Lev Galler

Lev Mikhailovich Galler (Лев Михайлович Галлер) (November 17(29), 1883 - July 12, 1950) was a Soviet military leader and admiral.

Galler was born into a family of a military engineer and joined the Baltic Fleet on completing the Naval school in 1905. During World War I he was squadron gunnery officer of the Battleship Division, executive officer of the Slava and commanded the destroyer Turkmenets Stavropolski. After the October Revolution he joined the Bolsheviks and participated in the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet. Subsequently he commanded the destroyer Mecheslav, the battleship Andrei Pervozvanny and was subsequently chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet during the British Campaign in the Baltic 1918–1919.

After the Civil War, Galler was commander of the Baltic Fleet's battleship division and commanded the Baltic Fleet from 1932 to 1937. In 1938 he became chief of naval staff and in 1940 he became Deputy Commissar for the Navy responsible for naval construction. In 1947 he was head of the Naval Academy.

Galler was arrested in 1948 and imprisoned. He died in custody in 1950 and was rehabilitated in 1953.

Honours and awards

 * Soviet Union
 * Three Orders of Lenin
 * Orders of the Red Banner, four times
 * Order of Ushakov, 1st class, twice
 * Order of the Red Star
 * Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"


 * Russian Empire
 * Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class with Swords (1916) and 3rd class (1909)
 * Order of St. Anna, 3rd class (1913)


 * Foreign award
 * Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (Poland)