Sergey Gorshkov

Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov (Russian:Серге́й Гео́ргиевич Горшко́в) (February 6 1910 - May 13 1988) was a Soviet naval officer during the Cold War who oversaw the expansion of the Soviet Navy into a global force.

Born in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Gorshkov joined the Soviet Navy in 1927. He graduated from Frunze Naval College in 1931, and gained command of surface boats in the Black Sea in 1932. During World War II he distinguished himself in landings on the Kerch Peninsula and commanded a destroyer squadron at the end of the war. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, and under Leonid Brezhnev oversaw a massive naval build-up of surface and submarine forces, creating a force capable of challenging Western naval power by the late 1970s.

Gorshkov is often associated with the phrase "'Better' is the enemy of 'Good Enough'," which is reputed to have hung on the wall of his office as a motto. Similar sentiments have been attributed to Clausewitz and Voltaire. Appears in the Tom Clancy Novel, "The Hunt For Red October." The phrase is also attributed to Admiral Gorshkov in Norman Polmar's Third Edition "Guide to the Soviet Navy" (c) 1983 in the Preface p.xii, upper left corner. That is one year prior to Clancy's first published date for "Hunt" by the Naval Institute Press.

External links

* [http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1982/jul-aug/chipman.html Admiral Gorshkov and the Soviet Navy]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837933,00.html Cover Article about Gorshkov on Time Magazine]