Vladimir Andreyev

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Andreyev (; – 28 March 1994) was an officer of the Soviet Navy. He served during the Second World War and reached the rank of admiral.

Andreyev joined the navy after studying at the M. V. Frunze Naval School, initially serving in the Baltic Fleet. Noticed for his abilities, he was appointed assistant to fleet commander Mikhail Viktorov, before joining the battleship Marat as a junior navigator. He was dispatched to the Pacific to serve in the newly consistituted Pacific Fleet, where he rose to be commander of minesweeping brigade. In 1938, he took part in the Battle of Lake Khasan, and after studies at the command faculty of the Voroshilov Naval Academy, was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. From May 1941 until 1943, Andreyev was chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet. With the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, he took an active role in developing defensive plans for minelaying, carrying out raids and troop landings, and fire support operations in the defence of Odessa and of Sevastopol.

In April 1943, Andreyev was assigned to the Pacific as commander of the Northern Pacific Flotilla. He saw action in the Soviet–Japanese War, during the operations to capture South Sakhalin. The operation ended with South Sakhalin fully in Soviet hands. For his part in this success, Andreyev was awarded the Order of Ushakov, 1st class. Andreyev remained in command of the Northern Pacific Flotilla until November 1945, when he was appointed commander of the Pacific Fleet's Sakhalin Military Flotilla. He held this post until June 1946, when he was transferred to become chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet, and then from March 1947, commander of the 4th Navy. Between May 1953 and March 1955 he was Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Navy, and then Admiral-Inspector of the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defence. He held this position until January 1957, with a brief stint as acting commander of the Black Sea Fleet between November and December 1955. He served as head of the Kuznetsov Naval Academy between January 1957 and January 1961, and from November 1960 to April 1967, was Chief of Naval Logistics. He was then for a time at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, retiring in March 1968.

In retirement Andreyev wrote a number of books about the war, and published his memoirs, Seas and Years, in 1982. He died in 1994, at the age of 89.

Early years and education The training ship . Andreyev took part in a training voyage aboard her in 1925. Andreyev was born on at the Bugyat railway station on the Chinese Eastern Railway. By the early 1920s he was a member of the Komsomol and living in Moscow, when the campaign to "Strengthen the Red Fleet" was announced. Andreyev and a friend applied to the Komsomol's Khamovnichesky District Committee and were given the last two vouchers to the Naval Preparatory School. He entered the Naval Preparatory School in January 1923, and graduated in September 1924. The following month he enrolled in the M. V. Frunze Naval School, joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1925, and graduated in October 1927.

Andreyev remained aboard the Marat until December 1932, when he was dispatched to the Pacific to serve in the newly consistituted Pacific Fleet. He arrived in April 1932, and from May 1932 to January 1934, served as flag navigator of the minelaying and minesweeping brigade. Then he was appointed commander of the minelayer Erivan, followed by the minelayer . He was promoted to rear-admiral on 18 April 1943, and to vice-admiral on 5 November 1944. With the commencement of the Soviet–Japanese War in 1945, Soviet commanders drew up plans to capture South Sakhalin. Andreyev and his flotilla was assigned to support the 56th Rifle Corps of the 2nd Far Eastern Front's 16th Army in a complex operation to secure the island. On 8 August the flotilla secretly laid minefields in the Tatar Strait and Sakhalin Bay.

Honours and awards Over his career Andreyev received the Order of Lenin in 1948, the Order of the Red Banner three times, in 1942, 1944, and 1953, the Orders of Nakhimov in 1944 Ushakov in 1945, and the Patriotic War in the first classes, the Order of the Red Star in 1984, and various other medals.