Andrei Georgievich Pokrovsky ( February 14, 1862 - 1944 ) - Russian Vice Admiral (April 10, 1916), Admiral of the Ukrainian Sovereign Fleet (May 1, 1918).
| Andrey Georgievich Pokrovsky | |
|---|---|
| ukr Andriy GeorgΡyovich Pokrovsky | |
 | |
| Date of Birth | August 14, 1862 |
| Place of Birth | St. Petersburg |
| Date of death | 1944 |
| Place of death | Cairo |
| Type of army | Navy |
| Years of service | Russian Empire : 1882 - 1918 Ukraine : 1918 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commanded | Mine Division (1913-1915) 2nd brigade of battleships (1916-1917) chief commander of all ports of the Black and Azov Seas (1917-1918) Marine Minister of the Ukrainian State (November 14, 1918 - December 16, 1918) |
| Battles / Wars | World War I , Civil War in Russia |
| Awards and prizes |   |
Content
Biography
Career start
Born on August 14, 1862 , in an officer family that came from Zaporizhzhya Cossacks . From generation to generation, stories about the sea campaigns of the Cossacks, in which his grandfather and great-grandfathers took part, were transmitted in his family.
He graduated from the Naval College (1882), the Mines Officer Class, the Course of Naval Sciences of the Nikolaev Naval Academy (1900). Michman (1882). Lieutenant (1890). He served as the flagship mine officer of a number of formations in the Baltic (1896-1899). In 1899 he was appointed commander of the training squadron of the Baltic Sea. Later he was a senior officer of the cruiser II rank " Africa " (1899-1902), the battleship of the coastal defense " Admiral Senyavin " (1902). In 1903 he received the rank of captain of the 2nd rank . Subsequently, commanded the destroyer " Defeat " (1902-1904). In the period from 1904 to 1908 he commanded a mine cruiser (during the First World War - the destroyer) "Volunteer".
In 1908-1910 he was appointed head of the division of the test destroyer destroyers of the Baltic Fleet. Captain 1st rank (1910).
Service in the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire and World War I
In 1910 he was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet, where he was appointed commander of the battleship Rostislav , which he commanded until December 7, 1911. December 7, 1911, Andrei Pokrovsky was appointed Acting Chief of Staff of the Commander of the Black Sea Naval Forces. March 25, 1912, by imperial decree he was awarded the military rank of rear admiral, and was appointed to the post of chief of staff of the fleet.
The headquarters of A. Pokrovsky managed to significantly intensify shipbuilding, and by November 1913 launched a battleship, 2 destroyers and 3 submarines in Nikolaev. On August 4, 1913, he personally headed the commission for the reception of the world's first underwater mine crab " Crab ". Pokrovsky, preparing the fleet for hostilities, demanded from the military department to transfer coastal batteries and fortresses of the entire Black Sea coast to the department of his headquarters, and he also intended to organize constant watch on duty in the Black Sea.
However, he failed to do all this, as a result of which Pokrovsky resigned. After that, he headed the Black Sea mine division (1913-1915), in the same position he found the beginning of the World War. The destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Pokrovsky had several military clashes with the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau .
In 1915, Pokrovsky carried out attacks on Turkish fortifications in the Bosphorus, took part in numerous military campaigns in the Inada-Bosphorus-Eregli, Bosphorus-Varna region, to protect Odessa, the Dnieper estuary, to support the Caucasian Front.
In 1916, Admiral Pokrovsky was again appointed to the post of chief of staff of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet. Admiral Pokrovsky was promoted to vice admiralial rank on April 4, 1916, for the successful organization and conduct of amphibious assault operations and the assaults of Trapezund and Rize, which was crucial for the course of the war on the Turkish front. Until the end of May, 34 thousand people, 6500 horses, more than 100 thousand pounds of various military material were delivered to the captured Turkish ports.
June 28, 1916 removed from the post of chief of staff of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet. On the same day he was appointed head of the 2nd brigade of battleships. In 1917 - the commander of the Nikolaev port and the mayor of Nikolaev .
