Yuri Rall

Yuri Fedorovich Rall ( – 16 September 1948) was an officer of the Imperial Russian and Soviet Navies. He saw action during the First and Second World Wars, and rose to the rank of vice-admiral.

Rall began his service with the Imperial Navy, undertaking training and instruction at the Kronstadt Naval Engineering School and the Naval Cadet Corps, with practical experience as a midshipman in the Black Sea Fleet. He served in the Baltic Fleet during the First World War, graduating to his own commands towards the end of the war. A popular officer for his attention to the lower ranks, he supported the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution, and was elected to one of the ship committees. During the Russian Civil War he fought against the White Finns and British interventionist forces. As an experienced officer he was tasked with several staff positions after the war, and took a leading role in re-establishing the fleet's strength in the early Soviet period. He took a particular interest in training new officers, and took several roles in the naval academies.

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Rall was given important tasks in the defence and evacuation of Soviet forces. He commanded the rearguard during the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn, during which the evacuation convoys suffered heavy losses due to mines. Rall's flagship was sunk and he suffered severe injuries. After a month recovering in hospital, he was well enough to resume command, and helped to direct the naval defences during the siege of Leningrad, and subsequent offensive operations as the Germans were pushed back. Receiving several awards for his service, Rall returned to academic life after the war, and wrote a number of military and historical texts before his death in 1948.

Early life The cruiser Kagul. Rall served aboard her as a midshipman in the Black Sea Fleet. Rall was born on in the city of Ufa, Ufa Governorate, in the Russian Empire. His family later moved to Moscow, and Rall entered school there at the age of 10. After completing school in 1908, he joined the Kronstadt Naval Engineering School and then entered the Naval Cadet Corps, graduating in 1912. After service as a midshipman and officer of the watch aboard the cruiser Kagul in the Black Sea Fleet, he was promoted to officer rank in 1913 and went on to take the advanced navigation courses for officers, graduating in 1915.

First World War and Civil War From then he joined the Baltic Fleet, serving on the Rossia, Verniy and Rezviy, and temporarily commanding the destroyer Ryanny. The advice was rejected by Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, commander of the Leningrad Front, who, concerned about the possibility of Latvian and Estonian crews, and even Soviet sailors, defecting to the enemy, ordered Rall and his superior Admiral Vladimir Tributs to take the middle route, despite it having been heavily mined by enemy forces.

Rall spent a month recovering in hospital, and in September was appointed chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet, a post he held until January 1943.

Postwar service From 1945 Rall worked in the commissions for the division of the German fleet, and was head of the department of tactics of surface ships and anti-mine defence of the Naval Academy. He authored over forty scientific and military-historical works, including Description of the Northern Sea Theatre , Description of the Finnish-Ladoga Theatre , Guide for Navigation in the Finnish Skerries , Night Minesweeping , What Are Warships , Torpedo Boats , and Surface Mine-Laying . Rall's great-grandmother was Fyodor Ushakov's niece. Rall had married, and had a son, Vsevolod, and a daughter, Marina.