Sergey Gorshkov

Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergey Georgiyevich Gorshkov (Russian: Сергей 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 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. 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'," 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).^[1] That is one year prior to Clancy's first published date for "Hunt" by the Naval Institute Press.

Honours, Awards and Decorations

• Hero of the Soviet Union - twice
• Order of Lenin - 7 times
• Order of the October Revolution - 4 times
• Order of Kutuzov
• Order of Ushakov
• Order of the Patriotic War
• Order of the Red Star
• Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces
• USSR State Prize
• Lenin Prize

Two Russian warships have been named Admiral Gorshkov in his honour. The Russian Navy instituted the Gorshkov medal in 2003.

Notes

1. ^ Polmar, N: Guide to the Soviet Navy, p. xii (upper left corner), 1983.

External links

• Admiral Gorshkov and the Soviet Navy
• Cover Article about Gorshkov on Time Magazine