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210th Anniversary of the Birth of Admiral Pavel Nakhimov

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210th Anniversary of the Birth of Admiral Pavel Nakhimov


06.07.2012

On July 5, a monument was opened in St. Petersburg in honor of the great Russian Admiral Pavel Nakhimov, coinciding with the 210th anniversary of his birth. The name of Pavel Nakhimov, an outstanding Russian admiral and naval commander, is associated with the heroic struggle against Turkish and Anglo-French invaders in the 19th century. Historians believe Nakhimov was a “military genius.”

Born in 1802 in the small village of Gorodok not far from Smolensk, Pavel Nakhimov grew up in a poor noble family. He had ten brothers and sisters. Pavel was just 13 when he entered the Naval Academy for the nobility in St. Petersburg. Nakhimov’s biographers remark that he was obsessed by the sea from the very beginning of his career.

In 1818 Nakhimov graduated from the Naval Academy. Immediately after graduation the sailor was assigned to the Second Fleet Crew of the Russian Imperial Navy’s Baltic Fleet. After his experience in the Baltic and White Seas, he began to feel the desire to discover new destinations. In 1822-1825 he set sail on the Kreiser.

In 1827 Nakhimov participated in his first sea battle. It was fought on October 20, 1827, during the Greek War of Independence in Navarino Bay on the west coast of the Peloponnesus Peninsula. The battle of Navarino was of great importance. It allowed the allied British-French-Russian fleet to defeat and destroy the combined Ottoman and Egyptian armada. During the battle Nakhimov was injured. In December 1827 he received an honorable award, the Order of Saint Georgy, Fourth Class. In 1828 he became the commander of the captured Turkish ship renamed Navarino in remembrance of the battle in which Nakhimov had his baptism of fire.

When the Crimean War started Pavel Nakhimov took command of the Black Sea squadron. During the war Nakhimov distinguished himself by annihilating the Ottoman fleet at Sinope in 1853. His finest hour came during the siege of Sevastopol, where he and Admiral Kornilov organized from scratch the land defense of the city and its port, the home base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. As the commander of the port and the military governor of the city, Nakhimov became in fact the head of the Sevastopol naval and land defense forces. On July 10, 1855, while inspecting the forward-defense positions on Malakhov kurgan he was fatally wounded by a sniper and died two days later.

Nakhimov was buried inside St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Sevastopol along with Mikhail Lazarev, Kornilov and Vladimir Istomin. There is a monument erected in his memory. The Imperial government presented other posthumous honors as well – naming the Naval college in St. Petersburg after him, and establishing the Order of Nakhimov and the Nakhimov Medal for Navy personnel. The Order of Nakhimov was preserved as one of the highest military decorations in Soviet Union and, upon its dissolution, in Russia.

Russkiy Mir Foundation Information Service

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