Mikhail Koronatovich Bakhirev (; 17July 18689January 1920) was a Russian naval officer and

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

. Bakhirev was born into a

Don Cossack Don Cossacks (, ) or Donians (, ), are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (, ), which was either an independent or an autonomous democratic republic in present-da ...

family near Novocherkassk. His father was a

sotnik Sotnik or sotnyk (; ; ) was a military rank among the Cossack starshyna (military officers), the Russian ''streltsy'' and Cossack cavalry, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the Ukrainian Galician Army, and the Ukrainian People's Army. Administrative ...

in the cossacks of the Imperial Russian Army. He joined in 1888 as a cadet in the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

and was on the gunboat ''Bobr'' the Far Eastern Fleet. In January 1898 he was transferred to 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 ...

, but only a year later, he returned to the Far East. During the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

he commanded the gunboat ''Gilyaks''. During the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

In 1904/05 he commanded Port Arthur torpedo boat ''Silny''. Bakhirev participated in the defense of Port Arthur. Despite many casualties in the most difficult situations, he managed to impose calm and discipline. Between 1911 and 1914 he was commander of the armoured cruiser ''Rurik''.

World War I

At the start of World War I, Bakhirev served as the captain of the powerful armored cruiser , at that time the fleet

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

. On December 24, 1914 Bahirev was promoted to

Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

given command of the 1st Cruiser Brigade. Between December 19, 1915 to May 23, 1917 he exercised command of the battleship squadron of the

. During this period, he commanded Russian forces at the

Battle of Åland Islands The Battle of Åland Islands, or the Battle of Gotland, which occurred in July 1915, was a naval battle of World War I between the German Empire and the Russian Empire, assisted by a submarine of the British Baltic Flotilla. It took place in ...

. Two years later he was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral and the following year (August 21, 1917) he became chief of the naval forces in the

Gulf of Riga The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia (, , ) is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. The island of Saaremaa (Estonia) partially separates it from the rest of the Baltic Sea. The main connection between the gulf and t ...

(see

Operation Albion Operation Albion was a German air, land and naval operation in the First World War, against Russian forces in October 1917 to occupy the West Estonian Archipelago. The campaign aimed to occupy the Baltic islands of Saaremaa (Ösel), Hii ...

and Battle of Moon Sound). On January 12, 1918 Bakhirev was dismissed from service and denied the right to collect a pension.

Russian Revolution

After his dismissal from the Navy, Bakhirev exercised the profession of chief accountant in an industrial society. At the beginning of August 1918 he was arrested by

Bolshevik 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, ...

s, but released again on March 13, 1919. On April 1, 1919, he started writing about the fighting in the Gulf of Riga between 1915 and 1917.

Death

After the defeat of General

Nikolai Yudenich Nikolai Nikolayevich Yudenich ( Russian: Николай Николаевич Юденич; – 5 October 1933) was a commander of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. He was a leader of the anti-communist White movement in northweste ...

against the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, a new wave of arrests took place in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. Bakhirev refused to flee to Finland. On November 17, 1919 he was accused of complicity with Yudenich, and he was again imprisoned. On January 9, 1920 he was shot as a hostage.

Honours and awards

Russia

* Order of St. Stanislaus (first class) (October 30, 1895) *

Order of St. George The Order of Saint George () is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. It was originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commiss ...

(Fourth Class) (October 19, 1900) * Order of St. Anne (third class) (December 6, 1901) * Order of St. Vladimir (Fourth Class) (1902) * Order of St. Stanislas (Second Class with Swords) (October 11, 1904) *

Gold Sword for Bravery The Gold Sword for Bravery () was a Russian award for bravery. It was set up with two grades on 27 July 1720 by Peter the Great, reclassified as a public order in 1807 and abolished in 1917. From 1913 to 1917 it was renamed the Saint George ...

(December 19, 1905) * Order of St. Anne (Second Class with Swords) (March 19, 1907) * Order of St. Vladimir (third class) (December 6, 1913) * Order of St. Vladimir (Third Class with Swords) (December 24, 1914) * Order of St. Stanislas (first class with swords) (August 10, 1915) * Order of St. Anne (first class with swords) (January 11, 1916)

Foreign

* Chevalier of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

(France; 1902) *

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese Order (distinction), order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six c ...

(fourth class) (Japan; 1902) * Officer of the Legion of Honour (France; 1909)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakhirev, Mikhail 1868 births 1920 deaths Imperial Russian Navy admirals Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War Russian military personnel of World War I Russian Provisional Government admirals Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Recipients of the Gold Sword for Bravery Officers of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th class Victims of the Red Terror in Soviet Russia People from Novocherkassk Executed people from Rostov Oblast People executed by Russia by firearm Admirals of World War I