Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov was one of the most famous admirals in Russian naval history, best remembered as the commander of naval and land forces during the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.
Biography
Born in the village of of Smolensk Governorate into a noble Russian family. He was the seventh of eleven children of a landlord, a second major Stepan Mikhailovich Nakhimov and his wife Feodosia Ivanovna Nakhimova. Six of his siblings died as infants; all of his four brothers also became professional seamen, including vice admiral :ru:Нахимов, Сергей Степанович|Sergei Stepanovich Nakhimov. In 1817 he entered the Naval Academy for the Nobility in Saint Petersburg. He made his first sea voyage in 1817, aboard the frigate Feniks, to the shores of Sweden and Denmark. Soon afterwards he was promoted to the rank of non-commissioned officer. In February 1818 he passed examinations to become a midshipman and was immediately assigned to the second Fleet Crew of the Russian Imperial Navy's Baltic Fleet. At the beginning of his naval career, Nakhimov's experience was limited to voyages in the Baltic Sea and to a more extensive trip from the White Sea port of Arkhangelsk to Kronstadt naval base near Saint Petersburg. His lucky break came in March 1822, when he was assigned to the frigate Kreiser ; the vessel took part in a round-the-globe expedition commanded by the well-known Russian explorer Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, who had already undertaken several such voyages. During the three-year voyage, Nakhimov was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. On conclusion of this adventure, he received his first award, the Order of Saint Vladimir IV degree. He returned to his native Smolensk and was assigned to the 74-gun warship Azov, which made its maiden voyage from Arkhangelsk to Kronstadt in the autumn of 1826. In the summer of 1827, Azov sailed to the Mediterranean as flagship of the Russian squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Lodewijk van Heiden for a joint expedition with the French and British navies against the Ottomans. Just before its departure, Emperor Nicholas I visited the Azov and ordered that in the case of hostilities, the crew should deal with the enemy "as the Russians do". Azov, under then-Captain First Rank M.P. Lazarev, distinguished itself most prominently in the Battle of Navarino, during which the allied British-French-Russian fleet "totally" destroyed the Ottoman squadron. For his outstanding gunnery performance during the battle, the 27-year-old Nakhimov was promoted to the captaincy of a trophy ship and was decorated by the allied governments. During the Crimean War of 1853-1856 Nakhimov distinguished himself by annihilating the Ottoman fleetat Sinope in 1853. His finest hour came during the siege of Sevastopol, where he and Admiral V. A. Kornilov organized from scratch the land defense of the city and its port, the home base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. As the commander of the port and the military governor of the city, Nakhimov became in fact the head of the Sevastopol naval and land defense forces. On, while inspecting the forward-defense positions on Malakhov Kurgan, he was fatally wounded by a sniper; he died two days later. Nakhimov was buried inside St Vladimir's Cathedral in Sevastopol along with Mikhail Lazarev, V.A. Kornilov and Vladimir Istomin. There is a monument erected in his memory. The Soviet government instituted posthumous honors as well, introducing Nakhimov Naval Schools for teenagers in 1943, and establishing in 1944 both the Order of Nakhimov and the Nakhimov Medal for Navy personnel. The Order of Nakhimov, one of the highest military decorations in the Soviet Union, continues in the Russian Federation.
