Yuri Aleksandrovich Panteleyev

Yuri Aleksandrovich Panteleyev (Юрий Александрович Пантелеев; 31 October 1901 – 5 May 1983) was an officer of the Soviet Navy.

He rose to the rank of admiral and was commander of the Pacific Fleet.

Born into the family of a Cossack ataman, Panteleyev and his father both were keen yachtsmen, living in Saint Petersburg.

Panteleyev was born on 31 October 1901 in Saint Petersburg, the son of Aleksandr Panteleyev.

Aleksandr Panteleyev was the son of the Cossack ataman of the Elizavetinskaya stanitsa, in Rostov Oblast.

Aleksandr, a graf (count) before the Russian Revolution, became a film actor and director after it, working at SovKino film studies (later Lenfilm).

In 1912, when Yuri was eleven years old, they sailed the yacht Ruslan to Sweden to watch the Russian team competing off Stockholm in the sailing at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

With the Russian Revolution in 1917 Panteleyev volunteered with a group of sailors of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Navy, and was soon given his own commands.

In 1917 Yuri graduated from the Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium, in the last class to graduate before the revolution.

One of his works was Anatoly Lunacharsky's 1918 film Congestion (Уплотнение), with Aleksandr being awarded the title of Hero of Labour (1928–1938).

His wife, and Yuri's mother, Anna Alekseyevna, also worked at the film studios.

Both Aleksandr and Yuri were keen yachtsmen.

With the upheaval of the revolution, Yuri Panteleyev attended volunteer classes at local sailors' club and in March 1918 enlisted at the age of 16 with a group of sailors assigned to guard the institutions of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Navy in Petrograd.

He then took a series of navigational courses, and in November 1918 he was appointed to command of the 1st Naval Education Unit, which from August 1919 guarded the mouth of the River Neva on the line between the Lakhta and Sea Canal dam on the Baltic Sea.

He took part in the defence of Petrograd during the Russian Civil War, and in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion in 1921.

Undertaking further studies and naval courses, Panteleyev specialised in navigation and served on a number of ships of the Black Sea Fleet, and then as a staff officer of the Northern Military Flotilla.

After command of submarine brigades in the Black Sea, Panteleyev was appointed chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet, in anticipation of future hostilities.

He served during the Soviet-Finnish War, and after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, was tasked with the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn and then took charge of the naval defence of Leningrad.

Success in this area was followed with an appointment to take charge of the Volga Military Flotilla and establish a safe supply of fuel for the armies operating in the region.

Having achieved this, he then was appointed commander of the White Sea military flotilla, with the important task of defending and keeping open the approaches to the Northern ports.

He successfully arranged the escort and defence of the Arctic convoys, and made airfields and support available to British bombers carrying out attacks on the.

For this service he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath by the British.

After the war Panteleyev served in several staff positions, before being made commander of the Pacific Fleet.

Towards the end of his career he maintained an interest in academic affairs, and served in several positions in the Naval Academy, including as its head.

Retiring from service, he continued to write, producing several works including his memoirs.

In March 1921 he took part in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, commanding a detachment of skiers made up of Komsomol members who carried out reconnaissance of the approaches to Kotlin Island, marking the way for the advancing troops.

For this he and nine others of his detachment were awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Panteleyev then took the course for navigators, followed by practical experience as assistant captain on the Soviet sailing merchant ship Lauristin during a voyage to Estonia in summer 1921.

In May 1922 Panteleyev was appointed junior navigator of the battleship Marat, and advanced to senior navigator in April 1923.

He was sent to Moscow in December 1923 to take further specialist courses in navigation.

From December 1923 to February 1925 he studied the Higher Special Courses of the naval command staff, which included practical experience with a voyage aboard the Vorovskiy, which ended in Vladivostok on 20 November 1924, having sailed through the North Sea, past Gibraltar, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Strait of Malacca, visiting many of the local ports.

After graduating from the Academy Panteleyev was sent to serve in the Black Sea Fleet as navigator aboard the submarine Politruk, until July 1925.

He would spend the next five years serving on the Black Sea.

From July 1925 to April 1926 Panteleyev was senior assistant to the commander of the destroyer Shaumyan, and then from April 1926 to December 1928 he was senior navigator of the cruiser Chervona Ukraine.

His next posting, until October 1930, was an assistant to the head of the combat training department of the Black Sea Fleet.

He returned to his studies in October 1930, enrolling in the Naval Academy and graduating in April 1933.

Panteleyev was then appointed assistant sector chief of the Combat Training Directorate of the Naval Forces, and in June 1933 became chief of the 1st sector (operational and combat training) of the headquarters of the Northern Military Flotilla, also acting as the flotilla's chief of staff from 25 September to 21 March 1934.

During this time a number of warships were transferred from the Baltic Fleet to the White Sea via the White Sea–Baltic Canal.

He died in 1983, and was buried in Leningrad.

The navy honoured his legacy with the naming of the Udaloy-class destroyer.