Chursin, Serafim

Chursin, Serafim Evgen’evich 

Born Dec. 27, 1905 (Jan. 9, 1906), in Voronezh. Soviet military commander; admiral (1964). Member of the CPSU since 1929.

The son of a worker, Chursin joined the navy in 1926 and graduated from the M. V. Frunze Naval School in 1931. He completed special courses for command personnel in 1932, and he graduated from the Higher Military Academy in 1954. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Chursin commanded a submarine brigade in the Pacific Fleet until 1943 and in the Black Sea Fleet beginning in 1944. After the war he commanded the Danube Naval Flotilla from 1948 to 1952 and the Caspian Naval Flotilla in 1954 and 1955. He was appointed chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet in 1955, first deputy commander of the fleet in 1956, and commander in 1962.

Chursin became a consulting professor at the Naval Academy in 1969, and in 1971 he retired. He was a deputy to the seventh convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Chursin has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, and various medals.