Sergey Gorshkov

Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergey Georgiyevich Gorshkov (Russian: Серге́й Георгиевич Горшков) (February 26, 1910 – May 13, 1988) was a Soviet naval officer during the Cold War who oversaw the expansion of the Soviet Navy into a global force.

Born in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Gorshkov grew up in Kolomna. Gorshkov joined the Soviet Navy in 1927. He graduated from the Leningrad M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School in 1931, and gained command of surface boats in the Black Sea in 1932. During World War II he distinguished himself in landings on the Kerch Peninsula and commanded a destroyer squadron at the end of the war. In 1948, he became Chief of Staff of the Black Sea Fleet, soon he assumed its full command. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, and under Leonid Brezhnev oversaw a massive naval build-up of surface and submarine forces, creating a force capable of challenging Western naval power by the late 1970s.

Gorshkov is often associated with the phrase "'Better' is the enemy of 'Good Enough'" ("Лучшее - враг хорошего") which is reputed to have hung on the wall of his office as a motto. Similar sentiments have been attributed to Clausewitz and Voltaire. The motto appears in the Tom Clancy novel, The Hunt for Red October. The phrase is also attributed to Admiral Gorshkov in Norman Polmar's Guide to the Soviet Navy (1983, 3rd edition). That is one year prior to Clancy's first published date for "Hunt" by the Naval Institute Press.

Soviet awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union, twice (1965, 1982)
• Order of Lenin - 7 times (1953, 1960, 1963, 1965, 1970, 1978, 1982)
• Order of the October Revolution (1968)
• Order of the Red Banner, four times (1942, 1943, 1947, 1959)
• Order of Ushakov, 1st and 2nd classes
• Order of Kutuzov
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (1985)
• Order of the Red Star
• Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd class (1975)
• USSR State Prize (1980)
• Lenin Prize (1985)
• Honorary Citizen of Sevastopol, Vladivostok, Berdyansk, Eisk and Severodvinsk
• Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin"
• Medal "For the Defence of Odessa"
• Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"
• Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
• Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
• Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
• Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
• Medal "For the Capture of Budapest"
• Medal "For the Liberation of Belgrade"
• Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
• Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Medal "In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad"

Gorshkov has been commemorated by various monuments and namings:

• Monuments installed in Kolomna (author - sculptor L. Kerbel) and Novorossiysk
• Memorial plaque on the Russian Navy Headquarters building in Moscow
• Memorial plaque on the headquarters building of the Black Sea Fleet
• Central Hospital of the Navy
• School number 9 in Kolomna, from which he graduated in 1926, street and school in the district
• the Railway Kupavna, Moscow Oblast
• Feasibility of the Lyceum
• A neighbourhood of Novorossiysk
• Central Sports Club of the Navy
• The Admiral Gorshkov award (Russian Navy, 2006)
• A Kiev-class aircraft carrier (Admiral Gorshkov, renamed INS Vikramaditya now sold to India)

Foreign awards

• Gold Patriotic Order of Merit (East Germany)
• Scharnhorst Order (East Germany)
• Gold Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia)
• Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia)
• Order of the Hungarian People's Republic, 1st class (Hungary)
• Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1st class (Bulgaria)
• Grand Cross of the Order of St. Alexander, with swords (Bulgaria)