Grigorovich, Ivan Konstantinovich

Grigorovich, Ivan Konstantinovich 

Born Jan. 26 (Feb. 7). 1853; died Mar. 3, 1930, in Menton, France. Russian admiral (1911).

Grigorovich graduated from the Naval Cadet School in 1874. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 he commanded the battleship Tsesarevich, and in March 1904 he became harbor master of Port Arthur. During 1905–06 he was chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet, and in 1909 he became deputy minister of the navy and representative of the ministry of the navy in the State Duma. From March 1911 to Feb. 28 (Mar. 13), 1917, Grigorovich was minister of the navy. Under his supervision a number of ship-building programs were devised and implemented, thus initiating the rehabilitation of the Russian Navy after its crushing defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.

Noted for “liberalism.” Grigorovich maintained contact with bourgeois-Octobrist circles, which supported his candidacy for chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1916. After the February Revolution he retired, and after the October Revolution he served on the Naval History Commission to Study the Experience of World War I. In 1923, Grigorovich went to France.

A. G. KAVTARADZE