Grigory Kireyev

Kireyev was drafted into the Imperial Russian Navy in 1911 and served in the Baltic Fleet during World War I as a ship's mechanic. He became a Bolshevik and after the February Revolution led a detachment that helped organize the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet. After falling ill in 1918, Kireyev spent the Russian Civil War on land in various party roles and in the 1920s successively served on the revolutionary military councils of the Black Sea Fleet and the Baltic Fleet. After graduating from the Naval Academy of the Red Army he became commander of the Caspian Flotilla and then assistant Pacific Fleet commander. Kireyev moved up to command the fleet itself after the beginning of the Great Purge in July 1937. He was arrested in January 1938 and executed in late July. Kireyev was posthumously rehabilitated (acquitted) in 1956.

Early life Kireyev was born on 2 February 1890 in Lyudinovo in the Zhizdrinsky Uyezd of Kaluga Governorate to a working-class family. After graduating from the Bezhitsa Vocational School, he worked at the Lyudinovo Locomotive Factory. In 1911, Kireyev was drafted into the Imperial Russian Navy. He was initially assigned to the 1st Baltic Naval Crew.

During the summer of 1918, Kireyev fell ill and returned to Lyudinovo. Upon his recovery, Kireyev was elected chairman of the Bryansk City Council. He subsequently edited the provincial newspaper and worked in party and government organizations. In Bryansk, he married Anna Ivanovna Ivanyuta. In January 1921, he was elected chairman of the Sevsky Uyezd Executive Committee. In August he became the second secretary of the Bryansk Governorate Party Committee. As a member of Forces of Special Purpose (CHON), responsible for assisting the local Soviet government in maintaining Soviet power, Kireyev participated in the suppression of anti-Soviet uprisings in Bryansk, Sevsk, and Dmitrovsk Uyezds. At the end of 1921, Kireyev was transferred to Siberia to become a member of the Krasnoyarsk Governorate Party Committee. Smirnov used forced confessions from those previously arrested to implicate more officers and create the appearance of a conspiracy in the fleet. After being summoned to Moscow, Kireyev was arrested on 10 January 1938. He was sentenced to death and executed at the Kommunarka shooting ground on 29 July 1938 on charges of participation in a "military conspiracy", sabotaging the Pacific Fleet, and spying for Japanese intelligence, along with Viktorov and the rest of the fleet's high-ranking officers. His wife was sentenced to eight years in the gulag as the wife of an "enemy of the people." Kireyev was rehabilitated (acquitted) on 13 June 1956.