Pyotr Smirnov

Pyotr Alexandrovich Smirnov (Пётр Александрович Смирнов) (1897–1939) was a Soviet Commissar, Deputy Minister of Defence and Commander of the Soviet Navy.

Biography
Smirnov was born in a workers family in a village near Vyatka in 1897. He finished school and worked as a smith in a lumber factory from 1913. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 and was a member of the Red Guards. He fought in the civil was ending as a brigade commander and a Political officer of an army. In 1921 he took part in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion.

In the 1920s he was a Political Commisar of the Volga and North Caucasus Military districts. From 1926 he joined the political directorate of the armed forces and was political commisar of the Baltic Fleet and Military districts.

In 1937 he was involved in the purge of military leaders including Yakov Gamarnik in 1937. In October 1937 he became deputy minister of defence and was commander of the Soviet Navy from December 1937.

He was arrested in June 1938 and executed by firing squad in February 1939. He was rehabilitated in 1956.