Nikolay Viktorovich Yung (; – ) was a career officer in the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...

, noted for his participation in the

Battle of Tsushima The Battle of Tsushima (, ''Tsusimskoye srazheniye''), also known in Japan as the , was the final naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 27–28 May 1905 in the Tsushima Strait. A devastating defeat for the Imperial Russian Navy, the ...

in 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 ...

as captain of the

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

Biography

Yung was from the local nobility of

Tver Governorate Tver Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 until 1929. Its seat was in Tver. The governorate was lo ...

. In 1872 he entered the Sea Cadet Corp and was accepted into the Imperial Russian Navy in 1873. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1876 ranked 18th in his class. During the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

Yung was assigned to the

Danube River The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important riv ...

flotilla as a

warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a Military rank, rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ...

and commanded a small patrol boat. He was promoted to lieutenant on January 1, 1882, and served on the

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were gen ...

''Zhemchug'' later that year followed by the clipper ''Rogue'' from 1882 to 1885. Pogrebenie komandira bonenostsa Orel

Around 1879, Yung became involved with the revolutionary group ''

Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...

'' and was considered one of its founding members at the naval base of

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

. The group initially stood for a mix of democratic and

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

reforms Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

, including a

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

(for designing a

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

);

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

;

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

, press, and assembly; a volunteer military; land reform; and national

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

. However, it soon mutated into a

terrorist organization Several national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and former ...

and was responsible for the assassination of

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Alexander II in 1881. Yung escaped arrest at the time as he was on the ''Rogue'' circumnavigating the globe and only returned to Russia in 1886. He was taken into custody on his return, but was soon released by a

military tribunal Military justice (or military law) is the body of laws and procedures governing members of the armed forces. Many nation-states have separate and distinct bodies of law that govern the conduct of members of their armed forces. Some states us ...

after he disavowed connections to the organization. Yung was promoted to lieutenant commander on August 30, 1893. He briefly serviced as acting captain of the battleship ''Poltava'' in 1894, and in 1897 was captain of the cruiser ''Vestnik''. From 1898, Yung served on the committee for testing of new warships and on the examination board for testing

midshipmen A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afric ...

for the Sea Cadet Corps. From September 20, 1902 through April 19, 1904, Yung was captain of the cruiser . After the start of the

, he was reassigned to command the battleship ''Oryol'', as part of the Second Pacific Squadron, which sailed from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

to relieve the Russian Pacific Fleet trapped at Port Arthur by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

. The squadron engaged Japanese Admiral

Tōgō Heihachirō , served as a '' gensui'' or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. As Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, he successfully confine ...

’s

Combined Fleet The was the main sea-going component of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Until 1933, the Combined Fleet was not a permanent organization, but a temporary force formed for the duration of a conflict or major naval maneuvers from various units norm ...

at the

on May 14-15, 1905. During the battle, ''Oryol'' took a tremendous beating from the Japanese ships, and Commander Yung was seriously wounded and unconscious at the surrender of the Russian fleet by Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov. He died of his wounds the following night at 20:05. In accordance with the wishes of his crew, the Japanese conducted a

burial at sea Burial at sea is the disposal of Cadaver, human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship, boat or aircraft. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many di ...

at next morning with

half-mast Half-mast or half-staff (American English) refers to a flag flying below the summit of a ship mast, a pole on land, or a pole on a building. In many countries this is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or, in some cases, a sal ...

flown on battleships ''Oryol'', IJN ''Asahi'' and cruiser IJN ''Asama'' at 07:30 on 30 May 1905 (Gregorian date) with ''Oryol'' POWs present.

Honors

Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd degree 1879 (Russian Empire). * Royal Order of Kapiolani, Officer Cross, 1884 (Kingdom of Hawaii). * Order of St. Anne 3rd degree 1892 (Russian Empire). * Order of Saint Stanislaus Ribbon

Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd degree 1894 (Russian Empire). * Legion Honneur Chevalier ribbon

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 ...

, Chevalier, 1894 (French Third Republic). * Order of Saint Anna ribbon bar

Order of St. Anne 2nd degree 1899 (Russian Empire).

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yung, Nikolay 1855 births 1905 deaths Imperial Russian Navy personnel Knights of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (House of Romanov) Recipients of the Order of St. Anna Recipients of the Royal Order of Kapiolani Russian military personnel of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Russian military personnel killed in the Russo-Japanese War Naval Cadet Corps alumni