In the service of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian Stainless [1]
Vice Admiral, being a Ukrainian by birth, supported the national Ukrainian naval movement, which intensified in the summer of 1917, shortly after the February Revolution. He supported the Ukrainian naval organizations - the Movement for the Unification of Sailors , the Ukrainian Black Sea Community , the Kobzar Society . He welcomed the transfer of part of the fleet under the authority of the Central Council. After the October Revolution, and the defeat of the Ukrainian naval movement, the admiral, fleeing the Bolsheviks, was forced to move to Odessa, which was controlled by the armed forces of the Central Rada. At the end of December 1917 he left Odessa and moved to Kiev.
In December 1917, officially transferred to the service of the Central Council. In January 1918, Vice Admiral A. Pokrovsky worked at the Maritime Secretariat to organize the national Ukrainian fleet and actively opposed the intention of the Central Council to implement the idea of ββvoluntary service in the Ukrainian fleet, but he did not succeed.
On March 27, 1918, Vice Admiral A. Pokrovsky was appointed head of security in the South-Western part of the Black Sea with a temporary headquarters in Odessa. His efforts reorganized the Danube and Transport Flotillas. However, the created fleet was inactive, and Pokrovsky himself was in Kiev all this time, trying to coordinate the activities of the maritime department. On April 24, 1918, the vice admiral was appointed chief of all ports in the Black and Azov Seas.
Soon after the establishment of Getmanat Skoropadsky, the vice admiral for special services to the revival of the Ukrainian fleet was made a hetman to the admirals , thus becoming the first full admiral of the Ukrainian Sovereign Fleet .
In the following months, the admiral will largely overcome the consequences of the situation that developed on April 29, 1918, when the Black Sea Fleet, under the command of Admiral Sablin, announced his transition to the side of the Central Council and raised the Ukrainian flag, but then, the Bolsheviks, coordinated the commands of some ships, made sure that the crews of the latter took them to Novorossiysk. Since this event was a direct violation of the Brest Peace Treaty, the Germans soon occupied Sevastopol and on their own forces disbanded that part of the fleet that did not succumb to the provocation of the Bolsheviks and remained in Sevastopol under the Ukrainian flag, since the Germans seriously feared a repetition of this situation.
Naturally, such a capture of the fleet outraged the entire leadership of the Ukrainian fleet. Admiral Pokrovsky was among those who demanded the speedy transfer of the entire fleet to Ukraine.
On May 10, 1918, the hetman created a commission to reform the maritime department. Admiral Pokrovsky was appointed head of the commission. As a result, it was decided to leave the department as part of the Ministry of War, without distinguishing it as a separate ministry.
On May 20, 1918, by order of the Chief Commander of the Black Sea Ports, Admiral Pokrovsky, commissions were appointed to transfer the former German steamship Kacha to the German command.
On May 23, 1918, by order of Pokrovsky, the formation of three regiments of the Ukrainian Marine Corps began.
On June 1, the Commission for the Reform of the Maritime Department submitted to the Naval General Staff a plan for the construction and reform of the Ukrainian Navy. Approved by the hetman, it became the basis for the construction of the Ukrainian Sovereign Fleet. At the same time, Pokrovsky organized an active fleet headquarters in Odessa, and restored the combat effectiveness of the Danube Flotilla, the efforts of which were carried out combat trawling of the Odessa raid, after which for the first time in many years of the war it became possible to restore the movement of merchant ships.
The admiral, despite his versatile activities, continued to be the chief chief of the ports of the Black and Azov Seas. He took part in the work of the Heraldic Commission on the development and approval of the naval flags of the Ukrainian State, and was one of the supporters of the assignment of Andreevsky flag to Ukraine.
November 14, 1918 Pokrovsky was appointed naval minister of the Ukrainian State. The admiral stayed in this post for a month, all this time he was seeking additional allocations from the government for the fleet.
After the fall of Getmanat, Admiral Pokrovsky, not recognizing the republican government, left the ministerial post and switched to the side of the white movement.
He was arrested by the Bolsheviks in April 1919, and fled in December 1919. He lived in exile in Bulgaria, where he was a member of the Russian Unity Society in Bulgaria. He moved to Belgium, where until 1930 he worked as a machinist in Liege. In 1938 he moved to Egypt. He died in 1944. He was buried in the cemetery of the Orthodox Monastery of St. George in Old Cairo (crypt under the Russian church).
Rewards
- Order of St. 2nd degree Anna
- Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree
- Legion of Honor
- Romanian Great Officer Cross
Notes
- β Pokrovsky Andrey Georgievich . White Russia. Date of treatment March 18, 2019.