Nikolai Dmitriyevich Sergeyev was an Admiral of the Fleet and Chief of staff of the Soviet Navy

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

Biography

Sergeyev joined the Navy in 1928 and completed the M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School in 1931. In 1932 he joined the Amur Military Flotilla

Amur Military Flotilla

Amur military flotilla was a military flotilla on the Amur River in the Far East region of Russia.In 1900, the Russians formed a temporary flotilla on the Amur river out of private steamers and barges. Initially, it served transportation purposes during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905...

 in the Far East and served on and commanded river monitors. He completed the Naval Academy in 1941.

During the Second World War Sergeyev first served on the Main Navy Staff planning amphibious operations and then commanded monitors with the Volga Flotilla before returning to the Main Navy Staff in 1943.

After the war Sergeyev continued to serve on the Main Navy Staff and took part in the Soviet nuclear testing

Nuclear testing

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...

 programme near Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...

. He became head of the Main Operations Directorate in 1953 and Chief of Naval Staff in 1964, serving for 13 years (longer than anyone else) in that post. He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1970 and was Inspector General in the Ministry of Defence.

Sergeyev retired in 1992 and died in Moscow in 1999. He is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery

Novodevichy Cemetery

Novodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg....