My whole life is linked with the Soviet Navy. I made my choice when I was young and never regretted it.

He was People's Commissar (Minister) of the Navy at 34, Hero of the Soviet Union at 41. But at 51, in the prime of his physical health, mental and spiritual ability, he was retired from the Navy. Such was the fate of Nikolai G. Kuznetsov who, fourteen years after his death, was reinstated in the rank of Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. A gifted naval commander and organiser, his talent revealed itself during the Great Patriotic War in guidance of naval operations and in the ability to foresee the Navy's development in the early postwar years. However, he had to pass through such dreadful ordeals as trial by "a court of honour" under Stalin, Khrushchev's voluntarism and demotion. In his memoirs Nikolai Kuznetsov gives an insight into the development of the Soviet Navy, its problems and the role it played in the rout of fascism, his views on some of the problems of naval theory and practice are still largely valid today.