Jurij Panteleev

Yuri Aleksandrovich Panteleyev (; – 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. 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. 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 and establish a safe supply of fuel for the armies operating in the region. Having achieved this, he then was appointed commander of the , 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. He died in 1983, and was buried in Leningrad. The navy honoured his legacy with the naming of the Udaloy-class destroyer .

Family and early years The Russian yacht Galliya II competing in the sailing competitions at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Both Yuri and his father sailed to watch the competition. Panteleyev was born on in Saint Petersburg, the son of , a cinematographer. In 1917 Yuri graduated from the Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium, in the last class to graduate before the revolution.

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

Panteleyev rejoined the Navy Commissariat between September and October 1941, and on 4 October was appointed commander of the Leningrad Naval Base.

On the Volga

In April 1942 Panteleyev became Assistant Chief of the Main Naval Staff. His attestation written about this time recorded that he was "lively and energetic ... loves naval service, a good commander-sailor." In March 1945 he was appointed commander of the White Sea naval defence area, holding the position until after the war, when in July 1946 he became Chief of the Combat Training Directorate.

Academic life and later years

From April 1967 Panteleyev served as a professor-consultant to the Naval Academy's Academic Council, retiring in March 1968. He had written several non-fiction books during his career, including Naval Armaments of the Baltic Countries , published in 1933; The Underwater War and the Merchant Fleet in 1934, and a biography of Admiral Stepan Makarov, published in 1949. In 1965 he published The Sea Front , and in retirement in 1974 published his memoirs Half a Century in the Navy . He continued his love of yachting, and in 1958 was awarded the title of Master of Sports. The final part of his memoirs, Sail is my life appeared posthumously in 1984. Over the course of his career Panteleyev received the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner four times, the Order of Nakhimov First Class and the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, as well as the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of the Red Star three times, and the British honour of Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Panteleyev died on 5 May 1983 and was buried at the Serafimovskoe Cemetery in Leningrad. He was honoured after his death with the naming of the Udaloy-class destroyer , which since 1992 has been part of the Pacific Fleet.