) 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 ...

naval commander who served in both the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life

Zhukov was born in the Village of Beryozovy Gai in the

Samara Governorate Samara Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, located in the Volga Region. It existed from 1850 to 1928; its capital was in Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev ...

in 1899. After limited schooling at the age of 15 he was employed at a factory manufacturing

artillery fuze An artillery fuze or fuse is the type of munition fuze used with artillery munitions, typically projectiles fired by guns (field, anti-aircraft, coast and naval), howitzers and mortars. A fuze is a device that initiates an explosive function in ...

s. Later he traveled to Petrograd and entered a maritime School there. In April 1918, he joined the Red Army sailors' detachment and took part in battles with the White Guard troops in Samara, Simbirsk and Kazan in the composition of the Volga Military Flotillas. He rose through the ranks first as a seaman, then a machine gunner, chief of staff of the sailors' unit and finally adjutant to the unit commander. After the Civil War from 1925 to 1927 he studied at the Russian Naval School. During the Spanish Civil War from October 1936 to 31 July 1937, Zhukov was in Spain as adviser and assistant to the naval attaché to Nikolai Kuznetsov . For his participation alongside the Spanish Republicans he received his first

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

. From its construction in 1937 to 1939 he was captain of the cruiser ''Maxim Gorky'' and was then promoted in 1939 to command the Detachment of Training Ships of the Baltic Fleet, before serving as commandant of the Northwestern Fortified Region of the Black Sea Fleet. In March 1940, he was transferred to command the Odessa Naval Base .

Second World War

When the Germans invaded the USSR, Gavriil Zhukov was the commander of the Odessa Naval Base as well as the Odessa Defense Region during the Siege of Odessa when the city was surrounded by Romanian and German forces in August 1941 until the evacuation of troops in October 1941. In December, Zhukov was appointed deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet for land defense of its main base, Sevastopol. After the defense of Sevastopol, he commanded naval bases, taking charge of the

Tuapse Tuapse (; , Ṫuapsă ) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. Population: Tuapse is a sea port and the northern center of a resort zone which extends sou ...

Naval Base in April 1942. In May 1943 Zhukov was transferred to command the Island Naval Base 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 ...

Lavansaari Moshchny (; ; , ) is an island in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, located some 120 km west of Saint Petersburg. The island is a part of the Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The area of the island is approximately 13.9 km². After the F ...

and Seiskari in the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

. In January 1945 he was shifted to command the Odessa Naval Base.

Later life

Between 1946 and 1948, Zhukov commanded the Southern Naval Region of the Pacific Fleet, before serving as chief of the Black Sea Higher Naval School in Sevastopol. In September 1948 he was transferred to serve as chief of the Odessa Higher Nautical School, his last post before he resigned due to illness in 1951. Zhukov died in Odessa in 1957 and buried at the Second Christian Cemetery in Odessa.

References

Vasilyeva I.P. Zhukov Gavrilo Vasyliovych Archived June 25, 2016 at the Wayback Machine .// Encyclopedia of the history of Ukraine : in 10 volumes / edited by: V. A. Smoliy (head) and others. ; Institute of the History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine . — K. _ : Naukova dumka, 2005. — Vol. 3: E — J. — P. 172. — 672 p. : fig. — ISBN 966-00-0610-1 . * (ru) Виталий Орлов, “ Организатор и душа одесского бастиона. archive , at nytimes.com ,2011 (consulted theAugust 15, 2015) *(ru) Толмачев В. А., Советские военные моряки в Испании. 1936—1939 гг. // Военно-исторический журнал. — 2006. — No. 7. — C.56-58. *(ru) " Умер сын вице-адмирала Гавриила Жукова " archive of theMay 14, 2010(accessed onOctober 17, 2022) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhukov, Gavriil Soviet vice admirals Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Order of Lenin Bolsheviks Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of Nakhimov, 1st class 1899 births 1957 deaths Admirals of World War II Baltic Fleet Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War