Vladimir Andreyev (admiral)

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Andreyev (Russian: Владимир Александрович Андреев; 26 December [O.S. 13 December] 1904 – 28 March 1994) was an officer of the Soviet Navy. He served during the Second World War and reached the rank of admiral.

Andreyev joined the navy after studying at the M. V. Frunze Naval School, initially serving in the Baltic Fleet. Noticed for his abilities, he was appointed assistant to fleet commander Mikhail Viktorov, before joining the battleship Marat as a junior navigator. He was dispatched to the Pacific to serve in the newly-consistituted Pacific Fleet, where he rose to be commander of minesweeping brigade. In 1938, he took part in the Battle of Lake Khasan, and after studies at the command faculty of the Voroshilov Naval Academy, was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. From May 1941 until 1943, Andreyev was chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet. With the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, he took an active role in developing defensive plans for minelaying, carrying out raids and troop landings, and fire support operations in the defence of Odessa and of Sevastopol.

In April 1943, Andreyev was assigned to the Pacific as commander of the Northern Pacific Flotilla. He saw action in the Soviet–Japanese War, during the operations to capture South Sakhalin. The operation ended with South Sakhalin fully in Soviet hands. For his part in this success, Andreyev was awarded the Order of Ushakov, 1st class. Andreyev remained in command of the Northern Pacific Flotilla until November 1945, when he was appointed commander of the Pacific Fleet's Sakhalin Military Flotilla. He held this post until June 1946, when he was transferred to become chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet, and then from March 1947, commander of the 4th Navy. Between May 1953 and March 1955 he was Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Navy, and then Admiral-Inspector of the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defence. He held this position until January 1957, with a brief stint as acting commander of the Black Sea Fleet between November and December 1955. He served as head of the Kuznetsov Naval Academy between January 1957 and January 1961, and from November 1960 to April 1967, was Chief of Naval Logistics. He was then for a time at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, retiring in March 1968.

In retirement Andreyev wrote a number of books about the war, and published his memoirs, Seas and Years, in 1982. He died in 1994, at the age of 89.