Admiral V.F. Trituts
Vladimir Filippovich Tributs stood at the origins of the creation of the Soviet Navy, with which he went from sailor to admiral, in the difficult years of World War II he commanded the Baltic fleet. The name of Admiral Tributs today is proudly carried by a large anti-submarine ship of project 1155 of the Pacific Fleet of Russia.
He was born on July 15 1900 in Petersburg. His grandfather, in the past a serf peasant of the Minsk province, went with his family to the capital from a poor village, where, due to the whim of a landowner, more than half of its inhabitants were called the fancy name of Tributs. But Peter did not bring wealth. When young Vladimir finished three classes of elementary school, his parents hardly collected money and sent him to study at the Petrovsk four-year school. Having lived there for three years, Tributs enrolled in the state-owned Kosht military-paramedic school, where the main advantage was free food and uniforms.
Tests passed examinations soon after the revolution. In December 1917, Vladimir Filippovich was sent to a Petrograd hospital to serve as a junior medical assistant. In January 1918, Tributs volunteered for the Red Guard. He fought against the Germans near Narva, then served in the so-called flying squad of the revolutionary sailors of the Baltic. In the spring of 1918, the Warbler of Tributs fights in Astrakhan.
In the summer of 1919, it was decided to strengthen the defenses of the southern borders, to transfer part of the Baltic ships to the Caspian Sea. Vladimir Filippovich arrived at the destroyer “Active” under the command of I. Isakov. In the biography of a young naval sailor, lines appeared about participation in the battles for Baku, Makhachkala, and Enzeli. Later Tributsa was transferred to the gunboat "Lenin", whose crew elected Vladimir Filippovich to the Baku Soviet of Workers 'and Peasants' Deputies.
In the early twenties, Vladimir Filippovich studied at the naval school, after which (in 1926 year) he was promoted to platoon commander in the Baltic naval crew, where he served as commander of the main caliber on the battleship Paris Commune.
The service on this battleship became an important milestone in the life of Tributs. Outstanding ability and ability to work, craving for the knowledge of the naval cause determined his rapid promotion. In the spring of 1929, Tributs becomes the second mate of the ship's commander and senior watch supervisor. In the same year, the crew of the battleship fell the ordeal. Together with the cruiser “Profintern”, the Paris Commune made the transition from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The ship was in a strong storm. Tributs commanded the upper command of the battleship. Waves rolled over the deck, tore off the property, which was firmly attached, and the battleship flooded from one side to another. However, the sailors managed to overcome the elements and bring serviceable ships to Sevastopol. The evaluation of the actions of Tributs in this campaign was reflected in an inscription engraved on a silver name plate handed to him by the Mauser: “To the stalwart defender of the proletarian revolution, Comm. Tributsu VF from the RVS of the USSR”.
Then there was a service on another battleship of the Red Fleet, the Marat, after which Tributs was appointed commander of the destroyer Yakov Sverdlov.
And in 1932, Vladimir Filippovich graduated from the Naval Academy. From this year began the rapid career of Tributs. In 1936, he breaks up with the ship, he is transferred to the head of the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet, and since February 1938, he has headed this headquarters. It takes a little over a year, and in April 1939 of the year Tributs is appointed commander of the Baltic Fleet.
The Great Patriotic War found him in Tallinn in this post. Tributs, as they said, "broke" the third war. The capital of Estonia has become the main base of the fleet. The first strike of the new war did not take the Balts by surprise. Commander N. Kuznetsov announced in advance for all fleets readiness number XXUMX.
Participants in the events of those days recalled how Tributs once, checking cases on batteries, drove into the field infirmary. The bushes on the grass lay and sat the wounded. When he approached, some tried to rise. “Sit, sit, comrades!” - the commander stopped them. Vladimir Filippovich called the nurse. The young Estonian spoke little Russian, but he realized that everyone had been waiting for the car to send people to the hospital for a long time. Tributs ordered his guards to release the truck for the wounded. “Comrade Commander, you cannot be without security,” the security commander protested. - Shoot in the city. If anything happens, they will give me up for the tribunal. ” But the commander repeated the order.
August 26, 1941. The headquarters ordered the evacuation of the base. The ships had to go almost two hundred miles along the bay, the coast of which the enemy captured. V. Tributsu was offered several options, but he chose the one that allowed saving more warships and vessels: to go along Cape Uminda behind minesweepers, fight off enemy coastal artillery with the guns of ships, from the enemy aviation hide behind fire and active maneuver.
The next day, the main forces of the fleet left the 16 watch from the raid. They walked in front of the convoys, amid explosions of shells and bombs. From the bridge of the Kirov light cruiser Tributs witnessed the death of the squadron Yakov Sverdlov, which he once commanded. The submarine that followed the Kirov exploded on a mine. Suddenly, a floating mine was noticed at the side of the cruiser. The ship stalled the course. The sailors began to gently pull her away. The sailor of the sailor, going down on board, cut off the steel mustache of the paravan. Floating death slowly passed along the hull.
The reports received by the commander were not pleased. Three destroyers and several transports were blown up during the three hours of the march. The road further in the approaching darkness threatened even greater losses due to the likely encounters with mines. However, the enemy aircraft prevented anchor.
