Александр Маринеско: Герой Балтики и трагедия "Вильгельма Густлоффа"

Soviet naval officer
the Romanian Olympic water polo player

Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko (Александр Иванович Маринеско, Олександр Іванович Марiнеско, Alexandru Marinescu; 15 January 1913 [O. S. 2 January 1913] – 25 November 1963) was a Soviet career naval officer. During the last year of World War II, he became known as the captain of the submarine S 13, which sank the German military transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic Sea in January 1945. Passengers included civilians and women and children being evacuated from East Prussia, in addition to military and related personnel. More than 9,300 of the more than 10,000 passengers and crew died. Marinesko was the most successful Soviet submarine commander in terms of gross register tonnage (GRT) sunk, with 42,000 GRT to his name, but at the time the government considered him personally unsuitable for the highest award. In 1990 he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union by President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Born in Odessa, Marinesko was the son of Ion Marinescu, a Romanian sailor, and Tatiana Mihailovna Koval, a Ukrainian from Kherson Governorate. His father had fled to the Russian Empire after beating an officer and settled in Odessa. There he modified his name according to Russian/Ukrainian language conventions, adopting Ivan as his first name and changing the last letter "u" of his surname to "o". As a young man, Marinesko trained in the Soviet Merchant Navy and the Soviet Navy's Black Sea Fleet. Later he was assigned to a command position in the Baltic Fleet. He was promoted to lieutenant (ensign) in March 1936 and advanced to senior lieutenant (sub lieutenant) in November 1938. In the summer of 1939 he was appointed commander of the new submarine M 96. When it entered service in mid 1940, it was declared to be the best submarine of the Baltic Fleet. Marinesko was awarded a golden watch and in 1940 promoted to captain lieutenant (капитан лейтенант, equivalent to Lieutenant Commander (LCDR/O 4) in the United States Navy).

Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, in June 1941. The Soviet high command of the Baltic Fleet decided that the M 96 should be sent to the Caspian Sea to serve as a training boat. But this could not be realized because of the German blockade of Leningrad. On 12 February 1942, a German artillery shell hit M 96, causing considerable damage. In the beginning of 1943, Marinesko was appointed commander of the modernized submarine S 13. Of the 13 units of the Type S (Stalinets), Series IX and IXbis, only this boat survived the war.

Marinesko left the Soviet Porkkala Naval Base in Finland on 11 January 1945 and took position near Kolberg on January 13. During the next few days his submarine was attacked several times by German torpedo boats. On 30 January 1945, S 13 attacked and sank the Wilhelm Gustloff, which was evacuating civilians, mostly families with children, and military personnel from East Prussia. There were an estimated 9,400 casualties. Days later, on 10 February, Marinesko sank a second German ship with two torpedoes, the Steuben, carrying mostly wounded military personnel, and more than 800 civilians, who were evacuating East Prussia and Memel (now Klaipėda). The total number of casualties is estimated at 4,267. Marinesko was ranked as the most successful Soviet submarine commander in terms of gross register tonnage (GRT) sunk, with 42,000 GRT to his name. Before sinking the Wilhelm Gustloff, Alexander Marinesko had been facing a court martial due to his problems with alcohol. Despite his success with the sinkings, he was deemed "not suitable to be a hero". He was instead awarded the Order of the Red Banner. He was downgraded in rank to lieutenant and dishonorably discharged from the navy in October 1945, following war's end. In 1960 Marinesko was reinstated as captain third class and granted a full pension. In 1963 he was given the traditional ceremony due a captain upon his successful return from a mission, which he had not received in 1945. He died from cancer three weeks later on 25 November 1963 he was buried at the Bogoslovskoe Cemetery in St. Petersburg. In 1990 Marinesko was posthumously awarded Hero of the Soviet Union by President Mikhail Gorbachev, after rehabilitation of the late submarine commander by the newspaper Izvestia.

In 1990, the year of the posthumous award, Ulitsa Stroitelei (Builders' Street) in St. Petersburg was renamed in his honor to Ulitsa Marinesko. It is that portion located in Kirovskiy District, connecting Avtovskaya and Zaitseva streets. The Museum of Russian Submarine Forces in St. Petersburg was named after him,
Monuments dedicated to him were erected in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt, and Odessa. Marinesko is an historic figure and prominent character in Günter Grass's novel Crabwalk (2002), which describes in detail the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.