Alexey Greig

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Aleksey Samuilovich Greig (6 September 1775 — 18 January 1845) was an admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. He was the son of Admiral Samuel Greig, brother-in-law of Mary Somerville, and father of Samuil Greig, Russian Minister of Finance.

Greig started his career in the Royal Navy, serving in East India and Europe from 1785 to 1796. He returned to Russia to take part in the Mediterranean expeditions against Revolutionary France in 1798-1800. Under command of Dmitry Senyavin, he in 1807 distinguished himself in the Battle of Athos and Battle of the Dardanelles, which resulted in the Russian occupation of Lemnos and Tenedos. At the close of the Napoleonic Wars, he was put in charge of the sea blockade of Danzig.

In 1816, Greig was appointed Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, a post which he kept for 17 years. At the same time, he served as Military Governor of Sevastopol and Nikolayev, introducing so many reforms and improvements that the grateful citizens of Nikolayev erected a public statue to his memory in 1873. During the war with Turks his bold leadership made itself felt at Varna and Anapa.

In 1833 he was recalled to Saint Petersburg, where the tsar appointed him a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia and asked him to superintend the construction of the Pulkovo Observatory.