- Gennady Lyachin
Captain First Rank Gennady Petrovich Lyachin ( _ru. Геннадий Петрович Лячин, (
January 1 ,1955 –August 12 ,2000 ) was the commanding officer of the Russian submarine "Kursk" when the vessel suffered a series of explosions and sank onAugust 12 ,2000 .President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin awarded the title ofHero of the Russian Federation to Lyachin posthumously "For courage and heroism, during performance of sailor's duties".Lyachin was born in Sarpinskiy in
Volgograd Oblast . He graduated from a naval school in Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in 1977 and served as a weapons officer aboard the diesel-electric "Juliett" class submarine K-58. From 1984 to 1986, now a Captain 3rd rank, he served as the executive officer of the K-77. In 1986, he started his officer's studies, and became a Captain 2nd rank.Command history
In October 1988, Lyachin received his first command, also this a "Juliett" class, the K-304. He held this position until the K-304 was decommissioned after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In April 1991, he received command of another submarine, the Project 949A "Antey" class (NATO reporting name "Oscar-II") K-119 "Voronezh". He and his newly formed crew spent the time between September 1991 and March 1993 underwent training in
Obninsk .Lyachin received the rank of Captain 1st rank in 1996 as well as command of the "Voronezh"'s sister ship, the ill-fated K-141 "Kursk", the very last Project 949A submarine to be constructed, which had been commissioned only two years earlier. When the "Kursk" sank on
August 10 ,2000 , Lyachin perished along with the rest of the 111 crew members.External links
* [http://warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1026 Biography of Gennady Lyachin]
*ru icon [http://www.russialink.org.uk/kursk/crew-eng.htm "Kursk" crew list]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
