Putting on of wreaths to a memorial board to admiral of fleet, the Hero of Soviet Union Nikolay Kuznetsovu on house N9 on the Tver street where there lived admiral.
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Die a death of a hero
What’s a main thing in the Navy? The spiritual welfare of the complement. And it depends on the examples with the help of which this very complement is brought up. It is a sure thing that examining the biographies of the heroes the Navy men shape the images of their own future.
And the heroes of the Russian Navy forces are almost all martyrs just like in the Orthodox Church. But nobody doubts their heroism. Although, a tendency towards martyrdom takes place. Admiral Nahimov scuffled the fleet in a harbour and was killed by a stray bullet. After that Sevastopol was occupied by the enemy forces. Admiral Makarov met his fate on board of a battleship which had tripped a mine, and Port-Arthur was occupied. A glorified ship crew of The Varyag behaved heroically but was shooting inaccurately and did not manage to hit any Japanese ship. A legendary submariner Gadzhiev having located an enemy convoy decided not to shoot from under the surface of the water, began an artillery encounter with the screening ships instead, sent no ships to the bottom and died with the submarine K-23. Another storied submariner Lunin, crawled up to the fascist battleship “Tierpitz” and fired at it with four torpedoes but did not hit it. The hero Marinesco hit The Gustlov but was disranked in the post-war period, served in jail and died at the age of 50. There is even a folk song about sailor Zheleznyak who “headed on Odessa but ended up near Hersones”. However, there are no songs about sailors who found way to the place they needed.
In other words, all our heroes are miserable – they either died or didn’t hit the target. Or both of these. And it is unusual to praise those who proved to be able to hit and survive. As a result, sailors begin to feel desperate and foretaste an obligatory heroic death. Such a prospect does harm to mind. Positive aspect is also needed. The Americans have their heroic Fleet Commanders Chester Nimitz and Orlie Berk. They defeated the Japanese fleet in the Second World War, survived and reached a great age. I wish we had more heroes like these! Living heroes! For the sailors to have a foretaste of a triumph on the water with the essential return home, with reward, with resignation in flag-rank and with the memoirs written in a rocking chair.
People always want such prospects.
Mihail Lukin
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 25, 2008
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