Feliks Gromov

Feliks Nikolayevich Gromov (Russian: Феликс Николаевич Громов; 29 August 1937 – 22 January 2021)^[1] was a Russian admiral of the fleet who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy from 1992 to 1997.^[2]

Admiral of the Fleet Feliks Gromov
Born	(1937-08-29)August 29, 1937 Vladivostok, Soviet Union
Died	January 22, 2021(2021-01-22) (aged 83)
Buried	Federal Military Memorial Cemetery
Allegiance	Soviet Union (to 1991)  Russia
Branch	Soviet Navy  Russian Navy
Years of service	1955–1997
Rank	Admiral of the Fleet
Commands	Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Northern Fleet
Awards	Order of Merit for the Fatherland Order of Military Merit Order of the October Revolution Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 1st & second class

Early life and education

Gromov was born in Vladivostok and joined the navy in 1955. He completed the S.O. Makarov Pacific Higher Naval School in 1959.

Military career

He served as an officer on a destroyer and in 1961 served in the strategic missile troops on an exchange programme. Gromov returned to the navy in 1962 and served on the Sverdlov-class cruiser Admiral Senyavin and the Kotlin-class destroyer Vdokhnovennyy. He subsequently commanded the cruisers Senyavin and Dmitriy Pozharsky.

In 1977 Gromov became commander of a squadron of surface ships in the Baltic Fleet and was transferred to the Soviet Northern Fleet in 1982. In 1984 he became deputy commander of the Soviet Northern Fleet and was promoted to its commander in 1988.

In 1992 Gromov was given command of the Russian Navy following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet by Boris Yeltsin in 1996 and retired on 7 November 1997 at age 60, the mandated retirement age for Admirals and Fleet Admirals.

The Jamestown Foundation speculated that Gromov was dismissed because of a Russian Pacific Fleet ammunition explosion which seems to have attracted wide attention. He died in his dacha and was buried at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery.