{{Short description|Soviet commissar, deputy minister of defence, and commander of the Soviet Navy}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Pyotr Smirnov | image = Smirnov PA.jpg | caption = Smirnov in 1938 | image_size = | office = People’s Commissar for the Navy | term_start = 30 December 1937 | term_end = 30 June 1938 | predecessor = Mikhail Viktorov | successor = Mikhail Frinovsky | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1897|5|29|df=y}} | birth_place = Vyatka, Russian Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1939|2|23|1897|5|29|df=y}} | death_place = Moscow, Soviet Union | constituency = | party = All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1917–1938) | occupation = | footnotes = | premier = | premier2 = | rank = Army Commissar of 1st rank | alma_mater = | allegiance = {{Flag|Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|1918}} (1918–1922)<br>{{Flag|Soviet Union|1936}} (1922–1938) | branch = Red Guards<br>Red Army<br>Soviet Navy | service_years = 1918–1938 | battles = Russian Civil War | awards = Order of Lenin<br>Order of the Red Banner }} '''Pyotr Alexandrovich Smirnov''' ({{langx|ru|Пётр Александрович Смирнов}}; 29 May 1897 – 23 February 1939) was a Soviet politician who served as People's Commissar of the Navy of the Soviet Union .<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biography of Pyotr Alexandrovich Smirnov. Russian|url=http://deduhova.ru/statesman/pyotr-aleksandrovich-smirnov/}}</ref>
==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 timber mill from 1913. He joined the Bolsheviks in March 1917 and was a member of the Red Guards. He fought in the Civil War 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 commissar of the Volga and North Caucasus military districts. From 1926 he joined the political directorate of the armed forces and was political commissar of the Baltic Fleet and Military districts.
In 1937 he was involved in the purge of military leaders including Yakov Gamarnik. In October 1937 he became deputy minister of defence, and was People's Commissar of the Navy from December 1937.
==Repression== He was arrested in June 1938 and executed by firing squad in February 1939. He was rehabilitated in 1956.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Repression in the Red Army (30s). Collection of documents from the funds of the Russian State Military Archive / Compiled by Kristiani A., Mikhaleva V. M .. – Napoli, 1996}}</ref>
==Awards== * The order of Lenin; * Order of the Red Banner (1921).
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box | before= Mikhail Viktorov | title= Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy | years=1937–1938 | after=Mikhail Frinovsky}} {{succession box | before= None | title= People's Commissars for the Navy | years=1937–1938 | after=Mikhail Frinovsky}} {{s-end}}
{{Soviet Defence Ministers}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smirnov, Pyotr}} Category:1897 births Category:1939 deaths Category:People from Slobodskoy Uyezd Category:Old Bolsheviks Category:First convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:NKVD officers Category:Soviet Navy personnel Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Category:People of the Russian Civil War Category:Chiefs of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Soviet Navy Category:Great Purge victims from Russia Category:Soviet rehabilitations