Boris Zherve

Zherve, Boris Borisovich 

Born Aug. 1 (13), 1878, in Kamenets-Podol’sk; died Oct. 27, 1934, in Moscow. Soviet naval leader; professor.

Born into a gentry family, Zherve graduated from Naval Cadet School in 1898, from classes in the use of mines in 1901, and from the Naval Academy in 1913. He fought in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, reaching the rank of captain first rank in 1917. In 1917 he commanded the coastal defenses of the Gulf of Finland. During the Great October Socialist Revolution, Zherve went over to the Soviet side. In 1918 he became a teacher and head of the subdepartment of strategy at the Naval Academy; from 1928 to 1931 he was the head of that institution. From 1931 to 1934 he headed sub-departments in the Military Political and Military Engineering academies. His major works on the theory and history of naval art were an important influence on the development of Soviet naval theory.

WORKS

Germaniia i ee morskaia sila. St. Petersburg, 1914.
Znachenie morskoi sily dlia gosudarstva. Petrograd, 1921.
Morskaia strategiia Napoleona. Petrograd, 1922.
Desantnaia operatsiia. Leningrad, 1931.