Vasily Michailowitsch Altfater

WM Altfater 1919

Vasili Altfater ( Russian Василий Михайлович Альтфатер ; December 4 ^{. Jul} / 16th December  1883 ^greg. In Warsaw ; †  20th April 1919 in Moscow ) was a Russian rear admiral and commander in chief of Seekriegsflotte the RSFSR .

Life

Altfater, son of the artillery general Michael Anton Sigismund von Altvater (1840-1918), a German-Baltic , graduated from the Naval Cadet School in St. Petersburg in 1902 and the Naval Academy in 1908 . During the Russo-Japanese War he took part in the defense of Port Arthur and distinguished himself in rescuing the crew of the Petropavlovsk liner . From 1909 to 1910 he was a flag officer in the command staff of the 1st Mining Division of the Baltic Fleet and in 1913 a permanent member of the temporary sea fortress council of the sea ​​fortress of Emperor Peter the Great . During the First World War he served as chief of the naval administration with the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front armies. In October 1917 he was promoted to Rear Admiral and entered the service of the Bolsheviks . In February 1918 he became an assistant to the chief of naval staff and took part in the peace talks in Brest-Litovsk . From May to October 1918 he was a member of the People's Commissariat College for Marine Affairs.

During the period of the Red Terror he was supposed to testify as a witness in the trial of Captain Shchastny , the organizer of the ice march of the Baltic Fleet . Altfater did not appear at the trial.

From October 12, 1918 until his death on April 20, 1919 he was commander-in-chief of the naval forces of the RSFSR and at the same time a member of the Revolutionary War Council .

Altfater died of a heart attack and was buried on April 24, 1919 in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Honors

A monument by the sculptor Sergei Merkurov was erected on Altfater's grave . A destroyer of the Caspian war flotilla (1922-1945) and gunboats of the Don-Azov flotilla (1920-1921) and the war fleet of the Astrakhan Krajs were named after him.

Awards

• Order of Saint Stanislaus 2nd and 3rd class
• Order of St. Vladimir 4th class
• Order of Saint Anne 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade

literature

• О приморских крепостях. In: Морской сборник . No. 4 , 1919, pp. 123-178 .
• Spencer C. Tucker , Priscilla Mary Roberts: The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History: A-D . Band 1 . ABC-Clio Inc, 2005, ISBN 978-1-85109-420-2 . ( limited preview in Google Book search)
• William Stewart: Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present . Mcfarland & Co Inc, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7864-3809-9 . ( limited preview in Google Book search)

Web links

Commons : Wassili Altfater  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Василий Михайлович Альтфатер. Retrieved February 16, 2013 (Russian).