Nikolai Yegipko

Nikolai Pavlovich Yegipko (Russian: Николай Павлович Египко; Ukrainian: Микола Павлович Єгипко; 9 November [O.S. 27 October] 1903 – 6 July 1985) was an officer of the Soviet Navy and a Hero of the Soviet Union. He saw action during the Russian Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, and the Second World War, and rose to the rank of vice-admiral.

Born into the family of a shipyard worker, Yegipko and several of his brothers joined up to fight for the Soviets in the Russian Civil War. He served initially as a field telephonist, though he was wounded, twice captured by White forces, and twice escaped. He spent the rest of the war working with the Komsomol in Nikolaev, though he was not permitted to join their ranks after a report circulated that he washed with "perfumed" soap. With the Soviet victory in the civil war, Yegipko was demobilised and returned to shipyard work. He reenlisted in the armed forces in 1925, serving on ships of the Black Sea Fleet, and then on submarines in the Baltic and Pacific Fleets. In 1936 he commanded the submarine Shch-117 on a record-breaking voyage of endurance, for which he and his entire crew received honours. He then went to Spain to support the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War. He commanded two submarines during his time there, and though the cause ultimately failed, he was rewarded for his service with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Yegipko commanded submarine brigades after his return to the Soviet Union, including during the Soviet-Finnish War, and after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, participated in the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn in August 1941. During this time his submarine, S-5, was sunk by a mine, and Yegipko had to be rescued from the water after being blown overboard. He then became naval attaché to the United Kingdom and was an observer on several of the Arctic convoys, including the disastrous Convoy PQ 17. The later war years were spent with the General Staff of the Armed Forces, after which he held several posts in naval education and academia, ending as head of the Higher Naval School of Submarine Navigation. He retired in 1967 and wrote his memoirs before his death in 1985.