Nikolai Lavrentjewitsch Klado

Nikolai Lavrentjewitsch Klado

Nikolai Lawrentjewitsch Klado ( Russian Николай Лаврентьевич Кладо ; born November 1, ^jul. / 13. November  1862 ^greg. In Tver province ; † 10. July 1919 in Petrograd ) was a Russian admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy , Marine historian and theorist.

Life

Klado's grandfather and father already served in the Russian Navy. Klado joined the Navy in November 1875 at the age of 13. By 1881 he completed an apprenticeship at the naval school of Admiral Pjotr ​​Rikord and then studied until 1886 at the naval academy .

After completing his training, he held lectures at the Naval Academy and served, among other things, on the gunboat Chernomorets , the armored cruiser Admiral Kornilow and the armored frigate Pamjat Asowa . On January 1, 1888, he was promoted to lieutenant . In 1895 he was an independent observer at the Battle of Weihaiwei during the First Sino-Japanese War . In 1896 he was transferred to the French training ship Latouche-Tréville for further training , where he learned about French naval tactics.

After returning to Russia, he teaches full-time at the Naval Academy. His students included Mikhail Romanov and Kyrill Romanow , which enabled him to develop good relationships with the royal family.

At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 he was promoted to captain 2nd rank and assigned to the staff of the new chief of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Nikolai Skrydlow in Port Arthur . Due to the Japanese siege of the city, however, he could not reach his new destination and first traveled to Vladivostok , where he planned the missions of the remaining cruisers Rossija , Gromoboi , Bogatyr and Rurik .

In August 1904 he was ordered back to St. Petersburg and transferred as chief of staff to the 2nd Pacific Squadron, led by Admiral Zinovy ​​Roschestvenskis . This was to be sent to the Far East to support the Russian Pacific Fleet . However, the Doggerbank incident occurred in the North Sea . Klado and other officers were sent back to Russia as witnesses by Roschestvensky, where the incident was to be investigated by an international commission.

After it was foreseeable that the 2nd Pacific Squadron was defeated by the Japanese, Klado demanded the creation of a 3rd Pacific Squadron. However, only outdated cruisers or unsuitable coastal defense ships were available for this purpose, which, moreover, could only be manned by poorly trained sailors. Tsar Nicholas II had originally promised Roschestvensky the purchase of further modern ships from Argentina and Chile. Roshestvensky was not interested in a squadron of outdated ships. However, Klado continued his campaign with numerous newspaper articles and lectures, which finally convinced the Tsar of his position. Admiral Nikolai Nebogatow took over the leadership of the 3rd Pacific Squadron. Both squadrons united in May 1905 in the Vietnamese Cam Ranh Bay .

Klado later sharply criticized the Russian naval leadership in a newspaper article in Novoje Vremja , for which he received widespread support from the Russian public. According to an article in which he sharply polemicized the head of the Navy, Grand Duke Alexei Romanov , he was sentenced to 15 days' arrest on November 26, 1904 in a disciplinary procedure. However, this did not stop him from publishing more articles. In March 1905 he was reprimanded again by the naval command and was supposed to be transferred to a flotilla on the Amur River . However, he was released from service in May. After the devastating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, Klado was accepted back into the Navy in 1906 and has taught at the Naval Academy ever since. In 1910 he was promoted to major general. From 1916 he was Professor Emeritus of the Naval Academy.

After the October Revolution he was head of the Naval Academy from 1917 until his death in 1919.

Klado wrote well over 100 papers on naval strategy and tactics, naval history and the history of naval warfare, which earned him the reputation of being the "Russian Mahan ". The German version of the book The Fights at Sea in the Russo-Japanese War is available in an authorized translation by Hasse.

His marriage to Anna Karlowna Klado (1869–1939) resulted in two daughters and a son. His daughter Tatjana Klado (1889–1972) became an aerologist and writer. His son Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Klado (1909–1990) was a director, screenwriter and film critic.

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• The fighting at sea in the Russo-Japanese war. (Authorized translation by Hasse), 1907, Berlin, Hofbuchhandlung Karl Siegismund, 334 pages

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Верноподданные России. 1. Ник. Лавр. Кладо at proza.ru, accessed September 29, 2013
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Превратности судьбы Николая Кладо at gazetam.ru, accessed on September 29, 2013
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Николай Лаврентьевич Кладо at navy.su, accessed on September 29, 2013
4. ↑ Shiba Ryōtarō , Phyllis Birnbaum: Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War , Volume 1. Routledge, 2012, ISBN 978-0-4155-0876-6 , page 254
5. ↑ ^{a b} Constantine Pleshakov : The Tsar's last armada - The epic voyage to the battle of Tsushima. Basic Books, New York NY 2002, ISBN 0-465-05792-6 , pages 135-136; 172-173
6. ^ Stanley Jackson Williams: A Rout and A Slaughter: How the Russian Bear Went to Davy Jones. ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 175 kB) Asheville, North Carolina, 2009
7. ↑ Geoffrey Till: Seapower - 2nd Edition. Routledge, 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-48088-8 , page 54
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Семья КЛАДО А.К., А.Н., Н.Н. и Т.Н. . In: pkk.memo.ru, accessed March 15, 2019.