The fate of hundreds and thousands of people and the fate of ships depended on V. Tributs at that moment. But he decided to stop, put them in order and help those who were out in the cold. Thanks to this rescue squad, many people were raised from the water. That August night, Vladimir Filippovich did not leave the bridge, At dawn the fleet moved on. And again diving planes, mines, the death of ships and people. Fortunately, the minefield soon passed. By evening, the main forces came to Kronstadt. The losses were considerable, but the commander managed to maintain the combat core of the fleet.
In Leningrad, Vladimir Filippovich was summoned by a new front commander, G. Zhukov. He ordered the ships to be delivered to the Neva and artillery to support the 42nd Army. Direct-fire anti-aircraft guns and shoot at tanks the enemy. Send half of the sailors to the trenches. The term Zhukov gave two days.
V. Tributs understood the current situation in the city on the Neva perfectly. Without a doubt, he was sorry to let the experts who had been trained for years to go on land. Some ships lost their combat capability without drivers, miners, electricians and other specialists. But the front urgently needed people. And the fleet commander carried out the order without challenging him either in the General Staff or in the Navy Commissar. Marines, ships, naval aviation beat the enemy, inflicted tangible blows on the entire front.
The Baltic Fleet was not blocked. Vladimir Filippovich expressed this idea for the first time in December 1942 of the year to Chief of Staff of the Fleet Y. Rallet and Chief of Political Directorate of the Baltic Fleet V. Lebedev. The next year, Tributs called ship repair and shipbuilding the main tasks. Fighting on the high seas was entrusted to submarines. All the rest - to provide submariners and solve other problems.
The Germans did not become masters in the Baltic. Did not become and on Ladoga. Vladimir Filippovich recalled how on October 22 1942 he, together with the commander of the Ladoga military flotilla V. Cherokov and the commander of the BF air force M. Samokhin, set off from Osinovets to the command post of the flotilla in Novaya Ladoga. They were told that enemy boats and landing barges were shelling Sukho Island. It is clear: having captured it, the enemy wants to cut the Ladoga artery, to deprive the Leningrad citizens of the only transport artery. Throughout the day, V. Tributs remained in Novaya Ladoga, by the forces of the flotilla and naval aviation he organized a repulse to the enemy. The road of life continued to operate.
In the late autumn of 1943, the commander of the Leningrad Front, L. Govorov, set the task of the Baltic Fleet: to transfer the I. Fedyuninsky army, with all its equipment, to the Oranienbaum bridgehead. This required secrecy and urgency. Only at their expense was half the task already implemented.
Three days later, VF Tributs and a member of the military council N. Smirnov traveled to Kronstadt to determine how best to transport troops to shallow fairways with a minimum of landing craft, given that the enemy would fire at the loading and unloading sites. After a short meeting, it was decided to carry out the operation at night, with a delay in the ice at dawn, to use smoke, to keep artillery and aircraft in a state of readiness.
On the morning of January 14, 1944, Vladimir Filippovich, being at the observation post of the naval battery, on the front line of defense, saw through binoculars how enemy walls and bunkers were blown into the air from our crushing fire. For more than an hour, a fiery tornado raged over the bridgehead of the upcoming breakthrough. When he died, infantry and tanks entered the scene. So with the help of artillery ships and forts, operations of the front began to rid the city of Lenin from the siege. For a month and a half of 1944, the Red Army troops, with the support of the Baltic Fleet, advanced by 150-300 km, completely blockading Leningrad. When Tallinn was left in 1941, the torpedo boats left the quays last. The first they returned. 23 September arrived here the commander of the fleet to organize the landing of troops on Moonsund Islands. A painstakingly designed operation allowed them to be released in 20 days. The Baltic Fleet began to operate throughout the theater.
After mastering of Koenigsberg, V. Tributs proposed to take the fortress Pillau with a swift blow in order to prevent the retreating enemy from destroying the port. Two landings, the western and the eastern, landed on the Frische-Nerung spit, defeated the enemy grouping with counter-actions.
For Vladimir Filippovich, the war continued after the victory. For two years he led mine destruction operations. In essence, it was a kind of local fights. Days and nights minesweepers, other ships of the fleet found and destroyed bottom and anchor, contact and non-contact acoustic and magnetic mines. But the work on the purification of the waters of the Baltic Tribitsu could not be completed. In 1947, he is dispatched as deputy to the naval forces of the commander-in-chief of the Far Eastern forces.
In subsequent years, the admiral led the Hydrographic Directorate of the Naval Forces, was head of the department and faculty of the General Staff Academy, worked in the Main Inspectorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
After retiring in February 1961, Tributs headed one of the sectors of the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information. He became a doctor historical sciences. He owns over 200 articles and books of memoirs. Vladimir Filippovich Tributs died on August 30, 1977.
Sources:
Mikhailovsky N. Admiral Tributs. M .: Politizdat, 1982. C. 18-24, 78-87.
Skritsky N. The flagships of the Victory. Tributs Vladimir Filippovich. M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2012. C.208-212.
Makeev V. At sea there is no blockade // Sea collection. 1994. No.4. C. 78-81.
Lubchenkov Yu. N. 100 of the great commanders of the Second World War. M .: Veche, 2012. C.224-225.
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