Fleet Admiral of the Romanovan Navy | |
Predecessor | Position created (Country established) |
Successor | None |
Admiral of the Russian Atlantic Fleet | |
Predecessor | Maxim Kaverin |
Successor | Position abolished (Colony dissolved) |
Born | 21 February, 1871 Sevastopol, Russian Empire |
Died | 18 March, 1956
(85 years, 26 days) |
Spouse | Agrafena Anatolievna Petrovichna |
Profession | Naval Officer |
Dmitri Igorevich Petrovich (Russian: Дмитрий Игоревич Петрович, Dmitriy Igorevich Petrovich) was the final commanding officer of the Russian-Greenland Fleet as well as the first and only Fleet Admiral of the Romanovan Navy. Because of his central role in the Romanovan Navy's establishment and development, Petrovich is often referred to as the "Father of the Navy" within Romanova.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Petrovich was born to a small family in the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea on February 21st, 1871. His father Igor Afanasievich was a businessman and son of a minor noble. Petrovich also had two younger siblings and his mother Orya. Following his father's passion for the sea and the Russo-Turkish War, Petrovich resolved to join the Russian navy upon adulthood. Petrovich's aptitude for sailing and his close relationship with the clergy of Sevastopol helped him gain an entry-level position in the Russian Naval Officer Corps following his training.
Career[]
Petrovich continued to rise up the ranks and remained stationed with the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, although he also saw service for a short time in the Caspian Flotilla. During World War I Petrovich was present during the Ottoman bombardment of the Crimean coast and the Russian naval operations that occurred for the rest of the war. In 1916 Petrovich, now a Rear Admiral in the Black Sea Fleet, was assigned to be commanding Admiral of the Russian Atlantic Fleet as part of a general reshuffling of officers. The Russian Atlantic Fleet was based out of Kolomeitsev and consisted of only two cruisers, the Porodovsky and the Donskoy, five destroyers, and three submarines. So small was the fleet and so remote from the war effort that Petrovich thought he was effectively being exiled.
Nonetheless, Petrovich ensured that the Russian Atlantic Fleet was in proper condition and ready for war should Central naval forces attempt to break the British blockade. That never happened, and a more pressing crisis erupted in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Petrovich asserted his loyalty to the Russian Republic and subsequently the Russian-Greenland Company and the broader White movement. Shortly before the Revolution, Petrovich was a founding member of the "Group of Four", a secret society dedicated to the protection of the Tsar. In September of 1918, Petrovich supported Operation Savior of Man, which saw the Tsar and his family saved from the Bolsheviks and sent to Russian Greenland.
Petrovich's involvement in the subsequent Romanovan War of Independence was relatively small compared to his peer Alfred Livoskin. However, Petrovich supported the war effort as best as the fleet could, largely aiding the British and American blockade of Bolshevik-occupied Romanova and offering coastal bombardments in support of the ground forces. Such live fire support was crucial for the liberation of Badygin in mid-1919. With the declaration of Romanovan independence in 1921, Petrovich was promoted to Fleet Admiral by the Tsar and Oleg Yurievsky-Oldenburg. Upon the conclusion of the Russian Civil War in 1922, Romanova received the Russian Squadron, the White-led remnants of the Black Sea Fleet.
The subsequent absorption of the Russian Squadron into the Romanovan Navy significantly altered the balance of power in the Arctic Ocean. Romanova gained two battleships, the General Alekseyev and the Georgii Pobedonosets, three cruisers, the General Kornilov, the Almaz, and the Askold, ten destroyers, four submarines, and five gunboats. Although many of the ships were outdated, the Romanovan Navy was now the strongest navy in the Arctic Ocean and the only one with battleships. Petrovich's integration of the Russian Squadron into the navy helped boost Romanova's prestige considerably and also fed speculation of a Romanovan attack on the Soviet Union through the Arctic.
During the Great Depression, Petrovich was essential for ensuring that the Romanovan Navy gained the funding required to maintain its current strength, although he originally favored an expansion to counter the growing threat of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. When World War II broke out, the Romanovan Navy supplemented British naval operations in the North Sea and also aided in the occupation of Norwegian and Danish colonies in Greenland. Petrovich was also in favor of occupying Nordmark and Svalbard for more naval bases in the Arctic but was overruled by the rest of the Romanovan general staff. For much of the war Petrovich kept his heavier ships in reserve as a fleet in being to deter German naval operations in the Arctic while his destroyers helped in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Despite German naval activity in the Arctic and North Sea, the climatic battle never occurred. Petrovich spent much of his time in the war aiding Allied naval efforts to occupy all of Greenland or plan logistics and naval support in possible landings of Allied troops in Norway or elsewhere in Europe. Following the war's conclusion, Petrovich oversaw the gradual downsizing of the Romanovan fleet's capital ships, as they had been demonstrated as obsolete during the course of the war. In 1949, Petrovich resigned from his role as head of Romanova's navy and lived a relatively calm life, providing advice to the government when asked. He died of a heart attack in his sleep in 1956.
Legacy[]
Petrovich is widely renowned in Romanova as the founder of its navy and, consequentially, one of the main architects of its survival against the threat of Soviet invasion. Numerous ships in the Romanovan navy have been named after him following his death, as well as the main naval base in Kolomeitsev.
Honors and Awards[]
- Order of St. Andrew
- Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
- Order of St. Anne
- Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class
- Order of Saint George, 4th class
- Order of Merit