Birthday anniversary of Stepan O. Makarov, prominent Russian admiral

December 27, 1848 (January 8, 1849) in Nikolaev was born Vice Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov, outstanding Russian naval officer, oceanographer, Arctic explorer.

Stepan’s father was a retired Navy warrant officer Osip Fedorovich. In 1858, the Makarov family moved to the Far East, to the city of Nikolaevsk (at present Nikolaevsk-on-Amur). Having entered the local school, the department that trained co-drivers of the Navy, Makarov had shown brilliant academic success. Soon he was spotted by Rear Admiral P. V. Kozakevich, at whose request Stepan was enlisted in the Pacific squadron. For several years, Makarov had been navigating on the ships of the squadron, successfully mastering seamanship. In 1864, he was promoted to sergeant major, and after brilliantly passing the final examinations, as an exception he was promoted to naval cadet with enrollment to the Sea Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg. After two years of training voyages on board of the corvette "Askold", in 1869 Makarov received the first officer rank of midshipman. Simultaneously with mastering seamanship, he began to show himself as a scientist, publishing scientific articles in “Morskoy sbornik” (Russian "The Sea Collection").

After his appointment to the armored ship "Rusalka", the young officer suggested a number of innovative improvements in shipbuilding. His ideas to separate vessels in watertight compartments, to introduce trunk pipelines and to use special adhesives for sealing leaks, found appreciation of the superior command, and in 1871, on the proposal of Admiral G. I. Butakov, Makarov was awarded the rank of lieutenant. Later, Stepan Osipovich repeatedly returned to the problems of unsinkable ships, published a number of scientific papers on this subject. In 1876 Makarov was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet, where he was soon able to apply his skills in practice. During the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, he commanded the armed steamer "Grand Duke Constantine," which in a short term was converted in a torpedo boat. The real breakthrough in naval science and practice was the first ever successful combat use of the torpedo: in January 1878, on the Batumi road a Turkish patrol ship sunk. For fighting at sea during the Russian-Turkish war Makarov was awarded two extraordinary ranks in a year, having become captain 2nd class, the Order of Vladimir, 4th class; of St. George 4th class and a gold sword "For courage."

In 1880-1881 Stepan Osipovich took part in the Akhal-Teke expedition of General M. Skobelev, organizing the delivery of necessary goods and supplies for the army by water-way from Astrakhan to Krasnovodsk. In late 1881 Makarov published his famous work "On exchange of waters between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean", which was awarded the prize of the Academy of Sciences. In early 1882, Stepan Osipovich was transferred to the Baltic Fleet and promoted to captain 1st class. In 1886-188 he made a voyage around the world on sailing screw corvette "Vityaz". In 1891, Rear Admiral Makarov was appointed chief inspector of naval artillery, having done in this position a lot of work to introduce new concepts and improvements in the armament of naval ships.

In 1897 was published his major work, "Discourse on naval tactics," in which Stepan Osipovich outlined his views on the issue of operational readiness of the Russian fleet. From the second half of the 1890s, Makarov also defended the idea of strengthening the resource base and combat training of the fleet in the Far East because of the possible deterioration of relations with Japan and other countries. Another aspect of the activities of the tireless Admiral was his Arctic researches. In 1898, was completed the construction of icebreaker "Yermak", on board of which Makarov made a number of voyages into the high latitudes to Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya.

In 1904, long-standing concerns of Makarov about the conflict in the Far East and the unavailability of the Russian Navy for it, confirmed. In the beginning of the Russian-Japanese War Stepan Osipovich was appointed commander of the Pacific squadron. In a short time, within March of 1904, the new commander had taken aggressive steps to strengthen the fleet, but failed to finish his improvements. March 31 (April 13) 1904, the flagship of the Pacific fleet, battleship "Petropavlovsk" struck a mine and sank in the outer harbor of Port Arthur. About 700 members of the crew and Vice Admiral Makarov who was on board the "Petropavlovsk", died. The loss of the battleship and the commander, who enjoyed widespread respect and honor, was a tragedy for the Russian Navy and had an extremely negative impact on the future course of the Russian-Japanese War.

Lit.: Врангель Ф. Ф. Вице-адмирал С. О. Макаров. Биографический очерк. СПб., 1911; Деятельность вице-адмирала С. О. Макарова в судостроении. Л., 1977; Лурье А. Я. С. О. Макаров (1848- 1904). М., 1949; Макаров С. О. Документы: В 2 т. М., 1953-1960; Островский Б. Г. Адмирал Макаров. М., 1954; Потапов Ю. П. Степан Осипович Макаров. Л., 1982; Семанов С. Н. Макаров. М., 1988.